Spies Takes Superbike Win in Sonoma

Suzuki's Spies Beats Mladin for 

Fifth Consecutive Superbike Win of Season

 

SONOMA, Calif. - Yoshimura Suzuki's Ben Spies
continued his winning ways on Saturday at Infineon Raceway, posting his
fifth consecutive victory of the season at the Kawasaki AMA Superbike
Showdown, presented by Supercuts.

 

Spies qualified on the pole on his GSX-R1000 and led wire-to-wire over
the 28-lap feature, outdistancing second-place finisher Mat Mladin
(Suzuki) by nearly seven seconds. Honda's Miguel Duhamel, who was
inducted into the raceway's Wall of Fame earlier in the day, rounded out
the top three.

 

The victory snapped Mladin's stranglehold at Infineon Raceway; he had
won five of the last six Superbike features in the Sonoma Valley dating
back to 2003.

 

"The last few races we've won and it's been good but I've  followed. I
really wanted to set the pace (today) and see what I could do" said
Spies, a 21-year-old from Longview, Texas. "I wanted to see how it is to
lead the whole race and it was tough. With eight to go he (Mladin) came
back and got within a second but I put my head down and it was money
time."

 

The victory gave Spies a bit of a cushion as he pursues his first-ever
AMA Superbike championship. He takes a 25-point lead over Mladin
(220-195) going into Sunday's 28-lap Superbike feature in the Sonoma
Valley. Duhamel rounds out the top three with 169 points.

 

"To be honest with you I put my head down with maybe eight or 10 laps to
go. I made a few good laps but that's all I had," said Mladin, a
six-time AMA Superbike champion and the most decorated AMA Superbike
rider of all-time with 44 career wins. "With about three or four (laps)
to go I saw it wasn't going to happen so I took what I could get. We
settled in and brought it home."

 

San Francisco native and Petaluma High School graduate Eric Bostrom
(Yamaha) posted the win in the 17-lap feature for Lockhart Phillips USA
Formula Xtreme. Bostrom had a thrilling last-lap battle with teammate
Jason Disalvo, taking the lead for good at Turn 7. It was Bostrom's 11th
career Formula Xtreme win, tying him for second place all-time with Jake
Zemke.

 

"It's been a long time since I won here so it feels really good," said
Bostrom, who last won in Sonoma in 1998. "This track has always been a
favorite of mine since they've fixed it, I just haven't gotten the
results. It was just a heck of a race with Jason; this class is really
turning out to be pretty competitive."

 

Action returns on Sunday at Infineon Raceway with the second Superbike
feature of the weekend, as well as main events in Pro Honda Oils
Supersport and Repsol Lubricants Superstock. For ticket information,
call 800-870-RACE or visit www.infineonraceway.com.