Three-time AMA Chevy Trucks U.S. Superbike Champion Mat Mladin will have a chance to tie an eight-year-old AMA Superbike record when the championship visits Road Atlanta on May 16-18, for the Suzuki Superbike Showdown presented by Dark Dog. Mladin and his potent Yoshimura Suzuki come into the Road Atlanta AMA Superbike doubleheader riding the crest of a four-race winning streak. If Mladin wins both rounds at Road Atlanta he will tie the AMA Superbike winning streak record of six set by Miguel Duhamel in 1995.

Since Duhamel’s hot streak eight years ago only Nicky Hayden, who now rides for Honda in MotoGP, came close to matching the winning streak. Hayden finished the 2001 season with a four-race winning streak and then opened up the 2002 campaign with a victory in the prestigious Daytona 200 to push his streak to five. Aussie Anthony Gobert then stopped Hayden’s streak with a victory in the first race of the 2002 Fontana doubleheader. Hayden then went on another streak after that race and won five more only to be come up short of matching the record when he crashed out of the Pikes Peak event.

Now attention turns to Mladin’s run at the record. The 31-year-old Australian has looked untouchable in sweeping the recent Superbike doubleheaders at both Fontana and Sonoma, Calif., and building a solid 24-point lead in the championship. Mladin hopes his success will continue at Road Atlanta. The Suzuki ace has won three AMA Superbike races at the circuit, including sweeping the doubleheader there in 2000. In addition, Mladin moved into third on the all-time AMA Superbike wins list with his double win at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma. If he sweeps Road Atlanta, Mladin would tie Fred Merkel for second on the wins list with 20 and he would appear to have a real shot of catching Duhamel’s record of 26-career victories by the end of the season.

Mladin needs only one victory this weekend to become the first rider to win four Road Atlanta Superbike races. “I look forward to the race, but the record is not on my mind,” said Mladin, who is in his eighth year of AMA Superbike racing. “Records are there to broken and if it happens that’s great, but my focus is on the championship. We tested there (at Road Atlanta) and things went well. We’re looking good for the race.”

One of the bigger obstacles that could keep Mladin from matching Duhamel’s winning streak record might have been Duhamel himself. The cagey veteran won the season opener at Daytona and was keeping close to Mladin in the series standings, but he suffered a crash in the Pro Honda Supersport race presented by Shoei at Infineon and broke his collarbone. Duhamel, a former winner at Road Atlanta, had surgery on the collarbone and is hoping to compete at Road Atlanta although he certainly won’t be feeling 100 percent.

Mladin’s Yoshimura Suzuki teammate, Aaron Yates is second in the standings coming into his home race. Yates has raced at Road Atlanta since his club racing days. He would love nothing more than to finally win an AMA Superbike event at his home circuit.

Ben Bostrom is third in the series in his first year back in the AMA Superbike Championship after three seasons in World Superbike. Bostrom says he’s finally starting to get the feel of the Honda RC51 and expects winning results soon. A strong podium finish from the prior round at Infineon Raceway supports that claim. Ben’s younger brother Eric is fourth in the standings on his factory Kawasaki. Eric finished runner-up to Nicky Hayden in Sunday’s race at Road Atlanta last year.

Kurtis Roberts is returning to Road Atlanta after missing last year’s event due to injury. Roberts is still trying to earn that elusive first AMA Superbike win. The son of the legendary Kenny Roberts knows what it takes to win at road Atlanta. He won an FX race there in 2000.

Supersport

Jamie Hacking returns to Road Atlanta this Sunday, May 18, in search of his second-straight victory at Road Atlanta in the AMA Pro Honda Oils Supersport Championship presented by Shoei. Winning two years consecutively in Road Atlanta’s Supersport race has proven to be a difficult task. Only Eric Bostrom and Mike Smith have managed to accomplish the job since the series started in 1987. Hacking looks to have a strong shot at defending his victory of last year. The 31-year-old Yamaha rider from South Carolina is riding a two-race winning streak and leads the series standings by 21 points over teammate Damon Buckmaster.

Hacking’s confidence has never been higher, especially considering he’s coming off a victory two weeks ago at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, Calif., a track that had given him a great deal of problems in the past. “To win at a track where I haven’t had a lot of luck shows that I’ve matured as a rider,” Hacking said after his recent victory. “Going into Road Atlanta I expect to do well there since I have in the past. Even though I have a pretty good points lead I’m not going to relax. There’s still a lot of racing to be done.”

Hacking has finished on the Supersport podium three times at Road Atlanta in the last five years.

Buckmaster comes into the race knowing that he needs to start winning if he’s to catch Hacking in the championship. Road Atlanta hasn’t been the best track for the likable Aussie. He’s never finished better than fourth in the Supersport race there. “There are no team orders this early in the season,” Buckmaster said. “Everyone still has a shot at the championship at this point. I need to start getting some wins and I’m hoping it happens this weekend.”

Aaron Gobert is making a strong comeback after sitting out most of last year due to injury. Yet another Yamaha rider, Gobert will be racing at Road Atlanta for only the second time. He finished ninth in the Supersport race in 2001.

Leading the non-Yamaha charge in the class is Jake Zemke of Erion Honda. He’s coming off his first podium of the season at Infineon.

Supersport racing legend Miguel Duhamel is questionable for Sunday’s race. He broke his collarbone at Infineon and is hoping to be in the field. Surprisingly Duhamel, the winningest rider in AMA Supersport history, has never won a Supersport race at Road Atlanta.

Yoshimura Suzuki’s Ben Spies and Team Kawasaki’s Tommy Hayden, fifth and sixth in the points chase respectively, also hope to do well at the twisty Road Atlanta circuit.

Mladin Preview

The 2003 AMA Chevy Trucks US Superbike Championship heads to Georgia this weekend for the third of this season’s double-header Superbike rounds at the Road Atlanta circuit in Braselton, with Australian Mat Mladin eyeing another pair of race wins.

Mladin, a three-times American AMA Superbike champion, has made a sensational start to his 2003 season, winning four of the five Superbike rounds and leads the championship by 24-points from Yoshimura Suzuki teammate Aaron Yates as they head into the weekend’s sixth and seventh rounds of the series.

Mladin took out the double race win at Road Atlanta in 2000 and made it three wins at the Georgian circuit with another race win in 2001. Earlier this year, Mladin, along with a number of other AMA competitors, tested at Road Atlanta and came away with the fastest time recorded at the three-day test showing his liking for the 4.087km (2.54miles), 12-turn layout.

“We’re looking forward to the race that’s for sure and hopeful we can continue on with winning some races,” said Mladin. “I like the race track. It’s got a lot of different aspects about it that makes it interesting. It’s a good event where the fans get right into it, so it’s always nice to do well there.”

“As for the weekend, we have to go there and play smart, win a couple of races and extend the points gap. With thirteen races remaining, there is a huge amount of the season left to go. At the moment we have a full race worth of points break over fourth place in the championship and it would be nice to leave Atlanta with that same margin over second place.”

The Atlanta round will also mark the first of a hectic four-round schedule that will see Mladin and his fellow competitors criss-cross America before returning to California in July.

“After this round, we’ll be on the road for a couple of months living out of the motorhome, for the upcoming rounds at Pikes Peak (Colorado), Road America (Wisconsin) and Brainerd (Minnesota), before heading back to California for the combined World Superbike / AMA round at Laguna Seca on July 13. It’ll be good fun, it allows us to get out and see a bit of the country as well as giving us some different training routines as we prepare for each of those particular rounds. It’s a time of the year that I actually look forward to.”

Qualifying for this weekend’s double header round begins on Friday, with final qualifying scheduled for Saturday morning followed by the opening 28-lap Superbike national on Saturday afternoon. The second of the 28-lap Superbike races takes place on Sunday afternoon.

Mat Mladin on the K3 model GSX-R1000