AMA Superbike: 2009 Road Atlanta Results

Mladin shrugged off a crash at the end of the Sunday morning practice to extend his personal record to 77 career AMA Superbike wins. The weekend also marked the final race for the 2007-2008 Suzuki GSX-R1000. The bike will be retired undefeated as the Rockstar Makita Suzuki team switches to the new 2009 machines at the next race.

Mladin started race one on the pole but briefly lost the lead to teammate Blake Young before resuming control and leading all 20 laps. In his most dominant win of the 2009 season, Mladin finished 15.717 seconds ahead of the runner-up, his other Suzuki teammate, Tommy Hayden. National Guard Jordan Suzukis Geoff May finished third for an all-Gixxer podium.

I had a bit of a tumble in practice this morning and, as usual, my Rockstar Makita Suzuki team got the bike together for me and ready for the race. It was a good race for us; we had a bit of a crack at it and put in some good laps. Around lap 10 or 11, I was trying to figure out whether I should keep pushing it, but my boys get a bit nervous when I do that. I figured Id pushed my luck today enough already so I just decided to have a bit of fun at the end of the race.

The battle for second offered some drama as Young and May swapped positions several times through the race. In the end, however, Young came out ahead by 0.177 seconds, finishing second for his first career American Superbike podium.

Yamahas Josh Hayes finished fifth in race one and fourth in race two as the highest-placing non-Suzuki rider. Hayes crashed during the Saturday practice, bringing out the red flag and cutting short the session. Hayes was treated at the medical center and released.