Fontana, Ca. - March 23, 2009 - It was business as usual for the Rockstar Makita Suzuki team, as Mat Mladin (#7) and Tommy Hayden (#22) swept the first two spots on the podium in this weekend's double-header. Rookie teammate Blake Young (#79), in just his second AMA Superbike event, also put in strong finishes.

After a red-flag delay on Saturday's race, it was the Rockstar Makita Suzuki GSX-R1000 of Tommy Hayden leading the field, with pole-sitter Mladin close in tow. Mladin made a quick move around his teammate, but Hayden didn't let the six-time AMA Superbike champion out of his sights. On lap 9, Hayden made his move into the lead and tried to pull out a gap. But the veteran Mladin closed the gap and with two laps to go, made a pass for the lead. Hayden stayed close and retook the position, but in turn 10 on the final lap, Mladin made his pass stick. The drag race to the finish line saw Mladin winning the thrilling race by 0.068 seconds. Blake Young finished a strong fourth place.

''If there's anybody up here that I'd like to see win one, it's probably Hayden,” Mladin commented after his thrilling race one victory. “But I'm not going to give it to him so I pushed him hard. It was a really good race.''

Sunday's race looked to be much of the same. After a start that saw Mladin and Hayden leading the field, the race was red flagged. The restart, once again, was dominated by Hayden and Mladin. As the two set out at the front, it looked to be another close race between the two Rockstar Makita Suzuki bikes. But as Mladin made his way into the lead early on, Hayden made a small mistake, allowing Mladin to stretch out a large gap. Mladin would go on to cross the line ten seconds ahead of his teammate, winning a record 8th victory at the Fontana Speedway, as well as his 75th AMA Superbike class victory. Blake Young, looking strong after his impressive fourth place finish in Saturday's event, had an unfortunate mistake and was forced to do a ride-through penalty. Nonetheless, he managed to finish a solid 9th.

''At the start, I wanted to have a look and see what Tommy had in a few spots,” said Mladin after race two. “There were a couple of spots yesterday that we were definitely lacking compared to Tommy and we learned a little bit from him and changed the bike. We had no chance to try it out this morning but went with it for the race and definitely were able to keep that gap between us a little bit better in those spots today.''

The series heads to Braselton, GA next on April 5th for the Road Atlanta round of the AMA Superbike Championship.

Race One results:
1 Mat Mladin (Rockstar Makita Suzuki)
2 Tommy Hayden (Rockstar Makita Suzuki)
3 Geoff May (National Guard Suzuki)
4 Blake Young (Rockstar Makita Suzuki)
5 Jake Holden (Honda)
6 Josh Hayes (Yamaha)
7 Ben Bostrom (Yamaha)
8 David Anthony (Suzuki)
9 Taylor Knapp (Suzuki)
10 Aaron Gobert (Honda)

Race Two results:
1 Mat Mladin (Rockstar Makita Suzuki)
2 Tommy Hayden (Rockstar Makita Suzuki)
3 Larry Pegram (Ducati)
4 Geoff May (Suzuki)
5 Ben Bostrom (Yamaha)
6 Joshua Hayes (Yamaha)
7 Taylor Knapp (Suzuki)
8 David Anthony (Suzuki)
9 Blake Young (Rockstar Makita Suzuki)
10 Aaron Yates (Jordan Suzuki Brand)

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