I was actually at Hodgson’s Corona Extra Honda’s pit when he came in, and mass confusion set into the paddock. Basically, when the riders were coming over the Corkscrew the pace car came out onto the hill on turn 1, which is a no braking kink and even though double yellow flags were in use at turn 9 through 11, Mat Mladin and Blake Young came up to the back of the pace car at a very high rate of speed, probably around 130 miles an hour. Daytona all over again, motorcycles parting so as not to barrel into the back of the car.

The race was then stopped and 18 would be the lap count of the race. However, people were not pleased. There was loads of screaming and shouting on pit lane, and at one point I could see Nicky Hayden (Ducati MotoGP) and his father arguing with the officials. Then there was the question of can they fix their bikes? It turned out they could but no fuel could be added.

The race started again and Blake Young on his GSX-R1000 made the most of the start but Ben Bostrom got to the front. However, by lap 4 Blake Young was in the lead being chased by Tommy Haden on his Suzuki GSX-R1000 and Ben Bostrom now in third on the Yamaha YZF-R1.

On lap 5 there was a battle for the lead between Young and Hayden but Young was able to hold his position, with Mladin still 1’44.00 off the leader.

On lap 7 Tommy Haden pulled in for his stop-and-go penalty, and pulled out to keep battling on to finish in eight position. At this point in the race there is a six-bike train with Neil Hodgson making up the rear. Mladin sets his fastest lap on lap 7 so you could see that he is up for chasing the leaders.

Lap 8 and Mladin is closing on Young, the gap down to 0’456.00, the two of them starting to pull away from the pack by lap 9. Ben is now 2’176.00 off the leader Blake Young. You can see that Mladin is waiting in anticipation for a move; there is only 1’65.00 between them on lap 9 and into turn 2 Mat is eyeing up the move. Blake and Mladin are now on their own on lap 10 with a gap between them of only two-hundredth of second.

Mladin takes Young on turn 11, which is a very tight left hand bend in second gear onto the home straight, and by the time he gets down to turn 3 he is pulling away. Like he said in the press conference before the race “this could be the easiest championship he has ever won.”

By lap 13, the battle for third, fourth and fifth is heating up and Aaron Yates on his GSX-R1000 takes Bostrom with Josh Hayes right there on his Yamaha YZF R1. The two Suzuki Corona Extra Honda riders Neil Hodgson and Jake Holden are in sixth and seventh respectfully.

Josh Hayes takes Ben Bostrom with 4 laps to go and Hodgson is gaining on Bostrom with everyone starting to come up on back markers on lap 15.

Lap 16 has the top three as Mladin, Young and Yates, which is how it ends, with Josh Hayes in fourth, Ben Bostrom in fifth, Neil Hodgson in sixth and Jake Holden in seventh.

In the press conference afterwards, Blake Young said “this is the most amount of laps I have lead in a Superbike race, it was a good race for us I tried to keep the lead but Mat was just a little faster.”

Mat started his conference with “it’s good to have Suzuki on the podium, however, I nearly ran into that pace car. That whole situation could have been very ugly, we don’t have radio this is not Nascar, we are not sitting down with a cup of tea, there should not be a pace car on the circuit this is a motorcycle race.”

Blake Young also commented on the pace car situation, he said “something needs to be done, nothing is going to happen until someone dies.”

Very harsh words from the riders and there definitely isn’t any love lost with the pace car, Colin Frazer of the AMA said in relation to what went on about the pace car situation.

"The second start there was a multi-bike accident with three riders down and several other people on and off in turn 2 at the bottom of the hill," Fraser said. "That led to a safety car call, which didn't occur. The riders didn't respond and therefore we had to stop."

So where exactly did the pace car come from?

"The car came out of the pit lane so what happened is when the field, on the first lap after the incident in turn 2, reached the Corkscrew, we called for the safety car and it pulled out just past and under the bridge with a plan to drive it as far up the hill as it could be and still be seen. The marshals displayed dual waving yellow flags and a safety car sign and they know that those signs and those flags were shown and seen in nine, 10, 11 and at the start /finish line. I know they were seen because we asked the marshals and got a call in terms of how some of the people in the field behaved. I can't tell you why people didn't respond. Please understand that the safety car had to be somewhere where it could control the field through turn 2, so what we tried to do is put it as far up the hill, past the bridge, where the riders could still see it with the expectation that there were multiple turns with waving yellows and safety cars prior to that location that would allow us when the riders came out of 11 to follow the instructions as per usual with the safety car. There is no set spot where the riders will encounter the safety car - it depends on the flow of the race.

"Clearly, it didn't work well. I'm not going to pretend that it was successful."

So another interesting race at AMA Pro National Guard American Superbike. Now it’s’ onto Mid Ohio where AllAboutBikes will be also in attendance, let’s see if the pace car is used there and we make it 3 out of 3.