Another japanese bike wins, its rare for them not to, unless the field is stacked. Mat Mladin has taken a record fifth AMA Chevrolet Superbike Championship with a sixth place finish in the first race of the Superbike double-header at Virginia International Raceway today as five Suzukis filled the top-ten places. The Yoshimura Suzuki rider needed to finish second if Honda's Jake Zemke took maximum points, but he raced for the win while Zemke fell back, pitting at one point and eventually pulling out with a bout five laps remaining. The race ended with Mladin holding an insurmountable 557 points. Race winner Miguel Duhamel took over second with 510 and Zemke dropped to third on 490. The race was a thriller to the flag with Duhamel passing Yoshimura Suzuki's Aaron Yates on the final lap to take the win by 0.126 seconds. Ben Bostrom was 15 seconds back in third ahead of Lorenzo Lanzi and Regis Laconi. Josh Hayes was seventh well in front of Lion Racing's Jacob Holden on a Suzuki. Then came Prieto Racing's Geoff May (Suzuki) and Mike Smith on a Junkyard Special Suzuki. Yates took the lead on lap two with young Italian Lanzi going with him. Mladin and Zemke were close behind but ahead of Duhamel and Laconi with Ben Bostrom further back in front of Hayes, May and Holden. Mladin closed on Lanzi on the third lap and was up to second by the time they hit the stripe. And on the fifth lap, he forced ahead of team-mate Yates just past the start-finish line to take the lead as Duhamel closed on Lanzi. Zemke was now 3.614 seconds behind the leader with Ben Bostrom in his shadow and his hopes were fading fast. Mladin's lead was 0.735 ending the sixth lap, Yates holding a similar gap to Duhamel - who was now up to third. Lanzi was about the same distance back in fourth. Then there was a gap of over two seconds to Ben Bostrom who had just made his way past Zemke, but only for a lap. Duhamel was past Yates and up to second and on Mladin early on lap eight, taking the lead later in the lap. Yates also made his way past, so when they crossed the stripe, it was Duhamel, Yates, Mladin and then a gap to Lanzi. Bostrom took fourth from Lanzi on the 10th lap and was now 2.54 seconds behind Mladin who, in turn, was nearly two from the leader Duhamel. Halfway into the race and the top three - Duhamel, Yates and Mladin - were together covered by 0.673 seconds, then four more to Bostrom, with Lanzi alone in front of team-mate Laconi. Hayes was having a lonely ride in seventh, as was May and Holden. Zemke pitted ending his 14th lap and when he came around ending the 16th lap, he was a lap down. Mladin had his bad luck on the 18th lap when he dropped from third to a distant sixth, nearly 20 seconds back. The championship was still his but the race win was out of reach: Yates had taken the lead from Duhamel on the same lap and with Mladin's drop, Bostrom was now up to third. Lanzi and Laconi were next, then Mladin followed at some distance by Hayes, then Holden and May. Mladin raced past Laconi on the 21st lap but at a distance of nine seconds to Lanzi. Not that it mattered, Mladin now 556 points to Duhamel's 510 and Zemke's 490. The leaders were on the 23rd lap when Zemke pulled out of the race. The drama would be whether Yates could take his first win of the year and first in over a year. Taking the white flag, Duhamel drafted by Yates and took the lead holding it to the line to win by 0.126 seconds. Superbike Race 1 Results: 1. Miguel Duhamel (Honda) 2. Aaron Yates (Suzuki) 3. Ben Bostrom (Honda) 4. Lorenzo Lanzi (Ducati) 5. Regis Laconi (Ducati) 6. Mat Mladin (Suzuki) 7. Josh Hayes (Kawasaki) 8. Jacob Holden (Suzuki) 9. Geoff May (Suzuki) 10. Mike Smith (Suzuki) Newly-crowned Chevrolet AMA Superbike Champion Mat Mladin raced to fourth place in today's second leg and final race of the 2004 series at Virginia International Raceway as team-mate Aaron Yates took his second runner-up place of the day. Yoshimura Suzuki's five-time AMA Champion, who now shares the record of 32 Superbike wins with today's race winner Miguel Duhamel, charged back through the pack from a stop-and-go penalty. Duhamel completed his second Superbike sweep of the year, winning both legs of the rescheduled event following last month's hurricanes. The race began under a cloud with Mladin jumping about 30 feet from his starting spot. As he appeared to be back-pedalling, the lights went off and the rest of the field was prompted by an AMA official to take off, setting off a potentially dangerous situation. Mladin pulled down the pit lane and served his stop and go and when he completed the third lap, he was well out of the top 15. Yates led with Duhamel taking second from Lanzi on the sixth lap, setting up a replay of race one, only this time, Yates had a three-second cushion and Duhamel had some catching up to do. Seven laps in and Mladin was up to 14th and on the next lap he was up to 11th, but nearly 25 seconds from the leaders. At the halfway mark, Mladin had cut leader Josh Hayes, lead to 4.560 seconds. His lap times were among the fastest on the track, but Duhamel was faster, which is why he had 2.3 seconds on Yates at this point with Ben Bostrom alone in third. The Ducati Austin team raced together in fourth and fifth, and then Hayes with Mladin closing, the pass would come on lap 17. Mladin's next move came on Laconi on lap 26. It got him to fourth with Lanzi having pitted a few laps earlier with a mechanical problem. “It was a great feeling to have finally got it done, especially as we had to wait those extra three weeks after the round was rescheduled,” said Mladin. “It‘s been a busy time for us as we have been focussed on winning the title this weekend, plus we have already begun our planning for next year and what needs to be done with the new bike.” "This win has definitely been a team effort, above and beyond the usual high efforts that my guys put in. I have to thank each of my crew, Yoshimura and Suzuki themselves for the efforts that were made this year. A couple of months ago the championship was very close, but everyone stepped up and that made it a lot easier to get the results we were chasing. The last round at Road Atlanta was pivotal in winning the championship. We knew we had to do well there so that we could set it up here and fortunately for us we came away with a double race win at Atlanta which was perfect.” “Today was one of those days where we just focussed on what we needed to do to win the championship and let a few of the others chase the race wins and that’s exactly how we played it. We got the championship done in the first race and it was a shame to have had to do the stop / go for the jump start in the second. I was aiming at getting on the podium there and I know I put together a lot of good laps but just missed out on getting the podium. It was a good day though and we’re all very happy with how today and the whole season has gone.” Superbike Race 2 Results: 1. Miguel Duhamel (Honda) 2. Aaron Yates (Suzuki) 3. Ben Bostrom (Honda) 4. Mat Mladin (Suzuki) 5. Regis Laconi (Ducati) 6. Josh Hayes (Kawasaki) 7. Marty Craggill (Suzuki) 8. Mike Smith (Suzuki) 9. Geoff May (Suzuki) 10. Jeremy Toye (Yamaha) Aaron Gobert wrapped up the 1,000cc Superstock title on Saturday. Extra Results added later Supersport Race 1. Jason DiSalvo, Yam, 17 laps 2. Jamie Hacking, Yam, -0.242 second 3. Aaron Gobert, Yam, -6.732 seconds 4. Roger Lee Hayden, Kaw, -7.981 seconds 5. Steve Rapp, Suz, -8.824 seconds 6. Tommy Hayden, Kaw, -14.426 seconds 7. Ben Spies, Suz, -25.047 seconds 8. Ben Attard, Suz, -27.184 seconds 9. Michael Barnes, Yam, -32.881 seconds 10. Lee Acree, Suz, -38.217 seconds FX 600 Race 1. Miguel Duhamel, Hon CBR600RR, 17 laps 2. Vincent Haskovec, Suz GSX-R600, -4.218 seconds 3. Doug Chandler, Duc 749R, -6.006 seconds 4. Mike Ciccotto, Buell XB9R, -41.425 seconds 5. Chris "Opie" Caylor, Suz GSX-R600, -41.554 seconds 6. Nicky Moore, Suz GSX-R600, -54.235 seconds 7. Heath Small, Yam YZF-R6, -56.084 seconds 8. Darin Eli Edwards, Suz GSX-R600, -66.208 seconds 9. Derek Keyes, Suz GSX-R600, -74.810 seconds 10. Carlo Gagliardo, Yam YZF-R6, -75.187 seconds Supersport Championship Final Points 1. T Hayden 352 2. R Hayden 343 3. Aa Gobert 284 4. B Spies 279 5. J Disalvo 274 6. S Rapp 255 7. M Barnes 248 8. J Hacking 233 9. B Attard 10. C Peris 170 FX600 Championship Final Points 1. M Duhamel 395 2. J Zemke 308 3. V Haskovec 263 4. Al Gobert 254 5. L Pegram 215 6. J Pridmore 199 7. H Small 197 8. N Hester 178 9. D Chandler 166 10. P Melneciuc 152 Superbike Championship Final Points 1. Mladin 584 2. Duhamel 551 3. Zemke 490 4. B Bostrom 422 5. G May 388 6. A Yates 363 7. E Bostrom 336 8. J Hayes 316 9. E Wood 314 10. J Haner
