Twice falling (literally) to fairly imposing points deficits during the season, Mladin’s late-season charge has allowed the Australian to establish a scant three-point advantage (618-615) heading into the Laguna Seca finale.

Today’s win marked the Suzuki star’s sixth in succession (tying the all-time record), his 12th win on the season (breaking his old series record), and the 63rd of his career, far and away the most in AMA Superbike history.

After claiming an 11th career win at Road Atlanta, Mladin said, “Our goal this year was to try to win as many races as possible, and with some bad starts and a couple crashes we’ve given away a few, but we’re in a good position. It’s nice to win and it’s nice to get the bike working so well that we can pull away a little bit when we need to. Laguna Seca is going to be a good race and we’re looking forward to it. We’ll see what happens.”

Looking ahead to what’s essentially shaped up to be a winner-take-all duel between the sport’s giants in two weeks, Mladin said his mindset will not change.

“I’ve said before… my days are over of thinking about trying to tally up points to try to win championships,” he explained. “I really couldn’t be bothered doing it anymore. I just want to get out there every weekend and do the best that I can do. It’s just not how I want to race anymore. Going into Laguna, I’m going there trying to win the race, and if I win the race, of course I’m going to win the championship.”

Commenting on his rivalry with reigning class champ Spies, Mladin commented, “He’s a kid with a bright future. After last year, where a lot of people wrote me off and said maybe Ben is going to ride into the sunset, it’s nice to come back and win more races than I’ve ever won before in a single season… I’m looking forward trying to improve again next year and I’m going to have to since Ben’s going to be strong and all the other guys might improve a bit. I ain’t getting any younger. I’ll be 36 and I’ve got to work harder if I’m going to stay there.”

Mladin’s lead means that in order to retain his title, Spies will likely need to win the race and claim one bonus point (either for pole or laps led) at Laguna Seca. When the series traveled to the Northern Californian circuit earlier this season for the combined MotoGP/AMA weekend, Spies walked away with a maximum points haul weekend.

Reigning Supersport and Superstock champion Jamie Hacking provided further evidence that he’s currently the ‘best of the rest,’ picking up his third podium in the last four races as the Monster Energy Kawasaki squad is finding its form late in the ’07 season. There’s still a long way to go before challenging the leading Suzuki’s, however, as Hacking finished on the bottom step of the podium nearly a half minute (27.134 seconds) off the victory.

Jordan Suzuki’s Aaron Yates won out in a three-rider scrap for fourth, edging Monster Energy Kawasaki’s Roger Hayden and American Honda’s Jake Zemke, who ran third early in the contest and only got bumped back to sixth on the final lap by the Kentuckian.

Third Yosh runner Tommy Hayden finished in seventh, followed by Corona Extra Honda’s James Ellison and Yates’ teammate, Jake Holden.

Sunday was another tough day for Yamaha USA, as Jason DiSalvo’s R1 gave out on him while running eighth on lap 14, and Eric Bostrom picked up tenth after running off course early in the race.

The entire season will be on the line on September 15-16 at Laguna Seca when Mladin and Spies square off to decide the 2007 AMA Superbike Championship.

Provided by the American Motorcyclist Association.