Mladin charging to AMA superbike title

Australia’s Mat Mladin (Suzuki) earned his 10th American Superbike win of the season at Laguna Seca last Sunday.

As he has done at every round this year, Mladin started from pole position at Laguna Seca, but he dropped all the way back to sixth place on lap one before making his way forward.

He was in second place by lap five, after which he began stalking teammate and race leader Blake Young. He finally made his move to the inside in Turn 11 on lap 11 and went on to lead the rest of the way.

Mladin crossed the stripe 1.642secs ahead of Young and 4.588secs in front of another Suzuki rider, Mladin’s erstwhile teammate Aaron Yates.

Mladin now leads the championship standings by a massive – and some would say just about impenetrable -- 127pts over teammate Tommy Hayden with eight races remaining.

"It was obviously a good race for us today," Mladin said. "Most importantly, it's great to have the three Suzukis up here. That's what we're here to do is to try and get a Suzuki on top of the box. Today, it was good t fill the podium."

Josh Hayes (Yamaha) was fourth from teammate Ben Bostrom, with the race shortened to 18 laps from its scheduled 23-lap distance due to a pair of first-lap incidents.

Australian Aaron Gobert (Honda) was 14th, while David Anthony (Suzuki) was disqualified for “failure to respond to officials directions”.

Next up is a doubleheader at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course from July 17-19.