Mladin Superbike Double
from The Australian.
AUSTRALIAN Mat Mladin scored his second win in two days in Lexington, Ohio, today to shoot further ahead in the US Superbike Championship.
Mladin gained maximum points from the weekend double header after proving superior in both races.
The double victory was his eighth for the season with 14 races now completed and increased his lead at the top of the table to 33 over Yoshimura Suzuki team-mate Aaron Yates, who finished fourth in today's 26-lap event.
Starting from pole position, Mladin diced closely with Erion Honda's Kurtis Roberts in the first half of the race, with the pair swapping the lead on a number of occasions before Mladin got down to business and eased away from his rival in the second half.
The pair were been in close company in both of the weekend races with Roberts crashing out of yesterday's opening race on the final lap while dicing with Mladin for the lead and then being forced out today with two laps remaining.
Second place today went to Jason Pridmore (Attack Suzuki), finishing 6.668 seconds adrift of Mladin, followed by Ben Bostrom (American Honda) who claimed the final podium position.
"Everything went fine for us this weekend," said a very satisfied Mladin.
"It has given us a good points break in the championship before we head to the second last circuit of the year at Virginia.
"Two more double header rounds remain, so I hope we can repeat these efforts at Virginia before we go to the last round at Alabama."
The three-times American Superbike champion now has a total of 431 points, 33 clear of Yates (398), while Ben Bostrom (376) has passed brother Eric (350) for third after Eric was forced out of the weekend meeting due to injuries.
