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AMA SBK: Spies Dominates Saturday Final
Written by: Chris Martin   
05/17/2008 - 07:32 PM
Sonoma, CA
 
Rockstar Makita Yoshimura Suzuki's Ben Spies (Photo: Brian J Nelson) ยป More Photos

The 2008 AMA Superbike Championship is very much on, as two-time reigning champion Ben Spies equaled his Rockstar Makita Yoshimura Suzuki teammate, Mat Mladin, with three wins on the season following a thoroughly dominating outing Saturday afternoon at Infineon Raceway.

Yamaha USA's Eric Bostrom actually stole the holeshot from the outside of Row 1 and held off the advancing Spies for the race's first half-lap. But once the Texan did find a way through, ducking up the inside of Turn 7, he quickly broke free of the pack, building up more than a full second before completing the second half of the opening lap.

Mladin followed Spies past Bostrom a lap later but had no success making any inroads on the lead as Spies continued to run roughshod over the field with a relentless pace, building up a double digit lead by lap 13. He upped his advantage to as much as 12 seconds before settling in and backing down to an ultimate 6.168-second
margin of victory over his teammate following 28 laps of racing.

Monster Energy Kawasaki's Jamie Hacking got his first Superbike podium of the finish, working his way past Yamaha USA teammates Jason DiSalvo and Eric Bostrom to claim the position. It took the British-born Hacking several laps to finally put Bostrom behind him, but once he did, he escaped from his pursuers and showed a similar pace to runner-up Mladin.

Bostrom just held on to fourth, surviving a late attack from Jordan Suzuki's Aaron Yates, who charged up past DiSalvo and American Honda's Neil Hodgson before closing on the Californian.

Hodgson also bumped the DiSalvo down a spot, securing sixth while the New Yorker could only finish seventh following his impressive second-place showing in qualifying.

Corona Honda's Matt Lynn, Jordan Suzuki's Geoff May, and Hodgson's teammate, Miguel DuHamel, rounded out the top ten.
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