Australia’s Mat Mladin raced to his 65th AMA Superbike Championship race victory Saturday, dominating at Barber Motorsports Park in his Rockstar Makita Suzuki.
When his closest rival, teammate Ben Spies, crashed on the second lap, the six-time AMA Superbike champion cruised to victory on the 2.3-mile, 15-turn track.
Starting from the pole position, Mladin sped into the lead, taking Spies with him. The pair were running in formation when Spies got loose on the curbing entering the downhill roller-coaster museum corner. The Suzuki GSX-R1000 was a bit out of shape going into the downhill right and the front end tucked, sending the Texan into the gravel trap. He remounted to finish 11th.
Meanwhile Mladin was flying. He grew his lead at over a second a lap before more moderate increases. At its peak it was 16.594 secs. on the 21st of 28 laps. At the end it was 15.599 secs.
Yamaha’s Jason DiSalvo finished a career best second in Superbike and moves to second in the points with 61. DiSalvo took over third when Spies crashed and second with a pass of teammate Eric Bostrom on the fourth lap. He fronted a battle for second until the 10th lap when he began to ease away. He finished two seconds in front of third place.
Actually, Mladin seemed almost more disappointed than casual, openly hoping for a more competitive affair on Sunday.
He said, “It was shaping up to be a pretty good race after the first couple laps and then I guess Ben crashed out at the museum. From there we pulled away pretty quickly. That’s about it, really. Not much to say.
“I was hoping when I came back around and caught Ben I was hoping that he might be waiting for me so we could put on a bit of a race—keep the boredom out of the race, but anyway. That’s the way it goes and he’ll be back tomorrow I’m sure and ready to go.”
The Australian said, “He’s all about the championship. He wants to win the championship. Doesn’t bother me, the championship, so I’m going to be going hard just like I was last year. That’s it now. There’s no nursing the championship now. Time to get up there and rock-and-roll. It should be good.”
Questioned if he thought next year’s rules—specifically designed to increase the competitiveness of the racing—would in fact make things more interesting, the confident Mladin remarked, “If Yoshimura Suzuki decide to get involved in whatever class it is, then I think the results will be the same. It doesn’t matter what class it is.”
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