In a scene that makes one think of TV flashbacks, Mat Mladin and Yoshimura Suzuki dominated the double-header at Barber Motorsports Park in Alabama this past weekend. I know this is supposed to be a "news" story, but hey, that’s what happened.
The remarkable Mladin crushed the competition and his team-mates with two strong victories, his 65th and 66th in AMA superbike racing. In Saturday’s feature he was followed to the flag by Yamaha’s Jason DiSalvo and the second Yosh rider, 2007 champion Ben Spies, while on Sunday the Yosh team crushed everyone as Mladin, Spies and third team member Tommy Hayden filled the podium.
Honda rider and all-round nice guy Neil Hodgson thought he might have made the podium but for a couple of mistakes, although he sounded more hopeful than certain about that. He and team-mate Miguel Duhamel both agreed that they had some work to do, but also seem pleased that the CBR1000RRs appear to be responding to treatment, unlike the 2007 version.
The AMA race was enlivened with a considerable amount of Canadian content, as after the usual pre-season test at Jennings in Florida, several of the Parts Canada competitors headed for Barber for some more track time. Chris Peris, newly signed as a third rider at the Blackfoot Suzuki team, and two-time defending Canadian champ Jordan Szoke on his Kawasaki finished ninth and 10th in the first superbike feature, then 11th and 12th in the second part of the double-header.
In the Superstock race (a class more closely aligned to the Canadian superbike rules), Szoke carded an excellent fourth, with his teenage team-mate Brett McCormick in sixth. Francis Martin and Matt McBride, Peris’ team-mates on the Blackfoot team, took an eighth and 14th.
AMA Superbike? (Yawn), does someone still watch that? Reminds me of F1, the worlds fastest parade.