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6 gets 66
April 20, 2008 Even though he swapped out his long-time competition number for the #6 plate this season, his old number still carries significance for Rockstar Makita Yoshimura Suzuki’s Mat Mladin, as he upped his career AMA Superbike wins record to 66 on Sunday at Barber Motorsports Park. His chief rival, reigning two-time series champ Ben Spies, didn’t open the door by crashing out of contention as he did on Saturday, but Mladin still managed to turn the race into a lopsided affair in short order. The Australian swooped into the lead on the race’s opening corner and that was pretty much the end of it. To his credit, Spies did apply some fairly heavy pressure for the opening handful of laps, but Mladin cracked open a gap on lap 4 of 28 and steadily built it from there, ultimately taking the checkered flag with over eight seconds to spare despite Spies’ presence. Mladin is now three-for-three on the season, thoroughly dominating the opening three races on the 2008 slate. An early five-rider battle for third gradually split apart, with Saturday podium finishers Tommy Hayden and Jason DiSalvo again rising to top of that next group. New Yorker DiSalvo clawed up from seventh to fourth and looked like he might push hard to find a way past Hayden late, but the Kentuckian found a second wind to snap the Yamaha ace’s podium streak at two and give the factory Suzuki team the podium sweep. American Honda’s Neil Hodgson made a late pass on Eric Bostrom to claim fifth, while Bostrom accepted sixth after heading the tussle for third for more than half-distance. Monster Energy Kawasaki’s Jamie Hacking was knocked out of the race due to a mechanical issue with his ZX-10R, allowing Aaron Yates to grab seventh following a spirited battle with Hodgson’s teammate, Miguel DuHamel, who took eighth. Corona Honda’s Matt Lynn nipped Jordan Suzuki’s Geoff May as the two rounded out the race’s top ten. Mladin has now claimed every point available with two poles, three
points for most laps led, and three consecutive wins. He’ll look to
continue his perfect streak next weekend at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana,
CA.
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