Yoshimura Suzuki’s Mladin, Spies & Yates Prepare for Superbike Championship Battle at Season-Ending Mid-Ohio Event BREA, Calif., (Sept. 18, 2006) Team Yoshimura Suzuki’s Ben Spies, Mat Mladin and Aaron Yates are gearing up for the AMA Superbike season finale, where the AMA Superbike Championship will be decided, at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in Lexington, Ohio, the weekend of Sept. 29 Oct. 1, 2006. Heading into this final round, Yoshimura Suzuki has won 17 out of 18 races for 2006. Currently Spies leads the title chase in AMA Superbike over teammate Mladin. After finishing second overall in his rookie AMA Superbike season last year, Spies returned to race his Yoshimura Suzuki GSX-R1000 with a vengeance in 2006. The 22-year-old Texan has won an amazing 10 races this year and he’s captured seven out of 10 pole positions. At this year’s first Mid-Ohio Superbike double-header weekend in August, Spies picked up a pair of wins. He hopes to pick up his first AMA Superbike championship this time around. “I broke my hand at VIR and that’s been a bit of a challenge but it’s better now, it’s definitely healing,” said Spies, who only needs to finish in 13th or better to win the championship. “It’ll be cool to see the whole new race format there’s no qualifying, no extra point to get for pole, just the point for leading the most laps. I just need to see who’s in my heat race and how hard I have to ride my Yoshimura Suzuki GSX-R1000 to get into the main race. Then it’s just a matter of getting in position and waiting for the checkered flag.” Teammate Mladin, however, doesn’t plan to sit back and allow Spies an easy job of it. The defending AMA Superbike Champion is 20 points back in second place overall. Mladin is also the only six-time AMA Superbike Champion ever, and he has a record 50 AMA Superbike career wins and 48 AMA Superbike career pole positions. “It will be good to go back to Mid-Ohio,” said Mladin. “I have to thank my Yoshimura Suzuki guys for doing a great job because we came on strong at the end of the year and now I’m looking forward to next year. Getting a kick in the pants from Ben has lit a fire under me. I won’t make it so easy for him next year.” Yates, meanwhile, earned two AMA Superbike podium finishes at the most recent double-header weekend at Road Atlanta in Braselton, Ga. A native of Georgia, Yates finished in third place in both Superbike races, helping teammates Mladin and Spies create a Yoshimura Suzuki sweep of both the weekend’s races. “I’m looking forward to going back to Mid-Ohio,” said Yates. “We had a pretty good race going on the Yoshimura Suzuki GSX-R1000 in Superbike the last time we were there and I feel like we can go better this time. We got a pretty good direction for the bike from last month and I feel like we can use that to improve our result in the race next week. Also, I’m looking forward to wrapping up the season.” For more information on Spies, Mladin, Yates and Yoshimura Suzuki Racing, log onto www.teamsuzuki.com.