Henny Ray Abrams | September 4, 2009
Rockstar Makita Suzuki’s Mat Mladin will start his final two AMA road races from the pole position after setting the fast time in Superpole for the season finale at New Jersey Motorsports Park.Starting second to last, Mladin ran a lap of 1:21.577 mins., giving fast qualifier Josh Hayes (Yam) a mark to shoot for. Fast qualifier Hayes wasn’t happy with his lap and came up short by .314 secs.The pole was the 62 of Mladin’s career. The next active Superbike rider on the list is 15th-placed Ben Bostrom, who has seven. Bostrom qualified at the end of the front row, just .007 sec. behind Jordan Suzuki’s Aaron Yates.Rockstar Makita Suzuki’s Tommy Hayden qualified fifth, .038 sec. faster than Foremost Insurance Pegram Racing’s Larry Pegram.Corona Extra Honda’s Neil Hodgson qualified seventh after clocking the third fastest time in final qualifying.In his first Superbike Superpole, Cory West rode the Buell to the eighth fastest time, just in front of the second Buell of Latus Racing’s Taylor Knapp.Australian Damian Cudlin qualified tenth on the Celtic Racing Suzuki.
Superpole:
1. Mat Mladin (Suzuki) 1:21.558
2. Josh Hayes (Yamaha) 1:21.872
3. Aaron Yates (Suzuki) 1:22.069
4. Ben Bostrom (Yamaha) 1:22.076
5. Tommy Hayden (Suzuki) 1:22.104
6. Larry Pegram (Ducati) 1:22.142
7. Neil Hodgson (Honda) 1:22.383
8. Cory West (Buell) 1:22.648
9. Taylor Knapp (Buell) 1:22.867
10. Damian Cudlin (Suzuki) 1:23.127
Henny Ray Abrams | Contributing Editor
Abrams is the longest-serving contributor at Cycle News. Over the course of his 35-some years of writing and shooting photos, he’s covered events from MotoGP to the Motocross World Championship - and everything in between.
