Mladin tops Superbike practice

From amasuperbike.com

Rockstar Makita Yoshimura Suzuki's Mat Mladin dropped the better part of a second off his previous best on the final lap to leap past defending champion Ben Spies on the charts and head the order in Friday's AMA Superbike practice session at Laguna Seca.

In fact, Mladin's blistering 1:23.863 would have been good enough to rank in the top 10 in the one-hour MotoGP practice session that immediately preceded it.

Spies took a bit of time to get up to speed following his MotoGP duties, in which he ranked near the top of the order early before suffering a crash and eventually finishing 11th in the session, one position ahead of Monster Energy Kawasaki's Jamie Hacking who steadily worked his way up to 12th in his MotoGP debut session. Spies found his groove halfway in, however, and looked destined to lead the session before Mladin's late flyer.

American Honda's Neil Hodgson ranked third, just ahead of Yamaha USA teammates Jason DiSalvo and Eric Bostrom.

The returning Tommy Hayden was next, followed by Hacking, Hodgson's teammate, Miguel DuHamel, Kawasaki's Roger Hayden -- who like his brother has finally returned from injury -- and Jordan Suzuki's Aaron Yates.

The AMA Superbike class will return for another practice session on Saturday. The class' qualifying session and race are both scheduled to take place on Sunday.

Practice Results
1. Mathew Mladin Suzuki GSX-R1000 1:23.864
2. Ben Spies Suzuki GSX-R1000 1:24.548
3. Neil Hodgson Honda CBR1000RR 1:25.014
4. Jason DiSalvo Yamaha YZF-R1 1:25.125
5. Eric Bostrom Yamaha YZF-R1 1:25.603
6. Tommy Hayden Suzuki GSX-R1000 1:25.617
7. Jamie Hacking Kawasaki ZX-10R 1:25.705
8. Miguel Duhamel Honda CBR1000RR 1:25.728
9. Roger Hayden Kawasaki ZX-10R 1:26.104
10. Aaron Yates Suzuki GSX-R1000 1:26.176
11. Geoff May Suzuki GSX-R1000 1:26.342
12. Jake Holden Honda CBR1000RR 1:26.808
13. Matt Lynn Honda CBR1000RR 1:27.483
14. David Anthony Suzuki GSX-R1000 1:28.442
15. Blake Young Suzuki GSX-R1000 1:28.450
16. Robertino Pietri Suzuki GSX-R1000 1:28.596
17. Hawk Mazzotta Suzuki GSX-R1000 1:28.836
18. Scott Jensen Suzuki GSX-R1000 1:29.135
19. Cory Call Suzuki GSX-R1000 1:29.722
20. Ben Thompson Suzuki GSX-R1000 1:30.202
21. James Randolph Suzuki GSX-R1000 1:30.433
22. Martin Szwarc Suzuki GSX-R1000 1:31.349
23. Reno Karimian Suzuki GSX-R1000 1:31.375
24. Eric Haugo Suzuki GSX-R1000 1:32.341
25. Dean Mizdal Suzuki GSX-R1000 1:32.862
26. Sahar Zvik Suzuki GSX-R1000 1:33.096
27. C. R. Gittere Suzuki GSX-R1000 1:33.682
28. Johnny Rock Page Yamaha YZF-R1 1:34.303