Bike Failure Ends Streak by Mladin

Mechanical woes did what no AMA superbike rider could do this season to five-time champion Mat Mladin in Saturday’s Suzuki Superbike Challenge at California Speedway. It knocked him out of the winner’s circle. It also knocked him out of the season lead despite having won every pole and every lap before coming to Fontana.

Seven laps from the checkered flag, Mladin was cruising along with a seven-second lead when his new Suzuki 1000 slowed to a stop along the front straightaway of the oval track -- the back side of the 2.3-mile road course.

Ben Spies, a rookie superbike rider from Longview, Texas, benefited from Mladin’s misfortune, although it took a mistake by 2003 world superbike champion Neil Hodgson for Spies to win. When Hodgson, who was fighting a stomach ailment, miscalculated his speed and went high and wide on Turn 3 on the final lap, it allowed Spies and veteran Aaron Yates, both on Suzukis, to move ahead.

“I’m not too sure yet, I just lost all drive,” said a disappointed Mladin. “I realized straight away after [a] restart. I was just trying to adjust and adjust and adjust, and I finally ran out of adjustments. Then I came to a halt.”

Twice in the early stages, the 28-lap race was stopped because of fallen riders. Each time he stopped, Mladin’s crew swarmed over his bike, making changes despite his domination.

The 33-year-old Australian led 16 of the 20 laps he ran, impressing an estimated 15,000 fans with the ease in which he pulled away from the pack. Earlier in the day he had upped his own qualifying record to 99.029 mph.

Spies, a Suzuki Yoshimura teammate of Mladin, took the season lead with 123 points, three better than Hodgson. Mladin’s DNF dropped him to third with 115.

“That’s not the way I wanted [to get my first win] but I’ll take it,” said Spies, who had finished third in the previous three races.

After Mladin’s bike stopped, it was Hodgson, the rider Ducati had brought to America from MotoGP in hopes of stopping Suzuki, who appeared to have the win.

“I went into that second turn a little too fast, probably five miles an hour faster and just started to drift to the side,” said the Englishman. “I was pretty much a passenger on the bike at that time and the race was over for me.”

Mladin’s only consolation was that his protege, Martin Craggill of Etiwanda, was ninth, equaling his best finish.

Steve Rapp of Valencia, riding for basketball great Michael Jordan, finished eighth. Jordan’s No. 1 rider, Jason Pridmore of Ventura, missed the race because of injuries in last week’s race in Birmingham, Ala.

Jake Zemke of Paso Robles, riding a Honda 600, won the 17-lap Formula Xtreme race over defending champion Miguel Duhamel, who was riding after having finished fourth in the superbike race.

A second Suzuki Challenge will be held today with Mladin starting from the pole.