On Saturday, April 19, 2008 at Barber Motorsports Park near Birmingham, Alabama, Rockstar Makita Suzuki’s Mat Mladin took control of the 2008 AMA Superbike Series when, while fighting for the lead, reigning AMA Superbike Champion Ben Spies lost contact with his Suzuki GSX-R1000 while clipping the curbing stripping the downhill roller-coaster museum corner. In doing so, the American hit the gravel, and upon getting back onto his bike and back into the fray, could only race his way back to eleventh place. Mladin, meanwhile, checked out, winning the race by 15.599 seconds over Yamaha rider Jason DiSalvo and Rockstar Makita Suzuki’s Tommy Hayden.

As the omnipotent duo of Mladin and Spies lined up for Sunday’s 28-lap lap main event on the scenic 2.38-mile, 15-turn track for round three of the 2008 AMA Superbike Series, Spies was hoping for much better things. “We need to win right now,” Spies said on the starting grid. “Basically, I need to go out there and put a good, clean race together. If it’s a win, it’s a win. But I need to go out and give 110%”

Just alongside and on pole position, Mladin was quite pragmatic about his early season lead in the series. “It’s race three of 19 and it’s hard to think about the championship,” said the Australian before the race. “We have a it of a way to go yet.”

With motors running and the pack lined up for the start, when the four red lights went out and turned to green, Mat Mladin executed a perfect start, followed by Eric Bostrom and Ben Spies. In turn number five of the second lap, Spies ducked underneath Bostrom and set out after Mladin. But it was to no avail as Mladin was never truly confronted, leading by 1.8 seconds at the eleven-lap mark. Mladin continued to pull away, winning his third consecutive AMA Superbike National of the still very young 2008 season by an amazing 8.171 seconds. Spies was second and Rockstar Makita Suzuki teammate Tommy Hayden finished third, slamming home a Yoshimura Suzuki sweep of the podium.

“What a great day for the Rockstar Makita Suzuki team today,” said Mladin afterwards. “To be one, two and three up here is awesome.” His 66th career AMA Superbike win, Mladin extended his AMA Superbike Series point lead to 25 points over Team Yamaha’s Jason DiSalvo. Ben Spies holds down third place with 84 points.

Fourth o Sunday at Barber was Jason DiSalvo. American Honda’s Neil Hodgson placed fifth, one spot ahead of Yamaha’s Eric Bostrom . Jordan Suzuki’s Aaron Yates was seventh and Miguel Duhamel was eighth.