Written by:
Kevin Krefting
Mladin's Turn to Throw Down MotoGP Caliber Time
While Ben Spies flew the flag for the AMA Superbike series in the timesheet comparisons against the prestigious MotoGP World Championship yesterday, his Yoshimura Suzuki teammate Mat Mladin led the way this morning at Laguna Seca.
Late in the hour-long practice session, the Australian dipped beneath Spies' mark, breaking into the '23s to set a very competitive GP time.
Mladin guided his factory GSX-R1000 around the roller-coasteresqe circuit with a best time of 1:23.970, which was set at the conclusion of a combined hour-and-a-half of Superbike practice time this weekend. Compared to
Friday's MotoGP timesheets, which was established following two hours of practice time, Mladin's mark would have slotted him in eleventh, running equivalent times to Grand Prix race winners Makoto Tamada (1:23.965) and Carlos Checa (1:23.998).
In fact, Mladin was just over two-tenths off the best time set by his old rival and reigning MotoGP champion, Nicky Hayden, who ranked eighth on Friday at 1:23.768.
Expect the GP men to take full advantage of their greater track time (and super-sticky Qs during qualifying) to widen their gap over the Superbike stars as the weekend continues, but the practice order timesheet snapshot certainly make for a compelling comparison.
