AMA Superbike - Race 1, Saturday at Fontana

Mladin battles it out with teammate Tommy Hayden

Rockstar/Makita Yoshimura Suzuki rider Mat Mladin went a perfect two-for-two in 2009 with a win in Saturday's AMA Superbike race at the Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, CA, his victory coming after a race-long battle with Tommy Hayden.
 
The oldest of the racing Hayden brothers made a great start from the third spot and led the first lap while Mladin was quick enough to regain the lead on Lap 2 on the Auto Club Speedway "Roval" (A combination of the oval and infield tracks).  Hayden took the lead again on Lap 9 only to lose it to Mladin with two laps to go. But Hayden never gave up and fought back to regain the top spot on the final lap. Mladin still had some speed in hand as he literally forced his way back in front of Hayden in Turn 10 and hung on for the victory.

Third-place went to National Guard/Jordan Suzuki GSX-R1000 rider Geoff May. Yoshimura's third rider Blake Young finished fourth while Jake Holden on his Corona Extra Honda CBR1000RR completed the top five.

Suzuki came in for some criticism over the past years, while they won close to 50 AMA Superbike races on the trot, and turned the Superbike show into a predictable event. It was clear that Yoshimura Suzuki had developed the best Superbikes under the old rules, and employed the strongest riders. Unwilling to give up such an advantage, they fought off rules changes brought on by the new AMA Pro Racing bosses, and seem to have somehow carried over their domination to 2009. It looks to some as if Mladin played cat and mouse with his closest pursuers in the two 2009 Superbike races held so far this year, at Daytona and on the Saturday here - and it worked as both races looked very close to the average spectator.

Me-thinks it is a put-on ny Mladin and the Suzuki team, to make a point that the races can be exciting with the AMA, and keep their advantage afforded by the Superbike rules over the competition. Ah politics...

AMA Superbike
Race 1 at Fontana

1- Matt Mladin Suzuki
2- Tommy Hayden Suzuki
3- Geoff May Suzuki
4- Blake Young Suzuki
5- Jake Holden Honda
6- Josh Hayes Yamaha
7- Ben Bostrom Yamaha
.....


AMA Superbike - Race 2, Sunday at Fontana

Mladin continues 2009 domination with second win at Fontana

Rockstar/Makita/Suzuki's ace Mat Mladin took his third victory in a row to make it a perfect start of the 2009 season of AMA Pro American Superbike. And contrary to what happened in the two first races, this one was a one-sided affair.

Even tough he still had to battle with teammate Tommy Hayden at the beginning of the 19 lap race, the Australian was able to create a large gap and crossed the finish line with an astonishing 8.759-second margin over runner-up Hayden.

Hayden was involved in a contact incident with Jordan Suzuki's Aaron Yates, who had to settle for 10th place because of damage to his machine. Hayden managed to maintain his second place to the end of the race, his second finish at that spot in two days.