Team Yoshimura Suzuki’s Mat Mladin and Ben Spies finished first and second in the Road America AMA Superbike double-header weekend’s Sunday race in Elkhart Lake as team mate Aaron Yates finished in sixth.

The victory is Mladin’s 46th AMA Superbike career win and he’s the only rider to win six AMA Superbike races at Road America and both he and Spies have dominated all nine races on their GSX-R1000s this year.

Said Mladin: “Nine wins for the Yoshimura GSX-R1000? What can I say! I’ve got to say thanks to my crew for working so hard. They put in the new front end and we’ve got it to where I feel comfortable with it. Basically, we did what we had to do today and now I’m looking forward to the next round at Miller.”

In Sunday’s 10-lap race, Mladin was on pole position but got a horrible start: He’d begun working his way through the field when a red flag was thrown. With the restart, the defending AMA Superbike Champion got off the line a little better but still had to chase down his team mate Spies, who was in the lead. Mladin caught Spies with several laps remaining and held on to take the win.

“I feel that Ben has been a bit stronger than me in some areas of the race track and today I feel that I turned that around,” said Mladin. “In racing, and in life, you have to adapt and turn yourself around. I’m looking forward to the challenge of the rest of the year.”

In both the first and the second starts of the race, Spies got out in front and led right from the start.

“We got out-rode today,” said Spies, who still maintains the AMA Superbike points lead. “We’ve got to come back stronger and I’ve got to train harder. I’m happy with the 20-point lead because the championship is what’s most important. And I’ve got to thank my guys for staying at the track late last night to give me a good bike to ride. Obviously, I’m a little disappointed but you get beat sometimes.”

Yates had been struggling over the weekend. He got a decent start but had a rough time getting ahead and ended up with sixth place. “We went faster today than we did yesterday on the Superbike,” said Yates. “So we’ve made a little bit of progress there. We’re going to Mid-Ohio to test and hopefully we can take a few more steps forward and get the bike working for me like I need it to win races.”

AMA Superbike Top 10 Finishers:

1 Mat Mladin (Yoshimura Suzuki)
2 Ben Spies (Yoshimura Suzuki)
3 Jake Zemke (Honda)
4 Neil Hodgson (Ducati)
5 Miguel Duhamel (Honda)
6 Aaron Yates (Yoshimura Suzuki)
7 Ben Bostrom (Ducati)
8 Tommy Hayden (Kawasaki)
9 Jason Pridmore (Jordan Suzuki)
10 Jake Holden (Jordan Suzuki)

Championship Standings:
1. Ben Spies (Suzuki) 322
2. Mat Mladin (Suzuki) 301
3. Miguel Duhamel (Honda) 251
4. Neil Hodgson (Ducati) 236
5. Aaron Yates (Suzuki) 229
6. Tommy Hayden (Kawasaki) 220
7. Ben Bostrom (Ducati) 215
8. Jake Zemke (Honda) 214
9. Jason Pridmore (Suzuki) 192
10. Larry Pegram (Honda) 170


YATES TOPS SUPERSTOCK:

Team Yoshimura Suzuki’s Aaron Yates won his second AMA Repsol Superstock race of the season and his 12th Superstock career victory in a tight 10-lap battle on Sunday afternoon.

The defending AMA Superstock Champion is also the first rider to get back-to-back Superstock wins at Road America.

He said: “The Yoshimura Suzuki GSX-R1000 is just going really well at Road America. I’d really like to say thanks to my guys for putting me on such a fast bike.”

Starting out the weekend, Yates had a good qualifying session posting a 2:14.567 lap time and qualified on the front row of the grid in third position.

Sunday’s main event on the undulating four-mile circuit saw Yates get a good start and settle into third place. He put his head down and moved up into second place halfway through the race and, with just a few laps to go, he made a daring pass to take the lead and held it to the race’s end.

“I wasn’t really as comfortable as I would have liked to be in the race,” said Yates. “The last three or four laps were really stressful for me. But I tried to go as hard as I could because I knew Jamie Hacking would be charging hard. I just tried to concentrate on going forward, not backwards and I’m just glad to get the win and get some points.”

Going into the Miller Motorsports Park race later this month, Yates is just nine points off the championship lead.

Superstock Top 10 Finishers:

1 Aaron Yates (Yoshimura Suzuki)
2 Jamie Hacking (Yamaha)
3 Jason Disalvo (Yamaha)
4 Geoff May (M4 EMGO Suzuki)
5 Josh Hayes (Honda)
6 Steve Rapp (Jordan Suzuki)
7 Jason Pridmore (Jordan Suzuki)
8 Damon Buckmaster (Kawasaki)
9 Marty Craggill (Hotbodies Racing Mat Mladin Motorsports Suzuki)
10 Matt Lynn (Suzuki)

Honda Report

American Honda's Jake Zemke finished third in both Superbike races at Road America, continuing an impressive streak that's seen the Honda CBR1000RR-powered team on the podium at every one of the nine races of the AMA Superbike Championship.

On Saturday, Zemke fought hard to pass teammate Miguel Duhamel on the tenth of 16 tours of the high speed four-mile road course through the woods of Wisconsin. Duhamel made Zemke earn the podium, chasing him to the checkered flag. The gap between the two Hondas was a mere . 197 seconds.

"I think I had like a second and a half or something, but then got into some lappers and (Duhamel) closed right back up and made it exciting for the last couple of laps," Zemke said. "Definitely I had to keep my head down and ride hard those last couple of laps."

Sunday's race was interrupted by a red flag on the 7th of 16 laps. The red flag helped Zemke and hurt Duhamel.

"The red flag was the saving grace for us," Zemke said after a change of tires. Duhamel felt the opposite. "For us the red flag totally killed us," he said.

Duhamel and Zemke ran an early second and third on the re-start, with Zemke making the pass and settling into third on the 10th of 16 laps. Having finished third on Saturday, Zemke wanted one more step on the podium and chased the second placed Suzuki of Ben Spies, finishing 1.5 seconds back.

Duhamel had less luck. The team protectively added fuel for the final 11 laps, but fuel consumption problems on the final lap killed his drive on the uphill run to the finish line. The veteran was passed for fourth place, losing the spot to Neil Hodgson by .3 seconds. The fuel issue arose because Duhamel had dramatically increased his pace in the second leg, running 1.5 seconds faster in the race than he had in qualifying.

Despite the problems, Duhamel maintained his strong third place in the championship after five of 11 rounds.

Suzuki's Mat Mladin won both races, with teammate Ben Spies finishing second both times out, and Zemke carding two thirds.

Jake Zemke, Saturday 3rd, Sunday 3rd

I got off the line good (on Saturday), but just couldn't get going there the first couple of laps. Things were getting better there towards the middle of the race. Definitely reeled Miguel (Duhamel) back in and he made a little mistake coming out of five, so I was able to go right by him without even trying having to try too hard. Just kind of put my head down after that. He was holding pretty even. To be on the podium four times and have a Honda on the podium at every race so far, we're real happy about that..

Well I was wishing Ben (Spies) would quit looking back at me and go slower but he didn't do that (on Sunday). He kept tabs on me that last lap. It looked like he was having a little bit of problem there. He was just bringing it on to the finish. He knew where I was at. I wasn't actually going to catch him. I was trying. He was keeping tabs on me and seeing where I was at and he knew how hard he had to ride that last lap. All in all I'm really happy because I actually finished on the same straightaway as these guys for once. That's coming a long ways from last year. We're really working hard to try and get that bike up to the front. We're not just going to give up and lay over and roll on our backs. We're keep charging and keep trying and one of these days I'll get to race with these guys.

Miguel Duhamel, Saturday 4th, Sunday 5th

We had a big problems with the brakes (on Saturday). We had a wheelie issue too. The bike was wheelying out of every corner. We had trouble with that. The brake issue was a bigger problem because I kept adjusting the brakes so often that I almost got arm pump from adjusting the brake lever. Two, three laps into it it started. So then adjust harder, so then adjust harder, too hard, then too soft and that's the scary one. And then you go back to harder. So the whole race I could never one find one position of the lever.
It's kind of hard to go at speed and doing that stuff.

Jake (Zemke) found a lot of speed (on Sunday). I never thought he would have been up there, but somehow he got it. For us the red flag totally killed us. That was a new set-up today and it was a really good one with a full tank, but when the tank got lighter the balance went off a little bit. We were just in a really good zone, a good comfort zone that first part of the race. The re-start, I was trying to do a little too much and ran wide in one corner and Jake came by me and that was it. I had nothing for Mat (Mladin). Maybe I could've stayed with Ben (Spies). Then the fuel thing. Coming out of the chicane, going to the back straight to Canada Corner, the bike almost stopped. So then I tried to limp it in.