Mat Mladin Snags 60th AMA Superbike Win - Two laps into Saturday’s AMA Superbike race at Virginia International Speedway, Mat Mladin twisted the throttle of his Yoshimura Suzuki GSX-R1000 to the stops and went roaring into the lead. Maintaining an approximate gap of two seconds over teammate Ben Spies, the Australian would hold station at the front of field. Try as he might, Spies could not close in on the leading Suzuki, and on lap 16 — perhaps as a sign of frustration — ran off the track. For all intents and purposes, the race was run, Mladin flashing across the finish line with a lead of10.359 seconds. And not only was it Mladin’s 60th career AMA Superbike win, it allowed him to close within 11 points of championship leader Spies, who placed second.

"It is amazing," exulted Mladin of his win. "It was only maybe three years ago that I was at 30-something wins and we’ve had a number of wins over the past three or four years and really boosted that number up. As I said yesterday, or whenever it was, in no way shape or form do I think 60’s going to be the last. I’m certainly working as hard as I can to extend my career and be a force in AMA Superbike for as long as possible. So who knows how many we might have when we finish?"

Mladin and Spies will go to war yet again tomorrow in Virginia, now only four races remaining in the 2007 AMA Superbike Championship series. As one might expect, Spies is growing concerned.

"I just made a mistake and ran off the track," he said after the race. "I might could have stayed on the track but it was going to put a lot of pressure on the front tire so we just stood up and got back on.”

Monster Kawasaki’s Jamie Hacking and Jordan Suzuki’s Aaron Yates raced back and forth all 28 laps in a heated tussle over third place. Yates held the lead on the white flag lap with Hacking stalking mercilessly. Hacking found away around the Suzuki in the esses and Yates found himself .098 of a second short of the green Kawasaki. Monster Kawasaki’s Roger Lee Hayden rode to fifth while Yamaha’s Eric Bostrom was sixth.