American SuperBike 2001 - Final Round - Alton

Championships in the AMA Chevy Trucks U.S. Superbike Series will be decided this weekend at Virginia International Raceway in Alton.

Four championships will be decided including the premier AMA Chevy Trucks U.S. Superbike category. At 150 kilometres, it will be the second longest race in the series and will require a pit stop for Superbike teams, which will run on the facility's 2.25-mile, 17-turn road-course configuration.

Australia's Mat Mladin is closing in on his third-straight AMA Chevy Trucks U.S. Superbike Superbike Championship. Mladin, who rides for Yoshimura Suzuki, is attempting to become the first rider to win three-consecutive AMA Superbike championships since Fred Merkel did it in 1986.

Mladin, who has won four races this year, has a 16-point lead over Kawasaki's Eric Bostrom and needs only a ninth-place finish to take the title.

Bostrom's hopes of gaining on Mladin in the championship took a blow when the race scheduled for Willow Springs Raceway was cancelled after the September 11 terrorist attacks on the U.S.

The hottest rider in the series coming into the season finale is 20-year-old Nicky Hayden; the factory Honda rider is riding a three-race winning streak and hopes to become the first rider to win four consecutive races since Anthony Gobert in 1999.

An additional bonus for Superbike racing fans is the possible return of former AMA and World Superbike champ Scott Russell. Russell suffered serious injuries in a horrific crash in the Daytona 200 in March. In the midst of a miraculous recovery, the popular Georgian hopes to prove to himself and the rest of the racing community that he is still capable of racing a Superbike. Russell tested at VIR last month and the results were promising.

The best race in the championships is the Lockhart Phillips Formula Xtreme Series. This series features the big and extremely fast 1000cc street-based sport bikes. Graves Motorsports Yamaha rider Damon Buckmaster and Valvoline EMGO Suzuki's John Hopkins are tied in points, so the championship comes down to a single race. Oddly enough, Hopkins won last year's AMA 750 SuperSport championship by just three points over none other than Buckmaster. Should Buckmaster and Hopkins make a major mistake at VIR a total of five riders still have at least a mathematical shot at the title.

While Eric Bostrom is hoping for some bad luck on the part of Mladin in Superbike, he is equally hopeful for a smooth race in Pro Honda Oils 600 SuperSport Series. In that series, Bostrom has a commanding 31-point lead over series veteran Miguel Duhamel and is shooting to win the title he barely lost to rival Kurtis Roberts last year. Bostrom needs only a 23rd-place finish to secure his first 600 SuperSport championship after five years in the series.