Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

--------~ Final Round September 3 4, 2005 AMA SUPERBIKE ~ AMA Sup&rblke National Championship MAT MLADIN WINS AN UNPRECEDENTED SIXTH TITLE By HENNY RAy ABRAMS PHOTOS BY BRIAN J. NELSON AND TOM RulS Shimura Suzuki's Mat Mladin added to his considerable legacy in the final doubleheader of the season at Road Atlanta in Braselton, Georgia. First was Saturday's sweep of all 10 pole positions this year, a feat never before done. Then came the win in Saturday's eight-lap sprint - the 2S lap race had been red-flagged on the 18th lap - giving him I I for the season, another record. Saturday's win stretched his career best to 43 wins. Most important of all was that he ended Sunday celebrating an unprecedented sixth AMA Superbike Championship, hungry for Y more. "It's a good year for sure," Mladin said after finishing fourth in Sunday's Superbike race. "Suzuki delivered us a motorcycle this year that certainly made life quite a bit easier than last year, but in no way was it easy, for sure. We had a couple of problems that kept the championship interesting until the last race. "It's nice to win the six of them," the champ added, "but as everyone knows, I've signed up for another three years, and I'll be disappointed if I don't have nine three years from now." As to how he'd celebrate: "I guess we'll go and have a dinner with Suzuki and stuff," he said. "I don't know, probably get on the piss [beer]. Get a little bit drunk. Start preparing for next year." The final points tally has Mladin with 536 and teammate Ben Spies second at 514. Spies finished second both days, on Saturday to Mladin and Sunday to Aaron Yates, giving Suzuki a bountiful weekend. In addition to Mladin's crown, Yates won the Repsol Superstock Championship and Team Makita Suzuki's Ricky Carmichael won the 250cc Motocross Championship in Steel City. Both Superbike races were red-flagged. Sunday's was stopped by Heath Small's crash in turn lOon the 18th of 25 laps. The race would be eight laps. Sunday's was stopped on the third lap and a complete restart was ordered. 24 SEPTEMBER 14, 2005 • CYCLE NEWS Mladin was in control when Saturday's race was stopped. Leading from the start, he had over two seconds on Yates when the plug was pulled. Spies was third, with Ducati Austin's Neil Hodgson fourth. "You don't want to work for 20 laps or whatever then have a sprint race at the end because of a red flag," Mladin said. Spies led the first lap of the restart, with Mladin coming past on lap two and trying to pull away. The pair did gradually pull away, with Yates and American Honda's Miguel Duhamel just behind, but Mladin had a problem. He'd lost his knee puck in tum three on the second lap. "Just can't flick it on the right-hand side," Mladin said of the predominantly right-handed track. "Just got to smooth it in and keep the knee up against the tank essentially to make sure your knee doesn't hit the ground. I've never done that before. It's certainly changes things quite a bit." Spies said he "could see it was affecting him [Mladin] a little bit, but the lap times didn't slow down too much. He was riding around pretty good." As Spies observed, the problem did slow Mladin, but not much, and he took his I Ith win by .721 of a second. Spies w~ second and Duhamel third after Yates crashed in turn lOon the penultimate lap. "I was just pushing too hard, I guess," Yates said. "I was trying to make up too much ground in too little ground." Then came Hodgson, by himself, followed seconds later by teammate Eric Bostrom. What did Mladin think of setting the record of I I wins? "Should've been 13," he said, clearly referring to his clutch problems at California Speedway and the unavoidable crash at Mid-Ohio. "I mean it's nice to get I I wins and get the records and that sort of stuff, but we've still got work to do tomorrow. Certainly a few little things that we' have to make sure that keep the pace to make sure we can get home in one piece. That's what we're here today is to

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