Suzuki Sweeps AMA Superbike for Second Straight Day

Team Suzuki takes rare 1-2-3 finish at Road Atlanta on Saturday, then does it again on Sunday
May 21, 2001 - This was the greatest weekend of American road racing in Team Suzuki’s history, stretching back to its very first national victory in 1969. Just one day after Team Suzuki swept the top three positions at round three of the AMA Superbike series at Road Atlanta, the Chino, Calif.-based squad did it again in round four of the doubleheader event here in Braselton, Ga.

On Sunday, two-time, defending AMA Superbike champion Mat Mladin led the way across the finish line on his Suzuki GSX-R750, followed by teammates Aaron Yates and Jamie Hacking. A day earlier, Hacking took his first-ever Superbike win, followed by Mladin and Yates.

“A bloody great result for the team,” said Mladin, from Australia. “We had the best package for the weekend and my hat’s off to the Yoshimura Suzuki team, the best crew in the paddock.”

Starting from pole position, Mladin took over the lead early in the Sunday race and was only threatened occasionally by hometown favorite Yates, from Milledgeville, Ga. Hacking, born in England but now residing in South Carolina, passed Eric Bostrom’s Kawasaki late in the race to take the final podium position. As they crossed the finish line, all three white and blue Suzukis were mere bike-lengths apart. The win consolidated the series point lead for Mladin, now with 136 to Bostrom’s 110.

On Saturday, Hacking led the weekend’s first stunning Team Suzuki 1-2-3 finish at Road Atlanta. It had been 12 years since a team swept the top-three spots in AMA Superbike racing. That had last been accomplished by Team Suzuki, also at Road Atlanta, with riders Scott Russell, Jamie James and David Sadowski.

This was just the third race weekend 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 this weekend’s races. It was Mladin’s 18th career pole position, tying him for the greatest number of AMA Superbike poles.

SOURCE Suzuki