Mat Mladin (No. 1 Rockstar/Makita Yoshimura Suzuki GSX-R1000) won his eighth AMA Pro Road Racing pole of the season and will end his AMA Pro National Guard American Superbike presented by Parts Unlimited career with a record 63 pole positions after earning the top Superpole qualifying spot Friday at the AMA Pro Superbike Championships at New Jersey Motorsports Park (NJMP). Mladin, who announced his retirement last month, will start on the pole for both of this weekend’s dual finals, which will be the final American Superbike races of his career.

“I thought we had a little bit more in it but we ended up getting the pole today, so that was good,” said Mladin, who turned a top lap time of 1:21.558 (97.109 mph). “I definitely won’t place a career of winning on this weekend, whether it’s a good or bad result. Anytime you want to race, and you want to race hard, there are always places to pass whether you have to move people out of the way or not. We’ll see how we go tomorrow.”

Josh Hayes (No. 4 Yamaha Motor Corp. USA Yamaha R1), who won his second Superpole of the season one race ago at Virginia International Raceway (VIR), was second fastest Friday with a lap at 1:21.872 (96.736 mph).

“I think the track has a really fun layout, it’s actually a lot of fun to get around,” said Hayes, who swept both VIR races. “It feels a little small on a Superbike, I think the 600 would be really fun to get around here on. With a Superbike, it’s a lot of work but it’s challenging, which is always fun. I think I have a good bike to be on around here.”

Aaron Yates (No. 23 Brand Jordan Suzuki GSX-R1000) continued his recent strong Superpole runs and was third fastest to join Mladin as Suzuki riders in the top four. Yates lapped at 1:22.069 (96.505 mph).

“It’s different, a new place for us,” Yates said. “Anytime we go somewhere new, it’s exciting, it’s a challenge. The place is a bit of work, a lot of direction change. You spend so much time on each side of the bike around those couple of corners back there that you kind of get tired of hanging off the thing. It’s the same for everybody; it’s going to be a long race. We’re working hard to get the Jordan Suzuki going and I think it’s coming around pretty good.”

Yamaha also put a pair of bikes on the front row with Hayes’ teammate Ben Bostrom (No. 2 Yamaha Motor Corp. USA Yamaha R1) locking down the fourth and final spot with a lap time of 1:22.076 (96.496 mph).

“The track is awesome,” Bostrom said. “Everyone’s times are very tight. I can’t complain, I haven’t been that good in Superpole all year. The bike’s great, I have a really good race bike and I think it should be on for Saturday and Sunday. Expect really close racing with everybody. We haven’t won one so we can do our best.”

Mladin’s teammate Tommy Hayden (No. 22 Rockstar/Makita Yoshimura Suzuki GSX-R1000) rounded out the top five while two riders making their American Superbike debuts were competitive enough to make the 10 rider Superpole cut. Cory West (No. 53 Erik Buell Racing Buell 1125RR) qualified eighth while fellow American Superbike rookie Damian Cudlin (No. 8 Celtic Racing Suzuki GSX-R1000) was 10th.

Saturday’s American Superbike final is scheduled to start at 3 p.m. ET for 23 laps/50 miles and can be seen in same-day coverage on SPEED that night at 7:30 p.m. ET.

Daytona SportBike Super Six for DiSalvo

In AMA Pro Daytona SportBike presented by AMSOIL, Jason DiSalvo (No. 40 Team M4 Suzuki GSX-R600) won a class-leading sixth Superpole of the season with a top lap of 1:23.840 (94.466 mph). He is one of three riders in Friday’s Daytona SportBike Superpole top four looking for their first wins of the year in this weekend’s season-ending pair of races.

“I think it’s going to be a really, really tight race,” DiSalvo said. “The lap times have been super tight all weekend. It’s just kind of blowing me away having 16 guys within a second of each other. We just have to do a little more work to the bike tomorrow morning. Our settings are really, really good. We got a lot of work done yesterday during the practice. I’m sure it’ll be a good race. We’ll try to lead off the start and see if we can’t stay in the lead for 21, 22 laps.”

Tommy Aquino (No. 6 Team Graves Yamaha YZF-R6) will share the two-rider front row with DiSalvo after his best qualifying effort of the year. Aquino turned a lap of 1:24.013 (94.271 mph).

“I’m pretty happy,” Aquino said. “This is my best qualifying yet, and it should be really good for the race. A win is always the goal for this season. This is my first season, so we’re just going for race wins, to see what we can do and figure stuff out for next year. A race win would be really awesome.”

Aquino’s teammate Josh Herrin (No. 8 Team Graves Yamaha YZF-R6) was third fastest at 1:24.118 (94.154 mph) and is the only rider in the top four who has scored a race win this season.

“I want to end the season well,” said Herrin, who swept the most recent weekend of racing at VIR. “The last four or five rounds have been going our way. We did better in qualifying than we have in the last couple of rounds. Everything is going well; we just have to run a smooth race and put the Yamaha back on top of the box again. The track is awesome, I couldn’t complain about anything and I’ve been having a lot of fun this weekend. I can’t wait to come back next year.”

Chaz Davies (No. 57 Factory Aprilia /Millennium Technologies Team Aprilia RSV1000R) turned in a solid qualifying effort with the fourth fastest lap of the Superpole session at 1:24.189 (94.074 mph).

“We rolled out yesterday with the same settings as what we tested with,” Davies said. “It felt weird straight away so we’ve been playing catch up today, trying to get back to the same sort of feeling that we had at the test. It was good, an okay lap. It’s working well and I think, like Jason said, the lap times are close with everybody. It’s going to be a real good dogfight. I’m looking forward to it.”

Jake Zemke (No. 1x Erion Racing Honda CBR600RR) rounded out the Daytona SportBike Superpole top five.

In other Daytona SportBike developments, this weekend’s anticipated championship showdown between Danny Eslick (No. 9 GEICO Powersports/RMR Buell 1125R) and Martin Cardenas (No. 36 Team M4 Suzuki GSX-R600) will not happen. The Colombian rider withdrew from the New Jersey round due to a compound fracture of his right hand sustained three weeks ago in Friday practice for the Suzuki Big Kahuna Nationals at Virginia International Raceway.

“I had surgery 15 days ago but the scar is coming apart in one section and it’s beginning to be too painful,” said Cardenas, who participated in Friday morning’s practice session. “I am worried about infection so I think the better thing to do is to stop for this weekend and heal up properly for next year. It was a very good season. Unfortunately I made a mistake, a very stupid mistake, at VIR and I got this injury. The year didn’t finish the way I wanted it to but things are like that. Hopefully next season will be no problem.”

Eslick also had a tough day and missed the Superpole session after running 13th in group qualifying. He can improve in tomorrow’s final qualifying session but can start no higher than 11th behind today’s 10 Superpole qualifiers. With Cardenas out of the running, however, all Eslick needs to do is basically record a pair of solid finishes in each of this weekend’s Daytona SportBike races to leave New Jersey with the title.

Cardenas’ withdrawal leaves Herrin as Eslick’s only remaining championship challenger. Herrin is third in the championship but will need nothing short of another dominating weekend coupled with a pair of bad results by Eslick to have any chance at taking the Daytona SportBike championship.

“We’re just going to go into it like we did at VIR, not even think about the championship, and just go for those race wins,” Herrin said.

Saturday’s Daytona SportBike final is scheduled to start at 4:10 p.m. ET for 23 laps/50 miles and can be seen in same-day coverage on SPEED that night at 7:30 p.m. ET.

SunTrust Moto-GT and SuperSport

The No. 13 Westby Racing Yamaha YZF-R6 of Dane Westby and Dustin Meador continued to roll in AMA Pro SunTrust Moto-GT, winning the overall and GT1 class pole for Saturday’s two-hour race. The Westby team won in its debut at Mid-Ohio, was victorious again one race later in Topeka and was leading at VIR when mechanical problems set in. The No. 13 will share the front row with GT1 championship leading No. 14 Crozier Motorsports Triumph Daytona 675 of Mark Crozier and Scott Jensen. The No. 13 won the pole with a lap time of 1:26.257 (91.819 mph), while the No. 14 turned a top lap of 1:26.927 (91.111 mph).

“We’ve missed pole before so it’s nice to start at the front,” Westby said. “I’ve never been here, except for the test. I think it’s a really nice facility. I hope they get a great crowd because this place is super nice.”

In GT2, the class-leading No. 77 Touring Sport Ducshop Ducati PS1000LE of Frank Shockley and Huntley Nash continued the team’s near-perfect season and moved one step closer to leaving New Jersey with the class championship. Only an unlikely finish out of the points in tomorrow’s race will prevent the No. 77 squad from wrapping up the title in New Jersey.

“This team has been doing a great job with everything,” said Nash, who turned the No. 77’s quick lap of 1:30.012 (87.989 mph). “The bikes are really good and we have been doing good in the pit stops. Frank’s times are pretty close to me and hopefully we can come home with a win tomorrow.”

The No. 77 team now has a 45 point advantage over nearest challengers Jay Springsteen and Scott Ryan and the No. 9 Pair-A-Nines Kawasaki EX650 team, which qualified second at 1:31.418 (86.635 mph)

In AMA Pro SuperSport presented by Shoei, recently crowned East division championship Josh Day (No. 4 Team E.S.P. Yamaha YZF-R6) set the pace in Friday’s opening practice. Day lapped at 1:24.666 (93.544 mph). Sunday’s only SuperSport race of the weekend will start at 3:10 p.m. for 19 laps/40 miles with qualifying scheduled for tomorrow.

“The bike is definitely getting a lot better than we started out with at the beginning of the weekend,” Day said. “We were chasing everybody else in the first session, but it’s really good now. The whole team has been working really hard to get the bike how I want it to work for me. It’s definitely paid off in the long run. The way the times look right now, it looks like it’s going to be a really tough race, but we should be good to go.”

Mat Mladin (No. 7 Rockstar/Makita Yoshimura Suzuki GSX-R1000) clinched a record-extending seventh AMA Pro National Guard American Superbike presented by Parts Unlimited championship Sunday at Virginia International Raceway (VIR) where Yamaha riders Josh Hayes (No. 4 Yamaha Motor Corp. USA Yamaha R1) and Josh Herrin (No. 8 Team Graves Yamaha YZF-R6) each earned the title of Big Kahuna for sweeping the weekend’s races.

Hayes led every lap from the Superpole in both yesterday’s race and the Sunday American Superbike final while Herrin raced from fifth on the grid to first in both AMA Pro Daytona SportBike presented by AMSOIL races. The near-perfect performance was Yamaha’s first AMA Pro Road Racing double-class sweep in history.

“All of these guys have been riding great this weekend,” said Hayes, who also swept the Mid-Ohio weekend two races ago. “Today’s race was considerably faster than yesterday. Everybody was just riding good and the R1 was definitely the bike to have this weekend.  Congratulations to these guys. Congratulations to Mat, he’s a deserving champion. He’s won all of these races, he deserves it and I hate that he’s going away because he’s definitely someone that we learn from on the race track. Congratulations to him.”

Hayes raced after his wife and fellow competitor Melissa Paris (No. 13 MarkBilt Yamaha YZF-R6) suffered a tibia/fibula fracture of her right leg in a multi-rider incident at the start of the Daytona SportBike race two hours before the American Superbike final. Paris was transported to Danville Regional Medical Center (DRMC) for treatment while Hayes prepared to race.

“That’s never easy and no one likes seeing someone they love get hurt,” said Hayes, who saw his wife right after the incident at the VIR Medical Center. “Melissa’s a racer and she’s tough too. When I saw her in the medical center she hadn’t shed a tear yet. She’s tough, you know. When I got into this I knew part of being a motorcycle racer is sometimes you fall down, you break bones, things like that happen. Had she hit her head, something like that, it might have been a tougher story today. A broken leg is terrible, but it’s part of this sport. As soon as we’re done here I’m going to go check on my wife and see what we’ve got to do to make her comfortable. Had I not won today, it would have been really tough to show my face to her again after yesterday and I’m really glad I could do this, and do it for her.”

Mladin beat Hayes into Turn 1 at the race start, but the Yamaha rider retook the lead in the same turn one lap later and steadily pulled away from the field. Hayes crossed the finish line 6.830 seconds ahead of Tommy Hayden (No. 22 Rockstar/Makita Yoshimura Suzuki GSX-R1000). Hayes’ teammate Ben Bostrom (No. 2 Yamaha Motor Corp. USA Yamaha R1) charged through the field from 12th on the starting grid to take the final podium spot for the second consecutive day.

Hayes now has five American Superbike wins this season, second only to 10 victories by Mladin, who sealed the championship with a steady run to ninth place on Sunday. Mladin’s American Superbike title is his first since 2005 and his other championships came in 2004, 2003, 2001, 2000 and 1999.

“It’s nice to get it done and tie it up,” said Mladin, who recently announced he will retire at the end of this year. “That’s about it really, we’ve done a lot of hard work at the start of the year and then, the last couple of months, been going through the motions. These guys will battle it out from now on and into the future. It’s been a great career and I’m really looking forward to being able to go for a run every day because I want to, not because I have to.”

Mladin’s No. 7 Rockstar/Makita Yoshimura Suzuki GSX-R1000 team also clinched the 2009 American Superbike Team Championship.

“These guys are fantastic,” Mladin said. “It’s been a pretty amazing run. We’ve obviously won a lot of championships as a team over the last 10 years. It’s been pretty amazing from the first one in 1999 all the way through to this year, with Ben (Spies) winning a few, three in the last few years. It’s hard to believe that that many will ever be won in 10 years again by one manufacturer. It’s been nice to be part of it and part of building it. It’s been good fun.”

Hayden, the only rider still alive in the championship heading into Sunday’s race, had a great battle with Bostrom for second place.

“I knew someone was right there and then I could start hearing Ben when he closed up on me,” said Hayden, who has finished in the top three in half of this year’s 18 races. “He got by and I was following him for a few laps. I thought I could get back by him and maybe I could run a better pace the last five or six laps and it kinda worked out. I was able to get by, stepped it up a little bit and got through traffic good. Then I was pretty smooth after that. Congratulations to Josh on an awesome weekend, Ben pushed the whole way, and definitely to Mat. What an awesome career. He’s been a great teammate, I’ve learned a lot.”

Bostrom’s third-place showing was his eighth top-three finish of the year.

“I didn’t think I had much for Josh today, he was really, really unstoppable this weekend,” Bostrom said. “Mat and Josh are pretty incredible here, and Tommy’s had a lot of wins as well. I did enjoy the race actually, it was pretty hairball at the first turn. The Yamaha was great, it went through the guys and by the time I got back up to second I had either used up myself or my tire. I don’t usually get to race Tommy, that was enjoyable. Josh set sail. Mat was chillin out, like ‘I’ve got this thing worked out and I’ve won the war.’ The worst thing about it is losing Mat Mladin, he’s the greatest champion we’ve had in this sport and the benchmark for every one of us. It’s the reason I’m riding this class, this year, I came to race him.”

Larry Pegram (No. 72 Foremost Insurance/Pegram Racing Ducati 1098R), who is the year’s only other race winner, finished fourth. Aaron Yates (No. 23 Brand Jordan Suzuki GSX-R1000) rounded out the top five.

Although Mladin has clinched the American Superbike championship with his current total of 427 points, the remainder of the top five are close heading into the season-ending race at New Jersey Motorsports Park on Labor Day weekend. Hayden is second with 348 points, Hayes has jumped to third with 344 markers, Bostrom is fourth with 315 points and Pegram is a close fifth with 313 points.

Daytona SportBike Double

Herrin went two-for-two after another AMA Pro Daytona SportBike presented by AMSOIL thriller and withstood a late charge from a resurgent Danny Eslick (No. 9 GEICO Powersports/RMR Buell 1125R), who crossed the finish line 1.874 seconds behind the winner.  Herrin’s teammate Tommy Aquino (No. 6 Team Graves Yamaha YZF-R6) rebounded from a spill in yesterday’s final to finish third.

“That was a real fun race,” Herrin said.  “As soon as I heard the Buell coming I just tried to hold him off for a couple more laps so I could run away.  It ended up working out exactly how I wanted to.  My pit board said there were three laps left, and there were four laps left, so I actually had to make an extra lap.  It was a really good race, everybody rode a good race, it was clean and lots of fun.”

After an uneventful ride to seventh place yesterday, Eslick returned to form on Sunday and charged to the front from 12th on the grid. On Lap 19 alone he moved from fifth to second, taking the final spot in a daring move by Herrin in the dirt.  Herrin took the spot back later in the lap but both riders were battling for first place the lap after that when leader Roger Hayden (No. 95 Monster Energy Attack Kawasaki Ninja ZX-6R) over shot a corner.

“I guess I forgot about the championship for awhile, I don’t know,” Eslick said.  “I didn’t really think about it too much, just tried to ride a good, hard race and go forward.  We made some changes overnight to the bike, nothing real major.  We knew it wasn’t anything real big that was holding us back, just made some adjustments on the shock and changed the gearing a little bit.  Just those two small things made all the difference.  We were able to run the pace there at the beginning or at least stay consistent and not let the guys get too far away, just run good laps.  I knew I had something going I just didn’t know I was going to be that strong at the end.”

Aquino, who has hit the podium at least once per weekend in the last three events, had high praise for his Team Graves Yamaha crew that worked on his bike until the early morning hours last night.

“My team did such a great job,” Aquino said. “They put a lot of work in.  I did buy a big Band-Aid magnet at the store to bring some humor to it.  They made the bike to almost perfectly how it was yesterday.  I felt really good yesterday, just where I was today.  The race was crazy.  I was at the back, at the front.  The race was just really hard, it was hot out there.”

Pole-sitter Taylor Knapp (No. 54 Latus Motors Racing Buell 1125R) also recovered from a Saturday lowside to finish fourth while Hayden, who led a race-high 14 laps, completed the top five.  Knapp led the opening lap of the race and the only other leader was Jake Zemke (No. 1x Erion Racing Honda CBR600RR), who ended up seventh after running up front for three laps.

Martin Cardenas (No. 36 Team M4 Suzuki GSX-R600) finished 11th as he struggled with a broken right hand sustained in Friday’s practice session. That result and a ninth place finish in Saturday’s Daytona SportBike final has seen him lose 17 points to championship leader Eslick after coming into the race tied at the top of the standings.  Eslick now has 357 points, Cardenas has 340 markers and Herrin further improved in third with 321 points.

Sunday’s race was red flagged and completely restarted after an opening lap incident in Turn 1 that saw riders Paris and Brent Lyskawa transported to DRMC.  Lyskawa’s precautionary CT scan was negative.

Later in the Daytona SportBike race, Jason DiSalvo (No. 40 Team M4 Suzuki GSX-R600) was treated at the track medical facility after his right knee hit a curb at speed while running third.  DiSalvo rode his bike off course and retired after the incident.  He was examined and released by the VIR Medical Staff after X-Rays were negative.  DiSalvo has a deep bruise on his right knee.

Sunday’s action from the Big Kahuna will air in a two-hour show on SPEED tonight at Midnight ET (9 p.m. PT).

SuperSport Title Day

In Sunday’s AMA Pro SuperSport presented by Shoei final, Josh Day (No. 4 Team E.S.P. Yamaha YZF-R6) continued his recent hot streak straight to the East Division championship with his third consecutive victory.  Day turned in another dominating ride from the pole and led J.D. Beach (No. 73 Rockwall Performance/Red Bull Yamaha YZF-R6) across the finish line by 9.881 seconds.  Day clinched the SuperSport East title one race before the season-ending event in New Jersey.

“We’ve really got good momentum going so far, these past three races have really been good for us,” said Day, who also won at Mid-Ohio and Topeka.  “I’m so glad we’ve been up front, running and winning races so far at the end of the season.  I wish we could have done it at the beginning but we also have the East Championship wrapped up, so I’m pretty excited about that.  I’ll be ready for New Jersey at the end.”

Beach came out on top of a great battle with Garrett Carter (No. 31 Ridersdiscount.com/Woodcraft Yamaha YZF-R6) who finished third.

“Me and Garrett had a great battle,” Beach said. “We battled before at Mid-Ohio, so I knew he was good and smooth. With two laps to go, or one lap to go, he got ahead of me.  I knew all weekend I’ve been coming out of the last turn good so I just tried to get a good drive.  I ended up getting it and just getting by him.”

Carter, who won earlier this year at Barber Motorsports Park, gave the competition in SuperSport high marks.

“I tried to get the best drive I could, but J.D. got me on the line,” Carter said.  “Congratulations to Josh for winning the championship.  He’s riding amazing, can’t even stop him, I don’t even know what to do.  Hopefully we’ll go to New Jersey and give Josh a run and J.D. and everyone else.  It hasn’t just been one rider up front the whole time.  It’s really been great competition out there, three or four riders out at the front is really fun to race with.”

Day’s current total of 158 points is out of reach of the competition.  Russ Wikle (No. 5 Roadracingworld.com Suzuki GSX-R600), who finished 10th Sunday, is second with 90 points and Beach has moved to third with 86 markers.

Leandro Mercado (No. 92 Monster Energy Attack Kawasaki Ninja ZX-6R) was Day’s distant but closest challenger coming into the VIR weekend, but his title chances went away when he lowsided while chasing Day in second place.  Mercado was uninjured but fell from second to fourth in the championship standings with 81 points.

Joey Pascarella (No. 25 LTD Racing Yamaha YZF-R6), who was also unhurt in a Lap 1 lowside, is fifth in the standings with 78 points.  Just after Pascarella’s incident, Cory Rech (No.7 AB1 Motorsports Suzuki GSX-R600) crashed and the race was red flagged and restarted.  Rech, who was part of the winning GT2 team in yesterday’s SunTrust Moto-GT race, was transported directly to DRMC for a fracture of his right femur after the incident.

Rockstar Makita Suzuki’s Mladin Wins Unprecedented 7th Superbike Championship

Rockstar Makita Suzuki’s Mat Mladin won his seventh AMA Superbike Championship with two races remaining in the series at Virginia International Raceway (VIR) in Alton, Virginia, on Sunday afternoon. Mladin finished second in Saturday’s race and then clinched the title when he finished ninth in Sunday’s race at the double-header Superbike weekend. Mladin’s career with Suzuki has spanned 13 racing seasons and in that time the Australian’s record-setting ways have been remarkable. With Suzuki, Mladin now has an unprecedented seven AMA Superbike championships and an astounding 78 AMA Superbike wins. Additionally, Mladin has a record number of career pole positions with 62 and he is also the only rider to take every pole position in a single season – 10 out of 10 in 2005. Finally, he also holds the record for being the rider with the most AMA Superbike wins in a single season – 12 victories in 2007. With plans to retire at the end of this year, Mladin and Suzuki have truly been formidable.

Rockstar Makita Suzuki teammate Tommy Hayden fared very well at VIR. The Kentucky rider finished fifth in Saturday’s race and then improved upon that significantly on Sunday by bringing home a second-place finish. This result is Hayden’s ninth AMA Superbike podium finish of the season. Rockstar Makita Suzuki’s Blake Young struggled a bit, finishing sixth on Saturday and seventh on Sunday. Even so, the rookie Superbike rider ran with the frontrunners during both races.

Mat Mladin:
“It’s nice to get the championship done and all wrapped up… My Rockstar Makita Suzuki guys are fantastic and it’s been a pretty amazing run. We’ve won a lot of championships as a team and over the last 10 years it’s been pretty amazing from the first one I won in 1999 all the way through to this year. What with Ben (Spies) winning three over the last few years, it’s hard to believe that there will be that many championships won in a 10-year span again by one manufacturer. It’s been nice to be a part of it and it’s been fun building it.”

Tommy Hayden:
“Definitely today was a lot better for me. I got a lot better start on the Rockstar Makita Suzuki GSX-R1000 and I put myself in a lot better position. Also, my crew did a great job overnight and that’s when the biggest improvement we made all year happened, from Saturday to Sunday. So my hat’s off to them – they definitely gave me a bike that I was a lot more comfortable on today and I could push and ride it the way I wanted to. Also, congratulations to Mat – he’s had an awesome career and he’s been a great teammate, I’ve learned a lot. I have big shoes to fill now with him gone but I’m looking forward to it. Hopefully, I can keep up the standards that he’s set over the last few years.”

Blake Young:
“It was a good weekend for us in that we learned a lot. I think that we have the potential to run up front but we missed the set-up a little bit this weekend. But sometimes that’s how it goes and we’ll try to take what we learned this weekend and apply it to the last two races at New Jersey.”

Rockstar Makita Suzuki Factory Racing will race next at New Jersey Motorsports Park in Millville, New Jersey, the weekend of September 4-6, 2009.

AMA Superbike Top 10 Finishers:
1.      Josh Hayes, Yamaha

2.      Tommy Hayden, Rockstar Makita Suzuki Factory Racing

3.      Ben Bostrom, Yamaha

4.      Larry Pegram, Ducati

5.      Aaron Yates, Jordan Suzuki

6.      Taylor Knapp, Suzuki

7.      Blake Young, Rockstar Makita Suzuki Factory Racing

8.      Neil Hodgson, Honda

9.      Mat Mladin, Rockstar Makita Suzuki Factory Racing

10.   Jake Holden, Honda

AMA Superbike Points Standings:
1.      Mat Mladin, Rockstar Makita Suzuki Factory Racing

2.      Tommy Hayden, Rockstar Makita Suzuki Factory Racing

3.      Josh Hayes, Yamaha

4.      Ben Bostrom, Yamaha

5.      Larry Pegram, Ducati

6.      Blake Young, Rockstar Makita Suzuki Factory Racing

7.      Aaron Yates, Jordan Suzuki

8.      Geoff May, National Guard Jordan Suzuki

9.      Taylor Knapp, Suzuki

10.   Jake Holden, Honda

Due to safety concerns I will not compete in this weekend’s round of the AMA Superbike championship in Topeka.

It is important to note that Topeka is a newly sanctioned round on the championship schedule. It is also important to note that Topeka has made changes to the track, but unfortunately, as is the case too many times, the track approval process was flawed and we arrived at a facility that was not ready for our caliber of competition.

This is 2009, and the days of showing up to race tracks that we know nothing about and have not been allowed to test at because of the AMA/DMG new rules regarding our testing are raising serious safety issues.

We race 200hp motorcycles where with constant development, the brakes, the tires, the chassis, the engines and the complete package as a whole gets faster every year. With this development the corner speeds and straight line speeds get faster and faster. With these extra speeds the margin of safety gets much smaller if the racetracks are not made safer.

We go to a few venues that still have some safety issues, but many of these venues have made vast improvements over the past few years. Sanctioning new venues with numerous safety flaws is just plain ridiculous.

Why do people have to get hurt seriously or worse before a racetrack is made safe before adding it to our National Championship schedule?

The adage of “they are going to make changes” doesn’t cut it after someone has hit a concrete wall.

With acceptance of these new venues with obvious safety flaws, the bar has been dropped in regards to safety, opening the door to many other circuits that are not acceptable or fit for racing modern day motorcycles.

I will never accept the lowering of safety standards for the sake of a few people making money. It is the young kids, the future of the sport that will bear the brunt of the worst of this. One day, the teams and riders need to come together for the well being of each other.

Last but not least, I thank my fans for their continual support over the years. Without you, none of this racing is possible, and I’m very upset about not having a safe platform to put on a show for you guys this weekend, but I also know that none of you want to see me busted up in the bottom of a concrete wall or ten foot deep ditch. I look forward to seeing you all at VIR in two weeks.

Regards
Mat

It’s funny how sometimes we all get stuck in the endless loop of trying to prove a negative. It could just be me but the recent push to humanize Matt Mladin may or may not be working as intended. Some of us might have been fine with the rider shredding machine that is Matt. Around the pits I’ve heard terms like ‘the real deal’ and ‘the riders rider.’ I guess it’s true what they say ‘it’s lonely at the top.’ This video was put out by Yosh, it’s a very well done interview with Matt.

Once again the OTT crew has done a yeoman’s job of drawing Matt Mladin into conversation (not the easiest task.) There’s obviously some chemistry developing between Matt and Dave (OTT) and i think it’s really good for the whole sport. For whatever reason Matt has not exactly been ‘media friendly’ historical. I’m not criticizing Matt or the Media, my take is that it just hasn’t worked out. Again in my opinion but based on my own experience being competitive and being a prick are difficult to discern sometimes and often it seems that people jump to the wrong conclusion. Matt may well be a prick at times but he’s a good guy too, we all are. It’s nice to see the good side, everyone can learn a lot from him, racer or not. There are few people around that are as committed and single minded as he.

Make sure to check out all the awesome vids from OTT

A little Mladin from the boys at OTT; Coverage from the AMA Pro Racing official test at Infineon.

For your viewing pleasure the boys at OnTheTrottle shot a whole bunch of Matt Mladin stuff at Road Atlanta. I’m not sure if they set out to do the Mladin exclusive but if the intent is to cover the winner of the Superbike races in AMA this year it looks like it might be a year long Mladin exclusive. Quick point of interest, in the third video Dave (OTT) talks about the difference between the brake marker that Matt is using compered to the rest of the field. We also noticed that in the race at corner three Matt used a different technique than everyone else. Instead of throwing his body from side to side at the fast little change of direction that sets up corner three he just flicked the bike in a sort of motocross style. He sat on top the bike and carried speed way further than everyone else, he looked twice as fast.