Mat Mladin’s victory in today’s fifteenth round of the AMA Chevy Trucks US Superbike Championship gave the Australian a total of ten race wins for the year, equalling a long standing record of race wins in a single season of the American championship held by former World and American Superbike champion Fred Merkel.

More importantly for the Yoshimura Suzuki rider, his race win has seen him further increase his points advantage at the top of the championship table to 43 over teammate Aaron Yates who finished sixth in today’s 28-lap race held at Virginia International Raceway.

In contrast to many of his race wins this season, Mladin made a steady start to the race and was placed sixth in the early stages before making his way forward at the latter end of the race. He took the race lead on lap 25, passing lead pair Miguel DuHamel (American Honda) and Italian Giovanni Bussei (Ducati Austin) at Turn One before easing away to win by 2.093 seconds from DuHamel. Bussei made a mistake on the final lap and was passed by Ben Bostrom (American Honda) for third.

“It was definitely an important win for us,” said Mladin, who now has a career total of 24 American Superbike race wins. ”I started the race off with a plan of watching where Aaron (Yates) was in the race and my plan was to finish ahead of him. That situation changed shortly after the start of the race when we realised that Aaron had a problem. As the race progressed, the gap between the lead group and myself began to come down and that’s when I started to push a lot harder and make a move for the front. It all worked out well, we’ve got a few extra points lead in the championship, but there is still another race to go tomorrow that we need to do well in.”

Earlier in the day Mladin appeared to have secured yet another pole position for the weekend’s double-header round, but his chance of further adding to that tally failed as teammate Aaron Yates snatched pole position with a final lap burst. Yates posted a best of 1-min 25.071-secs to edge out Mladin’s 1:25.304, with the Honda’s of Kurtis Roberts (1:25.702) and DuHamel (1:25.925) completing the front row of the grid.

“Qualifying went well for us this morning and we’ve found a good balance with the bike. Aaron set a fast lap at the end to get pole, but we’re not too concerned over that as it is just as important to be on the front row of the grid.”

The second of the weekend’s 28-lap AMA Superbike nationals takes place tomorrow afternoon.

Rd 15, AMA Chevy Trucks US Superbike Championship
RACE RESULT, 28 Laps - Top 10
1. Mat Mladin (Yoshimura Suzuki) 41:06.519 mins
2. Miguel DuHamel (American Honda) +2.093 seconds
3. Ben Bostrom (American Honda) +12.342
4. Giovanni Bussei (Ducati Austin) +16.132
5. Jordan Szoke (Corona Extra Suzuki) +54.955
6. Aaron Yates (Yoshimura Suzuki) +60.904
7. Shawn Higbee (KWS Suzuki) +66.818
8. Geoff May (Team Embry Suzuki) +71.207
9. Jacob Holden (Suzuki) +72.469
10. Mike Ciccotto (Suzuki) +89.664

COMBINED QUALIFYING, Saturday - Top 10
1. Aaron Yates (Yoshimura Suzuki) 1:25.071 mins
2. Mat Mladin (Yoshimura Suzuki) 1:25.304
3. Kurtis Roberts (Erion Honda) 1:25.702
4. Miguel DuHamel (American Honda) 1:25.925
5. Giovanni Bussei (Ducati Austin) 1:26.644
6. Jason Pridmore (Attack Suzuki) 1:26.650
7. Ben Bostrom (American Honda) 1:26.758
8. Jordan Szoke (Corona Extra Suzuki) 1:27.836
9. Shawn Higbee (KWS Suzuki) 1:27.945
10. Geoff May (Suzuki) 1:27.992

2003 AMA Chevy Trucks US Superbike Championship (points after 15 of 18 rounds) - 1. M Mladin (467); 2. A Yates (424), 3. B Bostrom (405); 4. K Roberts (368), 5. M DuHamel (364); 6. E Bostrom (350), 7. S Higbee (323), 8. J Pridmore (315), 9. J Szoke (238), 10. V Haskovec (221).
 

Supersport Qualifying

1. Damon Buckmaster, Yamaha, 1:27.506

2. Tommy Hayden, Kawasaki, 1:27.526

3. Ben Spies, Suzuki, 1:28.099

4. Tony Meiring, Kawasaki, 1:28.149

5. Aaron Gobert, Yamaha, 1:28.258

6. Jamie Hacking, Yamaha, 1:28.507

7. Lee Acree, Yamaha, 1:28.557

8. Jason DiSalvo, Yamaha, 1:28.584

9. Miguel Duhamel, Honda, 1:28.811

10. Jake Zemke, Honda, 1:29.060

11. Roger Lee Hayden, Honda, 1:29.293

12. Ty Howard, Honda, 1:29.328

13. Marty Craggill, Honda, 1:29.765

14. Alex Gobert, Honda, 1:29.859

FX Qualifying

1. Ben Spies, Suzuki GSX-R1000, 1:25.955

2. Damon Buckmaster, Yamaha YZF-R1, 1:26.248

3. Jason Pridmore, Suzuki GSX-R1000, 1:26.901

4. Jake Zemke, Honda CBR954RR, 1:26.989

5. Adam Fergusson, Suzuki GSX-R1000, 1:27.066

6. Josh Hayes, Suzuki GSX-R1000, 1:27.145

7. Marty Craggill, Honda CBR954RR, 1:27.346

8. Roger Lee Hayden, Honda CBR954RR, 1:27.396

9. Ty Howard, Honda CBR954RR, 1:28.001

10. Jamie Hacking, Yamaha YZF-R1, 1:28.059