American SuperBike 2001 - Round 8 - Laguna Seca

The opening lap proved to be somewhat dangerous for Mladin as his Suzuki found neutral at Turn Six and almost collided with a number of the trailing riders. With championship points at stake, Mladin continued to battle with the gearbox problem and worked his way back forward through the field, finally finishing a creditable third behind Eric Bostrom and Miguel DuHamel.

“There wasn’t a problem with the bike not finishing the race, I was more concerned about it jumping into neutral at the wrong time,” said Mladin. “We had the problem during the morning warm up and it was affecting both of our bikes. We thought it was the gear lever hitting the ground and knocking it out of gear. Wee changed the lever position, but it was still the same. Wee won’t find out what has gone wrong until we get the bikes back to the workshop during the week. After dropping back early in the race, I was able to ride around mainly using fourth and fifth gears. It got me towards the front, but once there, I couldn’t do anything more.”

RESULTS
1. Eric Bostrom (Team Kawasaki)
2. Miguel DuHamel (American Honda)
3. Mat Mladin (Team Yoshimura Suzuki)
4. Jamie Hacking (Team Yoshimura Suzuki)
5. Doug Chandler (Team Kawasaki)
6. Andy Meklau (Ducati)
7. Steve Rapp (HMC Ducati)
8. Tommy Hayden (Team Yamaha)
9. Pascal Picotte (HD)
10.Michael Smith (HD)

Points after 8 rounds
Mat Mladin 260
Eric Bostrom 236
Doug Chandler 189
Tommy Hayden 184
Miguel DuHamel 168
Jamie Hacking 164
Nicky Hayden 163
Aaron Yates 155

American Formula Xtreme Race Results

Pos.	Rider Name
1	Damon Buckmaster
2	John Hopkins
3	Roger Lee Hayden
4	Jake Zemke
5	Mark Miller
6	Grant Lopez
7	Josh Hayes
8	Andrew Deatheridge
9	Mike Sullivan
10	Cory Call

American Formula Xtreme - Points Standings

Damon Buckmaster 163
John Hopkins 138
Grant Lopez 127
Mark Miller 115
Josh Hayes 114
Aaron Gobert 106