AMA American SuperBike

The AMA Pro National Guard American SuperBike class saw the end of an era this past year. Seven-time champion Mat Mladin left the sport and returned to his home in Australia, leaving behind a record of domination that will be hard to replicate. His record total of American SuperBike race wins stands at 82 and his seven championships is four clear of any of his closest rivals. American SuperBike will never forget the overall dominance of Mladin and his mark will be left on the series for a long time.

Achieving that level of dominance in American SuperBike is all the more remarkable when you look at the configuration of the class. Created in 1976 as a showcase for the motorcycle industries new era of big and powerful street bikes, the class featured slightly modified versions of the motorcycles the public could buy right off the showroom floor. But as the competition on the track and in the showrooms heated up, the machines became very specialized and not to mention costly. Each major motorcycle manufacturer took turns in upping the ante as they came out with and engineered more and more power and technology into the machines. Occasional rule changes by the AMA slowed the rate of technological change but the rules couldn't hold back the ingenuity of the manufacturers, engineers and teams.

A by-product of the technological war was the emergence of a group of riders that were a breed apart from the acknowledged stars of the era in Europe, because these men were riding machines that were bigger and more powerful than anything that had come before. The greatest names in motorcycle racing came through American SuperBike: Reg Pridmore, Eddie Lawson, Wayne Rainey, Fred Merkel, Bubba Shobert, Freddie Spencer, Troy Corser, Miguel Duhamel, Doug Chandler and Nicky Hayden. More recently, Ben Bostrom and Ben Spies and, of course, Mladin enjoyed great success in Superbike.

The class began a return to its roots in 2008 and continued to move towards a more stock-like specification in 2009. The bikes now have to maintain a great number of stock/approved parts with the scope for modification limited to areas that do not add significantly to the cost of the motorcycle. A series spec tire from Dunlop and competitors' per-weekend tire limit also level the playing field. Safety in preparation is a huge priority in the rules making. Performance balancing is also a component to the rules and this provides for different post-race minimum weights for the many different engine layouts prevalent in the marketplace today.

From the very first American SuperBike winning BMW, virtually every major motorcycle manufacturer has enjoyed success in American SuperBike racing. Suzuki leads the way with 13 championships, followed by Kawasaki with nine, Honda with eight, Ducati with two and Yamaha with one. Competition on the track has long proven a great showcase for the world's best Superbikes and the great American tradition of the AMA Pro National Guard American SuperBike class continues.

^* Lap Leader
^# Best Qualifier