Mladin snaps Spies' streak at seven

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By: Chris Martin

Rockstar Makita Yoshimura Suzuki's Mat Mladin ended teammate Ben Spies' AMA Superbike win streak at seven with a brilliant performance on Sunday afternoon at Road America. The win is the 67th of Mladin's illustrious career and his fourth of the season after opening the year three-for-three.

Sunday's race was one of the more stirring of the season as Mladin, Spies, and Monster Energy Kawasaki's Jamie Hacking settled into a three-way scrap for the lead over the racing's opening several laps. Mladin and Spies traded the top spot repeatedly while Hacking used every last mph of his ZX-10R to cling onto the fight for first.

The British pilot lost the draft after hitting a damp spot following lap five and slowly fell into another lonely ride to his sixth straight podium result while Mladin took command of the race as Spies formation flew his works GSX-R1000 right behind.

The Australian slowly worked up a small advantage with five to go, gradually opening the gap up to just over a half-second as they took the white flag. Spies gave up the pursuit when he ran with in Turn 5 and it became obvious Mladin wouldn't be beaten on this day and fell close to three seconds off the win at the checkered flag.

Hacking finished third some 21 seconds back while American Honda's Neil Hodgson was once again the fourth fastest man on track, finishing another eight plus seconds behind his countryman.

Yamaha USA's Eric Bostrom took advantage of a problem with Jordan Suzuki's Aaron Yates' GSX-R to escape from their fight for fifth, while American Honda's Miguel DuHamel overcame a stiff challenge from Yates' teammate, Geoff May, on his Superstock-spec machine for sixth.

Yates got the chain back on his bike to claim eighth, while Celtic Racing's Alastair Seeley and Team ESP's Chris Peris rounded out the top ten.

Spies will carry a 40-point advantage (378 vs. 338) into the combined MotoGP/AMA Superbike round at Laguna Seca on July 16-18 following the summer break.