Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

Alth ou gh th e race couldn't have been an y closer, it might have been different if the two were positioned differen tly in th e cha m pions hi p . Aft er all, Chandl er had pl enty to protect; DuHamel could throw caution to th e wind. That beca me clear after Chandler nearly ran off the track in one of several Braking Wars a t th e end of the back straight. At that poi nt , Ch andler mad e a simple decision : Don 't risk crashing . "Whe n I a bo u t put it o ff th e rac e track, I reall y started thinkin g hard," Ch andler sai d . " I thought, ' Boy , if I would have put it off on the gra ss, that w ou ld reall y b e s tu p id.' I ju st told myself, 'You can 't do that.' I proceeded to go ahead and ke ep racing , but I wasn 't going to go over my head anymore like that." He was afforded tha t option because Mladin, his main riva l in the title chase, had d ro p ped off the pace, ultima te ly fini sh in g fou rth wi th a n ill- ru n ning Ducati . That meant tha t second place wou ld s till a llow Cha n d le r to gain g ro u nd, a n d now h e leads t he Australia n by 20 po ints w ith three races left in the IO ce serie s, 219-199. -ra Yates , m eanw hil e, co n ti n ue s to impress. The young Georgian qualified on po le position (see sidebar ), but a muffed start meant that he had to w ork hard just to get to the front group. He finall y joined the tai l end of the fou rso me o n the 19th of 26 la ps, but h e ended u p los ing tou ch wit h th e lead du o after disposing of Mladin and his sick ly V-twin. Still, hi s e ffort moved him into a tie for fourth in the series w it h Smo ki n ' Jo e ' s Ste ve C re vie r, eighth toda y, with 185 p o ints - two behind DuHamel, who va ulted all the way to th ird in the stan d ing s fro m sixth, wi th 187 po ints . Yos hi mu ra Su zuki' s Pasca l Pic otte ended the race in fifth pla ce af ter ge tting the better of Yama ha's Tom Kipp, the tw o battling fo r position fo r the majority of the race. Then came HarleyDavidson 's Thomas Wilson , the Ohioan running off the track in turn one on the seco nd lap a fter making a miraculous save of a nea r crash. That put him well ou tside the top 15, but he pressed on ultimately fini shing se ven th a ft e r a hard rid e. Crevier was e ig hth, Zero Gravity's Ben Bos trom was n in th (a fte r b eing forced to pit for a stop-and -go pe nalty fo r jump ing the star t) a nd .M u z z y Kawasaki upstart Tommy Hayde n was 10th. Th en ca me top privateer Trip p Nobles on the Tilley' s Harl ey-Davidson VR1000, ahead of Chri s Ca rr 's factory VR and th e priv a teer Kawasaki of Canadian Michael Tay lor. Fast By Ferracci's Gerald Rothma n Jr . was 14th, clear of Attack Performance's Paul Harrell and Yo shimu ra Su zuki' s Larry Pegram, the la tter barely nu rsi ng his blown-up GSXR750 to the finish . Under brilliantly sunny skies and with tempera tures hovering in the mid 80s, the sevent h round of th e AMA Su perbike Se ries got u nder way with Mladin leading the way in to tu rn one, only to be p a s sed right away by D uHamel. Crevie r, meanwhile, was lucky n ot to be on the ground afte r comi ng in contact wi th Kipp. "Aaron (Yates) was out of con tro l," Crevier said later. "And something happe ned wi th Kipp. I thought I'd pu t a n effortless pass on Kipp - he straightened u p and I tried to b la s t th rou gh. He threw it over a second time an d we hit. I was going do wn , my left bar go t pu shed and my front wh eel was going under his bike. I accelerated to keep it uprigh t. I was pretty lucky to get out of that one." (Left)Aaron Yates was forced to co me from beh ind after a poor start. The pole sitter managed to climb alt the way up to third place at the fin ish. (Below) DuHamel takes a victory lap after a weltdeserved win· the 15th 01 his AMA Superbike career. Bostro m, meanw hile, had his RC45 up to four th , d es p ite s tarting on the second row . His s tart was a bit to o quick, at lea st according to the AMA , and he wa s signa led to pit for a stopand-go pe nalty. "I rolled like tw o or three feet , but the bike's like 4 fee t long," Bostrom said . "I was stoked becau se I was w ith the lead group. I saw th at board and my heart sank." Somewhat di spirited , Bostrom pitted for th e stop-a nd-go, rejoin ed th e p a ck o u tside th e to p 15 and fo ug h t back to an eventual ninth. Mladin put the Du cati a t the front of the p a ck o n th e fou r th la p , p as sin g DuHam el while brak in g for the tig h t right-hander a t the end of the lon g bac k stra ight. lt was the first of many grea t braking duels in turn six. With Mladin looking like a threa t to leave the others b eh ind , Chand ler q ui ck ly mad e a move, slid ing under DuHa mel to tak e o ve r seco n d pla ce. Ju s t a s qu ickly , Cha ndle r moved in behind Mlad in and h e o u td u e le d th e A ust ral ia n under braking into turn six on the eighth lap , taking the lead for the first tim e. Then it was Chandler's turn to make a break for it - and he did jus t that. After 12 complete la ps, Chand ler had the Kawa saki out front by \.7 seconds. Du Ha rnel, mea nwhile, had the firs t of his near misses wh en he tried to outbra ke Ml adin a t the e nd of th e back straight. The French Canadian we nt in a bi t ho t a nd was forced to pi ck th e RC45 up and ru n wide on the exit. No harm, no fou l. Stevens wa sn't so fo rtunate; he crashed the Vance & Hines Ducati after "overridi ng " the still u n d erp ow ered Du ca ti. Once he ' d stopped sliding, Stevens took out his frus tra tion with a righ t hook to the fairing an d gas tank. "We have a persiste nt ov erheating problem and, until we get that solved, we can't run with them," Jim leonard, Stevens ' crew chief, said . "Thomas. had to override it and you can onl y do that for so long." Jus t as quickl y as Cha ndl e r had o pened a lead, it was gone. Wit h Chandle r badly balked by lapped traffic on the 16th lap, the trio were back toge th er again - and DuH a m el was now running second after successfully making a second attempt on Mladin in tu rn six. Then Cha ndler was pu sh ed wide by a backmarker and DuHam el moved through on the inside. But just as q uic k ly , Chand le r got him back under b ra king a t the end of th e back straight. On the 18th lap, Du Hamel was able to get under Chand ler in the Carou sel when the latter was blocked by a lapper once again. All of the lapped traffic had hin de red the pace somewhat and Yates had used it all to his advantage, moving to the back wheel of Mladin wit h seven laps to go . It was the cul mination of a strong ride back from a bad start. "A t the start, I jus t ki nd of overre v ved t he t h in g and slipped the clu tch," Yates sa id. "I guess I just need to p ractice my starts or so mething. It just slipped and slipped a nd finally I just dropped it and the fron t ca me u p. I was way back and I just d id w ha t I had to do. I got by guys where I cou ld and made a cha rg e . I th ou ght I h ad a cha nce. I saw the guys up there in front of th em a nd knew th ey' d be in th eir way for the next couple of turns. I figured if I was going to get a break, tha t was it. I was just trying to ride good while the track was clear in front of me. I just tried to go as good as I cou ld an d make up so me ground on 'em. Once we got through that, I kinda hu ng there for a while. Then we hit another few guys and they kin da got ou t. Those two guys got hooked up together and took off. I started slid ing a round a bi t an d my bike was wobbli ng and stuff. I thi nk my shock started fad ing. Once I got a ro und Mat and saw that he wasn't going to make a charge on me, I was comfor table there." Mladin coul d n' t charge - his Ducati w oul dn ' t allow it. b:; 0'\ ,..... 7

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