Inspired Mladin dominates Laguna

From amasuperbike.com

It's a strange day indeed when Valentino Rossi and Mat Mladin can register back-to-back victories and both are viewed as upsets, but that's exactly what happened on Sunday at Laguna Seca.

While Rossi overcame rival Casey Stoner by doing anything humanly possible (and beyond) to keep the speedy Ducati ace behind him, Mladin only had to demonstrate that he had a clearly superior pace over the field, including his Rockstar Makita Yoshimura Suzuki teammate Ben Spies.

While both men had been very tight on the leaderboards in the limited track time leading up to the race, Spies was generally viewed to be the favourite as he had taken the previous three AMA Superbike races at Laguna Seca and Mladin has never hidden the fact that circuit doesn't rank among his best.

But less than an hour after Spies had claimed a top 10 MotoGP result while running as the sixth-fastest rider in terms of lap times, he had no answer for Mladin, who powered away to a 10.113-second margin of victory.

Spies grabbed the holeshot and led the bulk of the opening lap but Mladin ripped past just after the start/finish line straight and that was essentially the end of it. The Texan clung onto the six-time series champ for a short while but it quickly became evident that the Australian was in control on this day.

Mladin now has two consecutive wins after Spies built up an imposing title lead on the strength of seven straight wins.

Afterwards, Mladin noted that he was inspired after observing Rossi's classic performance just minutes earlier.

"Maybe, the best individual motorcycle race I've ever seen in my life, what he did out there today. He had no business winning that race today. It was pretty impressive. Pretty hard not to be inspired by that."

Mladin also showed a bit more emotion than usual on the cool down lap, stopping to acknowledge the fans and riding into the pits pumping his first with his Bob Hannah replica helmet in his hands rather than on his head.

"I've got 68 class wins and I've only got two at Laguna Seca. This is the second, so any time I can do good here I can be pretty competitive in most places. It was a good race and we tried hard and the bike felt good. That was nice."

Runner-up Spies made no excuses. "We got off to a decent start and Mat came by us. We just tried to get in behind and get into a rhythm and it just keep stretching and stretching. We just didn't have the pace today. Once we had a sizable gap on third place we just put it in cruise control and brought it home. There was no way we could run with him today."

Jordan Suzuki's Aaron Yates picked up his first Superbike podium of the season, pressuring Monster Energy Kawasaki's Jamie Hacking heavily before finally taking away the position on lap 25 of 28. He held onto the British-born star's late bid to earn a seventh podium finish in a row by a scant 0.052 seconds at the flag.

Yates said, "The race was pretty good. We didn't have such a good starting position but we got off the line good. We got by quite a few guys and started picking guys off. I was able to keep chopping away and getting by guys and we got up to a podium position."

Third factory Suzuki runner Tommy Hayden was right in contention for the podium in his return to action and ultimately took an impressive fifth.

He was followed by younger brother Roger Hayden, who also mixed it up with the group for much of the race before taking to a solid sixth.

American Honda's Neil Hodgson overcame Yamaha USA's Jason DiSalvo on the final lap for seventh while DiSalvo's teammate, Eric Bostrom, and Hodgson's teammate, Miguel Duhamel rounded out the top 10 right on their heels.

The AMA Superbike Championship will pick back up in two weeks time at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course on Aug. 1-3.

Resuts
1. Mathew Mladin Suzuki GSX-R1000 28
2. Ben Spies Suzuki GSX-R1000 +10.114
3. Aaron Yates Suzuki GSX-R1000 +20.691
4. Jamie Hacking Kawasaki ZX-10R +20.744
5. Tommy Hayden Suzuki GSX-R1000 +21.216
6. Roger Hayden Kawasaki ZX-10R +28.462
7. Neil Hodgson Honda CBR1000RR +29.711
8. Jason DiSalvo Yamaha YZF-R1 +29.894
9. Eric Bostrom Yamaha YZF-R1 +30.258
10. Miguel Duhamel Honda CBR1000RR +31.380
11. Jake Holden Honda CBR1000RR +47.791
12. Geoff May Suzuki GSX-R1000
13. Robertino Pietri Suzuki GSX-R1000 27 laps
14. Hawk Mazzotta Suzuki GSX-R1000 27
15. Scott Jensen Suzuki GSX-R1000 27
16. Blake Young Suzuki GSX-R1000 27
17. David Anthony Suzuki GSX-R1000 27
18. Cory Call Suzuki GSX-R1000 27
19. Dean Mizdal Suzuki GSX-R1000 27
20. Ben Thompson Suzuki GSX-R1000 21
21. James Randolph Suzuki GSX-R1000 9
22. Matt Lynn Honda CBR1000RR 8
RACE TIME: 39:33.397
WINNER'S AVG. SPEED: 95.05 mph

Point Standings (Top 15)
1. B. Spies 411
2. M. Mladin 375
3. J. Hacking 319
4. N. Hodgson 317
5. J. DiSalvo 288
6. E. Bostrom 276
7. A. Yates 263
8. M. Duhamel 259
9. G. May 218
10. S. Jensen 204
11. C. Peris 186
12. M. Lynn 172
13. T. Hayden 169
14. D. Mizdal 159
15. J. Rock Page 101
28. J. Szoke 40
33. B. McCormick 33
34. F. Martin 23
40. M. McBride 13