Rockstar Makita Suzuki Factory Racing's Ben Spies won Saturday's AMA Superbike race at Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin, which was a record breaking seventh AMA Superbike wins on the trot!
The two-time AMA Superbike Champion was the pole-sitter in this race, the first of two in the double-header weekend, and led all 16 laps to victory on his Rockstar Makita Suzuki GSX-R1000. In addition to this being Spies' seventh win of the season, it also marks his 25th AMA Superbike career win.
Six-time AMA Superbike Champion Mat Mladin got off the line with his team mate and battled for the lead. In the end, however, Mladin brought home a strong second-place result.
Rockstar Makita Suzuki Factory Racing's Tommy Hayden is recovering from injuries sustained at a recent round of AMA Superbike and did not race.
Ben Spies:
"The weekend was really good, other than my throwing the bike down in practice this morning. It was a tough race, the pace was really hot. Mat was staying right there, making me work for it. I've got to thank my guys because they had to build me a new bike after I crashed. We're going to do everything we can to try and win another one tomorrow on the Rockstar Makita Suzuki GSX-R1000. Right now we want to get another Superbike title and if we accomplish that by winning races and setting records, then great. But basically, we need to finish in front of Mat and to do that we're just going to keep doing what we've been doing because that seems to be working for us."
Mat Mladin:
"We're going to go back and try to get the bike a little better tonight and try for a better race tomorrow. We tried our hardest today on the Rockstar Makita Suzuki GSX-R1000 but Ben was too quick for us today. His bike was fast, we were slower all weekend and we've been struggling a bit on the straights. But after about four or five laps, I tried to put it in tight underneath him but I couldn't quite make it stick. We need to find some straight-line speed to give us a chance. We'll see if we can give him more of a hurry-up tomorrow."
AMA Superbike Top 10 Finishers:
1. Ben Spies (Rockstar Makita Suzuki)
2. Mat Mladin (Rockstar Makita Suzuki)
3. Jamie Hacking (Kawasaki)
4. Neil Hodgson (Honda)
5. Miguel Duhamel (Honda)
6. Aaron Yates (Jordan Suzuki)
7. Jason Disalvo (Yamaha)
8. Eric Bostrom (Yamaha)
9. Geoff May (Jordan Suzuki)
10. Alastair Seeley (Suzuki)
