Technical difficulties for Mladin?

By Jason Wolf

Published: August 17, 2008

Six-time AMA Superbike champion Mat Mladin may not have won his eighth straight race and ninth overall at Virginia International Raceway when he took the checkered flag at the Suzuki Big Kahuna Nationals by a margin of 9.747 seconds on Sunday.

The official race results are pending the outcome of a technical inspection of Mladin’s crankshaft at AMA headquarters in Pickerington, Ohio. The governing body’s inquiry into Mladin’s crankshaft was not revealed until well after the teams packed up and left VIR and no riders or series personnel were available to answer questions beyond the scope of the official three-sentence release.

Daytona Motorsports Group, a four-person partnership LLC consisting of NASCAR vice president and International Speedway Corporation president Jim France, Rolex Grand-Am series president Roger Edmondson and two others, has twice taken away riders’ finishes since purchasing the rights to AMA pro racing this season. Josh Hayes had his Daytona 200 Formula Xtreme victory stripped and Steve Rapp forfeited a third-place finish in a Supersport race at Laguna Seca.

Mladin’s Yoshimura Suzuki teammate Ben Spies, the defending series champ, finished second in the 28-lap race on VIR’s 2.25-mile North Course on Sunday and saw his points lead provisionally trimmed to 18 with four events remaining this season. On deck is a doubleheader at Road Atlanta from Aug. 29-31. Spies can repeat as series champion by finishing no worse than second in each of the next four races.

The results of the race, if upheld, mark Mladin’s 72nd career victory. The win is the 43rd straight for Suzuki, which swept the podium for the fifth time this year. Tommy Hayden placed third, nearly 36 seconds behind Mladin.

Pending the outcome of his bike’s inspection, Mladin has won six consecutive races this season and is in position to tie Spies’ record of seven straight victories – a mark the defending champion established earlier this year.

“Obviously that would be great,” Mladin said, regarding his chance to tie and break Spies’ consecutive wins record. “Right now winning races is my priority and my goal in my racing career, to stack up as many as I can. If we can win a couple in Atlanta, that would be great. If we go eight in a row, obviously that would be fantastic.”

Spies started on the pole but Mladin led all but one of the 27 laps Sunday, claiming the victory with an average speed of 95.7 mph and an average lap time of 1:25.005.

“I rode as hard as we could the whole race and didn’t make any mistakes and had a quicker pace than (Saturday), but so did he,” Spies said. “So it was kind of the same story.”

Mladin was the first bike heading into Turn 1 before Hayden took the lead, which he held for the first lap. Mladin took off the second time around, however, and his lead grew to nearly 11½ seconds by Lap 23.

Eric Bostrom of the Yamaha factory team placed fourth, finishing more than 40 second behind Mladin and about nine second back of Hayden. American Honda’s Miguel Duhamel was fifth and Monster Energy Kawasaki’s Jamie Hacking was sixth.

Neil Hodgson, Geoff May, Jason DiSalvo and Matt Lynn rounded out the top 10.

Red Bull AMA U.S. Rookies Cup race

Hayden Gillim, who had surgery this week after suffering a broken collarbone, captured his second win on the Red Bull AMA U.S. Rookies Cup circuit. Gillim finished 0.091 seconds faster than second-place Benny Solis.

The race was red-flagged after a crash on Lap 1. Toriano Wilson wiped out on Turn 6 and suffered what may be life-threatening injuries.  Luciano Ribodino and Garet Tomlinson were also involved.

Wilson was transported to UNC Medical Center in Chapel Hill, N.C., and Ribodino was transported to Duke Medical Center in Durham, N.C., according to a joint release by Virginia International Raceway and the American Motorcyclist Association. Tomlinson was not seriously injured.

The 11-lap race resumed following Superbike action.

AMA Superstock Series race

Aaron Yates of Jordan Suzuki started on the pole and captured the victory by a margin of 9.882 seconds.

Yates relinquished the lead to teammate Geoff May on Lap 3 before reclaiming the top spot on Lap 12 to take the checkered flag. His average speed was 50.3 mph and average lap time was 2:41.824.

May finished fifth, more than 26 seconds behind Yates. Jake Holden, Chris Peris and Blake Young finished second through fourth.

AMA Supersport Series race

Erion Honda’s Joshua Hayes started on the pole and led all 17 laps, taking the victory by 5.781 seconds.

His average speed was 93.4 mph and average lap time was 1:27.136.

Graves Yamaha teammates Ben Bostrom and Josh Herrin placed second and third, while Blake Young and Jake Zemke rounded out the top five.