Mladin Report

Mat Mladin faced his most frustrating weekend of the season after a combination of officialdom and tyre wear have seen him slip to third overall after the completion of round eight of the AMA Chevy Trucks US Superbike Championship held at Pikes Peak International Raceway, Colorado.

Mladin’s weekend got off to an uneasy start when he fast lap time from the opening qualifying session on Friday was withdrawn by AMA race officials. Hardware problems with the timing systems over the weekend were the reported reasons for his lap time being withdrawn, but unfortunately for he and his Yoshimura Suzuki team, they were only notified of that decision until the closing minutes of the final qualifying session which did not allow him time to return to the circuit to attempt to post a pole winning lap time. As a result, he was placed second on the grid alongside teammate Aaron Yates.

The timing problems had affected a number of other classes over the weekend including the qualifying sessions for Supersport and Formula Extreme.

Heading into Sunday’s race, Mladin had concerns over the tyre wear he was getting on his powerful Suzuki GSX-R1000 around the tight bowl layout of Pikes Peak, with the concerns becoming reality before the race had reached its mid point.

After holding third place during the opening laps, Mladin began to lose touch with the lead group, He then pitted for a new tyre on lap 36, slipping from sixth to ninth. After returning to the track he consistently turned faster lap times than the leaders, but his charge to regain placing’s was cut short when the race was red flagged on lap 41 due to an accident on the circuit. The race was then declared by race officials, with the results determined by their finishing order at the end of lap 40, leaving Mladin ninth.

“We sort of expected to have a problem with tyres around here,” said Mladin. “I’m struggling to keep tyres under the bike on these bowl race tracks. It’s the same sort of thing that we had a problem with at Daytona. We sort of thought that we may have to make a stop for a tyre, but were hoping that we didn’t have to, but in the end we had to. I’ didn’t think the pace of the race was that fast and even though I was lapping quicker late in the race, I think I may only have been able to have picked up another one or two spots if the race had gone the distance.”

“As for the championship, there’s nine points in it, so all we have to do is get back to some proper race tracks.”

Victory today went to Team Kawasaki’s Eric Bostrom who held out Erion Honda’s Kurtis Roberts by 5.257 seconds when the race was stopped. Third place today allowed Yates to stretch is championship points advantage out to five points over race winner Bostrom, with Mladin now third, nine points in arrears.

The AMA Chevy Trucks US Superbike Championship heads to Road America next weekend for another double-header round of the championship.

 

Pictorial - Wallpaper from Pikes Peak