Mladin Doubles Riding Pleasure

It doesn’t seem to matter to Mat Mladin. He can win from the front, as he did Saturday, or he can take a penalty and come from behind, as he did Sunday.

The transplanted Australian motorcycle racer, a three-time series champion who rides for Suzuki, made it look easy again as he won the second half of the Chevy Trucks U.S. Superbike 100k doubleheader at California Speedway by six seconds. On Saturday he led all the way and won by 14.9 seconds.

“It was more fun today, being behind gave me some incentive to catch up,” Mladin said after collecting his second $55,000 check.

After being called into the pits for a stop-and-go penalty for jumping the start, Mladin came out in eighth place, 11 seconds back of leader Aaron Yates. Three laps later, he was sixth and running the fastest laps in the race.

On lap 11, he got a good break -- and his bitter rival, Kurtis Roberts, got a bad one -- when the race was stopped to clean up fuel and oil dropped by Larry Pegram’s bike. Roberts had taken the lead from Yates on the eighth lap and appeared to be pulling away on his Honda.

When the race was restarted after a 20-minute delay, Eric Bostrom got his Kawasaki off the line in front, but it was only two laps before Mladin powered his Suzuki past the leader going down the back straightaway.

Although his average speed for 28 laps around the 2.3-mile course was 63.2 mph, Mladin and most of the field of 44 riders were clocking 170 mph on the long straightaway to the amazement of the estimated 21,000 spectators, many of whom were crammed along the infield portion of the twisting track.

Bostrom held on to finish second, with Daytona 200 winner Miguel Duhamel awarded third after Roberts was assessed a 10-second penalty for overshooting one of the 21 corners. Roberts was placed fifth, with Yates moved up to fourth.

Asked if he thought he would have won had there not been a restart, Mladin answered with a cryptic, “Yes.”

Asked to explain why, he said, “I’m not Einstein, but I figured that, by the way I was going, I could definitely catch up and get the lead.”

End of interview.

Mladin led 13 laps, Yates eight and Bostrom seven. Mladin won the pole with a lap of 1:25.1 on Friday and he was so consistent that he ran a 1:25.4 in traffic on lap 15 Sunday

The two wins moved him well in front in his quest for a fourth superbike title. He has 100 points to 92 for Duhamel, 87 for Ben Bostrom, Eric’s brother who finished sixth Sunday, and 86 for Yates and 85 for Eric Bostrom..

Duhamel had a scare two laps from the finish when the front end of his Honda locked up.

“It was the longest front-end slide I have ever had,” said the French-Canadian veteran of 15 seasons. “I couldn’t believe it.” Duhamel also rode in the 600 supersport race earlier in the day and finished seventh.

“We have better things to come,” said the five-time 600 champion. “We had mishaps in both qualifying sessions, but I am really happy for my team. We will be ready for the next race.” Which will be May 2-4 at Infineon Raceway at Sears Point.

Other winners included Jamie Hacking, an England native living in Greer, S.C., in supersport; four-time series champion Richard Oliver of Auberry, Calif., in the 250 Grand Prix; Ben Spies, of Longview, Texas, in Formula Xtreme; and Tommy Hayden of Owensboro, Ky., in superstock.

Hacking won his race and also finished third in Formula Xtreme despite being involved in an auto accident Saturday night while leaving the speedway.