Copyright 2003, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.
Yoshimura Suzuki’s Aaron Yates and Mat Mladin did what they had to do in Saturday’s AMA Superbike race at Barber Motorsports Park in Birmingham, Alabama.
Yates, who is second in the Championship, led the most laps and won the race, nearly taking the maximum points possible.
Mladin, the Championship leader, rode a more conservative race to finish fourth, leaving himself with as little work as possible to win his the 2003 AMA Superbike Championship in Sunday’s race. Unofficially, Mladin only needs to finish 24th or better in Sunday’s race to take his fourth AMA Superbike title.
The first half of Saturday’s race was wild as Kurtis Roberts, Ben Bostrom, Miguel Duhamel, Yates and even Mladin fought fiercely for the lead. The leaders passed each other back and forth in nearly every corner of the track, banging fairings at times.
Mladin led for a while until the action at the front got a little too risky and backed off to take a safer position at the back of the group.
Erion Honda’s Roberts and Yates then began a duel for the lead until Roberts felt a vibration from his tires late and settled for second. Yates maintained his pace and collected his third win of the season and the eighth AMA Superbike race win of his career .
American Honda’s Ben Bostrom looked the best he has since Daytona, challenged for the lead early but had to settle for a relatively lonely third.
Mladin finished fourth, after Giovanni Bussei ran off the track in front of him late in the race. Ducati Austin’s Bussei recovered to take fifth.
Millennium Kaufman Suzuki’s Shawn Higbee took sixth. Bostrom’s teammate Miguel Duhamel came back from a lowside crash on lap 10 to finish seventh.
Corona Extra Suzuki’s Jordan Szoke, Kawasaki Canada’s Tom Kipp and Hooters Suzuki’s Vincent Haskovec rounded out the top 10 Saturday.
AMA Superbike Race One Results:
1. Aaron Yates, Suzuki GSX-R1000, 29 laps
2. Kurtis Roberts, Honda RC51, -5.931 seconds
3. Ben Bostrom Honda RC51, -7.774 seconds
4. Mat Mladin, Suzuki GSX-R1000, -26.736 seconds
5. Giovanni Bussei, Ducati 998RS, -31.101 seconds
6. Shawn Higbee, Suzuki GSX-R1000, -50.739 seconds
7. Miguel Duhamel, Honda RC51, -66.643 seconds
8. Jordan Szoke, Suzuki GSX-R1000, -78.232 seconds
9. Tom Kipp, Kawasaki ZX-7RR, -86.003 seconds
10. Vincent Haskovec, Suzuki GSX-R1000, -88.932 seconds
11. Jeremy Toye, Suzuki GSX-R750, -1 lap
12. Jake Holden, Suzuki GSX-R750, -1 lap
13. Michael Barnes, Suzuki GSX-R1000, -1 lap
14. Mike Ciccotto, Suzuki GSX-R1000, -1 lap
15. Scott Jensen, Suzuki GSX-R1000, -1 lap
16. Brian Stokes, Suzuki GSX-R750, -1 lap
17. Robert Christman, Suzuki GSX-R1000, -1 lap
18. John Jacobi, Suzuki GSX-R1000, -1 lap
19. Byron Barbour, Suzuki GSX-R1000, -1 lap
20. Mike Sullivan, Suzuki GSX-R1000, -1 lap
21. Dean Mizdal, Suzuki GSX-R1000, -1 lap
22. Michael Sanchez, Suzuki GSX-R750, -1 lap
23. Reuben Frankenfield, Suzuki GSX-R750, -1 lap
24. J.J. Roetlin, Suzuki GSX-R750, -1 lap
25. Marco Martinez, Suzuki GSX-R1000, -1 lap
26. Chris Voelker, Ducati 996, -1 lap
27. C.R. Gittere, Suzuki GSX-R1000, -1 lap
28. Kevin Hanson, Suzuki GSX-R1000, -1 lap
29. Geoff May, Suzuki GSX-R1000, -1 lap
30. Tom Wertman, Suzuki GSX-R1000, -1 lap
31. Scott Carpenter, Suzuki GSX-R1000, -1 lap
32. James Kerker, Honda CBR929RR, -2 laps
33. Andrew Deatherage, Suzuki GSX-R1000, -13 laps, DNF
34. Mark Ledesma, Honda CBR954RR, -15 laps, DNF
35. John Haner, Suzuki GSX-R750, -17 laps, DNF
36. Chuck Ivey, Suzuki GSX-R750, -23 laps, DNF
37. Monte Nichols, Suzuki GSX-R1000, -24 laps, DNF
38. Steve Rapp, Suzuki GSX-R750, -27 laps, DNF
Unofficial AMA Superbike Point Standings:
1. Mladin, 521 points
2. Yates, 492 points
3. Ben Bostrom, 461 points
4. Roberts, 438 points
5. Duhamel, 417 points
6. Higbee, 371 points
7. Eric Bostrom, 350 points
8. Jason Pridmore, 339 points
9. Szoke, 283 points
10. Haskovec, 262 points
More, from a press release issued by Mat Mladin Motorsports:
MLADIN EDGES CLOSER TO SUPERBIKE TITLE AT ALABAMA
Birmingham, Alabama, USA (Saturday, 20 September) – A fourth place finish in the first of this weekends two AMA Chevy Trucks US Superbike Championship double-header races sees Mat Mladin take another step closer to clinching his fourth American Superbike crown as the series closes to an end this weekend at Barber Motorsports Park, near Birmingham, Alabama.
Today’s opening 28-lap Superbike national was won by Mladin’s Yoshimura Suzuki teammate and championship challenger Aaron Yates who headed home Erion Honda’s Kurtis Roberts by 5.931 seconds after a thrilling race long battle.
With one race now remaining in this year’s championship, Mladin heads into tomorrow’s final holding a 29-point advantage and only needing to finish 23rd or better if Yates takes his second win of the weekend.
Mladin had been in the thick of the action on the early laps of the race and held the front running position for a number of laps as the race entered its mid-distance. With the lead group consisting of Yates, Roberts, Mladin, the American Honda’s of Miguel DuHamel and Ben Bostrom, plus the Ducati Austin entry of Italian Giovanni Bussei, the group of factory riders engaged in a very close and hard fought battle for the lead. DuHamel was the first to exit the group when he suffered a minor fall on lap ten before rejoining the race to finish seventh, while Bussei ran off the circuit in the closing laps allowing Mladin to consolidate fourth place. Mladin was also credited with the fastest lap of the race, posting a 1:26.502 on lap 5.
With a championship hanging in the balance discretion proved to be the best reward for Mladin as he eased his pace and allowed the others to go at it while he held a safer position on the circuit.
“It was a good ride today, had a go in the first half of the race and kept it out of trouble after that,” said Mladin. “I got through to the lead and led a few laps, but the boys were getting a bit close and it’s not the time of the year for me to be getting rough and banging bars with people. Halfway through the race I was actually having a ball out there and a bit of fun, but then I decided that this isn’t really the thing to be doing at this point. Aaron (Yates) needed to have a go and he was, while all of the others had nothing to lose and were just having a good go at each other. It was close hard racing, but something I didn’t need to be close to, so I was happy to roll off the throttle a little and bring it home behind them.”
Mladin’s championship fight took another step forward earlier in the day when he clinched his seventh pole position for the season, but more importantly, the extra championship point that he earned for that honour stretched his margin out to 38 prior to the start of the opening race.
His time of 1:25.176 became the benchmark for the new 3.70km (2.3 miles) circuit being the first time that the championship had run at the Alabama track. After being fastest in the opening qualifier, Yates gridded up alongside his teammate after recording the second fastest time with a 1:25.612, followed by DuHamel (1:26.100), with Bussei rounding out the front row of the grid with a 1:26.437.
“Qualifying went well and it’s still very important to score every point that you can because you just don’t know what may lie ahead,” remarked Mladin after securing his 31st career AMA Superbike pole. “It was still hard out there. We’ve had a lot of new tyres from Dunlop to test and evaluate. At times that’s been hard because of the amount of traffic out there, but we have worked our way towards a tyre that suits the conditions.”
The 2003 AMA Chevy Trucks US Superbike Championship concludes tomorrow afternoon with the running of the eighteenth race of the season.
