Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/127799
ROAD RACE . . AMA Superbike National Championship Round 9: Sears Point Raceway (Left) Doug Chandler (10) leads the way In the restarted AMA SUperblke Netlolllli 8t sears Point with Pascal Picotte (21), Chris CBrr (hidden), Mike Smith (68) 8nd Aaron Yetes (20) glvlngcha... (Below) The race came down to 8 battle between the Yoshimura Suzukls of Yetes 8nd Mat Mladln (66) with Yates gettl.ng the nod at the finish. By Paul Carruthers Photos by Henny Ray Abrams SONOMA, CA, AUG. 25 aIlY everyone's fortunes flipflopped in the red flag-interrupted McGraw Insurance California Superbike ational at Sears Point Those who were at the front in the first portion weren't necessarily there in the second part, and vice versa. Not so for Yoshimura Suzuki's Aaron Yates, who led until the red £lag and fought through from as far back as sixth in the restart to eventually take the win, the first of his infant AMA Superbike career. While most young racers make a gradual rise to their first career victories, Yates took a differen t rou teo There were no third-place finishes, no seconds. His victory at Sears was not only the first in his rookie season of superbike racing, it wa also his first trip to the winner's circle. Prior to his victory today, the best the Georgian had done in his debut season was fifth at Loudon. But at Sears Point Raceway, Yates was the man to' beat from the momen!' the first wheel \.0 was turned in practice. 0\ Still it took everything that Yates had 0\ to hold back his teammate Mat M1adin, who provided the perfect example of flip-flopped fortunes. Having staUed his Suzuki GSXR750 on the start of the first portion of the race, the Australian was 11th when the red flag was brought out after 11 laps. On the restart, though, he was a new man, leading the majority of the laps only to be passed by Yates two laps .from the end, crossing the line only 0.217 of a second behind. While the good fortunes of the N ,..., 6 Yoshimura team were a large portion of the story here, the real drama played out behind them, putting breath back into the championship battle between Muzzy Kawasaki's Doug Chandler and Smokin' Joe's Racing's Miguel DuHamel. With only a single round remaining in the 10-race championship, DuHamel leads Chandler by just two points, 252- 250, after the latter managed to pick up eight points on the former at Sea'rs Point. C;:handler ended the day third after running with the two Suzukis throughout the restarted race, and his championship hopes were rekindled when DuHamel struggled, eventually dropping to ninth place when the shifter linkage on his Honda RC45 failed late in the race, leaving it stuck in one gear. Another chapter in a race that had more plot twists than a good novel was the one involving the factory HarleyDavidson team. Both Thomas Wilson and Chris Carr were factors throughout the two-part race, routinely running with the-lead pack and eventually finishing fourth and fifth, respectively easily the best resuJt for the pairing and the best outing for the VR1000 since