Mladin Has Momentum on His Side

It would be difficult to find someone more likely to be a winner than Mat Mladin in this weekend’s AMA Suzuki Superbike Challenge at California Speedway.

In each of three races this year, the wiry Australian has won the pole, the race and led nearly every lap. In four races at Fontana, two in 2003 and two last year, he has been on the pole and won all four with ridiculous ease.

If that’s not enough, Mladin tested his new No. 1 Yoshimura Suzuki GSXR-1000 at California Speedway a few weeks ago and bettered his track record over the 21-turn 2.36-mile infield course by three-tenths of a second.

“Fontana’s been really good to us the past couple of years so we’re certainly looking forward at doing the same sort of thing,” Mladin said. “One thing I like about Fontana is that it’s reasonably safe and any time you can go to a racetrack that has some safety aspects to it where the rider feels comfortable ... it makes it a lot easier to let things hang out a bit more. And you know, when you let it hang out, you can sort of show what your team, your motorcycle and yourself can do on any given weekend.”

Hoping to blunt Mladin and Suzuki’s domination, Ducati recruited Englishman Neil Hodgson, the 2003 world superbike champion. He finished second at Daytona, followed by a fourth and second last week at Barber Park in Birmingham, Ala.

“Our team has come together and made progress,” said Hodgson, who is living in Laguna Beach. “Right now, we need a little more acceleration from our bike out of the corners and I’m sure Ducati will find a solution.

“At the moment, Mladin is riding with a lot of confidence and his team is very experienced here in America. It’s going to be a major task for us to reach that level, but we’re chipping away.”

Mladin said, “Neil brings a lot to our series and it’s good to have him here. I guess you can say he brings credentials in the fact that if we can race with him or beat him, it shows how competitive our series is. The guy certainly didn’t have a great year in 2004 in MotoGP but MotoGP is such an equipment-based series that it makes it very, very hard and very lopsided.”

MotoGP, the world Grand Prix championship series, will return to Mazda Laguna Seca Raceway on July 10 for the first time since 1994. More than 60,000 are expected to watch four-time champion Valentino Rossi make his American debut on a Yamaha.

Mladin and his superbike challengers will qualify today for two 100-kilometer (28 lap) races, one Saturday at 3:50 p.m. and the other Sunday at 3 p.m.

“With the equipment that we have this year, if we don’t win, I’ll have done a really poor job,” said the 33-year-old Aussie.

Southland Scene

Rip Williams, who will be 49 next Thursday, reached the 100 mark in sprint car victories two weeks ago at Perris Auto Speedway and has his sights set on the West Coast record of 103 held by Hall of Fame driver Dean Thompson. The Ripper from Yorba Linda will be back at Perris, a track where he has won 44 times since it opened in 1996, for a 30-lap USAC/CRA main event Saturday night. Williams recorded his first win Memorial Day, 1983, in the 50-lap “Salute to Indy” at Ascot Park.

Johnny Rodriguez, USAC western midget champion, will join the sprint car ranks this week. He is no novice in sprint cars, however, having won the track championship at Chico’s Silver Dollar Speedway in 1999.

The demolition derby, regularly one of the most popular events at racetracks, will hold the spotlight at Irwindale Speedway on Saturday night. Before the destruction begins, there will be a NASCAR short-track program of late model stock cars and mini stocks, along with pro trucks.

Two veterans from Saugus Speedway days, Tim Huddleston of Agoura Hills and Brian Kelley of Mission Hills, are tied with 170 points in the late model class.

Drawing for starting positions in the Tecate SCORE Baja 500 off-road race will be held at Irwindale Speedway’s drag strip on Saturday between 1 and 4 p.m. The 37th annual race will be run June 4 in Ensenada, Mexico.

Speedway motorcycle racing will return to the Orange County Fairgrounds in Costa Mesa on Saturday night with the 37th annual Spring Classic. National champions Bobby Schwartz, Mike Faria and Chris Manchester will headline the 25-race program, which will also include extreme motocross jumpers.... Speedway racing is also conducted Wednesday nights at the Industry Hills Expo Center.

Ford Focus midgets will join the VRA 360 sprint cars, senior sprints and modifieds Saturday afternoon at Ventura Raceway.

The Subaru Rim of the World Rally won’t be run until May 6-7, but Forest Service officials and rally volunteers have been working overtime to prepare the eroded roads of the Angeles National Forest west of Lancaster for the competition. In the Rim of the World Rally, the cars race one at a time against the clock on closed ridge-top fire roads in time trials called stages. The winners are those recording the lowest total elapsed times.

The favorite viewing spots are the Hungry Valley State Vehicular Recreation Area in Gorman on May 7 and the Antelope Valley Fairgrounds, where the cars will be on display starting at noon May 6.

Last Laps

Lesa France Kennedy, president of International Speedway Corp., was named “the most influential woman in sports business” by Street & Smith’s SportsBusiness Journal. ISC owns 14 racing facilities, including Daytona International Speedway and California Speedway, and is seeking to develop sites on New York City’s Staten Island and in the Pacific Northwest.

Kennedy is the granddaughter of NASCAR founder Bill France, daughter of NASCAR vice chairman Bill France Jr., and sister of NASCAR chairman of the board and chief executive Brian France.

Nextel Cup leader Jimmie Johnson received the most votes in first-quarter balloting for the Speed Channel driver of the year award. Five others -- Dan Wheldon, Greg Biffle, Jeff Gordon, Steve Kinser and Kevin Harvick -- also received first-place votes from the 18-member panel.

Fifty-four exotic sports cars are entered in Sunday’s inaugural Road & Track 250 at Mazda Laguna Seca Raceway, making it one of the deepest fields in Grand American Rolex Sports Car Series history. Points leaders Wayne Taylor and Max Angelelli, co-drivers of a Pontiac Riley, will be defending their position in the Daytona Prototype class against Scott Pruett and Luis Diaz, winners at California Speedway in a Lexus Riley.

Passings

Merlin “Rosie” Rosenlof, former Ascot Park track announcer, died in Carson of cancer Wednesday. He would have been 74 on Thursday.