Superbike Preview

In 1984 Motorcycle Hall of Famer Fred Merkel won an amazing 10 races en route to the AMA Superbike title. That record stood as one of the most impressive in the history of the series and many considered it nearly unbreakable – until now. Suzuki’s Mat Mladin stands on the cusp of breaking the 19-year-old single season win record when the AMA Chevy Trucks U.S. Superbike Championship presented by Parts Unlimited makes a doubleheader stop at Virginia International Raceway in Alton, Va., for the Aug. 29-31 Suzuki Lightning Nationals.

Mladin’s 2003 campaign looks destined to go down as the most dominant ever in AMA Superbike. Not only has the 31-year-old Australian won nine races in 14 rounds leading up to the VIR doubleheader, he’s won many of those races in convincing fashion on his factory Yoshimura Suzuki GSX-R1000. Mladin is riding a three-race winning streak coming into this event and if he manages to win both rounds at VIR he will eclipse Merkel’s record to become the all-time single season AMA Superbike wins leader. Even if Mladin doesn’t accomplish the feat at VIR he will still have two rounds at Barber Motorsports Park in Birmingham, Ala., in September, to break the record. The eight-year AMA racing veteran, and former Australian champion, is aiming to become the first four-time AMA Superbike Champion.

“At the moment the records are not something that I’ve thought about that much,” said Mladin, who is shooting for his first win at VIR. “Maybe one day they will mean a lot, but right now I’m more concerned about doing what it takes to win the championship.” Mladin was equally unperturbed on the possibility of breaking the long standing single-season wins record. “If I get nine wins and win the championship I’ll be happy,” he said directly.

In the Saturday race at VIR last year Mladin was forced to pull out of the race with tire problems. Mladin may well have already broken Merkel’s record this season had it not been for tire problems in earlier races. “Tire problems concerned me a lot this year,” Mladin said. “Hopefully Dunlop has everything sorted out. They’ve made a few changes with the tires and it seems to be working.”

While a total of eight riders still have a mathematical chance at the championship, realistically it’s between Mladin and Yoshimura teammate Aaron Yates. Mladin sees it the same way. “I’ve got one rider to worry about at the moment. I have no particular strategy going into the race in Virginia. We’ll see how we measure up and do what it takes to put ourselves in a good position to win the championship.”

The opportunities for Yates to overtake Mladin in the title chase are dwindling rapidly. The Georgian has failed to find the combination all season to match the speed of his teammate. His two victories in the championship this season have come after Mladin experienced tire problems. Many Superbike pundits feel that Yates will need bad luck to strike Mladin yet again if he is to have a real shot at winning his first AMA Superbike title.

Honda riders Miguel Duhamel and Kurtis Roberts have both earned podium finishes at VIR, but neither has tasted victory at the picturesque circuit. Roberts is desperately trying to finally earn his first Superbike win after having come close so many times, while Duhamel is hoping to add to his record AMA Superbike career wins stats, especially considering that Mladin is closing in fast on that record as well. This will be Ben Bostrom’s first visit to VIR. He is trying to come off the no wins list this year after returning from a successful stint in World Superbike. Bostrom may find the classic VIR circuit a little more similar to the European circuits he performed so well on.

Ben’s younger brother Eric was in the thick of this year’s Superbike title hunt until a misfortunate accident that was no fault of his own in the World Superbike event at Laguna Seca last month put the perennial contender out. While there has been no formal announcement for Kawasaki yet, it has been reported that Bostrom will likely miss the rest of the season.

The two other riders who have at least mathematical chance of winning this year’s AMA Superbike title are privateer rider Jason Pridmore, of Attack Suzuki, and Shawn Higbee, who rides for Kaufman Trailers/Millennium Technologies Suzuki. Pridmore earned the best finish by a non-factory rider in eight years with his stunning second-place finishes in the Mid-Ohio double-header last month. Those finishes push him ahead of Higbee for seventh in the series standings. Higbee, a former factory Ducati rider, has been amazingly consistent this season, finishing inside the top 10 in all but one round.

Supersport Preview

After a long season of often intense and thrilling racing the 2003 Pro Honda Oils U.S. Supersport Championship presented by Shoei comes down to two riders – Yamaha team-mates Jamie Hacking and Damon Buckmaster. Hacking leads the championship by 30 points coming into round 10 of the 11-race series Sunday, Aug. 31 at Virginia International Raceway. Hacking is in the catbird seat to win his first AMA National title, but he first has to get through VIR, a track where he’s had nothing but rotten luck.

Hacking has won four Supersport races this year while none of the other five winners this season has managed to win more than one race. That kind of dominance has put Hacking on the verge of winning his first AMA Championship and you can hear the tenseness in his voice about coming to VIR.

“I’m not going to say it’s one of my favourite tracks,” says Hacking who has suffered bad crashes at the circuit on Supersport bikes in the previous two visits. “I’ve had some bad luck there. Before I was pushing too hard on equipment that wasn’t up to the task, but this year is different. I have the best equipment out there and I’ve been able to have good results on several tracks this year where I had trouble before.”

Hacking admits that having a 30-point lead with just two races remaining changes his strategy for VIR. “I don’t have to go out there and prove anything,” he said. “I don’t have to run near the front, but I don’t want to run too far back and get mixed up in any kind of mess. If I feel comfortable and can get an early gap on the rest of the field I might go for the win, otherwise I’ll just lay back and see how the race plays out.”

Buckmaster does not have the luxury of picking how he will approach the VIR race. The Aussie veteran simply must try his best to win, or at the very least finish in front of Hacking, so he’ll have a better shot of catching his teammate in the final race in Birmingham, Ala., in September. Buckmaster finished fifth in the race last year.

Even though Hacking is in control of the championship, the series has been wide-open at times with six different winners on the year. That’s the highest number of winners in Supersport since 1998. One of those winners is Tommy Hayden, last year’s VIR Supersport victor. Hayden hopes to close out the season strong on his factory Kawasaki and defending his VIR win would help him do just that.

Veteran Honda rider Miguel Duhamel is another rider who has done well at VIR. In 2001 he finished runner-up in the Supersport race to Anthony Gobert. Duhamel is already the all-times wins leader in AMA Supersport history. He would love nothing better than to pad his incredible career win number that stands at 41, with a victory at VIR.

FX Preview

The only problem young Suzuki ace Ben Spies sees in his path to the 2003 AMA Lockhart Phillips Formula Xtreme Series title is overconfidence. The 19-year-old Texan blames overconfidence for a mid-season hiccup that saw him go four races without a victory after winning the opening two rounds of the series. Spies feels he learned from being a bit too smug after dominating early on and now thinks he is ready to put his head down and focus on keeping his current winning streak intact as the series moves to round 10 of 11 at Virginia International Raceway, part of the Aug. 29-31 Suzuki Lightning Nationals in Alton, Va.

Spies started the season spectacularly by dominating rounds one and two of the Formula Xtreme Series on his Yoshimura Suzuki. He believes after those surprisingly easy wins he became a bit complacent. “I got a little too confident and sort of rested on my laurels while the rest of the riders dug in and found some extra speed,” Spies explains. “All of a sudden the other riders and teams improved while I stood still and lost my early momentum. At Laguna Seca I got back to trying to improve my riding and it paid off. I won there and at Mid-Ohio and took back the series lead. Now my goal is to keep trying to improve and stay ahead of the rest of the guys going into the final two rounds.”

Spies holds a 21-point lead over Graves Yamaha’s Damon Buckmaster, a perennial contender for the Formula Xtreme title.

Despite his fairly strong lead in the series Spies has a long way to go to secure his first AMA Championship. The top six riders in the series all have at least a mathematical shot at winning the Formula Xtreme No. 1 plate. Buckmaster is especially hungry after having the Formula Xtreme Championship slip from his grasp each of the last two years. Look for the 30-year-old Australian racing veteran to come out firing on all cylinders at VIR in a last-ditch effort to finally secure the title he feels should have been his by now.

Corona Extra Suzuki’s Adam Fergusson is the defending Formula Xtreme winner at VIR. Fergusson, who is ranked fifth in the standings, is anxious to get a victory this season. He’s twice finished runner-up so far and favours VIR’s challenging layout.

Other riders still in the title chase include Erion Honda’s Jake Zemke, Attack Suzuki’s Josh Hayes and Steve Rapp of the Valvoline EMGO Suzuki squad. Zemke lost last year’s Formula Xtreme title on a tiebreaker to Jason Pridmore. He’s hoping his trademark consistency will put him into a position to have another shot this year. Hayes is experiencing a solid comeback season after suffering an injury-plagued 2002. He may be more focused on winning the Genuine Suzuki Accessories Superstock title, a series he leads coming into this weekend’s event, rather than risking too much in Formula Xtreme. Rapp has nothing to lose by going for the win at VIR. Ranked sixth and recently re-signed by Valvoline Suzuki, Rapp has an outside shot at best of winning the title, so he can afford to let it all hang out in the closing rounds.

Genuine Suzuki Accessories Superstock

Josh Hayes just might be the comeback story of the year in AMA Pro Racing. The rider from Gulfport, Miss., was perpetually riding with injury during much of his pro racing career. He lost his ride with Valvoline Suzuki at the end of 2002 and looked to be on the verge of dropping out of the sport. Attack Suzuki signed him on the chance that he would recover from his numerous injuries and finally fulfill the promise he showed early in his career. The move turned out to be a brilliant one. Hayes started the Superstock season slowly but began gaining momentum mid-season and now appears to be a freight train that’s going to be tough to stop. Hayes has finished on the podium in five of the last six rounds and is riding a two-race winning streak coming into VIR.

Five riders are prospective champs in Superstock. Hayes leads a hot series battle that features Czech immigrant Vincent Haskovec only 10 points down in the standings on his Hooters Suzuki. Tommy Hayden is still very much in the hunt and is trying to make Kawasaki the first bike smaller than a 750 to win the Superstock title. Hayden is the defending VIR Superstock winner. Corona Extra Suzuki’s Adam Fergusson is ranked fourth in the series and is a former Formula Xtreme winner at VIR. And finally there’s young Tony Meiring, teammate to Tommy Hayden on the factory Kawasaki. Meiring won a Superstock race this year on the ultra twisty Pikes Peak circuit. He’s hoping to bag another win in Virginia.

One other rider to watch for in the Superstock race is VIR ace Lee Acree. The North Carolinian started the season with a podium finish in the Daytona Superstock race, but split with the Arclight Suzuki team. Acree formed his own team and if he enters at VIR will be among the favourites to win.

Mladin Preview

The AMA Chevy Trucks US Superbike Championship heads to Virginia International Raceway this weekend (August 30 - 31) with Australian Mat Mladin holding a 33-point lead in the title chase with two rounds (four races) remaining in this year’s championship.

As is always the case for Mladin when he is preparing for any race meeting, he will calculate what needs to be achieved at the meeting to satisfy his and his team’s goals for the weekend as well as the overall championship placing.

VIR is a venue that the three times American Superbike champion has never won at, but while he will be looking to break his win drought there, he will also be riding with a championship win in mind.

“It does present a bit of a challenge for us not having won a race there before,” said Mladin “it’s at the time of the season where I still want to win races, but it’s getting to the point where we are starting to think about the championship a little bit. We have to take things how they come and see what happens when it’s race time. For sure I would still like to win there, but on the other hand, I will not be putting myself into any unnecessary situations either.”

Two weeks ago, Mladin and his Yoshimura Suzuki GSX-R1000 were the fastest combination in a three-day test conducted at VIR leaving the championship point’s leader in a positive frame of mind for this weekend’s upcoming double-header round.

“The five-week break in the championship before Virginia gave us a little bit of time to get some things sorted and also allowed us time to do a bit of testing which has proven to be very valuable for us. We had a three-day test at VIR, along with other tests at Barber Motorsports Park and Daytona, each of which, were good. Not only have we learned more about the bike for the remaining races, we are already planning for next year. It’s a fairly important time for us.”

Following on from the VIR test in early August, Mladin headed to Daytona last week to take part in a Dunlop tyre test. The timing of the test proved valuable, with favourable weather conditions allowing Mladin to turn a number of laps in the low 1:48 bracket.

“We went there to test tyres for Dunlop and now they’ve gone away to get something better for the December test. It was a good test definitely. If we didn’t make that trip last week, I think we would have been in a lot of trouble come the December test. If the tyres can last in the hotter conditions that we had, then they should last a bit longer in what are normally cooler conditions come race time at Daytona in March, whereas the December test is generally cooler than the conditions that we would expect in March. So this is probably the best test for them.”

With this year’s championship winding down with just Virginia and Barber Motorsports Park, Alabama (September 21) remaining, Mladin finds himself in a position where he can further add to his record-breaking career in the AMA Superbike Championship. Already the all-time AMA Superbike pole position record holder with 30 (with six poles in 2003), he has an opportunity to surpass a number of other win records, such as the all-time career win record which stands at 26 (he currently has 23), the most number of race wins in one season which stands at 10 (he currently has 9) and most importantly he is aiming to become the first rider to have won four AMA Superbike Championships.

“A lot of people have asked me about the records that are able to be broken this year, but for me personally and for Suzuki, our most important goal is to win the Superbike Championship. That is what I am here to do and that is by far the most important. If we are in a position to take another race win or so in the remaining rounds that will be great as well, but we have to achieve our main goal first.”

2003 AMA Chevy Trucks US Superbike Championship (points after 14 of 18 rounds)

1. M Mladin (431); 2. A Yates (398), 3. B Bostrom (376); 4. E Bostrom (350); 5. K Roberts (349), 6. M DuHamel (332); 7. J Pridmore (315); 8. S Higbee (299), 9. V Haskovec (221), 10. J Szoke (212).

Column - Peter Doyle's entertaining column on the state of play in American Superbike