lived and Yates had the lead across the
stripe. Again. on the next lap, he wa s
ou t fron t and flying, his lead up to 2.5
seco nds a fter fou r of the rem aini ng 12
la ps . Secon d was no w firmly in th e
hands of Picotte after he go t awa y from
DuH amel and Smith.
"When the restart hap pened , 1 jus t
knew I had to go as hard as I co uld,"
Yates said .
Pico tte began ch ip p ing away - the
lead below two secon ds on the nex t lap ,
less the following, and then it was gone.
Picotte was rig ht on Yates with less than
three lap s to go .
" It was pret ty tough ," Yates said . "1
knew he wa s coming . It sort of screwed
wi th me a little bit."
The firs t pass came on lap 16, w ith
Yates fighting back, but Picotte held him
off for the start of the final lap. But Yates
p er si st ed , going u nd er Picotte in the
Corkscrew .
DuH am el had brok en free of Sm ith
with abo ut six laps to go an d took the
secure third.
Sm ith ad m itted that he didn't hav e
what it took to run at the fron t today.
"We w ere ju st ma xed ou t a nd that
was as fas t as I could go," Smith said
after taking fourth . "I just had to keep
riding that sa me pace. Ther e wa sn' t anythin g we could do with it." Sm ith sa id
h e never looked bac k to see who w as
there. " If I look back," he said, "1crash."
Had he looked back, he wou ld have
s een his tea mmate H a ckin g , who'd
passed Eric Bostrom on the nin th la p
bu t who t hen ha d 1"0 ho ld o ff t he
a dva nci ng C revie r. Th e tr io ha d ru n
together until abou t four laps fro m the
fin is h w hen Hac ki ng cleared our,
desp ite a few problems with the Kinko's
Kawasaki.
" It's goi ng to tak e a lot to run up
front with the Suzu kis," Hacking said .
" Th e y' v e go t a lo t m ore h orsepo w er
than we have. I'm happy wi th finishing
ruth. We were sliding the rear really bad
comi ng off the fas t co rners . Th a t wa s
screwing me up."
Hackin g had to pass Bostrom , more
aggressive in th e seco nd part o f th e race
wh ile tryi ng to fend off the persist ent
Crevier. He held his spo t to the last lap ,
w hen the vete ra n C re vier used his guile
to take sixth with a cra fty move between
rums two and three.
" It' s a l ac k o f e x pe r ie n ce ," Er ic
Bos tro m admitt ed . "I shou ld ha ve pro-tected my li ne be tte r. " Bos trom also
n ot iced th at the more vet eran rid ers
we re able to carve through traffic more
efficien tly, a s kill he kn ow s he has to
im prove.
Be h i nd C re v i e r ca m e O liver an d
Kipp, the n Ben Bostrom alo ne , in fro nt
of HyperCycle's Mark Miller and Erion
Racing's And rew Stroud .
The Yamaha riders, Oliver and Kip p,
ran with Eric Bostrom and Crevier, Kipp
in fro nt of O liver un ti l th e 13th la p .
Once past , O liver knew he had to be
there o n the final la p or r isk ge tt ing
passed at the line by Kipp.
" I had a lit tle motor," O liver said,
before correc ting himself. "We have the
sa me m ot or, but I wei gh less . I was ab le
to sneak by him."
The rid er w ho lost the most in the
restar t wa s Hyper Cyde' s Jaso n Pridm ore. Af ter a not-par ti cul arly -good
s ta r t, he'd bee n s tead ily mov in g fo rward and was up in 11th when he ran
off th e track entering tu rn two . The
error dropped him bac k int o the pack
a nd he recovered to finish 13th. More
im por ta n t to him w a s th e matter of
p oints . Had t he ra ce n o t b ee n r ed flagg ed , Oliver wou ld surely have finis hed we ll behind him and he wo uld
ha ve been ab le to ma ke up some points.
Ins tead, he remains in sixth behind Oliver, but the gap between them expanded
."
to 16 poin ts.
Lagu na Seca Racew ay
Mont erey, Cal Momla
Results: Ju ly 13,1 997 (Rou nd 7 of 11)
600 cc SU PE R.SPO RT : 1. Aa ron Yate!! (S uz); 2.
P3SC:l1 Picott e ;
(Su z); 24. Ma rk Cemick y (Ya m); 25. Bryan Kovarick
(Han); 2&. Paul Wri ght (Hon ); 27. David Wa...9OIl (Suz);
.'
28. Randy Weber (Hon ); 19. Dan iel Fischer (Kaw); 30.
Robert H ay a!>h id a (Ho n); 3 1. Mike Klei n (Ha n ); 32.
Dave Norgard (Yam ); 33. Mig ue l Benavides (Ha n); 34.
Ken Melville (l-fon); .15 Je-'ph Cubba ge (Suz); 36. Matt
.
Wail [H on }; 37. Roqu e Torres ( He n): 38 . Ja m es
Randolph (Sw.).
T iml":N / A J ut" 10 red nell$:.
D i'lotan ce. 17 Iitp". 34.14 mill....
Avengr !!
p«d : N I A due to red fLlg.
Ma rgin of v ictory: 0.15O~.
PR O HONDA O ILS bOOcc SU rE RS rO RT C S H IP
l'OINT STA N DI NG S (Aft er 7 of 11 rounds): 1. Migu el
Du H am el (222 /3 wi n a): 2. Aaron Yates (211 /1 ); 3 .
Pa sca l Picott e (2 11/3); 4. Steve Crevie r (186); 5. Ric h
OliVl"l" (168); 6. (TIE) Rich O bve r/ Icscn Prid more (152);
8. Eric Bost rom (140); 9. (TIE) Ben Bo!>tro m l And re w
Stroud ( 39): 11. Mike Smith (138); 12. Tom Kipp (115);
13. Do ug Tol a nd ( t t t ): 14 . Larr y Pegra m (t 07) ; 15.
Tommy Ha yd en (106).
Upcoming Rounds:
Round 8 - l exington, OH, July 20
Round 9 - Colorado Springs, CO . August 17
Progressive Insurance SuperTwins
Round 7 Laguna seta Raceway
:
d
9
By Henny Ray Abrams
MONTEREY, CA, JUtY13
. ric Bostro m nearl y had his p erfect
, season foiled with four laps to go in
the Progres sive In suran ce SuperTwi ns ra ce at Lagu na Seca Raceway .
That was w hen his Miller Electrical Con s truction' s H-D 883 beg an to sputter,
running 'ou t of gas on the two longest
stretches of the Monterey circuit a s
Mitchell's Modesto H -D's Dave Estok
shadowed his ev ery m ove. But Bos trom
picked u p the p ac e w her e h e co u ld ,
hard er into the corn ers, ha rd er off the
co rn ers, a nd, in th e end , wa s a ble to
n o tch h is seven th w in in seven tries .
Estok was a close seco nd, yet again.
"I d on 't know what it is," Estok said
after finishing .340 of a seco nd behind .
"I can ride w ith Eric, I hang with him.
It's not like he's go t that much, it's just
tha t little edge. I can' t do any th ing to get
around him. I can hang wi th him but I
ca n' t ge t a ro u nd him .
"He go.,,; in good on the brakes, he's
go t good entran ce speed, and real good
d rives. It's rea l hard to ge t pa st h im. I .
can match h im, but J just ca n' t p as s him.
I th ink it 's jus t a li tt le bit o f se tup. I
noticed I was slidi ng around a little bit
mo re than Eric. When I went in as deep
on the brakes as Eric, I noticed I'd get a
littl e chatter on both the front and rear
ends . I just think I need to chase my setup a little more: '
As to how he might prevent Bostrom
from w inning again at Mid-Ohio the following w e
ekend , Estok joked: "I might
just have to bump him off the track. It's
abou t the only way I'm go ing to be able
to bea t him: '
.
Bostrom' s s e rie s p oints lead o ve r
Estok swelled to 35 points, 260-215, with
fou r of 11 rounds remainin g .
Th is was a two- man race in a n an emi c n in e -rid er fi e ld . After th e fir st
a tte m p t to be g in t he r a ce was redflagged - beca use the gree n light never
lit - Bostro m a nd Es tok im mediat el y
split from the field. They were lap pi ng
a t abo u t the sa me pace, but more than
rwn seco nds per lap faster than Bartels'
H-D's Jake Zemk e, w ho lost them at the
start.
"I co uld see these guys pull ou t of
three on th e fi rs t la p ," Zemke sai d .
"Th ey just pulled aw ay . I go t by Ga tor
(Wa it), bu t they w ere a lrea dy too far
gone:'
Ze m ke to o k thi rd , h is firs t-ever
SuperTw ins podium.
Out fron t, it wa s Bostrom in the lead ,
tho ugh not by much, an d Est ok managed to get in front a tim e or two, but
Bostrom was qu ick to take it back.
" Da ve was pushing really h a rd,"
Bos tr om said . "Dave slip ped by a few
times, but we we re able to get by on the
brak es:'
Eric Bostrom (20) and Dave Estok (12) had
the ir normal battle In the Harley-Davidson
TwlnSports fi nal. Agai n, Bostrom came
out on top.
The n , with abou t four la ps to go,
Bostrom noticed a m isfire.
" owards the end of the race, my bike
T
was starting to run out of gas down the
front stra ight and up the hill," he said. "I
thoug ht it might not happen for us, but
luckily it picked up and here we are."
Estok mad e a push on the fin al la p,
trying Bostrom in the final right, tum 10,
an d the final left before the start-finish
li n e, tu rn II . Both ti mes he w a s
rebuffed.
Zem ke was abou t 27 seconds back in
thi rd and he'd pull ed bette r than three
seconds on Na te Wait. The two had ru n
in that order the en tire race, wi th Zemke
only ab le to get some brea thing room in
the final few la ps.
Bart el' s [od y Hendley was fifth, getting the better of Mike Voelker, the pair
abo u tZtl seconds be h in d Wait . Je ff
Eklund, another Bartel's H-D rider, was
seventh after ha ving run with Hendley
a nd Voelker much of th e race, before
dropping back wit h about three lap s to
go.
M it ch ell ' s Mod es to H -D' s Rob ert
Bussey, Rams ey ' s Chesa pea ke H -D's
Jerry Casciero [r., and Robert Brown,
ri d ing to te n th for KSJO a nd H-D of
Vallejo, were the only other finish ers. '"
Laguna seca Raceway
Monterey I California
Results: July 13, 1997 (Round 7 of 11)
PROGRESSIV E IN SURANCE SUPERlWINS : 1.
Eric Bostro m; 2. Davi d Estok; 3. Jake Zemke; 4. Nate
Wait; 5. jccy Hendky; 6. Mike Voelker; 7. Jeff Eklund;
S. ~'ft B~; 9. JerryCasoero Jr.; 10. Robert Brown .
Ti me: 20 mi n ., 17.940lOt'C.
Oi~UnC'l": 12 bpto. 26.86 miJeiAvft"ag~ !>~ : 79.381 mph.
Mu gin of victory: 0 _'\40~.
PROGRESSIVE IN SURANCE SUPERTWlNS CSH IP
POINT ST A ND INGS fA ft er 7 o f 11 round~ ); 1. Eric
Bos tro m (260 /7 wi ns) ; 2. David Esto k (215); 3. Jak e
Ze m ke (188) : -I. Jody Hendley (1SS); 5. Lance Jo nes
(150); b. Jcny Casccro Jr. (}29);:7. Shawn Hi gbee (127);
8. Sha u n Russell (19); 9. Jess Roeder (04); 10. Robert
Bussey (94); 11. Jeff Eklund (93); 12. Na te Wa it (84); 13.
Jeffre y Joh nson (83); U . Mike Voel ker (68); 15. Tripp
Noble» (58); 16. Robert Brow n (53); 17. Tod d Evan s (52);
18. mE) Perry Mel nt'ciuc/ Ga ry Rogers (46): 20. Chris
Rog~(44).
Upcoming Rounds:
Round 8 - l exington, OH. July 20
Round 9 - Colorado Springs, CO, August 17
15
