Mladin takes first blood at Daytona
Rockstar/Makita Suzuki rider Mat Mladin won his seventh career AMA Pro National Guard American Superbike presented by Parts Unlimited race at Daytona International Speedway Thursday where he led 10 of 15 laps from the pole.
Mladin’s win was his second American Superbike victory in a row at the “World Center of Racing,” fifth in the last six years and seventh overall dating back to 2000. He led from the start after winning the pole earlier Thursday in the first ever American Superbike Superpole qualifying session and led the first two laps of the race before Larry Pegram (No. 72 Foremost Insurance/Pegram Racing Ducati 1098R) passed and led for the next three circuits.
“Obviously it’s nice to get any win,” said Mladin, who rides the No. 7 Rockstar/Makita Yoshimura Suzuki GSX-R1000. “I sort of tried to go at the start, but I just couldn’t get down to the sort of lap times that I really thought I may be able to. Obviously the guys were close enough coming out of the chicane to be able to pull past.”
Mladin stayed in the thick of the lead pack along with Neil Hodgson (No. 100 Corona Extra Honda CBR1000RR) who passed Pegram and led Laps 6 and 7. Mladin fell to third at the race’s midpoint but was never out of contention.
“About half race, there wasn’t really anything happening out there, so I just thought I’d try and get back to the front and push as hard as I could, and at least try and have a bit of a gap leading out of the chicane,” said Mladin, who took the lead for good on Lap 8. “I think that’s what happened.”
Hodgson took second in a true photo finish with Mladin’s Rockstar/Makita Suzuki teammate Tommy Hayden (No. 22 Rockstar/Makita Yoshimura Suzuki GSX-R1000). The two riders crossed the finish line in a near dead heat that had to be decided by AMA Pro Racing’s at-the-finish-line photography.
“Mat had no advantage at all, machinery-wise,” Hodgson said. “He rode a really good race and didn’t make any mistakes, and pulled it at the last five laps. But yeah, I’m pleased, pleased with second. It was really close, obviously. It always is here. I was just thinking on the way here, I passed Roger Hayden last year on the last lap, and I beat him by the same amount, like nothing. So I’m sorry to the Hayden family for that.”
Tommy Hayden had a poor start but recovered solidly to hit the podium.
“It’s a completely new starting procedure,” Hayden said. “There’s no boards. I guess we go when the light goes off, I didn’t know. I specifically read the rulebook last night, because there was stuff yesterday in the riders’ meeting, and stuff that I wasn’t aware of. And I thought I’d already read it once, and somehow I keep skipping the starting part, I guess, because I didn’t know what we were supposed to do. I was 10th, I think, in Turn One. So that’s something I have to figure out. My fault.”
Pegram capped a good race with a fourth-place showing while Blake Young (No. 79 Rockstar/Makita Yoshimura Suzuki GSX-R1000) made it five Rockstar/Makita machines from Yoshimura Suzuki in the top five.
Next up for the AMA Pro National Guard American Superbike presented by Parts Unlimited is the first dual race weekend of the year at Auto Club Speedway, March 20 – 22, and today’s top finishers are looking forward to the event.
“We look forward to getting to the next race,” said Mladin, who earned single bonus points today for winning the pole and leading the most race laps. “The boys get home, do a bit of work, and have a look at a few things, and see if we can’t come out of Fontana and have a bit of a gap.”
Hodgson is also ready to see what his Honda can do in California.
“Like Mat said, I’m looking forward to Fontana,” Hodgson said. “Had a good test there, and enjoying my riding. Team’s working well.”
— HRC Report
Hodgson a close second in inaugural AMA Pro American Superbike race
Corona Extra Honda’s Neil Hodgson kicked off the AMA Pro American Superbike season with a strong second place finish in the season-opener on a warm, windy afternoon on the high banks of Daytona International Speedway.
The finish thrilled the Isle of Man resident, who thanked his team for building a Honda CBR1000RR capable of winning in a relatively short amount of time. The Corona Extra Honda team wasn’t officially announced until just over a month before the race. But once the commitment was made, the team quickly got to work building a machine that took Hodgson to the best finish of his Honda career.
After qualifying the Honda CBR1000RR fourth in the first ever Superpole session, the 2003 World Superbike Champion was in the mix from the start of the 15-lap American Superbike race, slotting into second behind early leader Mat Mladin.
Hodgson took the lead on the sixth lap, now from Larry Pegram (Ducati), to front a quartet of riders. Hodgson then led for two laps before being passed in turn one of the eighth lap by both Mladin and Pegram, and dropping to third.
On the tenth lap Hodgson was back into second, but now under pressure from Mladin’s teammate Tommy Hayden, who made a pass on the 14th of
15 laps. But on the final lap Hayden was balked in the chicane and Hodgson closed up for the all-important run from the chicane to the checkered flag, one of the longest full-throttle runs on the AMA calendar.
The pair hit the stripe side by side, but it was Hodgson taking second by the slimmest of margins, officially .001 seconds.
Though he was on the podium twice last year, the second place was Hodgson’s best AMA finish since winning in a torrential downpour at Road America in June of 2005.
Neil Hodgson, 2nd Place: “I was definitely pleased with that. It’s nice to be battling for a win. I’ve not had that opportunity for the last few years. Just pleased for the team, because everybody has put a lot of effort in behind the scenes. It has been 12-hour days for everybody. So, it’s nice for me to do my job. Obviously, I want to win. After a race like that, I can sit down with my crew chief and see where we need to improve the bikes. There’s certainly some areas that I need to improve the bike, but in general I’m pretty happy with that.
When I was in the lead I thought I could win the race. I knew Mat
(Mladin) was probably not in 100% condition and, it’s such a funny place, Daytona. Your tire can just start going down and there’s nothing you can do about it once it starts spinning. I could see Larry’s (Pegram) tire go off pretty much. It just went worse and worse and that was him out of the race. And I thought that could happen to Mat. And when I got the lead, I’m thinking, ‘I’ll just go as fast as I can.”
Tim Saunders, Team Principal: “We’re very excited, very pleased. What I liked probably most of all is it was a really exciting race and it was exciting for everybody. It was just great that it was the race for the whole 15 laps. And it was lovely to be up front and I think we’re excited that the bike’s going well, Neil’s really excited about it. It looks like the bike’s competitive with the others and it just comes down to race craft and good luck and bad luck on the track and that’s the best form of racing as far as I’m concerned.”
American Superbike Final:
1. Mat Mladin (Suzuki)
2. Neil Hodgson (Honda)
3. Tommy Hayden (Suzuki)
4. Larry Pegram (Ducati)
5. Blake Young (Suzuki)
6. Ben Bostrom (Yamaha)
7. Aaron Yates (Suzuki)
8. Josh Hayes (Yamaha)
9. Michael Laverty (Suzuki)
10. Geoff May (Suzuki)
