Yoshimura Suzuki’s Mat Mladin celebrated a record 60th career AMA Superbike win after taking the victory in Saturday’s AMA Superbike race at Virginia International Raceway in Alton, VA. Additionally, this is six-time AMA Superbike Champion Mladin’s ninth win of the 2007 season and his sixth victory at scenic VIR. Yoshimura Suzuki teammate and defending AMA Superbike ChampionBen Spies followed Mladin home in second place and this impressive result leaves him in command of the AMA Superbike championship points chase. Rounding out the Yoshimura Suzuki team roster, former AMA Supersport Champion Tommy Hayden finished up in ninth position in the afternoon’s race. Saturday’s 28-lap race is the first of two AMA Superbike races in this weekend’s double-header event.

Mat Mladin:

“It was a good race for us today. We tried to put the pressure on right up front and then tried to eke out a tenth of a second per lap. There was definitely some slippery going out there today but the lap times weren’t too bad… Hopefully we can come out and do it again tomorrow. It was only three years ago or so that I had about 30 wins and we’ve had a lot of wins in the last few years on the Yoshimura Suzuki GSX-R and boosted that number up. No way do I think that 60 is going to be my lat win. I’m certainly working as hard as I can to extend my career and continue to be a force in Superbike racing.”

Ben Spies:

“We did make a really big change to the bike before the race today. But even so, we were keeping Mat in sight; but then I made a mistake and ran off the track. At that point, I knew I was going for second so I just put my head down and tried to put in some good laps to get my guys some data that we can use for tomorrow. Hopefully we can come back strong, though when you’re riding at the limit it’s hard to find much more. Maybe we can make the bike better and the rider better, and improve for tomorrow.”

Tommy Hayden:

“I got a decent start on the Yoshimura Suzuki GSX-R1000 and then I got in behind Jake (Zemke) and I kind of got stuck. This is a hard track to pass on for me and I just couldn’t get around him. I felt pretty good and I think that if I could’ve gotten around Jake that I could have run the pace of some of the guys who were up in front of me. I know I need to work on improving my starts and I have a couple ideas for the bike that might help step it up.”

The Yoshimura Suzuki team will return for the second AMA Superbike race of the weekend on Sunday.