ROAD RACE
AMA/MBNA SUPERBIKE·
NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP
(Left) DuHamel (17) lifts the rear wheel as he tries to hold off Picotte (21) on the brakes for
turn nine. (Above) The celebratlon begins with Chandler, Mladin and DuHamel spraying the
bubbly on the Phoenix winner's rostrum.
Mladin gets pole,
fJoint and $1000·
A
ustralian Mat Mladin
. (right) saved his best for
last at Ph6enix Internationa I Raceway, cUcking off two
record-breaking laps in the closing minutes of the final session
to earn the first AMA Superbike
pole position of his career.
Mladin's 1:00.823 (89.374
mph) lap came on the final lap
of the day and he was the only
rider to crack the 1 :01 barrier,
'his time on the Fast By Ferraeci
Ducati just over two seconds
quicker than countryman Troy
Corser's lap record, se~ in the
AMA's last visit to Phoenix
international Racewar in 1994.
Not bad for a man who has only.
spent a day and a half on the V -twin, that coming at rain-interrupted
test at Daytona international Speedwayin December.
"It rnmed out pretty good - really good, actually," MJadin said on a
warm and surmy day in the Valley of the Sun. "It's looking good for the
race. There were only a few minutes left in the session, so it was a good
time to pull my finger out. TWs is really my first time on the big Duck
because we haven't done any testing other than at Daytona in December. All we've done here is change small bits and pieces. I'm looking
forward to getting more parts to try. I think we could have gone a bit
quicker with cool temperarures.
Mladin had boldly predicted on Friday that a 60-second lap was
possible. He proved h.imself right on Saturday afternoon.
"I· had to go out and do one since 1 opened my big mouth," MJadin
said. "Thursday we were doing two-flats and I did 65 laps on the same
tire. Yesterday I tried two rears and one front and today we had a sWtload of tires to try. I think the race tire we have is good. We put a
brand-new one on there at the end. We have two tires to choose from
for here and I'm pretty set on what I want. They just want me to try
another one tomorrow
