Rain delayed the first American Superbike of the Barber doubleheader, but adverse conditions wouldn’t scramble the predictable winner as Mat Mladin cruised to a 1.9-second win. The Suzuki ace was joined on the Race 1 rostrum by Yoshimura Suzuki teammate Black Young, with Yamaha’s Ben Bostrom ensuring it wasn’t another GSX-R1000 sweep by piloting his Yamaha R1 to the third step.

The wet conditions postponed the two featured races in American Superbike and Daytona SportBike, with the previous MotoGT event ending prematurely with crashes and oil making the surface even more hazardous. It was only after an hour delay that the Superbike boys saw the green.

In the opening laps of the 21-lap affair the factory Yamahas kept the Suzuki boys honest, with Bostrom managing to get ahead of Mladin in the early laps. The Californian had proved his speed earlier in April at the official Infineon test as the fastest Superbike, but by Lap 6 hopes of an upset were dashed as Mladin was back in control and motoring uncontested to a steady win.

As usual, the rider challenging the six-time AMA Superbike champ was another Yoshimura Suzuki. This time, however, instead of the usual Tommy Hayden, it was Young. Bostrom stayed with Young as the two diced over second, the Yamaha pilot getting ahead on Lap 13.

As the race wound on, Hayden moved in to make it a three-man fight for second. Meanwhile, Josh Hayes piloted his R1 on a steady top five pace, but three seconds down on the podium fighters. On Lap 20 Young managed to get around Bostrom for good, sealing his best result of the season.

Hayes held on for fifth, followed by Ducati rider Larry Pegram and National Guard Jordan Suzuki’s Geoff May. Jake Holden was the lone Honda in the top 10 at eighth, with Taylor Knapp and Aaron Yates rounding out the top 10 on their Suzukis.

American Superbike Barber Race 1 Results:
1. Mat Mladin (Suzuki)
2. Blake Young (Suzuki)
3. Ben Bostrom (Yamaha)
4. Tommy Hayden (Suzuki)
5. Josh Hayes (Yamaha)
6. Larry Pegram (Ducati)
7. Geoff May (Suzuki)
8. Jake Holden (Honda)
9. Taylor Knapp (Suzuki)
10. Aaron Yates (Suzuki)
11. D. Anthony (Suzuki)
12. M. Laverty (Suzuki)
13. Ryan Elleby (Suzuki)
14. Chris Ulrich (Suzuki)
15. B. Long (Ducati)

American Superbike Points Standings:
1. Mat Mladin - 189
2. Tommy Hayden - 130
3. Blake Young - 114
4. Geoff May - 106
5. Josh Hayes - 93
6. Ben Bostrom - 92 
7. Larry Pegram - 79
8. Aaron Yates - 73
9. David Anthony - 58
10. Taylor Knapp - 56

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American Superbike Race 1 Barber Motorsports Park Rider Quotes

Mat Mladin – Rockstar Makita Suzuki – 1st
“At the start of the race, the boys were having a bit of a go and I was trying to get a feel for the new 2009 Suzuki with a full tank of gas and a few laps in. I had a bit of a look at what the other guys were doing and made my way through. I just tried to keep it solid, but tried not to wear too much stuff out, cause we really didn’t know what the bike was capable of doing or what it was going to do to the tires. This motorcycle, as far as a GSX-R1000 goes, is very, very different to any other one we’ve ever had. It’s a very different motorbike. We have some work to do to try and figure out a few things. We didn’t want to go too crazy today. We were riding hard, but we needed to keep it within a certain envelope.”

Blake Young – Rockstar Makita Suzuki – 2nd
“I got a pretty good start out there on the Rockstar Makita Suzuki GSX-R1000. After getting out front, I really wanted to see what the track was like and I just tried to get comfortable and put in a pace that I was comfortable doing. Ben (Bostrom) came by and he was running a bit quicker, so I just jumped in and tried to learn where he was a little bit better. All of a sudden, Mat came by and he was running even more of a quicker pace, so I knew he was going to go. I was just trying to stay on his rear wheel and wait until he went by Ben and try to go with him. It didn’t end up like that. We had to wait another lap, but I just kept my head down and worked really hard this weekend. We’ve got another race tomorrow, and hopefully we can get up there and race with Mat a little bit longer.”

Ben Bostrom – Yamaha Motor Corp. – 3rd
"It's a lot better than where I've been sitting, so I'm not going to be bummed. I'm going to sleep well tonight. I think it was a fantastic ride and the Yamaha worked amazing. The boys here (Mladin and Young) are out-riding us a little bit and made a couple of amazing passes on me. Mat about scared the (crap) out of me, honestly. It was good racing. It got my heart rate up, and I'm ready to attack again. I'm looking forward to another good day tomorrow. Hopefully, that's how it goes. I want to maintain this spot up here and keep racing. I really enjoyed racing with these guys. It just seems like a long way 'til today. It's a big race tomorrow. It's going to be exciting. Hopefully, we find something, but honestly, these guys are riding amazing, so it's going to be hard to chip away at it."

Tommy Hayden – Rockstar Makita Suzuki – 4th
“The race went all right. We made a lot of changes to the bike last night, the most we’ve made in a long time and definitely on this new bike. And not having a warm-up this morning because of the rain, I wasn’t really sure of the bike. But as the race went on, I got comfortable with the GSX-R1000 and was going faster and faster. I was able to close up the gap to the battle for second place. But unfortunately, I ran out of time and I wasn’t able to get by. But I definitely felt like we were moving forward today and hope that tomorrow we’ll start out a little bit stronger and get a little bit better result.”