While Rockstar Makita Suzuki’s Ben Spies won the pole for Sunday’s AMA Superbike National at Laguna Seca with a last second lap clocked at 1:23.129 — the lap knocking teammate Mat Mladin from the top spot of the grid on the last lap of the qualifying session – Mat Mladin stomped back to with the AMA Superbike round at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca. A 28-lap affair, the Australian defeated Spies by 10.1 seconds.

However, it must be cited that Spies raced to a highly impressive eighth overall on a Rizla Suzuki MotoGP machine in the 32-lap Bull U.S. Grand Prix a short time before having to change leathers, as trading his Rizla Suzuki GSV-R800 for his more familiar Yoshimura Suzuki GSX-R10000, before taking his pole position place on the AMA Superbike grid.

When the race began, Mat Mladin enjoyed the best jump out of the hole, leading the field up the start straight and down into turn 2: The Andretti Hairpin. One lap in, Mladin was .004 of a second ahead of Spies and then, methodically, the margin began to grow. Mladin reached for another gear on lap number nine, opening his lead up to almost three seconds. Upon streaking across the white finish line stripe at the conclusion of lap 28, Mladin enjoyed a 10 second lead on his road weary teammate. It was Mladin’s fifth win of the 2008 AMA Superbike season and closed his point’s deficit for the AMA Number One Plate to leader Spies to 36 (411-375).

Michael Jordan Motorsports’ Aaron Yates claimed the final podium spot at Laguna Seca, beating back the rabid advances of Monster Kawasaki’s Jamie Hacking and Rockstar Makita Suzuki’s Tommy Hayden. Sixth overall fell to Monster Kawasaki’s Roger Lee Hayden, finally back to racing after a lengthy absence due to an injury suffered at round two of the series at Barber Motorsports Park.

Superbike Final

1. Mat Mladin (Suzuki)
2. Ben Spies (Suzuki)
3. Aaron Yates (Suzuki)
4. Jamie Hacking (Kawasaki)
5. Tommy Hayden (Suzuki)
6. Roger Lee Hayden (Kawasaki)
7. Neil Hodgson (Honda)
8. Jason DiSalvo (Yamaha)
9. Eric Bostrom (Yamaha)
10. Miguel Duhamel (Honda)