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Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/127828
more than ready and he quickly bolted
past Chandler to fake the lead only half
a .lap into the first AMA Superbike
National of the season. From there he
never looked back, leading by as much
as 13 seconds before backing it off at the
end of the 42-lap, 52.12-mile race. Fittingly for Mladin, the race was titled the
Cruise America Superbike Challenge and cruise is what he was able to do for
the majority of the race.
The race win was the first for the
Eraldo Ferracci-owned team since July
. of last year when Italian Alessandro
Gramigni rode to victory in Brainerd,
Minnesota. Ditto for Ducati and Michelin tires.
With all suspense quickly taken out
of the ba ttle for the lead, the race for second was the only one worth watching in
the closing stages. It was then that
DuHamel clawed his way to the back of
Chandler's Muzzy Kawasaki, the pair
fighting through traffic on the tight and
twisty combination road course, banked
oval track. On the final lap; DuHamel
managed to make the pass, drawing
first blood in the two rivals' battle for
the Superbike National Championship.
Ah, but they both trail Mladin, who
scored a perfect 37 points.on the weekend (one point for earning the pole position, another for leading the most laps,
and 35 for the race win).
Fourth place went to Yoshimura
Suzuki's Pascal Picotte, the French
Canadian running with DuHamel for
most of the race before realizing tha't he
wasn't going to be able to make a pass
on his countryman that would stick. At
that point, Picotte decided to save what
he had and ride to the finish, happy
with fourth place can idering that he
was still fighting handling problems
with his GSXR750.
Thomas Wilson Jr. rode his factory
Harley-Davidson VRIOOO to fifth place
after working his way all the way up
past Picotte and on to the rear wheel of
DuHamel by the midway point in the
race. His efforts proved to be too much
for his rear tire, the Dunlop overheating
on the right side and causing him to
slow his pace. He was caught and
passed by Picotte, but managed to run
alone for the remainder of the race to
finish a solid fifth.
In case you weren't paying attention,
that's five different brands of motorcycles in the top five - Ducati, Honda,
Kawasaki, Suzuki and Harley.
"It feels really good," Mladin said
after his first-ever AMA Su perbike
National victory. "We haven't even
done any te.sting except for a day at
Daytona, and Daytona's not a very good
place to be getting on a new bike and
trying to go fast. To tell the truth, 1
would have been happy to walk out of
here with a top three or even a top five.
But we came here on Thursday and we
were there straight away.
"We left here on Thursday doing a
1:02-flat or something and we knew we
were going to be there. I'm really ha ppy
with it all. It's going to be a good year
and after Daytona we get to go and do
some testing. We've got some new parts
to test, some different bits and pieces,
and we'll be able to just get dialed right
in to the bike. We haven't done any
major changes, just some little things to
get the bike close. We must have stumbled across something pretty good. We
were pretty quick all weekend. Yeah,
I'm really happy."
With the exception of Mladin, the
riders who fared the best were the ones
. who were back for return engagements'
with their teams of a season ago. Following DuHamel, Chandler, Picotte and
an aggressive charge that ended with
the lone factory Yamaha star on the
deck in tum nine, a tight, left-hand hairpin. Kipp eventually got the YZF750
restarted, pitted to fix a bent shift lever,
but later retired with transmission problems.
That left second to Chandler and he
was alone with it for most of the race,
'keeping his pursuers at bay with a constant cushion back to DuHamel, who
was holding off the advances of first
Picotte and then Wilson. When traffic
got heavy at the end of the race,
(Above) Mladin was Impr~ssive
throughout the weekend,
qualifying on pole position and
easily winning his first-ever
AMA Superbike National
(Right) Steve Crevier holds off
Aaron Yates in their battle for
sixth. Crevier ended up sixth
with Yates eighth as Larry
Pegram squeezed between the
pair.
Wilson home was another who was in at
least his second year with his existing
team, Sma kin' Joe's Honda's Steve
Crevier. Other than Mladin, the first
rider to cross the line on an unfamiliar
motorcycle was Larry Pegr