AMA American Superbike Series – And Other Things Worth Mentioning

Round 2 March 20 - 22

Olaf Wolff
Staff Writer

I’m of the opinion that pretty much anyone can drive a car around in a circle fast. Superbike pilots on-the-other-hand race at speeds approaching 200 mph – on motorcycles. That requires King Kong sized cajones just as an entry level prerequisite. Superbike racing is sexy, it’s epic, and it makes my head explode that it isn’t the predominate motor-sport teat from which we yearningly feed. I can’t even find TV coverage. What the hell?

Allow me to briefly initiate the uninitiated before satisfying the jones for those already hooked. The Superbike class has been the showpiece of major-league motorcycle racing in the United States for nearly 30 years. Yeah, you’ve missed a bunch already, but this is a great year to jump in.

American Superbike will co-headline AMA Pro Road Racing weekends with the AMA Pro Daytona SportBike class and will also race as the featured support event for the MotoGP event at Mazda Raceway in Laguna Seca on July 4th weekend.

What makes the American Superbikes so real world alluring is that they all have direct roots to the big-bore production street bikes (1000cc engine displacements) representing all of the top manufacturers such as Suzuki, Honda, Yamaha, Aprilia, Buell, Ducati and others. That makes it racing you can easily relate with – well, except for the 200 mph part.

Fontana Opener – Saturday March 21 – Race 1

Suzuki’s Mat Mladin won his 74th career Superbike victory and two in a row since Daytona, in the opening race Saturday. In doing so he prevented Suzuki’s Tommy Hayden from winning his first ever Superbike race by half a blink – .068 of a second.

"If there's anybody up here that I'd like to see win one, it's probably him (Hayden),” Said Mladin. “But I'm not going to give it to him so I pushed him hard, and it was a good race."

The Yoshimura duo staged a gripping race-long battle that featured frequent side-by-side action and numerous lead swaps, with Hayden leading 10 and Mladin the other nine, and the decisive 19th lap.

Mladin took the lead with two laps to go, then Hayden, attempting to steal the show, moved back to the front on the final lap, but Mladin, the wily veteran, proved to be too, well wily, making the winning pass with the checkered flag in his sights. "It was just an out-braking pass . . . " said Mladin later. Rounding out the podium for third, and a Suzuki clean sweep, was Geoff May.

The scheduled 21-lap race was red-flagged and shortened two laps when Larry Pegram crashed his Ducati in turn two of the opening lap. Pegram was reportedly not injured.

Hayden had one of the best American Superbike performances of his career and joins Mladin as the only riders to hit the top-three podium in the year's opening races at Daytona and Auto Club.

Sunday March 22 – Race 2

The dynamic Yoshimura duo made it un-dramatic repeat performance in the second race, finishing in the same order as race one. To his credit, rebounding from a high-side crash in the first race, Ohioan Larry Pegram and his Ducati gathered it up enough to take a third position on the podium in the second race.

But, the lead story continues to be Suzuki's Mat Mladin, winning his eighth AMA Superbike National at Auto Club Speedway Sunday. The Australian reclaimed the all too predictable order to what some claim is a yawn-fest in the series by scoring a dominating 8.75-second win over his teammate Tommy Hayden on an uncharacteristically chilly, windy and moist California afternoon in Fontana. This is Mladins’ 75th victory and three in a row this year already.

"I'm going to have to have a talk to Suzuki about the teammates they keep signing up for me," Mladin joked after the race.

“ . . .It was a good race again and it's great to have the Suzuki up here one-two again."