Yoshimura Suzuki's Mat Mladin (Photo: Brian J Nelson) » More Photos

Spies put in a courageous performance just to finish second. After the early afternoon had seen some heavy rainfall in the area, the riders were given a short practice prior to the race to get a last look at the quickly drying surface before they raced on it. Disaster struck Spies for the second time this weekend as the champion crashed heavily in Turn 3 during the mini-warm-up and was limping around afterwards, visibly favoring his right foot following the spill. Minutes later he was back on the circuit, leading the Superbike final.

"It wasn't our day to win today," Spies said on the podium before immediately leaving the circuit for therapy. "Mat rode a great race today and I did everything I could but it just wasn't enough today. We learned some things that we can use tomorrow but after the day I've had, I'm content with second place. (Because of the crash on warm-up lap) my crew will have to rebuild a whole motorcycle tonight and this is two weekends in a row that I've done this to them."

Tommy Hayden completed a Yoshimura Suzuki sweep of the podium in dramatic fashion, locking down the position just inches before the finish line.

The Kentuckian made a steady climb up from seventh early, working through and breaking away from a three-rider scrap with Zemke and Yamaha USA's Eric Bostrom for fifth on lap 9 of 16. He then closed from three seconds back on the dogfight for the final podium position, waged the majority of the race by Yates and Zemke's American Honda teammate, Miguel DuHamel.

Hayden took over third on lap 13 when Georgian Yates lowsided right in front of him in Turn 5. However, DuHamel slid underneath Hayden on the last lap in the Carousel, threatening Hayden's first Superbike podium finish for Yoshimura.

Hayden wasn't finished quite yet though. He got a brilliant drive on the start/finish straight and powered past DuHamel just as the two took the flag, claiming his second career Superbike podium by a scant 0.027.

"I knew Miguel was there," Hayden remarked. "I could hear him with a lap-and-a-half to go. I really tried to put my head down the last lap and I felt like I did most the lap pretty good. I got to the Carousel and lost the front really bad in the middle and ran wide and he got by on the inside. After that I just tried to look for anywhere I could get past him. He was a little over defensive in the last corner and allowed me to square up real nice and get a good run on him. The finish line was at the right spot today."

"I feel like we're making good progress," he continued. "It's just taken a little bit longer than I would have liked. I've felt not too bad at a couple races, like I had the pace to be on the podium, I just didn't race well enough. I was definitely focused on trying to get that behind me this weekend and get my first podium of the year. I got the one, hopefully the rest of them start coming a little more often and I can start inching up on these guys a little bit."

Zemke rounded out the top five, while Bostrom, who ran off the track in 5 on lap 8 came home in sixth. Team Kawasaki's Roger Hayden picked up seventh, just 0.039 seconds in front of Bostrom's teammate, Jason DiSalvo, who also ran off in 5. The New Yorker spent his entire race playing catch up after his first-lap mistake, charging up from outside the top twenty to finish just fractions off seventh.

Hayden raced most of the contest in formation with his Kawasaki teammate, Jamie Hacking, before the '07 Superstock/Supersport champ ultimately fell off the pace late and finished ninth. Jordan Suzuki's Jake Holden rounded out the top ten.

Mladin now boasts a 6-point title lead over Spies (276-270), which he'll bring into Sunday's 100k Superbike final at Road America.