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Rockstar Makita Yoshimura Suzuki’s Mat Mladin celebrated his 64th career AMA Superbike victory by taking the win in Saturday afternoon’s season-opening round of the series at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Florida. The six-time AMA Superbike Champion started the race from pole position and was joined by his teammates on the front row of the starting grid: Defending, twotime AMA Superbike Champion Ben Spies was in the second spot and two-time AMA Supersport Champion Tommy Hayden was in the third spot, having posted the fastest lap times on their respective Rockstar Makita Suzuki GSX-R1000s. In the race, Mladin led all 15 laps to victory, while teammate Spies finished close behind in second place and Hayden wound up with an impressive fourth-place result.
Mat Mladin:
“I got a good start and I put my head down. It was a very good start, and Tommy was just on the outside of me. I tried to get in the corner deep to try and get in the lead. I knew we had a good motorcycle in the Rockstar Makita Suzuki GSX-R1000 today and I knew we could run some fairly good lap times… we did what we had to do today to get the win.”
Ben Spies:
“It was a pretty good race for us. We didn’t get off the line like we would have liked to. I got up into second, and it took a little bit to get the rhythm down. But once I got clear, I went as fast as I could. Besides the bad start, I made one little mistake the whole race. That’s about it. I was pretty happy with how I rode. It’s happened so many times before, but usually when Mat or I get out there, it’s very hard to do anything about it. I tried to stay close in case he made any mistakes but second was the best we could do today. The Rockstar Makita Suzuki was running great and the Dunlop tires kept us safe and it was a reasonably good race for us.”
Tommy Hayden:
“I got an awesome start on the Rockstar Makita Suzuki GSX-R1000. I was right there with Mat and then I made a mistake in Turn Three. I ran a little bit wide and I dropped back to eighth. So I put my head down and did everything I could. It was a short race and I just tried to do what I could but I ran out of laps. But I was happy with the bike and I was happy with how I was riding and I’m looking forward to the rest of the season.”
AMA Superbike Top 10 Finishers:
1. Mat Mladin, Rockstar Makita Suzuki Factory Racing
2. Ben Spies, Rockstar Makita Suzuki Factory Racing
3. Jason Disalvo, Yamaha
4. Tommy Hayden, Rockstar Makita Suzuki Factory Racing
5. Jamie Hacking, Kawasaki
6. Aaron Yates, Jordan Suzuki
7. Neil Hodgson, Honda
8. Roger Lee Holden, Kawasaki
9. Blake Young, M4 EMGO Suzuki
10. Geoff May, Jordan Suzuki
AMA Superbike Points Standings:
1. Mat Mladin, Rockstar Makita Suzuki Factory Racing
2. Ben Spies, Rockstar Makita Suzuki Factory Racing
3. Jason Disalvo, Yamaha
4. Tommy Hayden, Rockstar Makita Suzuki Factory Racing
5. Jamie Hacking, Kawasaki
6. Aaron Yates, Jordan Suzuki
7. Neil Hodgson, Honda
8. Roger Lee Hayden, Kawasaki
9. Blake Young, M4 EMGO Suzuki
10. Geoff May, Jordan Suzuki
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