Laguna Seca AMA Superbike Race Report -ozzy go- motorcycle-usa.com

It was a battle to the finish at the final round of this year's AMA
Superbike Championship. The two-day Corona AMA Superbike
challenge rewarded fans with cool sunny weather, and hot racing action.

Going into this weekend's final round, only three points separated
point's leader Mat Mladin from reigning champ and teammate
Yoshimura Suzuki's Ben Spies. With this weekends round only
being a two day event, Spies wasted no time when he hit the
track on Saturday. He qualified on pole with a new lap record of
1:23.105, pushing Mladin back to second position on Row 1 and
racking up an additional point to bring the gap between them
down to just two scant points. Honda's Jake Zemke, who is
currently unsigned for next year was looking for a good finish to
end a frustrating season and locked in on the third spot.

When the green flag dropped on Sunday's 28-lap grand finale it
was Mladin who rocketed to the front of the field with Honda's
Jake Zemke and teammate Spies in tow. Monster Energy
Kawasaki's Roger Lee Hayden's race ended almost as soon as it
started when the ZX-10R pilot took a tumble in Turn 3.

Meanwhile Spies quickly found his away past Zemke and began
going to work against his one and only true competition this year.
Mladin wasn't giving the Texan any ground though and put
together a string of 1:24 flat lap times. Monster Energy
Kawasaki's early Superbike race misfortune would be duplicated
by Jamie Hacking when he fell while chasing Zemke, moving
Jordan Suzuki's Aaron Yates into fourth position with Yamaha's
Eric Bostrom and MV August's Matt Lynn closely behind.

Spies looked good going into Turn 2 - backing in his GSX-R1000.
Mladin on the other hand had the flat and slow first gear Turn 11
dialed - the six-time champ consistently getting a fantastic drive
out of the corner and onto the short straight away. By lap 13, the
Yoshimura Suzuki duo had already started to mix with lapped
traffic, both getting by the first lappers cleanly without any
drama.

Three laps later though, it would be another lapped rider who got
in the way of Mladin while the two were entering the Corkscrew.
Spies saw the opportunity and jumped on it passing Mladin for the
lead. Spies continued to push hard, setting his fastest lap on his
18th go around the 2.2-mile long circuit. Mladin looked to be
riding hard but had nothing left to offer the 23-year-old Texan
and ended up crossing the checkered flag just over two seconds
behind repeat Superbike champ Spies. click on ozzy go to the full
story on motorcycle-usa.com