Laguna Seca in Monterey, California, on Sunday afternoon. The six-time AMA Superbike Champion
rode flawlessly and battled with his teammate Blake Young for much of the race, which was
abbreviated due to earlier crashes that drew a red flag. Young followed Mladin home in a close second
place after having led multiple laps of the race on his Rockstar Makita Suzuki GSX-R1000.
Joining Mladin and Young on the podium and creating a Suzuki Superbike podium sweep was Jordan
Suzuki’s Aaron Yates, who finished in third place. Unfortunately, Rockstar Makita Suzuki’s Tommy
Hayden suffered some bad luck at Laguna Seca. Prior to the red flag, Hayden jumped the initial start
and received a stop-and-go penalty. As a result, once the race was underway, he had to pull into the
pits while he was running in second place. He rejoined the fray in ninth place and finished up in
eighth place.
Mat Mladin Speaks…
"It was a good race for us today. Most importantly, it’s good to have the three Suzukis up here on the
podium. That’s what we’re here to do, to try and get Suzuki up on top of the box. Today it was good
to fill the podium."
Blake Young Speaks…
"I feel really good about the weekend. We got off to a really great start on the Rockstar Makita Suzuki
GSX-R1000 and got to lead some laps. I think that’s the most amount of laps I’ve led so far in a
Superbike race, so I feel really good about that. The crew worked really hard for me this weekend. I
really want to thank them, it’s been a little rough around the shop but some guys stepped in and
stepped up and filled some shoes and took care of business and got us up on the podium today. So I
really want to give this one to the guys back at the shop and thank them very much for everything. It
was a good race for us… we ended up second today and I’m really happy with it."
Aaron Yates Speaks…
"We got a really good start in the first get-go. I was running along, hoping to see how things were
going to pan out… in the second start, I didn’t get off as good as I’d wanted, but I managed to get up
to turn one and get past a couple guys. I just kind of fell in the pace, and couldn’t get going any better
though I thought we could go faster… then I kind of got stuck in a little group. The guys up front got
going and they were going fast. I think I was matching their pace but I just couldn’t make any ground
on Blake and Mat. I’m just happy to bring it home for the Jordan Suzuki team, they worked hard this
weekend and made it on the podium."
Tommy Hayden Speaks…
"Aside from the start – which was a cluster, I thought I saw the lights flash and I took off way too
early… I’m not sure what happened, it all kind of happened fast – aside from that, I’m pretty happy
with how the race went. I had some good speed and the Rockstar Makita Suzuki GSX-R1000 was
working awesome today. I’m pretty disappointed to have let a good result slip away. But I guess I can
take away the positive that we had a pretty good weekend and I was fast enough to run up front, it
just didn’t work out."
Rockstar Makita Suzuki Factory Racing will race next at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in Lexington, Ohio,
the weekend of July 17-19, 2009.
AMA Superbike Top 10 Finishers
1. Mat Mladin, Rockstar Makita Suzuki Factory Racing
2. Blake Young, Rockstar Makita Suzuki Factory Racing
3. Aaron Yates, Jordan Suzuki
4. Josh Hayes, Yamaha
5. Ben Bostrom, Yamaha
6. Neil Hodgson, Honda
7. Jake Holden, Honda
8. Tommy Hayden, Rockstar Makita Suzuki Factory Racing
9. Geoff May, National Guard Jordan Suzuki
10. Larry Pegram, Ducati
AMA Superbike Points Standings
1. Mat Mladin, Rockstar Makita Suzuki Factory Racing
2. Tommy Hayden, Rockstar Makita Suzuki Factory Racing
3. Ben Bostrom, Yamaha
4. Larry Pegram, Ducati
5. Josh Hayes, Yamaha
6. Aaron Yates, Jordan Suzuki
7. Geoff May, National Guard Jordan Suzuki
8. Blake Young, Rockstar Makita Suzuki Factory Racing
9. David Anthony, Suzuki
10. Taylor Knapp, Suzuki
