By AMA Superbike Championship

The 2008 AMA Superbike Championship opener took a familiar shape, as six-time series king Mat Mladin powered off the line from pole and was never seriously challenged throughout the 15-lap contest at Daytona International Speedway.

As was so frequently the case in '07, one of the series' top two riders managed to nail the start while the other missed it ever so slightly and was never able to rebound.

Defending series and race champion Ben Spies dropped a couple positions off the line, and while he fought to quickly work his way up to the runner-up position, his Rockstar Makita Yoshimura Suzuki teammate opened an early two-second advantage by the second lap.

From there the Australian did what he does, putting his head down and maintaining a relentless pace, never allowing Spies to make any headway.

Mladin, whose goal this season is to re-break his year-old mark of 12 AMA Superbike wins in a single season, is off to an ideal start, quite the contrast to '07 when he started his championship campaign in a big hole after crashing during the opener.

The victory was a record-extending 64th of Mladin's illustrious AMA Superbike career.

While Spies was unable to triumph, he did manage to keep his season-plus streak of runner-up finishes intact, an approach that allowed him to successfully defend his crown last season.

Duhamel finished off an already frustrating day by crashing his all-new CBR1000RR, while DiSalvo's teammate, Eric Bostrom, was forced to retire with a mechanical issue.

Mladin and Spies will go back at it when the series picks up at Barber Motorsports Park in Birmingham, AL on April 18-20.

Superbike Results:

1. Mat Mladin (Suzuki)
2. Ben Spies (Suzuki)
3. Jason Disalvo (Yamaha)
4. Tommy Hayden (Suzuki)
5. Jamie Hacking (Kawasaki)
6. Aaron Yates (Suzuki)
7. Miguel Duhamel (Honda)
8. Roger Hayden (Kawasaki)
9. Blake Young (Suzuki)
10. Geoff May (Suzuki)