For the fourth time this year, Yoshimura Suzuki swept an AMA Superbike race. In spite of two red flags that lengthened the 28-lap event, five-time AMA Superbike Champion Mat Mladin won the first of the weekend’s two races at Virginia International Speedway on Saturday afternoon, with teammates Ben Spies coming in a close second and Aaron Yates following in third.

“We had a few issues, what with the red flags,” said Mladin, who, with this race win, has 41 career AMA Superbike victories. “But my crew worked hard to get my Yoshimura Suzuki GSX-R1000 running good and I’d like to thank them for that. It was a long race and an interesting race, for sure, but it was good to be pushing hard for the whole race. I enjoyed that.”

Final qualifying for VIR occurred earlier that morning under overcast skies and in warm temperatures. Mladin again captured the pole position and the track record by posting a 1:23.986 lap time. This marks Mladin’s 46th career pole position and his ninth (out of a potential nine) this season.

“It was a good session for us,” said Mladin. “It went pretty well and it was get to get the extra point for pole. This new GSX-R1000 is just so good that it makes my job fairly easy.”

Apparently, the Yoshimura Suzuki is also making life fairly easy for Spies and Yates. Spies was gridded in second place with a 1:24.783 fast time. “I felt pretty good out there,” said Spies. “It seems that every time I go out on the GSX-R, we take a couple of tenths off my time.” Meanwhile, Yates carded a solid third with a 1:25.239. After the session he said he felt that his team had come up with a good race setting.

With the start of the race, Mladin, Spies and Yates were out front in that order almost immediately. But a downed rider caused a red flag within several laps. In the re-start, Mladin got a bad start but was able to work his way up to third before a second red flag was thrown. With the second re-start, Mladin got off the line a little stronger but still had to work his way through the pack. He eventually got past his teammates and into the lead.

“It’s not that hard to pass at VIR,” said Mladin about getting through the field. “This track is pretty good about that. It’s also a matter of being aggressive and getting through and that’s what I did. Also, the front of the bike’s sticking very well and I was able to be aggressive in some tight corners.”

Spies, meanwhile, was consistently strong off the line in all three race starts. He diced with teammate Mladin in each segment of the race. In fact, Spies rode a very impressive race and led the most laps. “I tried as hard as I could,” said the young Texan from the podium. “I knew Mat was having some problems with his bike and I tried to get a gap as soon as I could because I knew I couldn’t hold him off. When he got by me, I just tried to keep my gap ahead of third.”

Like Spies, Yates was up front in each re-start and made the most of his talent and his Yoshimura Suzuki GSX-R1000. “We did all we could and I just tried to work my way up to Mat,” said Yates. “I finally got in the groove and got going and I really wanted to get my GSX-R1000 on the podium so we’d have three GSX-Rs up here and we did it.”
 

Superbike Race 1 (Saturday)

1. Mat Mladin, Team Yoshimura Suzuki
2. Ben Spies, Team Yoshimura Suzuki
3. Aaron Yates, Team Yoshimura Suzuki
4. Jake Zemke, Honda
5. Miguel DuHamel, Honda
6. Eric Bostrom, Ducati
7. Josh Hayes
8. Marty Craggill, Mladin Motorsports Suzuki
9. Jeremy Toye, Honda
10. Lee Acree, Suzuki

Supersport Grid

1. Disalvo 1m27.2
2. R Hayden 1m27.3
3. T Hayden 1m27.8
4. Attard 1m27.9
5. Peris 1m28.0
6. Spies 1m28.1
7. Jensen 1m28.1
8. Aa Gobert 1m28.1
9. Buckmaster 1m28.2
10. May 1m28.4

Superstock Grid

1. Disalvo 1m25.5
2. R Hayden 1m25.9
3. Buckmaster 1m26.1
4. Yates 1m26.3
5. Aa Gobert 1m26.4
6. May 1m26.4
7. Rapp 1m26.5
8. Holden 1m26.6
9. Barnes 1m27.0
10. Haner 1m27.1

FX Grid

1. Duhamel 1m26.5
2. Zemke 1m27.1
3. Barnes 1m27.2
4. Attard 1m27.9
5. Peris 1m28.5
6. Jensen 1m28.6
7. Caylor 1m28.7
8. Eslick 1m29.0
9. Hale 1m29.9
10. Andrews 1m30.4
11. Al Gobert 1m30.7