From a press release issued by Mat Mladin’s publicist (the part about the GSX-R1000 is at the end):

SECOND FOR MLADIN IN SEASON FINALE AT VIRGINIA

The AMA Chevy Trucks US Superbike Championship drew to a close this weekend with the final race of the season producing the closest finish of the 16-race series with Mat Mladin placing second after a photo finish at Virginia International Raceway.

In a dramatic 28-laps, the second Superbike National of the weekend was stopped on three separate occasions due to crashes, the first of which involved newly crowned champion Nicky Hayden.

The final restart saw Mladin and his Blimpie Yoshimura Suzuki GSX-R750 take the lead position on the track, but was closely followed by Team Kawasaki’s Eric Bostrom. The two were inseparable with Mladin leading by the narrowest of margins across the line in the closing laps. At the end though, Bostrom was able to get into Mladin’s slipstream and pulled up alongside to take the win by an amazing 0.0001 of a second, after Mladin had led the field across the line on 17 previous occasions.

The result meant that for the first time since 1996, Mladin had not won a race during the season and concludes one of his most frustrating years of his racing career, where he has suffered personal injury along with suspension and tyre problems.

“It was a disappointing finish because I really did want to win a race, but it really did hit home that we have a lot of work to do to be competitive for next year,” said Mladin. “A lot of people felt that I was disappointed because I came second, but I was more so because of the way that we came second. On that little straight we should never get passed by any bike let alone another four-cylinder 750.

“I’m happy with the way that I rode. I feel that I’ve been riding well all year and I’m glad that I put in a good ride at the last race as it meant a lot to me. The last race was pretty fast. I’m not sure what sort of tyre Eric (Bostrom) had in, but he was certainly a lot quicker than he was in the other one. The suspension parts that we had this weekend were different to what we had all year and it made a big difference, at least for the first half of the race anyway.”

Earlier in the weekend Mladin had set the second fastest time during qualifying and momentarily led the first of the Superbike Nationals on Saturday, before being forced to retire from the race while holding down second place when his rear tyre chunked badly.

American Honda’s Nicky Hayden took the race one victory and in the process wrapped up his first AMA Superbike Championship. The joy of Saturday ‘s result quickly faded as he crashed out oftoday’s race on lap seven.

Today’s result sees Mladin finish in seventh place overall in the championship.

The three times AMA Superbike champion returns to Australia during the week where he will attend the upcoming round of the Formula Xtreme series at Oran Park. While he is in Australia he will also be making a race appearance at the final round of the Formula Xtreme at Eastern Creek Raceway on September 29 where he will ride a Suzuki GSX-R1000 under the Mat Mladin Motorcycles
/Yoshimura/Suzuki banner.