News - July 18 Mid Ohio Race #1
Jordan Suzuki & Rockstar Makita Suzuki Double-Podium in Mid-Ohio Superbike Race
Suzuki’s Yates & Mladin bring home 2nd & 3rd on Saturday
Rockstar Makita Suzuki’s Mat Mladin picked up another podium finish in Saturday afternoon’s AMA Superbike race at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in Lexington, Ohio. The six-time AMA Superbike Champion charged hard through the field on his Rockstar Makita Suzuki GSX-R1000 and brought
home a third-place finish. Currently, Mladin still leads the overall championship points in AMA Superbike. Joining Mladin on the podium was Jordan Suzuki’s Aaron Yates. Yates battled for the lead for much of the race before finishing an impressive second place. Meanwhile, Rockstar Makita Suzuki’s Tommy Hayden and Blake Young both had a bittersweet race. Hayden got a good start but struggled on the back straight and finished sixth, while Young led the first several laps before finishing up in seventh.
Tommy Hayden
“The start went all right, the Rockstar Makita Suzuki GSX-R1000 was working pretty good on most of the track but I was struggling a little on the back straight-away – getting on it and braking at the end of it, I was giving a lot away. I’m disappointed because I thought we had a lot better than that today. On the rest of the track, I feel really good so if we can fix that one area for tomorrow we’ll be pretty competitive. So we’ll work on that and be back tomorrow.”
Aaron Yates
“It was a pretty good race, though we didn’t get off the line like we hoped to. Some guys came by and we were a little slow getting into turn one but we set in and had a good race. I knew it was going to be a pretty good-size pack up front and everybody was running pretty close. It was going to be interesting to see who was there at the end and I felt pretty good about the end of the race. It was tough getting by a few guys… I got to the front pretty quick but we couldn’t really make a move on the leader. But it was fun at the end… I was able to ride like I thought I could, we just ran out of laps.”
Mat Mladin
“I was at the back of that five- or six-bike train up at the front. So we went along and picked our way through to third and that was about as far as I could go. These guys were running a good pace out there today, and it’s one thing to get up there and it’s another thing to get past. That was it, we just didn’t have it today.”
Blake Young
“We got off to a really good start on the Rockstar Makita Suzuki GSX-R1000. I didn’t lead it into one, but I led it into two. And then I just put my head down and the bike was feeling really good and I
put some laps together that were good. But around lap five, the bike started feeling different and I think we just missed the set-up today but we learned a lot for tomorrow’s race and we’ll be back tomorrow.”
Rockstar Makita Suzuki Factory Racing will race again tomorrow in the second of two Superbike races at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in Lexington, Ohio.
