Sporting News

Aussie Biker Part of Team Suzuki Cleansweep

In only his third race for Team Suzuki, Jamie Hacking of the USA led a stunning Team Suzuki 1-2-3 finish at round three of the AMA Superbike series today at Road Atlanta, coming in ahead of Australian teammate Mat Mladin. Two-time defending series champion Mat Mladin rode off the track mid-race before recovering from the rare mistake with an amazing charge to take second place, only .605 seconds behind Hacking, and ahead of their teammate, local Georgian hero Aaron Yates.

This was just the third race for the team's all-new Suzuki GSX-R750 Superbike, which dominated its first-ever event in March at Daytona International Speedway with Mladin on board. With a time of one minute, 22.735 seconds, Mladin smashed the Road Atlanta lap record on his way to pole position for today's race. It was Mladin's 18th career pole position, tying him with retired Doug Polen of Texas for the greatest number of AMA Superbike poles.

With the one point earned for the pole, and today's second-place finish, Mladin increased his Superbike series point lead to 16 over Eric Bostrom.

The last time that one Superbike team took every podium position was in 1989 when Suzuki's David Sadowski, Scott Russell and Jamie James placed 1-2-3 at Road Atlanta. Hacking, Mladin and Yates will have another chance to put their Suzukis on top tomorrow at part two of the Road Atlanta doubleheader Superbike weekend.