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Yoshimura Dominate Road Atlanta Weekend |
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Posted by Staff
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Monday, 04 September 2006 |
Yoshimura Suzuki’s Mladin, Spies & Yates Dominate Suzuki Superbike Showdown at Road Atlanta
Next round, Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in Lexington, Ohio, Sept. 29 – Oct. 1, 2006
In what looked like a repeat performance from Saturday, Team Yoshimura Suzuki’s Mat Mladin, Ben Spies and Aaron Yates brought home first, second and third place, respectively, in the second AMA Superbike race of the Road Atlanta double-header weekend in Braselton, Ga.
This race marks Mladin’s 50th Superbike career victory and his seventh win of the season, while Spies’ second-place finish means he leads the points chase going into the final round of AMA Superbike at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in Lexington, Ohio, at the end of the month.
In Sunday’s 25-lap race, Spies nailed the start and took the lead immediately. In spite of his injured hand, the young Texan began gapping the field. Mladin got off the line a little farther back, but worked his way up to Spies quickly. The teammates swapped spots and Mladin took over the lead, and both held their respective positions until the race’s end.
“I have to thank my Yoshimura Suzuki guys because we got some things sorted out with the GSX-R1000 a few weeks ago,” said six-time AMA Superbike Champion Mladin. “We came on strong at the end of the year and now I’m looking forward to next year. Getting a kick in the pants from Ben has lit a fire under me. I won’t make it so easy for him next year.”
After Spies’ results this weekend, he only needs to finish 13th or better to wrap up the 2006 AMA Superbike Championship.
“We definitely weren’t going to try to run Mat’s pace today,” said Spies. “But we did what we had to do. I ran at my pace and when he came up behind me, I let him go by and kept a decent gap on third place. The weekend went exactly the way I’d hoped. Now we just need to go to Mid-Ohio and ride around and hopefully seal this thing.”
Meanwhile, Yates got away in sixth place and used almost all 25 laps to work his way up into a podium spot. Indeed, a daring last-lap pass gave Yates his third-place finish and Yoshimura Suzuki its second Superbike sweep of the weekend.
“I didn’t think I was going to be able to make the pass for third place,” said Yates. “But I just kept my head down, and kept pushing. Being from Georgia, I wanted to represent all the Georgia folks at a Georgia track. Nothing is better than having three Suzukis on the podium on a Suzuki weekend.”
From Yoshimura Suzuki
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