Mladin finishes second in career finale

 Matt Mladin is finally hanging the old helmet and retiring from racing...

Here's the link: http://sports.espn.go.com/rpm/racing/news/story?id=4451536

Here's the text from ESPN.com

"MILLVILLE, N.J. -- Australian star Mat Mladin ended his racing career Sunday, finishing second to Josh Hayes in the season-ending AMA Pro Superbike Championships Weekend at New Jersey Motorsports Park.

Mladin, the season champion for a record seventh time and a 10-time winner this year, lost the lead to Hayes on the 15th lap in the 23-lap race and finished 2.253 seconds behind on a Suzuki. Hayes swept the weekend races on his Yamaha, giving him four straight victories and seven overall this season.

"We had a good race today," Mladin said. "In the end, we just couldn't keep up. I'm looking forward to hanging them up and moving on. When it's all said and done, I've had a fantastic career. At 37 years of age, I'm happy to walk away pretty much in one piece. There's a whole life ahead for me and my family."

Hayes finished second in the standings.

"Mat was riding great," Hayes said. "The Yamaha was great, it was a really great bike to ride this weekend. Congratulations to Mat on his career. I only hope that I can achieve half of what he has."

In the Daytona SportBike division, Yamaha rider Josh Herrin swept the weekend races. Danny Eslick finished seventh to take the season championship.

Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press