The Pirelli/WERA Sportsman Series moves into Road Atlanta this weekend with a track day practice run by WERA Motorcycle Roadracing on Friday the 26^th and WERA Vintage and Solo races on Saturday and the Pirelli/WERA Sportsman Sprints on Sunday.  Tickets are available at the gates for $30.00 for three-day; $20.00 for two-day; and $15.00 for Sunday only.  Camping is available and kids under 12 are free!  Come on out and see the WERA riders tackle the challenges of Road Atlanta this weekend.  – WERA

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.

We shot over 3,400 photos, pics and/or images this year at the AMA Pro event at Road Atlanta, here’s a few that we kind of liked. We’ll be adding more to our dialog and to the Gallery as time allows. If you took part in this event it’s more than likely we have some shots of you, Enjoy!

Suzuki Celebrates 50th Consecutive Superbike Win at Road Atlanta with Triple Podium. Rockstar Makita Suzuki’s Mladin, Hayden take first & second, with National Guard Jordan Suzuki’s May in third in Round 3 of the AMA Superbike Series.

Race I – Road Atlanta – April 3 -5, 2009

Rockstar Makita Suzuki’s Mat Mladin led the way for Suzuki’s 50th consecutive AMA Superbike victory when the six-time champion won his own 76th career AMA Superbike win at Road Atlanta in Braselton, Georgia, on Saturday afternoon. Mladin started from pole position – his 58th such feat in
his career – and led all 20 laps of the race. Rockstar Makita Suzuki’s Tommy Hayden followed his teammate home in second place, while National Guard Jordan Suzuki’s Geoff May rounded out the all-Suzuki podium with a third-place finish. Finally, Rockstar Makita Suzuki’s rookie Blake Young got a good start in the premier event and ran in second position for the first several laps before finishing an impressive fourth.

Mat Mladin:
“What do you say about 50 wins in a row? The Rockstar Makita Yoshimura Suzuki team is just unbelievable. For the last few years, we’ve been at the front of all the races, and I have to thank all our guys because we
have an amazing team… Today at Road Atlanta was a good race for us. I got a good start and we’ve gotten the Rockstar Makita Suzuki GSX-R1000 to a point where I feel good about pushing it. We had a small problem yesterday and we fixed it but actually it didn’t work as well today, so maybe we need to go back to having that small problem again. Hopefully we can take care of that, and I can get through the turns a bit quicker and get another win tomorrow.”

Tommy Hayden:
“I knew today’s race was going to be tough because I was starting from the second row, but fortunately I got a good start on the Rockstar Makita Suzuki GSX-R1000… But everybody was riding pretty decent and I had a little trouble getting through the field but I finally made it and I just tried to keep my head down and keep the pressure on. But it feels good to be up on the podium again with these other Suzuki’s. Hopefully we can go back and learn something tonight and get a win tomorrow.”

Geoff May:
“I realized at Fontana that some of the guys toward the back of the pack aren’t as fit and they tend to fall off the pace toward the end of the race. So I just tried to stay patient and when I saw somebody make a mistake, I just picked them off and worked through the field. I just kept pushing hard and then I saw Tommy getting away, so I tried to run him down. I wasn’t sure if I’d get him at the line but I just tried to go as hard as I could.”

Blake Young:
“It was my first time starting from the front row and I almost pulled off the holeshot but Mat went a little deeper into the turn. So I ran second for a few laps and tried to set my own pace on the Rockstar Makita Suzuki GSX-R1000, but Tommy was going a little faster than I was. But we learned a
lot today and I think that tomorrow we’ll come back with a better set-up bike.”

AMA Superbike Series, Race II – Road Atlanta – April 3 -5, 2009

Suzuki followed up Saturday’s all-Suzuki podium sweep with another such feat on Sunday afternoon in the second of two AMA Superbike races at the Suzuki Superbike Showdown at Road Atlanta in Braselton, Georgia. Rockstar Makita Suzuki’s Mat Mladin again got a great start on his GSX-R1000 and
led all the laps to take the win, which means the six-time AMA Superbike Champion celebrated his 77th career AMA Superbike victory. Rockstar Makita Suzuki teammate Blake Young followed Mladin home for a second-place result. This is Superbike rookie Young’s best result so far in the premier class.
Rounding out the second all-Suzuki podium of the weekend was National Guard Jordan Suzuki’s Geoff May, thanks to an impressive third-place finish. Finally, Rockstar Makita Suzuki’s Tommy Hayden followed his fellow Suzuki teammates home in sixth position.

Mat Mladin:
“I had a bit of a tumble in practice this morning and, as usual, my Rockstar Makita Suzuki team got the bike together for me and ready for the race. It was a good race for us, we had a bit of a crack at it and put in some good laps. Around lap 10 or 11, I was trying to figure out whether I should keep pushing it, but my boys get a bit nervous when I do that. I figured I’d pushed my luck today enough already so I just decided to have a bit of fun at the end of the race.”

Blake Young:
“I got a good start on the Rockstar Makita Suzuki GSX-R1000 and after a few laps, Geoff (May) came by with some good pace. I definitely jumped in and tried to see where he was a little bit better than me. I’ve got to give a ‘heads up’ to my guys for giving me the best motorcycle I’ve had all weekend long. We never took a step back at all this weekend, everything was going forward.”

Geoff May:
“Today my start was a little worse than yesterday. I was worried I was going to get run over and just end my day right there. I just put my head down again and we really had the National Guard Jordan Suzuki GSX-R1000 set up for the end of the race and we really worked hard on giving it a little extra at the end of the race.”

Tommy Hayden:
“I didn’t get the best of starts and I was a little far back and started working my way through the field. But I had an issue where I ran off the track and I lost a couple of positions and a little time. I was able to run the pack back down, but I just struggled passing today. I could run the pace pretty easy but I was having trouble being aggressive and passing. It’s a bummer because the results weren’t great but it could’ve been worse. We’re still second in points and we’re going to Barber next, and that’s one of my
favorite tracks.”

Rockstar Makita Suzuki Factory Racing will race next at Barber Motorsports Park in Birmingham, Alabama, on the weekend of May 2-4, 2009.

Corona Extra Honda Racing’s Jake Holden took a best ninth on the Corona Honda CBR1000RR Superbike at this weekend’s event at Road Atlanta. He placed tenth in the other Superbike race.

Jake struggled getting the bike set up for the tricky Road Atlanta track and commented: “I am having a hard time getting the gearing right. Last year we just used five gears but are trying all six now. It’s upsetting the bike when I drop into first!” Jake qualified on the third row in eleventh, disappointed he was unable to get the bike set up to his liking with the very limited practice time.

Race one was run on a lovely sunny day. Jake got a fair start getting up to 9th after lap one. He settled into the position but was always struggling with the same gearing issue from earlier practice and qualifying. He lost the position on lap three and a little later lost touch with tenth and settled for a lonely eleventh for most of the balance of the race. He moved up a position through a mechanical problem for another rider by the flag! Afterwards Jake said; “I just couldn’t get comfortable with the gearbox and decided to play it safe!”

The crew made a number of changes for race two trying to address the gearing issue. Morning practice saw Jake a full second faster than the day before so there was hope that the changes could be successful for the race. With dark rain clouds looming and intermittent sprinkles the race got underway with Jake in 10th after lap one. Unfortunately though Jake was running faster than on day one and was able to stay with the lead pack but could not make a dent in the group. Eventually he was able to pass the Ducati of Pegram, taking ninth, and then close on Bostrom for eighth but ran out of time so settled for ninth at the flag. Jake said: “I thought we might have sorted stuff out but I just couldn’t make it up on the guys in front. I could see where I was losing out. My times were close but I was on the edge and didn’t want to throw it away!”

In its ‘Race to the Lime’ Corona Extra Honda Racing is proud to be partnering with; Parts Unlimited, Cycle Gear, Pro Honda Oils, AGV, FMF, Autolite, Hotbodies Racing, K&N, Motion Pro, Vortex, Dainese, GPR, Ogio, CR&A, RK, Dunlop, Powerstands, Bellco, Adran, K&L, HRC, Acme Garage, Vicci, Fluid Designs, EBSCO Media, MTS.

Overwhelming… there really is too much to talk about. The weekend all told was a success for almost everyone. It’s a travel day for us so I’m going to try to quickly touch on the high points. We’ll be putting the full stories and images together for some time.

Off the top of my head the Josh Day story comes to mind. This kid is racing in the newly formed Supersport class AKA the young guns class. He’s been one of the fastest kids out there all year qualifying on the pole at Daytona and again this weekend at Road Atlanta. Daytona’s an old story now but there was drama. This weekend he ran the fastest time in qualifying just before he piled the bike into the ground. Thinking his time wouldn’t stand the crew worked frantically on the bike to try to get him back out for at least one more quick lap before the end of the session. About ten bloody knuckles later they failed to get the bike ready but it made no difference because his time stood up and Josh was again on the pole.

Beat-up looking bike and all, Josh starts Sunday’s race from the pole in a slight drizzle. Apparently the higher powers aren’t race fans because if this gig isn’t hard enough the kids had to race in what is likely the worst conditions of all; a slight rain on the front half of the track with significantly more rain coming down at the back of the track in corner seven and the ‘esses.’ Josh gets a good start and piles into the ground again, actually pile is too strong a term – more like a slight tuck and off the track he slid. He was able to get back on but had to run through tech to have the bike looked at quickly to assure its safety (good idea). By the time he returns to the track he’s half a lap behind but don’t worry, this is the tenacious-kid class… remember? The rain in the back half picked up a bit and five or six riders piled up in five and seven. No serious injuries thankfully but the sheer number of bikes in the pile caused a red flag and there was a restart. Eighteenth on the grid usually doesn’t sound like a good thing but remember (believe it or not) this is a happy story, and eighteenth or not he still made up half a lap on Leandro Mercado the leader. So the race is restarted and Josh bar bangs and pounds his way all the way back through the field to finish on the podium. It’s about as gritty a performance as I can remember and a reminder of how sometimes youth and enthusiasm conquers, even over youth and enthusiasm.

The second ‘big success’ story that grabbed me came from someone who could hardly be called an underdog. He’s a rider I like very much one of the nicest guys in the paddock and if your not already nauseaus sitting on the grid with him on Sunday a couple cute girls came over to ask him for a picture and told him they didn’t know his name but they would just call him “super hot guy,” sometimes it’s got to suck to be Chris Peris, but not this day (I digress). The truth is that Chris is super fast and on his Erion mount it was only a matter of time until he appeared on the podium and today was the day. Unable to race at Road Atlanta last year and with the rain-hindered practice on Friday Chris actually has very few laps on the ‘newly’ configured track. His qualifying results showed it but on Sunday in his usual ‘quietly optimistic’ way he expressed some confidence about his chances. Chris had a decent start and the Sportbike race on Sunday had some attrition issues but Chris ran a determined and smart race and landed his Erion Honda on the podium for the first time (in the 600 class) in his career. As far as the attrition issue is concerned, while that is exciting I don’t attach any asterisk to events when that happens. Racing is racing. You have to finish to get the win. Different points systems are configured to reward winning or to reward consistency and that will all sort itself out in the end but there’s nothing like putting it on the box and Chris’s effort to do so this weekend was huge. Not to mention that he set the fastest lap of all who finished and should get (if there was one) the hard charger award. Congratulations on an outstanding result Chris Perris!

Our third outstanding achievement of the weekend award goes to a rider that I’ve been looking forward to writing about for some time but because of all the bumps in the road on the way to actual success in AMA Pro Racing, haven’t quite had the opportunity to do so yet. He’s got all the right stuff. He’s young, fast, has great family support, and has paid his dues. He was a factor in every race he was in this weekend doing double duty on two totally different bikes, not to mention that he’s also (like me) from the great state of Michigan. Taylor Knapp had a hell of a weekend! In Sunday’s Sportbike race he came very close to changing the outcome of the weekend for Peris. The difference between third and fourth in that race seems to be attributed to Knapp coming by Chris a bit to early on the back straightway allowing Chris to get in the draft and come back by him at the end of the back straight.

Drama and/or the growing pains of racing didn’t elude Taylor completely. In Saturday’s Superbike race he was running just outside of the top five when, with only a handful of laps left, he blew a motor running down the back straight. A big factor in the credit being paid to Taylor for his success this weekend can be attributed to (much to the chagrin of Ben) the fact that on Saturday, until he popped the motor and then again on Sunday when he closed the deal, he was ahead of the factory Yamaha and its well-known pilot. Bostrom obviously struggled this weekend but when we where talking Sunday, much to his credit, he was more interest in expressing kudos to Taylor than whining about his own issues, a factor in his long and beloved relationship with his fans. Ben actually said that he thinks that had Taylor been on equal equipment as the couple riders in front of them, he would likely have been second. It was obvious that Ben held Taylor’s riding this weekend in high regard. As well as the commentary on the quality of Taylor’s riding Ben also had some funny stories about the opportunities the two riders had to scare the sh.. out of each other. The first shot came from Taylor. Ben was sucking up his draft running wide open and flat out down the back straight (which, for those who don’t know, is as fast at Road Atlanta as anywhere) when Ben picked up that unmistakable scent of burning oil. Ben said the first thought that went through his mind was that he couldn’t believe that his weekend could be any worse and in the event of Taylor spraying oil on the track at the end of the back straight ‘a lot worse.’ Fortunately for everyone involved there was no huge drama and Taylor felt it in time to get off the throttle in time to pull off safely.

The second shot came from Ben, in the effort to net a better result in race two for his team and himself. Ben was pushing hard trying to stay with Tommy Hayden and the rest of the front pack that was starting to creep away from him. Hard enough that all of a sudden the back end snapped around on him and in that moment of clarity that all road racers know he looked to the side to see Taylors eyes, big as saucers, as he was just about to t-bone Ben at about a buck twenty. Fortunately for everyone involved Ben was able to gather it back up and save the impending highside. He did however lose his momentum. Taylor went by him and that’s all she wrote. So congratulations to a good rider and his dad who have been plugging away at this thing for several years, hopefully it’s just the first of many successes.

So that’s it for now, we’re on the road, We’ve got lots of stuff in the pipeline from both the AMA at Road Altanta and World Suerbike at Valencia so stay tuned. Hopefully on the way home I’ll be able to come to grips with the thousand or so images and I’ll try to put up a few of them soon. Later.

Bruce Rossmeyer’s Daytona/RMR Buell 1125R Rider Scores Third Win in Last Four Races

BRASELTON, Georgia (April 5, 2009) – Danny Eslick (No. 9 Bruce Rossmeyer’s Daytona Racing/RMR Buell 1125R) took the AMA Pro Daytona SportBike presented by AMSOIL points lead with his third win of the season Sunday in the 20-lap Daytona SportBike final of the Suzuki Superbike Showdown weekend at Road Atlanta.

Eslick took the lead from polesitter Jason DiSalvo (No. 40 Team M4 Suzuki GSX-R600) on Lap 12 and withstood an intense battle with Josh Herrin (No. 8 Team Graves Yamaha YZF-R6) to take his third win in the last four races. Eslick led Herrin across the finish line by .484 of a second while Canadian rider Chris Peris (No. 10 Erion Racing Honda CBR600RR) improved from 14th on the grid to finish third for his first podium finish of the season.

The race came down to a final lap tussle between Eslick and Herrin as some lapped traffic set up a side-by-side battle to the finish. Herrin tucked up behind Eslick on the uphill run out of Turn 1 and the leaders couldn’t have been closer – including some contact – for most of the last lap.

“When we first got in the lappers, I don’t think they knew we were there,” said Eslick. “When we were coming around for the white flag, those guys definitely moved out of the way and let us race. I took a peek over and there he (Herrin) was. Out of Turn 10, driving up out of the right-hander, I got a good drive and we were both on the gas. I wasn’t going to let out to not make a little contact, but it was driving out towards him. It was a great race. He tried as hard he could and it was great. It was an awesome race for Bruce Rossmeyer and RMR Buell.”

Herrin finished second to match his career-best result in the season-opening Daytona 200 by Honda but nearly came up with the win Sunday.

“I saw that group of lappers on the last lap and I knew he (Eslick) was going to get stuck in the chicane or something, and he did,” Herrin said. “He didn’t get a great drive off of (Turn) 7, so I just tried as hard as I could and I got up next to his back tire. I knew I’d been catching him good into (Turn) 10 on the brakes. I got in there pretty good and got by him. When we squared it up to come over the hill, we just had a little contact and I fell off the side of the bike. I wasn’t even going to try and get him in the last corner, because I knew I’d tuck the front or run off trying. The R6 was working great. The Graves Yamaha crew has been working hard all weekend. I couldn’t ask for anything better.”

Peris improved three spots on the first lap, quickly joined the lead pack and steered clear of trouble that hit several other top riders.

“I was just trying to get past everybody for the first few laps,” said Peris, who swapped third place with the Buell of Taylor Knapp on the final lap. “I was trying to get past everybody where I could actually put my head down and run my own kind of pace. A couple of the guys, I think, chose the soft rear tire and they were all fading with about five laps to go. My bike seemed to hold in there pretty good. The Erion Honda was just working awesome. We made a few changes last night to get the bike to steer a little bit quicker and it all paid off today.”

DiSalvo led the opening lap and later Laps 8 through 11 but ultimately finished seventh after his tires faded in the late going. The only other rider to lead the race was Jake Zemke (No. 1x Erion Racing Honda CBR600RR) who passed DiSalvo on Lap 2 but crashed while running up front five laps later.

Zemke wasn’t injured and joined fellow front runners Roger Hayden (No. 95 Monster Energy Attack Kawasaki Ninja ZX-6R) and Tommy Aquino (No. 6 Team Graves Yamaha YZF-R6) in walking away after lowside incidents during the race.

Knapp impressed in his first start on the No. 54 Latus Motors Racing Buell 1125R and finished a close fourth behind Peris. Jamie Hacking (No. 88 Monster Energy Attack Kawasaki Ninja ZX-6R) continued his string of strong finishes to round out the top five while Chaz Davies (No. 57 Factory Aprilia Millennium Technologies Team Aprilia RSV1000R) also kept his competitive streak of consistent results alive with a solid sixth-place showing.

Eslick now leads the Daytona SportBike championship with 109 points, Hacking is second with 99 markers and Herrin is third in the standings with 96 points.

Saturday’s Race 1 winner Martin Cardenas (No. 36 Team M4 Suzuki GSX-R600) retired after 13 laps with mechanical issues while Dylon Husband (No. 73 Team Pur Sang Kawasaki Ninja ZX-6R) recovered from Saturday’s nearly catastrophic crash in Turn 12 to finish 28th Sunday on a stock Kawasaki replacement bike. Husband went off course at full speed when he lost his front brakes and ended up in the Air Fence near the end of Saturday’s Race 1. He was uninjured but his primary race bike was destroyed. He started last in the 40-bike field.

Next up for AMA Pro Daytona SportBike presented by AMSOIL is the Honda Superbike Classic at Barber Motorsports Park, May 1 – 3.

All of the races from the Road Atlanta AMA Pro Suzuki Superbike Showdown will be featured on AMA Pro Primetime on SPEED over the course of the next four episodes. AMA Pro Prime Time airs every Saturday night at 10 p.m. ET (7 p.m. ET) with the next scheduled show set for next Saturday, April 11.

Mercado Breaks Through In SuperSport

Seventeen-year-old Argentinean rider Leandro Mercado (No. 92 Monster Energy Attack Kawasaki Ninja ZX-6R) capped a wild race and weekend with a victory in Sunday’s AMA Pro SuperSport presented by Shoei race.

Mercado – who shook off several accidents, early-race rain and a red-flag delay for an oiled track in the SuperSport final – took the lead on Lap 8 and held off polesitter Josh Day (No. 4 Kerker Racing Yamaha YZF-R6) and Joey Pascarella (No. 25 LTD Racing Yamaha YZF-R6). Mercado led Day across the finish line by 2.893 seconds while Pascarella took the SuperSport East points lead with his third-place finish.

“I’m very happy,” said Mercado, who also raced alongside teammates Hacking and Roger Hayden in Daytona SportBike at Road Atlanta. “This weekend was a crazy weekend for me. I crashed yesterday twice. Then, in the beginning of the race it was good and it started raining and I crashed, so the red was a little crazy. I was very happy on the second start. It was a fun race. I pushed hard and had to be consistent. I’m very happy. I want to say thanks to my team, Monster Energy Attack Kawasaki, for the great job all weekend. Everybody, my trainer and my family, thanks a lot.”

Pascarella, who finished second in the Daytona opener, now leads the SuperSport East Championship with 46 points. Kyle Wyman (No. 33 Harv’s Harley Davidson Yamaha YZF-R6), who led and finished sixth at Road Atlanta, is second with 33 points and Mercado made a big jump to third with the 31 points earned for today’s victory. Day, who like Mercado went off track early in today’s race and took advantage of the red flag restart, is fourth in the standings with 27 points.

“I got a little second chance there,” Day said. “I had to work a little bit harder from the back, since I had to start way in the back, but I think I was lucky today to get that second chance again. I made another mistake going into Turn 10a at the beginning and ended up losing the front, but ended up coming out as close as we could to the top. It ended up pretty well.”

The red flag was displayed on Lap 4 after heavy oil coated the track after the No. 29 Honda CBR600RR of Frank Gillim went down and the No. 55 Yamaha YZF-R6 of Ryan Conrad caught fire. Neither rider was injured and Pascarella had a front seat for all of the action.

“When I went into there, I really didn’t even know what was going on,” Pascarella said. “Almost everybody crashed in front of me. It was just kind of weird. It happened so fast and everybody was just going down everywhere. I didn’t feel the track was slippery, because I slowed down a lot when I saw people going down. I had no problems.”

AMA Pro SuperSport presented by Shoei will next race as a part of the Honda Superbike Classic at Barber Motorsports Park, May 1 – 3.

BRASELTON, Georgia (April 5, 2009) – Mat Mladin and Rockstar/Makita Yoshimura Suzuki capped a dominant weekend at the AMA Pro Suzuki Superbike Showdown with another flag-to-flag AMA Pro National Guard American Superbike presented by Parts Unlimited race win Sunday at Road Atlanta.

Mladin is undefeated in 2009 AMA Pro American Superbike competition after the year’s first five races but his performance at Road Atlanta this weekend was by far his most impressive of the year. After winning the pole in Friday’s single-bike Superpole qualifying, Mladin led every lap in Saturday’s 20-lap race and did the same thing again today to score a perfect clean sweep of the Road Atlanta weekend. His Sunday ride was even more impressive considering the championship Rockstar/Makita Yoshimura team repaired Mladin’s No. 7 Suzuki GSX-R1000 after a lowside incident in Sunday morning practice.

“I had a bit of a tumble this morning and the guys got the bike back together,” Mladin said. “I just pushed too hard. It was at the end of the back straight. Everything felt as usual and normal for the race. It was a good race for us. We had a bit of a crack for 10 or 12 laps. I was trying to figure out around Lap 10 or 11 whether I should keep pushing and the boys get a bit nervous when I do that. I pushed my luck one too many times today already, so I decided to have a bit of fun at the end.”

While Mladin was cruising up front near the end, some of the best racing of the weekend took place for second place between Mladin’s teammate Blake Young (No. 79 Rockstar/Makita Yoshimura Suzuki GSX-R1000) and local rider Geoff May (No. 54 National Guard/Jordan Suzuki GSX-R1000). The pair swapped second several times before Young took the spot for good on the last lap.

“Geoff came on strong,” Young said. “It seemed like I was being held up in a couple spots by some of the riders in the beginning of the field there. Once I got clear and got sorted out, Geoff came by with some pace and I definitely jumped in and learned where he was a little bit better than me. It was good, a good last lap, and I just kind of set it up for a last-lap pass. I was coming out of (Turn) 7 and actually going over (Turn) 8, over the hill. I just got into his draft and broke off and tried to get away from him so he couldn’t get back in behind me.”

May joined Mladin in hitting the podium in both weekend races and recovered from a poor start to finish third for the second-straight day.

“I was afraid I was going to get run over there at the start,” said May, who was 10th at the end of Lap 1 after starting on the front row. “I just put my head down again and we really had the bike set up good for the end of the race. I’ve been trying to really work hard on the end of the race, on the last half, on worn-out tires. We usually do that, set the thing up for when it’s sliding. It just seems like the other guys, they start sliding around and stuff, and they have a hard time with it. I start getting faster and faster and faster and put in my fastest laps, usually, in the last couple laps.”

Josh Hayes (No. 4 Yamaha Motor Corp. USA Yamaha R1) finished fourth after placing fifth Saturday to cap his best weekend so far in the 2009 American Superbike season. May’s teammate Aaron Yates (No. 23 Jordan Suzuki GSX-R1000) finished fifth for his best result of the year.

Mladin, who scored the 51st consecutive American Superbike win today for Suzuki and the Rockstar/Makita Yoshimura team, now leads the championship standings with 157 points. His other teammate Tommy Hayden (No. 22 Rockstar/Makita Yoshimura Suzuki GSX-R1000) is second with 112 points while May is third with 92 points.

Next up for AMA Pro National Guard American Superbike presented by Parts Unlimited is the Honda Superbike Classic at Barber Motorsports Park, May 1 – 3.

All of the races from the Road Atlanta AMA Pro Suzuki Superbike Showdown will be featured on AMA Pro Prime Time on SPEED over the course of the next four episodes. AMA Pro Prime Time airs every Saturday night at 10 p.m. ET (7 p.m. ET) with the next scheduled show set for next Saturday, April 11.

Team Foremost Pegram Racing is leaving Road Atlanta after a difficult but productive weekend, finishing the third round of the series seventh overall in the championship.

The weekend started out slowly for Pegram and the Foremost Insurance Ducati 1098 R. Friday’s first qualifying went smoothly; and in an effort not to agitate injuries from the last race Pegram did only what he needed for advancement to Superpole. The Superpole session saw Pegram ride a smooth and steady lap on the Ducati, and despite the pain finished up sixth for a second row start.

Saturday’s race proved a struggle for the team as six bikes battled for second position throughout the race. The Ducati 1098 R had the speed needed to make the podium, but Pegram’s Fontana injuries made it difficult for him to move around on the bike. The veteran rider fought to the end, and stayed with the lead pack to retain seventh position at the checkered flag.

With the forecast predicting rain, the team entered Sunday’s race with a goal of scoring points and retaining their championship position. Pegram pushed from the get-go to secure third place on the first lap; holding it until lap six when a cramp from the injury forced him back to sixth position in the track’s third sector. As the race progressed, the rain never came but the injury continued to agitate Pegram. He fought the pain to finish the race a credible tenth position.

“I wasn’t feeling well at all this weekend, with pain in my ankle and hip,” commented Pegram. “Despite a hard time in race one I felt good going into race two. Early in the race I got a huge cramp around turn 9, and lost a few positions straight away. The cramp persisted, so from then on I was racing for points not the win. All things considered it was an ok finish, but not where I wanted to be today.”

Team Foremost Pegram Racing now heads back to its Ohio shop, where they will rebuild the Ducati 1098 R Superbikes for a test at Infineon Raceway, and the next race at Barber Motorsports Park May 1-3.