Six-time AMA Superbike Champion Mat Mladin won Saturday’s AMA Superbike race at Road Atlanta on his Dunlop-shod Yoshimura Suzuki GSX-R1000. The win was Mladin’s fifth in a row, his 11th in 2007, the 62nd (the most all-time) of his career and it pulled him to within two points of his teammate and the current points leader Ben Spies. Spies, the defending AMA Superbike Champion, was racing with Mladin in the early laps but crashed, causing a red flag. The young Texan was able to restart from the back of the grid and work his way up to second, but he could not catch Mladin. Spies’ effort, however, continued his streak of finishing second or better in every race so far in 2007. Monster Energy Kawasaki’s Jamie Hacking and Michael Jordan Motorsports Suzuki’s Aaron Yates fought over third all the way down to the flag. When the smoke cleared, Hacking had his third podium finish in the past four races, and Yates was fourth, 0.4-second behind Hacking. American Honda’s Jake Zemke held off Hacking’s teammate Roger Hayden to place fifth. Fast By Ferracci MV Agusta’s Matt Lynn took his best finish of the season, seventh, one spot better than his Italian teammate Luca Scassa. Yates’ teammate Jake Holden scored ninth on his Superstock-spec GSX-R1000, while Tommy Hayden salvaged 10th on his Yoshimura Suzuki, after crashing earlier in the race. Yamaha’s Jason DiSalvo also crashed in the race, but he was not able to restart. His teammate Eric bostrom retired one lap later with engine problems. Corona Extra Honda’s James Ellison dropped out of the race early on, with a clutch fried in the restart. 2007 AMA Superbike Championship Presented by Parts Unlimited Road Atlanta Braselton, Georgia September 1, 2007 Provisional Race Results: 1. Mat Mladin (Suz GSX-R1000), Dunlop, 22 laps 2. Ben Spies (Suz GSX-R1000), Dunlop, -6.591 seconds, crash 3. Jamie Hacking (Kaw ZX-10R), Dunlop, -16.427 seconds 4. Aaron Yates (Suz GSX-R1000), Dunlop, -16.902 seconds 5. Jake Zemke (Hon CBR1000RR), Dunlop, -21.077 seconds 6. Roger Hayden (Kaw ZX-10R), Dunlop, -22.947 seconds 7. Matt Lynn (MV Agusta F4-1000R 312), Dunlop, -44.937 seconds 8. Luca Scassa (MV Agusta F4-1000R 312), Dunlop, -53.939 seconds 9. Jake Holden (Suz GSX-R1000), Dunlop, -58.655 seconds* 10. Tommy Hayden (Suz GSX-R1000), Dunlop, -68.376 seconds, crash 11. Scott Jensen (Suz GSX-R1000), Pirelli, -74.872 seconds* 12. Ben Thompson (Suz GSX-R1000), Dunlop, -77.991 seconds 13. David Weber (Suz GSX-R1000), Dunlop, -81.963 seconds* 14. John Haner (Suz GSX-R1000), Dunlop, -1 lap* 15. Dominic Jones (Suz GSX-R1000), -1 lap, 9.427 seconds 16. Ivan Garza (Suz GSX-R1000), Dunlop, -1 lap, 49.576 seconds 17. Scott Carpenter (Suz GSX-R1000), Pirelli, -3 laps 18. Keith Marshall (Suz GSX-R1000), Pirelli, -9 laps, DNF 19. Dean Mizdal (Suz GSX-R1000), Dunlop, -11 laps, DNF, mechanical 20. Eric Bostrom (Yam YZF-R1), Dunlop, -13 laps, DNF, mechanical 21. Jason DiSalvo (Yam YZF-R1), Dunlop, -14 laps, DNF, crash 22. James Ellison (Hon CBR1000RR), Dunlop, -17 laps, DNF, mechanical *known to be on a Superstock-spec motorcycle Provisional 2007 AMA Superbike Championship Point Standings (after 17 of 19 races): 1. Spies, 583 points 2. Mladin, 581 3. Zemke, 416 4. Yates, 409 5. Tommy Hayden, 405 6. Hacking, 374 7. Miguel Duhamel, 360 8. DiSalvo, 324 9. Roger Hayden, 318 10. Bostrom, 315 11. Ellison, 277 12. Jensen, 256 13. Scassa, 243 14. Holden, 223 15. Lynn, 221 16. Weber, 217 17. Jones, 207 18. Mizdal, 201 19. John Haner, 166 20. Doug Chandler, 93 More, from a press release issued by American Suzuki: Yoshimura Suzuki’s Mladin Takes 11th Victory of Season in Road Atlanta Superbike Race I Spies & Hayden both rally after crashing to finish second & 10th Round 10 AMA Superbike Series Braselton, GA Road Atlanta Aug. 31 Sept. 2, 2007 Yoshimura Suzuki’s Mat Mladin won his 11th AMA Superbike race of the season in Saturday’s race at Road Atlanta in Braselton, Ga. With this victory, Mladin tied his own record for most AMA Superbike race wins in a single season. This is also the 62nd career AMA Superbike win for the six-time AMA Superbike Champion. Yoshimura Suzuki teammate Ben Spies finished in second place after a crash and a red flag, which resulted in Spies re-starting from the back of the grid. In spite of this, the defending AMA Superbike Champion worked his way through the field to finish on the podium. Yoshimura Suzuki’s Tommy Hayden was running in an impressive fourth position when another rider made contact with him and he went down. Hayden re-entered the race and charged hard to make it up to the top 10 before the race’s end. Saturday’s 25-lap race was the first of two AMA Superbike races in this weekend’s double-header event. Mat Mladin: “It was a good race for us today and it was good to get the win. To have 11 wins for the year, well, it’s been a pretty good season so far. We’re definitely looking at trying to win another race tomorrow. Before the red flag today, we had a good pace on the Yoshimura Suzuki GSX-R1000. There were places where Ben was very strong but I knew that we were strong also in a few spots. We were doing our best to just try and eke it out and try to put as much pressure on Ben as possible. He knows that he wants to win the championship a lot more than I do and he knows that you’ve got to win races if you’re going to win the championship, so he’s got to get going. That’s made for good racing out there and we’re looking forward to tomorrow. Hopefully, we can put on a good show.” Ben Spies: “We had pretty good speed on the Yoshimura Suzuki GSX-R1000 before the re-start. That was just a little mistake”¦ the way I threw the bike in there or something. After I got back to the pits I saw the bike wasn’t torn up too bad. I looked at the lap times and told the guys that we could at least go out and get second place today. I set a couple decent laps in the beginning and tried to be as patient as possible. All together, coming in second isn’t too bad after crashing and coming back from last place. Tomorrow, we’ve got to find a little speed. We’re close, but we need to find something for a little edge.” Tommy Hayden: “I’ve felt pretty good all weekend. In fact, this is the best I’ve felt in a while. I was looking forward to the race and I knew the start would be important and I got good starts both times. I got a good start in the first start and a really good one in the second. Then another rider took me out and that pretty much put an end to my race. After that, I tried to get back up in case there was another red flag and I could try and get another good start or if not, just try and get as many points as I could.” The Yoshimura Suzuki team will return for the second AMA Superbike race of the weekend on Sunday.