Paul Carruthers | August 3, 2008
LEXINGTON, OH, AUG. 3, 2008 – No oil, no water. Same old Mat Mladin. In race that was so different from yesterday at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in almost every way except the final results, Rockstar Makita Suzuki’s Mat Mladin cleared off in the distance to easily win the 70th AMA Superbike race of his illustrious career. While yesterday’s race was filled with drama and red flags for everything from oil on the track to water on the track to motorcycles on fire, this one was a rather dull affair. Still, Mladin was dominant for a second straight day – this time defeating his teammate and championship rival Ben Spies by 6.3 seconds after leading for every single lap of the race. Third place again went to Monster Kawasaki’s Jamie Hacking, but this time he was never a factor, eventually finishing some 20 seconds behind Mladin. Then came American Honda’s Neil Hodgson in a complete turnaround from yesterday when his factory Honda puked its oil all over the track early in the Superbike final. This time Hodgson held back the advances of Michael Jordan Motorsports’ Aaron Yates, with the Georgian highsiding his way out of the race on the 18th of 26 laps. That left only one battle on the racetrack – the one for fifth between Rockstar Makita Suzuki’s Tommy Hayden and American Honda’s Miguel Duhamel. The battle would go to Hayden by .9 of a second over the veteran – another who fared much better today than yesterday. Yamaha’s Jason DiSalvo ended up a lonely seventh once his teammate Eric Bostrom crashed out of the race. Eighth went to Michael Jordan Motorsports Geoff May, well clear of Chris Peris. Likewise Peris was miles ahead of Kenny Noyes, the Spanish Supersport Series regular finishing a respectable 10th in his AMA Superbike debut on the Celtic Racing Suzuki GSX-R1000. Mladin’s weekend was just what he needed as he came into Mid-Ohio trailing Spies by 36 points. He leaves trailing by 27, 476-449. Spies, however, must also be fairly pleased considering he had his appendix removed just 12 days before the start of the race weekend. Hacking is third in the series standings with 377 points with Hodgson fourth on 344. Superbike Race Two 1. Mat Mladin (Suzuki) 2. Ben Spies (Suzuki) 3. Jamie Hacking (Kawasaki) 4. Neil Hodgson (Honda) 5. Tommy Hayden (Suzuki) 6. Miguel Duhamel (Honda) 7. Jason DiSalvo (Yamaha) 8. Geoff May (Suzuki) 9. Chris Peris (Suzuki) 10. Kenny Noyes (Suzuki)
Paul Carruthers | Editor
Paul Carruthers took over as the editor of Cycle News in 1993 after serving as associate editor since starting his career at the publication in 1985. Carruthers has covered every facet of the sport in his near-28-year tenure at America's Daily Motorcycle News Source.
