On a nearly perfect day for racing at Road America, Team AMSOIL's Larry Pegram captured his first AMA Pro Racing American Superbike victory in 10 years and Martin Cardenas scored his sixth AMA Pro Daytona SportBike presented by AMSOIL victory of the season on the final day of the Suzuki Superbike doubleheader.
The American Superbike race featured an epic, four-bike battle royal at the front with Pegram on the No. 72 Foremost Insurance/AMSOIL/Ducati 1098R, Mat Mladin, Blake Young and Geoff May. The four bikes swapped positions throughout the first three-quarters of the race before the fight for the win became a mano-a-mano duel between Pegram and Mladin.
As he did at the standing start in Saturday's first race of the doubleheader, Pegram got an outstanding start from the second row and claimed the lead. Pegram led the first six laps of the 13 lap race before Mladin took the lead as he went in search of his 10th victory of the season. The second half of the race featured a seesaw battle in which Pegram would power past Mladin heading into Turn 1 at the end of the long front straightaway, and Mladin would return the favor under braking in Turn
5 on each lap. As a result, Mladin was scored as the leader from Lap 7 through Lap 11. However, the lead changed hands an amazing four times on Lap 8 alone as the two combatants thrilled the Road America fans with their determination to wrestle the lead from one another at every opportunity. The battle came to a head on the penultimate lap of the race. Pegram took the lead on the front straight heading into Turn 1, but Mladin reclaimed the position in Turn 3. Pegram finally sealed the deal on the run from Turn 3 to Turn 5 and managed to pull away for a 0.342-second victory.
It was Pegram's first win since April 19, 1999 at Willow Springs Raceway in Rosamond, Calif., and was the third victory of his AMA Pro Racing career. The other 
win came in 600 SuperSport competition at Pikes Peak International Raceway in Fountain, Colo. On September 6, 1998.
"It was definitely a great race," said Pegram. "I was expecting that I could run the pace, but I wasn't expecting to lead like that most of the time. I was real comfortable. When Mat would get in front of me, he wouldn't really get me anywhere. We were pretty even, but I'd catch him in The Carousel (Turns 9 and 10). When we'd go through there, he would gap me in the lefthander after The Carousel. It was weird. He was really getting through there good. It's been such a long time. I don't know if that was as good as the first one or not, but I don't want to wait 10 years for another one."
The next round for AMA Pro Road Racing is Sunday, July 5 as part of the Red Bull U.S. Grand Prix at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca. AMSOIL is the Official Oil of AMA Pro Road Racing and presenting sponsor of the Daytona SportBike class.
Until then, we'll seeyou at the races.
