AMA Pro Roadracing Series - The Season Begins

Despite the new Superstock-style rules in American Superbike intended to prevent runaway victories, Yoshimura Suzuki's Mat Mladin apparently didn't get the memo. He returned to his usual self at Road Atlanta, crushing the competition in both races and winning by huge margins.

One race where anyone stood a ghost of a chance of beating Mladin was Daytona, where the '08 Suzuki's lack of speed and Mladin's back injury hobbled his usual domination. It didn't matter in the end.

The battle for the lead in the Daytona 200 boiled down to Yamaha rider Ben Bostrom (bottom), Buell-mounted Danny Eslick (center), and Bostrom's teammate Josh Hayes (top). Hayes crashed late in the race, and Eslick waspenalized for passing under a caution flag, leaving Bostrom to win his first Daytona 200.

The usage of a pace car in the Daytona Sportbike series has also been controversial, with the confusion at Daytona and the questionable call at Road Atlanta causing many to grumble under their breath (for fear of penalties for speaking out) about too much management meddling in the outcome of a race.

Letting the young and hungry Supersport class contestants (16-21 years old, on 600cc machinery) continue to race when it began to rain with everyone on DOT tires produced predictable results...

Although outwardly trivial, another dubious mandate with the new AMA Pro Racing is the practice of allowing the racetrack organizers to only award the winner an actual trophy, with the second and third place finishers receiving a "medallion" for their efforts...except at Daytona, where all podium finishers received huge trophies (see photo upper right).

Winner of three out of the first five Daytona Sportbike races, Eslick's 1125cc Buell came under fire for its apparent rules-assisted advantage over the 600cc competition. After the third event at Road Atlanta, AMA Pro Racing hastily changed the minimum weights on various engine configurations in an effort to calm the flames.