Mladin and Pegram the victors in AMA superbike

Suzuki's Mat Mladin and Ducati's Larry Pegram shared wins at round six of the American Superbike Championship at Road America in Wisconsin last weekend.

Mladin won the first race in the double-header, before the delighted Pegram won his first race in 10 years.

Despite putting his Suzuki on pole position, Mladin had to overcome a few challenges to clinic his victory. First, he encountered a clutch problem which prevented him from participating in the 10-minute warm-up just prior to the race. Because of that and the fact track conditions were less than ideal, Mladin dropped back a few positions at the start.
 
He quickly worked his way back toward the front of the field and took the lead from Pegram on lap two. Mladin would not be challenged from that point on and he went on to score his ninth win in 10 tries this season, and the 81st of his career.
 
"We had a bit of a problem in the warm-up so we didn't get to do any laps," Mladin said. "So the first lap, lap and a half, of the race I was trying to get the feel of the racetrack because I didn't know how it was going to be.

"It worked out good for us, though. After that first lap, I got a bit of a feel for it and the Rockstar Makita Suzuki GSX-R1000 felt good. I decided to have a go at it. I just kept trying to go."
 
Finishing an impressive second was Michael Laverty (Suzuki), the 2007 British supersport champion. Completing the podium was Ben Bostrom (Yamaha) for the fourth time in the past five races.

On Sunday, and in perfect conditions, it was an epic four-bike battle royal at the front for the first half of the race between Pegram and the three Suzuki riders: Mladin, Blake Young and Geoff May.

The four bikes swapped positions throughout the first three-quarters of the race before the fight for the victory became a two-way duel between Pegram and Mladin -- the lead changed hands an amazing four times on lap eight alone.
 
The battle came to a head on the penultimate lap. Pegram took the lead on the front straight heading into Turn One, but Mladin reclaimed the position in Turn Three. Pegram finally sealed the deal on the run from Turn Three to Turn Five and managed to stay in front for a 0.342sec victory.
 
"It was definitely a great race," said Pegram. "I was expecting that I could run the pace, but I wasn't expecting to lead like that most of the time. I was real comfortable. When Mat would get in front of me, he wouldn't really get me anywhere.

"We were pretty even, but I'd catch him in The Carousel (Turns Nine and 10). When we'd go through there, he would gap me in the left-hander after The Carousel. It was weird. He was really getting through there good. It's been such a long time. I don't know if that was as good as the first one or not, but I don't want to wait 10 years for another one."
 
Aaron Yates (Suzuki) made a late charge to finish third.

Road America was a blast from the past, with two-time world superbike champion Doug Polen competing on a Yamaha. Now 48, Polen was 13th and 19th in the 13-lappers.

Australia's David Anthony (Suzuki) was eight and 10th, while Aaron Gobert failed to finish race one before rebounding with a 12th.

Taree's Damian Cudlin (Yamaha) was an excellent fifth in the SportBike opener, and then 17th in race two.

For full results and standings, click here.

Round seven will be held at Laguna Seca on July 3-5 as the major support races to the MotoGP event.