AMA Superbike: 2009 Barber Results

Rockstar Makita Suzuki s Mladin is a perfect seven-for-seven after a pair of victories May 2-3 at Barber Motorsports Park in Birmingham, Ala. The wins were Mladins 78th and 79th career AMA Superbike wins, but the first on the 2009 Suzuki GSX-R1000.

Mladin began race one from the pole but dropped back to fourth on the opening lap. Mladins teammate Blake Young and factory Yamaha rider Ben Bostrom, who topped all riders in recent Infineon Raceway test sessions, traded the early lead until Mladin took over on lap six of the 21-lap race.

It started off pretty good there, says Young. After getting out front, I really wanted to see what the track was like. It was obviously really green and not very much grip, but I just tried to get comfortable and put in a pace that I was comfortable doing. Ben came by and he was running a bit quicker, so I definitely just jumped in and tried to learn where he was a little bit better. All of a sudden, Mat came by and he was running even more of a quicker pace, so I knew he was going to go.

Young and Bostrom battled for second through the remainder of the race with Young finishing a quarter-second ahead.

Severe storms delayed Sundays activities for several hours, forcing officials to shorten race two to 16 laps.

In a repeat of race one, Mladin dropped back from the pole in the opening lap, but was able to take the lead after the second lap by overtaking Yamahas Josh Hayes. The race was then interrupted a few laps later after Young crashed while battling with Hayes on turn five. The safety car was brought out as an ambulance brought Young to the medical center.

Racing resumed after lap nine with Mladin cruising to a 2.745-second victory. Mladins 79th career win moved him within seven of Miguel Duhamels record of 86 wins.

Ive had seven in a row, and obviously nobody has had any more than seven before so well see if we can go to Infineon and get another one, says Mladin. The bike worked great today, we found some stuff out this morning in the warm up. I had a completely different motorcycle this afternoon and very similar lap times to what I did this morning even with the condition of the track.

Jordan Suzukis Aaron Yates finished second for his career best Superbike result. Bostrom repeated his race one result with a third-place finish. After the race, Bostrom credited his team for their efforts and took it on himself for not returning the favor with a victory.

The boys are doing a great job, says Bostrom. They definitely built a winning bike today and the rider didnt put it all together. Thats rider error. The R1 is fantastic. These guys just out-rode us today so congratulations to Suzuki, Aaron and Mat.

Meanwhile Young was transferred to the University of Alabama at Birmingham Medical Center for treatment.

The 2009 AMA Superbike series continues May 15-17 at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, Calif.