Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/128377
(Left) Race winners Ben Spies (left) and Mat Mladin (right) celebrate after race twa, By PAUL CARRUTHERS PHOTOS BY HENNY RAy ABRAMS or Mat Mladin, it wasn't a good weekend. For everyone else, it was a reprieve, a chance to make hay while the sun shined, and they did just that, the pursuers taking full advantage of a rare mechanical failure on Mladin's Yoshimura Suzuki to attack the Australian while he was down. And now just 12 points separate the top four men in the AMA Superbike Championship after an eventful two races at California Speedway - and the man at the top is no longer Mladin. Instead, it's his young teammate Ben Spies, the Texan winning his first-ever AMA Superbike race on Saturday after Mladin went out of the race with clutch troubles. Spies rode well all weekend, and he was there to take advantage of Mladin's misfortune and the miscue by Ducati Austin's Neil Hodgson to win the F first of two races in the doubleheader weekend. Then, with Mladin back to full strength on Sunday, Spies was able to at least keep his veteran teammate in sight to finish second, the youngster parlaying his one-two tally into a lead in the championship. And now what just last week appeared to be a championship destined to be 100 percent controlled by Mladin has tightened up. At least for the time being. "It wasn't the way I wanted to do it," Spies said, after the rookie scored his first-ever Superbike victory on Saturday. "Mat [Mladin] had a problem, and I feel if we wouldn't have any bike problems and he didn't either, and I could have started out with him, it could have been a good race. I saw Mat had some problems, and we passed him. I wanted to win really bad even though the bike was making it really hectic. With Neil [Hodgson] running off the track, that helped me out. Between racking myself and breaking the windscreen with the problem we had [in the final corner], we came out with the win, and I'm really happy about it." And he should be. With five races now complete, Spies leads Mladin in the series standings, 155-152. Hodgson sits third 26 MAY 11, 2005 • CYCLE NEWS with 146 points, just three clear of Yates, the Georgian also on the podium in both races at California Speedway. In fact it was Yates who, along with Spies, gained the most ground on his teammate. Yates finished second on Saturday and third on Sunday, taking a whopping 61 points on the weekend. Although his points take could have been so much better, Hodgson also leaves California Speedway with a boost to his championship hopes. He also should get some sort of "Man of the Race" award for what he went through to get there. Hodgson came into the race sick. Dog sick. He'd caught the flu from his young daughter, and he could barely muster the strength to race on Saturday. Then, on Sunday, it got worse. On Saturday, Hodgson was in a prime position to take his first AMA Superbike win when he inherited the lead after Mladin's Suzuki slowed to an eventual stop. Leading on the last lap, however, Hodgson overshot turn three, his miscue allowing both Spies and Yates to pass. Although he wouldn't blame it on his illness, it likely figured into his mistake. On Sunday, Hodgson was even worse off. After being up all Saturday night sick, Hodgson drove directly to the track's medical center on Sunday morning and he stayed there all day, missing practice and only emerging for the race. They filled the dehydrated Brit with fluids and he somehow made it to the grid, though the medical staff didn't predict he'd make it more than a handful of laps. He proved them wrong with a brave ride to fifth place, later calling it the longest race of his career. After the race, he went directly back to the medical center. Tough stuff. After the big four came Eric Bostrom; with the Ducati Austin rider back at a track where he feels comfortable, the difference was noticeable. Bostrom finished fifth on Saturday and fourth on Sunday, his points haul moving him to fifth in the series standings. American Honda's Miguel Duhamel rode hard to finish fourth on Saturday, but Sunday didn't go as well as he crashed out of fifth place on the third lap, remounting to finish an eventual 18th. Duhamel left Fontana sixth in the standings with I 18 points, losing a spot to Bostrom. Duhamel's teammate Jake Zemke fared much better than he did in Barber. Last year's third-place finisher in the championship carded a pair of sixths on the weekend, a marked improvement and his best weekend of the series thus far. The rest were led by Michael Jordan Motorsports' Steve Rapp, the Suzuki rider finishing eighth and seventh over the two days. He bested Mat Mladin Motorsports' Marty Craggill, the Aussie finishing ninth and eighth in the doubleheader. Spies' first career AMA Superbike victory (and the 70th for Suzuki) came on a bright, sunny day at California Speedway in a race that took three attempts to get in the books. The first start was redflagged after three complete laps when Dean Mizdal crashed in the turn one-two area. With so few laps completed, the second go was a complete restart. It lasted for six laps before Heath Small's get-