ROADRACE"
AMAIMBNA SUPERBIKE
NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP
America
By Paul Carruthers
Photos by Henny Ray Abrams
ELKHART LAKE, WI, JUNE 8
he good news for Mat Mladin is
that he won his second AMA
Superb ike National of the year,
this one coming at the fast and scenic
Road America. The bad news for the
Fast By Ferracci Ducati rider is that
Doug Chandler finished second.
So, despite winning two races and
finishing second in another, Mladin still
trails the defending AMA Superbike
National Champion by 26 points after
four of 10 rounds - thanks mainly to the
Australian's non-finish in the Daytona
200 in March. Not only does he still trail
Chandler and his Muzzy Kawasaki by
26 points, but there also happens to be
two other riders posi tioned between
him and his friendly rival: Smokin' Joe's
Honda teammates Miguel DuHamel
and Steve Crevier.
The theory tha t fast race tracks provide closer racing held true at the 4mile-long Road America, as a quartet of
riders battled at the front for the majority of the 16-lap final, with the pace picking up until it reached lap-record speeds
in the closing stages. By then, the battle
had been whittled down to two - Mladin
vs. Chandler - as the former Cagiva
SOOcc GP teammates lapped ·at qualifying speeds to leave the others behind.
It came down to the very end.
Mladin got the better breaks in traffic,
though he didn't appear to need the
help in becoming the series' first twotime winner. Chandler concurred.
"1 think Ma t just had his package a
bit better than me this weekend," Chandler said.
The pair crossed the line just .724 of a
second apart, with Mladin taking the
win on his Michelin-shod Ducati 996.
"It was a good race," Mladin said.
"The bike worked well, everything
worked really well. It's a shame that
we've won two and got a second in the
other one; it's a shame with the troubles
we had at Daytona on Sunday morning,
because we're still a long way back. But
if we can keep doing that, then maybe
we can make things close at the end of
tli.eyear."
Third place went to Yoshimura Suzuki's Aaron Yates, his early-season woes
with the Suzuki GSXR750 apparently
behind him. Yates didn't start as quickly
as the leaders, but he picked away at the
gap until moving into the lead group on
the sixth lap. Although he wasn't able to
keep pace when Mladin and Chandler
upped the ante in the closing stages,
Yates was able to get the better of
DuHamel, the latter struggling from the
T
Miguel DuHamel (17) leads Mat Mladln
(66), Doug Chandler (hidden), Tom Klpp
(16) and the rest of the AMA Superbike
pack ln10 tum flve at Road America.
