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Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/128115
six at th e end of the ba ck str ai g h t. Bostr om th ou ght for an inst anc e that Mladin had left his braking until too late. "I br ok e halfway dec ent, and he got in th er e better ," Bo st rom ex pl a ine d later. "I was th inki ng he might run off th e track , but he had about fo ur feet left , so I gu ess he was und er control." Never a doubt, Mladin said. " I never feared I wouldn 't make the turn because I knew w here I w a s brak in g in practice ," Mla di n sai d. " If that was pract ic e, I could have m ade the turn no problem . Excep t yo u ca n't afford the risk of maybe p ush ing the fron t and crashing in th e race, so I brak ed at a ve ry sim ila r spot that I did in prac tice , and after I go t by , I k new I c ould afford to let it run wi de a little b it ." So with Mla din in front, a co unterattack was exp ected from B ostro m . But it never came. On the fourth lap, Ml adin's lead was .4 of a second; a lap later it was .9 ; then it was 1.3 ; 1.5 ; 1.4; and I. 7 . It would grow to a m axi m um of fo ur secon ds by th e co m pletion of 18 la ps and not dwindle until th e final laps when Mladin flicked the cruise-c ontrol swi tch , ultimately win ning by 1.8 seconds . "I t wasn ' t reall y a goal to worry abo ut w inning at Mid -Ohio because I ha dn't w on h e re, i t was a go a l because I fel t I had t o wi n because I fig ured Er ic [Bostr om] - if I didn't w in it wou ld b e pro bably Er i c, " Mladin said . "Th at wa s m y m otiva tion fo r this race , and ever ything turned o ut pretty good . It 's n i c e to hav e a w in at a place you haven 't won at , but at this time of the ye ar and this weekend , it' s importa nt to wi n ." The win was the 14 th of Mladin 's career, a mark that placed h im in a tie with Scott Russell and Eddie Law son for fifth on th e all -time list. More im po rt antl y , it gave him a 30-po int lead. Frustrated that he couldn 't m atch Mladin 's pace , Bostrom d id well to thwart the eff o rt s of Ni c ky Ha yden , with the Honda rid er not giving up the chase until he was balked so badly in (Left) Mat Mladin whe e lies in celebration of his victory on Sat urday. T he Yoshimura Suz uki rid er now has a commanding lead In th e championship po ints stand ing s. (Ri ght) Ni cky Hayden ended a dry run for himself with hi s victory on Sun day. It also marked Honda's first Supe rb ik e w in of the season. hopes of possibly cat ching Ml ad in in the ti tle chase dashed. With fo u r rac es left to run, Mladin now leads Bostrom by 45 points, 331 286. After a sol i d we e k end of raci ng , Kawasaki 's Doug Chandler remains in th ird in th e series sta ndings with 239 po ints, 1 1 clear o f th e momentumgaining Nicky Hayden - who happens to be t ied in po ints w i t h h is old er brother Tomm y, the Yamaha rider posting a pair of ninth -place finishes over the co urse of the week end . A merica n Hon da's M iguel DuHam el a n d Er ion Racing ' s K urtis Roberts w ere pretty much g lued togeth er for both races . On Saturday, Roberts got the better of the duel to put his RC51 into fifth place , with DuHamel sixth. The fo llowing da y, DuHamel won th e all -RC51 war, w ith the two passing each other three times on th e final lap. With Bostrom departing with tire woes , it was a race for third that DuHam el won, giving him hi s third pod ium finish of the season . Rob erts , tho ugh, can't be too disap point ed, as it was his return to racing after a six -week layoff d ue t o arm p um p surgery (see Briefl y ... ) . The Ho nda ri der bat tl ed a sore back and le g s fro m his racing inactivity, b ut managed to leave with a 5 -4 ta lly fro m th e two races . Kawasaki's Chandler gambled with tire choices all weekend. On Satur day , he cho se a ti re that was too soft, but h e m an ag ed to nurse it to seventh p la c e. On Sunday , he w as a fighting fifth afte r ch oosing a harder tire tha n th e rest of th e to p m en . Still, his rac e on Sunday look ed to be his best of the ye a r thus fa r, as he was close to DuHamel and Roberts at th e finish . Yoshimura Suzuki's Jamie Hacking fi n ished a strong fo urth on Saturday , bu t a cras h in the 600cc Supersport fi nal on Sunday morning left him a bit de -tuned for th e second portion of th e Superbike doubleheader, and he reall y just persevered to fin ish sixth. The Du c at i b oys h ad m ix ed fo r tunes o ver the co ur se of th e week end. HMC's Steve Rapp fini shed eigh th on Saturday and sev enth on Sunday ; his teammate Andy Meklau had identical 10th-place fin ishes in both ra ces after battling in both with Harl ey -Davidson's Mik e Sm ith; Competition Accessories' La rry Pegram c rashed out of Satur day's race but came back on Sunday to fi nish eighth. As mentioned previou sl y, T ommy Hayden rode his Yamaha to a pa ir of ninths in the absence of his teammate Anthony Gobert, with the Australian opting out of the Superbike rac es as he continues to rehabilitate his brok en wrist. Both races featured fairly low attri t ion amongst th e factory men , with Pegram (Saturday ) and Ha rley's Pasc al Picotte (Su nday ) the only factory riders who fail ed to finish both races. Of th e non -fa ctory m en , fac t orysupported J ordan Szok e came o ut of the event with the best results, posting 13th- and 12th- p lace fi nis hes on h is Aust in - Bleu B ayo u Harley-Dav id son o n a sunn y a nd warm afternoon at Mid -O hio, leading the swa rming pack into turn on e and loo k in g serious in doing so. At the end of the firs t lap, the factory Kawasaki was .6 of a second clear, and it loo k ed lik e Bostrom was doing all he co uld to ma k e a br eak - espe ci ally sin c e Mlad in looked to be get ting held up by his fast -st arting team mate Hacking. Right o n Mladin 's ta il was Nicky Hayden , with a gap already forming to the ga ng beh ind him giving ch ase. Somewha t surprisi ngly, the gap b etw een Bo st r o m and h i s pursuers started shrinking rather than in creasing . And a lap later , everything ch anged . On the th ird lap , Mladin stuffed his way under Hacking in turn seven to t ake over second place, the two -t ime defending champion in a hurry to get to the front. On the follow ing lap , th e Australian boldly w ent un der Bostrom under braking for turn VRlOOO. RACE O NE Bostrom ro d e his t w o - r a c e win streak right in to a race -one holeshot Sunday's race featured a battle between Mladln (1) and Hayden (6 9) , with the youngster shadowing the Australian until the final laps. Hayden worked his way around Mladln , bu1 Mladin countered, only to have Hayden take the lead again and hold it to the fi nish. cue I e n e _ S • AUGUST 1 . 2001 7