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SUPERBIKES: Battle for the High Ground at Mid-Ohio

9 July 1999

                       MID-OHIO HONDA SUPER CYCLE WEEKEND

     PICKERINGTON, Ohio -- With the 1999 season winding down, three Superbike

pilots have put themselves in contention to become the champion of the MBNA

Superbike Series presented by Parts Unlimited. Two Australians, Anthony Gobert

and Mat Mladin, are being challenged by defending Champion Ben Bostrom, and the

July 16-18 Honda Super Cycle Weekend at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, in

Lexington, Ohio, could prove to be the defining moment of the season.

     Just two races remain on the schedule following the Mid-Ohio round, and

with each race the battle for the championship just gets tighter. With one win

and a string of podium finishes this year, Mat Mladin and the Yoshimura Suzuki

team have led the MBNA Superbike Series since last March. But Vance & Hines

Ducati teammates Bostrom and Gobert have steadily closed in on Mladin. The

Ducati riders are now tied for series second-place and trail Mladin by a mere

five point margin.

     Bostrom has yet to take a Superbike win, but has finished in second-place

at the last four races. Gobert, meanwhile, has worked his way back from

mechanical problems earlier this year with a streak of four wins.

     The three riders are alike in their success, but different in their

approach on the racetrack. Bostrom proved he had the skill and the smarts last

year, when consistent top-five finishes earned him the 1998 MBNA title in his

first full season on a 150-plus horsepower Superbike. But Bostrom has never won

a Superbike race, and is out to prove that last year

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