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World Superbike Championship Round 8: Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca Xaus was untouchable in any case, proving to be easily the fastest man on track and turned out to be a clear 11-second winner. It was his third win of the season, after scoring a double at the previoOs Misano round, and more proof that the most volatile man in the pack is also one of the most talented on his day. "Mladin was one of the guys who I was worried about, and in the second race I missed him," Xaus said. "Where was he? In the second race I took good care. I can be a really good rider, but sometimes I am not. It is coming because every time I am better, so soon I will be one of the guys to battle for the championship. I wanted to finish the race as soon as possible to go home with a victory and relax." Xaus' teammate Hodgson secured his second podium spot and an important 20 points, even if he had to retirements left only 13 finishers in when fluid got on his rear tire from a '" went around the corner on the total, with Troy Corser the top Foggy Petronas rider in eighth. James Hay- busted hose, and his bike brought off the flowing Ivan Clementi. In the second race of the day Chili same throttle as always, the same tire and setup from race one, and then ping!" Chili said. "Over the high side. was an early crasher, highsiding and hurting his right ankle on lap one, as his Maybe the engine locked up - I don't 'know. I have maybe cracked my right don's three-cylinder machine crashed tire stepped out on the exit of turn five. ankle, and it is very sore and swollen." let Xaus go again. Hodgson may have had to settle for 16 points and third place after Toseland shot past him in fine style. But when Toseland crashed ahead of him, on the exit of the Corkscrew section, Hodgson ran off the track but managed to re-join the Yoshimura Suzuki's Mat Mladin became one of a rare breed in World Superbike racing, securing the Superpole win as a wild card after outdistancing the best of his rivals by an impressive .438 of a second in the single flying-lap competition. Few riders in World Superbike history have taken pole or Superpole when competing as a wild card, but Mladin is now one of the chosen ones. "Starting the 1000 off the line is tough, and the FIM engine is different - so I hope I get a good start," Mladin said. "I would like to clear off, but realistically this will be a much tougher race. It's not that important a race for me, but it is important for Suzuki." The Australian rider set off last with only Regis Laconi's time of 1:25.999 to beat, sweeping past his mark in fine style. Pier-Francesco Chili found better setup than he had on day one and took third place on his privately entered Ducati PSG- J, a fine effort from a rider on an underpowered machine. Experience proved to be the key in the high winds that plagued Superpole on occasion, holding down the lap times in absolute terms for most of the field. "I feel a lot of pressure from Mat Mladin, and I .am aware that Mladin is the guy to beat here," Chili said. "We made a lot of changes in setup during the second day and went the right direction in everything. We will go further that way, and it should be perfect for tomorrow. Michelin has a lot of problems here so that should be good for Dunlop." Yoshimura Suzuki's Aaron Yates went fourth, .915 of a second shy of his teammate Mladin. . "This is a good chance to see how we stack up against the World Superbike riders," Yates said. "The World guys gave us some info on setup when they brought the restrictor setup, and I ll.ked the suspension that the Superbike guys had better than the settings I was USing. Power is the same on the World Superbike, and stronger down low in the rev range. I did use a qualifier in untimed practice, sort of to get into Superpole mode. I rode real hard to try and stick a lap together." Suzuki's happy weekend so far was underlined by the jump-up demonstrated by Wocld Superbike regular Gregorio Lavilla and his Alstare mount, a rider who improved greatly from his regular qualifying to join the elite group, heading up row two. British Bulldog James Toseland and his HM Plant Ducati pushed to sixth fastest, a good position for the high-speed charge into turn one come race day. Grip and traction problems, pl"s the usual wayward front end of the 999 Ducati, left Ruben Xaus and Neil Hodgson well short of their combined best. Xaus was the winner of the Fila Ducati war, securing seventh, but a very out of sorts Neil Hodgson, who leads the championship, was eighth, leaving the arena itself in quick fasbion. Chris Walker's obvious effort on his HM Plant Ducati was not rewarded with the first- or second-row start he so desired, and. as he himself stated afterward, the early laps would be difficult. Local wild card rider Eric Bostrom rode his Kawasaki hard to finish 10th fastest, ahead of DFX Pirelli Ducati's Steve Martin and Ducati Austin's Giovanni Bussei. Bussei dropped from a first-row start to the last place on the third row. Lucio Pedercini outpaced Foggy Petronas rider Troy Corser (the only man in the field to have won at Laguna Seca Superbike before), while Mauro Sanchini (Kawasaki .Bertocchi) and David Garcia (NCR Ducati) filled the last places in the top 16. 10 JULv23, 2003' c u e I e n e _ s