Mladin rides to his seventh VIR win in a row

By Jason Wolf

Published: August 16, 2008

ALTON — For Ben Spies, it was the biggest wreck he never had.

For Mat Mladin, it was another a victory.

Six-time AMA Superbike champion Mladin sped to his seventh consecutive win and eighth overall at Virginia International Raceway in the Suzuki Big Kahuna Nationals on Saturday, capturing an 8.383 margin of victory with an average lap speed of 95.4 mph and an average lap time of 1:25.296 on the 2.25-mile North Course. The race went 28 laps. The victory allowed Mladin to lock up his 71st career victory and narrowed defending champ Spies’ points lead to 23 with four events remaining this season.

The two will square off again today in the second part of this doubleheader at VIR. Mladin’s win was his fifth straight of the season and allowed him to creep closer to Yoshimura Suzuki teammate Spies’ record seven-race winning streak established earlier this year.

“It was a good race for us. We knew we had a good motorcycle today, capable of running some pretty good lap times if we needed to,” Mladin said after stepping down from the podium. “It’s funny, after qualifying I said to (crew chief) Pete (Doyle) I left a couple tenths out there and it looks like I found at least one of them today in the start of the race. So, it was a good race for us — good to get another win and hopefully we can get another one (today).”

Spies, the pole-sitter, opened a quick 1½-second lead on the opening lap of the race but couldn’t hold off the hard-charging Mladin, who caught up and went inside on Spies in Turn 4 of Lap 4 to take the lead. Spies nearly crashed shortly thereafter, on Lap 6, but thanks to the huge lead the duo had established over the rest of the field, he was able to maintain his spot in second place despite falling three seconds off the pace.

“I might have got on the gas a little bit sooner than usual. I hope it was on TV or someone got pictures because that was the best save I’ve ever had,” Spies said after hanging on through the near-wreck. “I mean I just tried to ride it out. When it started to go, sometimes it’s a real quick jolt but this one just came and kept going and going and going and I didn’t know if it was going to spin out or what and I was just going to hold on until I was under the bike. Luckily I just kind of landed on top of it. It really wasn’t me, it was just holding onto it.”

Mladin continued building up on his advantage by nearly a half second per lap, and his lead steadily ballooned to more than 11 seconds before taking the checkered flag with an 8.382-second margin of victory.

Tommy Hayden nailed down a third-place finish to give Yoshimura Suzuki GSX-R1000 bikes a sweep of the podium. It was the team’s fourth sweep this year.

Eric Bostrom of the Yamaha factory team placed fourth and Jason DiSalvo finished fifth. Both were riding Yamaha TZF-R1s.

Miguel Duhamel came in sixth to give Honda its highest finish, Geoff May was seventh on a Suzuki GSX-R1000 and Roger Hayden placed eighth for Kawasaki’s best finish.

Chris Peris, Kenny Noyes, Scott Jensen and Hawk Mazzotta finished ninth through 12th, all riding the same Suzuki bikes that placed first through third.

American Honda’s Neil Hodgson and Kawasaki’s Jamie Hacking both wiped out in Turn 2, three laps apart.

Mladin led for 25 of the 28 laps.

“I just had a bit of a moment and chilled out a little bit and got everything back together and got second,” Spies said. “I could see that we had a pretty big gap on third so there wasn’t a need to do anything silly because I definitely didn’t have the speed today to win.”

In other action Saturday at Virginia International Raceway:

AMA Superstock qualifying

Aaron Yates captured the pole for today’s race with a best lap of 95.859 mph during Group A qualifying Saturday.
Yates’ best lap was about a half second faster than Jake Holden, who will start second. Holden, who rode a Honda CBR1000RR, was the only rider to finish in the top 10 of Group A qualifying not riding a Suzuki GSX-R1000. Chris Peris, Geoff May and Blake Young rounded out the top five.
Scott Jensen finished first in Group B qualifying with a top lap of 92.232 mph. Hawk Mazzotta, Seth Starnes, Scotty Van Hawk and Scott Carpenter rounded out the top five.
The 17-lap, 60k race starts at 1 p.m.

AMA Supersport qualifying

Joshua Hayes qualified for the top spot in Group A with a best lap of 94.511 mph on his Honda CBR600RR.
Ben Bostrom, Jake Zemke, Josh Herrin and Blake Young qualified second through fifth.
Tommy Aquino and Joshua Day qualified first and second in Group B, both riding Yamaha TZF-R6s. Aquino’s best lap was 93.395 mph.
Gabor Rizmayer, Marcos Reichert and Tony Meiring were third through fifth.
The 17-lap, 60k race begins at 2 p.m. today.

Formula Xtreme race

Pro Honda’s Joshua Hayes started on the pole, led from start to finish and smoked the competition, besting second-place Jake Zemke by 7.798 seconds. He posted an average speed of 93.2 mph and an average lap time of 1:27.293 over the 17-lap, 60k race on VIR’s 2.25-mile North Course.
Martin Cardenas, Aaron Gobert and Steve Rapp finished third through fifth, each more than 17 second back.

Red Bull AMA U.S. Rookies Cup qualifying

Tomas Puerta posted a best lap time of 1:34.981 and a top speed of 85.659 mph to qualify for the pole for today’s 11 a.m. race.
Emerson Connor, Hayden Gillim, Leandro Mercado and Austin Medrano rounded out the top five. All 23 riders used identically prepared KTM RC125s.

Sunday’s schedule at Virginia International Raceway

- 11 a.m.: Red Bull AMA U.S. Rookies Cup race (17 laps)
- 11:20 a.m.-12:20 p.m.: Autograph session at team transports
- 11:45 a.m.-12:05 p.m.: Stunt show in Turns 4 and 5
- 12:50 p.m.: Opening ceremonies start
- 1 p.m.: AMA Superstock race (17 laps)
- 2 p.m.: AMA Supersport race (17 laps)
- 3 p.m.: AMA Superbike race (28 laps)
(Schedule subject to change)