Spies, Sweeps Again
8/9/2006
Lexington, OH (August 4-6, 2006) — The eighth round of the AMA Superbike Championships provided some exciting racing over the weekend.
Current Superbike points leader Ben Spies rocketed out to the lead in the first Superbike race, immediately pulling a 2.3 second lead by the first lap. By lap 16, Spies nearly had his lead in the double digits until the dreadful red flag came out. After a fresh set of tires, Miguel DuHamel grabbed the second holeshot of the race. By turn six, Spies was back in the lead and began pulling away once again. On lap 19, Mat Mladin moved into second but had nothing for Spies as he easily won by 5.7 seconds.
After having a strong performance at Laguna Seca, Eric Bostrom came to Mid-Ohio with dominating intentions. When the green flag flew, Bostrom blasted off the line and into the lead. While setting a blistering pace the opening laps, Josh Hayes and Jason DiSalvo did their best to keep up with Bostrom. The real excitement was behind the flawless Bostrom in Hayes and DiSalvo. On the last lap, DiSalvo made his move around Hayes at turn six but Hayes quickly retaliated and passed him back. At checkers, only .049 separated the two.
After the race, Bostrom said, "Sometimes when you go up to the starting line you know everything is right and today was one of those days. The setting felt so good on the warm-up lap -- the bike felt like it couldn't put a wheel wrong. That first lap certainly helped out a bit."
Just as Ben Spies lead was cut short the day before due to a red flag, Jamie Hackings lead in Supersport was cut short too. The second start saw Eric Bostrom grab the lead with Aaron Yates and Hacking trailing closely behind. Bostrom was able to hold of several pass attempts by Yates and led 14 of the 16 laps until Hacking found another gear and blew past both of them and went on to win his sixth in just as many attempts. Bostrom and Yates rounded out the podium going second and third respectively.
Ben Spies once again grabbed the early lead in the second Superbike race and immediately raced off to another convincing victory over Mat Mladin and Miguel DuHamel. Throughout the race, there was very much excitement as there were fierce battles going on all the way back to tenth place. Spies said, "Today's race was a little bit tougher than yesterday. We got off to a good start. I think we did a '25.8 from a dead stop and they hung in there a lot closer. I rode as hard as I could and I was just hoping we could keep getting a little bit of a gap. It was definitely really tough." With a 45 point lead and five races to go, Spies is surely on his way to winning his first AMA Superbike Championship.
Superbike Race 1 Results
- Ben Spies - Parts Unlimited
- Mathew Mladin
- Miguel Duhamel
- Aaron W Yates
- Tommy Hayden
- Steve Rapp
- Jake Holden
- Roger Lee Hayden
- Larry Pegram
- Matt D Lynn
Superbike Race 2 Results
- Ben Spies - Parts Unlimited
- Mathew Mladin
- Miguel Duhamel
- Jake P Zemke - Parts Unlimited
- Neil Hodgson - Parts Unlimited
- Jason R Pridmore
- Tommy Hayden
- Roger Lee Hayden
- Jake Holden
- Matt D Lynn
Formula Xtreme Results
- Eric Bostrom - Parts Unlimited
- Joshua Hayes - Parts Unlimited
- Jason Disalvo
- Aaron Gobert - Parts Unlimited
- Michael F Barnes
- Danny C Eslick
- Ryan L Andrews
- Blake R Young
- Steve Crevier
- Tony Meiring
Superstock Results
- Jamie A Hacking
- Eric Bostrom - Parts Unlimited
- Aaron W Yates
- Geoff May
- Jake Holden
- Jason Disalvo
- Aaron Gobert - Parts Unlimited
- Joshua Hayes - Parts Unlimited
- Martin Craggill
- Chris Ulrich