Yeah, you're right Mladin was the big winner, with a 1-2, over Hayden's 1-3.
Nicky Hayden is a young phenomenal rider. The fans love him because he rides hard, and rarely whines about things like Mladin does. Besides, Mladin has won 2 championships, already won race 1, and to top it off he isn't American. Who do you expect to have bigger fan support?
I was one of those people screaming for Nicky when he passed Mat the last time (ok, I was screaming for him after I heard the fans in the grandstands go nuts, and then saw him come through turns 7-8 ahead of Mladin. I also was a big fan of Nicky Hayden when he first started road racing at age 16 for the Hypercycle Suzuki team.
Also consider the fans were happy to have a nice race for the second Superbike race. Race 1 was mostly a parade after 5-10 laps, with the top 4 just riding around in the same order, not very close to each other.