Mladin's last ride

The U.S. superbike series ended at the new facility of New Jersey Motorsports Park last weekend, with Josh Hayes and his factory Yamaha once again taking a double victory. The points earned gave him second in the series behind Yoshimura Suzuki's Mat Mladin, who'd clinched the title at the previous round. In his final appearance in AMA superbike competition, Mladin crashed out chasing Hayes on Saturday, then rebounded for a second on Sunday.

Mladin's team-mate Tommy Hayden grabbed second after Mladin's crash on Saturday, while he in turn crashed out of Sunday's race while dicing with Mladin and Hayes. Jordan Suzuki's Aaron Yates took third-place honours both days.

Series organizers DMG have announced several operational changes for the 2010 season, among them elimination of rolling starts, flaggers in high towers, and pace cars/bikes on track during caution periods, all innovations from car racing introduced this season to the universal detestation of everyone except DMG itself. Give them credit for finally listening, even if it did take a year ...

Final standings in the 20-race series follow.

1. Mat Mladin, Australia, Yoshimura Suzuki, 453 points; 2. Josh Hayes, U.S., Yamaha U.S., 406; 3. Tommy Hayden, U.S., Yoshimura Suzuki, 373; 4. Larry Pegram, U.S., Foremost Insurance/Pegram Racing Ducati, 347; 5. Ben Bostrom, U.S., Yamaha U.S., 333; 6. TIE, Blake Young, U.S., Yoshimura Suzuki, 290 and Aaron Yates, U.S., Jordan Suzuki; 8. Geoff May, U.S., National Guard Jordan Suzuki, 234; 9. Taylor Knapp, U.S., MDK Racing/Taylor Knapp Suzuki, 207; 10. Jake Holden, U.S., Jake Holden Racing Honda, 195.