AMA Superbike title chase tightens at Ohio
7/24/2005
(Lexington, OH) — Yoshimura Suzuki's Mat Mladin (#1) had mixed race fortunes at the Mid Ohio Sports Car Course. He took a strong victory in the Saturday race, winning by more than 11 seconds. But in Sunday's race, he crashed out while avoiding a sliding motorcycle and ended the race in 30th place.
The Sunday race was won by Parts Unlimited/Ducati Austin's Eric Bostrom (#32), who jumped into the lead on the start from the second row of the grid. He never gave up the race lead and earned his third victory of the year. Bostrom finished in third place on Saturday.
Yoshimura Suzuki's Ben Spies (#11) rounded out the podium both days, with a second-place finish on Saturday and a third-place finish Sunday.
Second place on Sunday went to American Honda's Miguel Duhamel (#17), the veteran rider scoring his first podium finish of the season.
Yoshimura Suzuki's Aaron Yates (#20) had a forgettable weekend, crashing out of both the Saturday and Sunday superbike finals. Both times, Yates was in contention for a second-place finish when his luck ran out. The more costly race crash came Sunday, when he fell off in front of Mladin, who was forced to take to the grass to avoid Yates's sliding motorcycle. Mladin went down as a result, but was able to rejoin the race after a brief pit stop to repair some of the damage to his motorcycle. Mladin rejoined the race and was credited with a 30th place finish.
As a result of the crash, Mladin's points lead in the title chase is now down to just nine points, with four races remaining.
Saturday Superbike Final Results (Top 10)
- Mat Mladin (Suzuki)
- Ben Spies (Suzuki)
- Eric Bostrom (Ducati)
- Miguel Duhamel (Honda)
- Neil Hodgson (Ducati)
- Josh Hayes (Kawasaki)
- Kurtis Roberts (Honda)
- Jason Pridmore (Suzuki)
- Jacob Holden (Suzuki)
- Marty Craggill (Suzuki)
Sunday Superbike Final Results (Top 10)
- Eric Bostrom (Ducati)
- Miguel Duhamel (Honda)
- Ben Spies (Suzuki)
- Neil Hodgson (Ducati)
- Kurtis Roberts (Honda)
- Steve Rapp (Suzuki)
- Jason Pridmore (Suzuki)
- Jacob Holden (Suzuki)
- Aaron Yates (Suzuki)
- Larry Pegram (Honda)
Points (Rider Team points after 13 of 17 rounds)
- Mat Mladin Yoshimura Suzuki 397
- Ben Spies Yoshimura Suzuki 388
- Eric Bostrom Parts Unlimited/Austin Ducati 334
- Aaron Yates Yoshimura Suzuki 316
- Neil Hodgson Parts Unlimited/Austin Ducati 302