Spies wins bike race by inches

After spotting teammate Mat Mladin a comfortable lead, Ben Spies said he was nearly content to finish second at the AMA Superbike race Sunday at the Auto Club Speedway.

But not nearly enough.

Seeing Mladin swing too wide through some turns and make other costly mistakes, Spies kept up the pressure and steadily narrowed the gap between the two Suzuki riders.

And when they reached the front straightway on the last lap, Spies pulled up next to Mladin and then beat him in a photo finish by the width of his motorcycle’s front tire.

It was one of the closest finishes in the Fontana track’s 11-year history.

“I honestly couldn’t tell” who won immediately after they crossed the finish line, said Spies, 23, who also won Saturday’s race to sweep the weekend. “It’s definitely the closest [finish] I’ve ever had.”

For Mladin, the six-time AMA champion from Australia, it was a tough second-place finish. He led Spies by four seconds at one point and held the lead for the entire 28-lap race -- until the final 10 feet.

“I made some mistakes, and he ran me down there at the end,” said Mladin, 36. “I knew it was going to be a close one. He just did a little better by that little bit.”

Their other teammate, Tommy Hayden, finished a distant third, 31 seconds behind the leaders. Honda’s Neil Hodgson finished fourth and Yamaha’s Jason DiSalvo finished fifth.

With his two wins this weekend, Spies pulled to within 20 points of the AMA standings lead held by Mladin, who won the first three races of the season.

Sunday’s race also mirrored their championship battle of 2007, when Spies beat Mladin by a single point to win his second consecutive title.

“That was one of the toughest races I’ve been in,” said Spies (pronounced speez). Through the first 20 laps, “I just couldn’t make any inroads.”

But then “I saw [Mladin] run wide” in some of the 21 turns on the 2.3-mile course, and “I just kept my head down and saw another small mistake,” Spies said. “I just kept pushing and pushing and got there on the last lap. He made us work for it.”

When they crossed the finish line, neither rider knew instantly whether the winner was Spies’ No. 1 bike or Mladin’s No. 6.

But Spies did add: “I thought it was me.”

In the AMA’s support series, Jake Holden won the superstock race on a Honda, followed by Aaron Yates, a rider for the Suzuki team owned by basketball legend Michael Jordan.

Yamaha rider Ben Bostrom of Malibu won the race in the supersport class.

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james.peltz@latimes.com