Mladin does the double in AMA superbike

Australian Mat Mladin doubled up on race wins in the second round of the AMA Superbike Championship in Fontana, California.

Mladin battled with Yoshimura Suzuki teammate and Tommy Hayden in both 21-lap races, but ultimately prevailed for this third win in as many American Superbike starts this season.

"I think I'm going to have a chat with Suzuki about the teammates they keep signing up for me," said Mladin after race two, in reference to both Hayden and former teammate and rival Ben Spies. "At the start I wanted to have a look and see what Tommy had in a few spots.

"There were a couple of spots yesterday that we were definitely lacking compared to Tommy and we learned a little bit from him and changed the bike.

"We had no chance to try it out this morning, but went with it for the race and definitely were able to keep that gap between us a little bit better in those spots today."

In race two, Mladin seized the lead on lap 10 and steadily pulled away from Hayden, who did well to nurse his damaged bike to the finish after an unintentional contact incident with third-place runner Aaron Yates, on another Suzuki.

Mladin won by nearly nine seconds, but his winning margin over Hayden in race one was a scant 0.068secs.

Aside from the Yoshimura duo's weekend of success, another top story was Larry Pegram (Ducati), who rebounded from a race one highside to finish third in Sunday's final.

Geoff May (Suzuki) was third in race one, while Jake Holden (Honda) proved to be a handy replacement for 2003 world superbike champion Neil Hodgson, who crashed a motocross bike before the event and sustained multiple fractures. Holden was fifth in race one.

Meanwhile, Australian Suzuki duo David Anthony and Aaron Gobert went 8-8 and 10-11 respectively.

Mladin leads on 94pts from Hayden (72), May (50), Blake Young (Suzuki, 46) and Ben Bostrom (Yamaha, 45).

In the Daytona SportBike class, Jamie Hacking (Kawasaki) leads the title after two second places in Fontana, but he has been suspended indefinitely for conduct detrimental to the sport of professional motorcycle racing after using a string of profane language while exiting the press interview area.

Prior to that incident, Hacking allegedly displayed additional acts of inappropriate behaviour in both public and media interviews.

Hacking will be considered for reinstatement pending payment of a $US4000 fine and delivery of a public apology to AMA Pro Road Racing officials.  Subsequent to payment of the fine and receipt of an apology acceptable to AMA Pro Road Racing, Hacking will also be suspended for one full event weekend.
 
Also, AMA Pro Road Racing placed five riders, including Mladin, on probation due to failure to participate in Sunday's mandatory autograph session.

Danny Eslick (Buell) won both SportBike races, with Australia Damian Cudlin (Yamaha) finishing 18th and 16th.

For more information and results, click here.