From a press release issued by Mat Mladin Motorsports:

2004 American AMA Chevrolet Superbike Championship

Round 8 – Pikes Peak International Raceway, Colorado, USA

Event Preview

MLADIN CHASES VICTORY IN COLORADO MOUNTAINS

With five wins from the opening seven races of this years American AMA Chevrolet Superbike Championship, defending champion Mat Mladin arrives at this weekend’s round at Colorado’s Pikes Peak International Raceway holding a 25-point advantage over his rivals.

Victory in the first of last weekend’s two Superbike races had Mladin a strong position, but the tide turned for the second and he was left trailing current second and third placed riders in the championship, Honda’s Miguel DuHamel and Jake Zemke in the second and neutralising his advantage.

After a string of double-header rounds of the championship at California Speedway, Infineon Raceway and Barber Motorsports Park, this weekend’s Pikes Peak round will return to a single race format for the Superbike competitors and will also see the complete meeting held over just two days as opposed to the traditional three.

With the series approaching its midpoint and Pikes Peak being in the middle of a five race spread over four weekend’s the four times AMA Superbike champion and his Yoshimura Suzuki team will be aiming to further consolidate their position at the top of the points table as they chase a maximum haul of points this weekend.

Mladin may not have a Pikes Peak race win to his name, but in years gone by he has been in a position to mount a challenge for the win, but elected to earn valuable championship points rather than risk any misfortune.

“Being such a short track (just 2.12km, 1.315miles in length), Pikes Peak offers different demands on the rider and on the motorcycle,” said Mladin. “One thing that I do like about the place is the format, where all of the meeting is run over two days. I feel that this format offers a lot and should be looked at for a lot of other circuits on our calendar.”

Last year, Mladin was forced to make a pit stop as his rear tyre failed and with a new one fitted, went on to finish ninth. Tyres again may proved to be the key for good results over the weekend.

“Tyres will be a telling factor here that’s for sure, Mladin added. “I’m not sure exactly what Dunlop are bringing for the weekend, but the way that they have approached this season, I’m sure that they will have something good there for us.

“The hard thing with this track is that you spend so much time on the left hand side of the tyre. There’s only two real right hand turns and the rest of the circuit is left, so that puts a lot of stress on that side of the tyre. So when we have to string 48 54-second laps together and all bar five to ten seconds of that is on the left side, you can see how difficult it is going to be on the tyres. Chassis set up is important wherever we go, but getting the tyre to perform for the full race is the key here.”

Mladin and his crew arrived in Colorado earlier this week, taking time to acclimatise themselves with the higher altitude in the famous mountain region before taking to the track for round eight of the championship.

Practice and qualifying at Colorado will take place on Saturday, with the 48-lap Superbike national scheduled to run on Sunday afternoon.

PIKES PEAK – FAST FACTS

Circuit length: 2.12km (1.315miles)
2003 Pole position: Mat Mladin (Yoshimura Suzuki) 53.780 Seconds

2003 Results:
1. Eric Bostrom (Team Kawasaki)
2. Kurtis Roberts (Erion Honda)
3. Aaron Yates (Yoshimura Suzuki)
9. Mat Mladin (Team Yoshimura Suzuki)
Superbike lap record: Nicky Hayden (American Honda) 0:53.776 mins (2001)

2004 AMA Chevrolet Superbike Championship (Points after 7 of 18 rounds) 1. Mat Mladin (243, 5 wins); 2. Miguel DuHamel (218, 2 wins), 3. Jake Zemke (216), 4. Geoff May (154); 5. Eric Bostrom (147), 6. Lee Acree (136), 7. John Haner (132), 8. Larry Pegram (117), 9. Josh Hayes (112), 10. Cory West (109).