ROAD RACE
AMAIMBNASUPERBIKE
N N H
ATIO ALC AMPIONSH
IP
Round 8: Pikes Peak International Raceway
beca use ,) threat of rain forced the riders to go
to qualifying: tires more quickly than usual.
Thus, there were none of the last-lap heroics
th at have been commonplace in the final !'E""sion of the run for the Interstate Batteries Pole
Awa rd.
"It' s just so hard to pass," Chandler said
after his third pole position of the season and
th e 12th of his COlJ"('(' T. "I kept getting balked by
backma rkers before I finally got a clear lap . If
it d id rain, I was kinda hosed . I started trying
like mi d w ay through the session. I wasn't sure
if we were go ing to ge t it in. But I just couldn 't
get a dear IJp. There arc so many people out
(Top) Mat Mladin rode hard to finish
fourth, suffering fr om a lack of testi ng
time at the facility.
(Above) Steve Crevier (14) battled with
Aar on Yates (20) and Larry Pegr am (72)
earl y in th e National.
"T he re w a s n o g r ip wh a ts oever ,"
Stevens sai d . "Now we kno w."
C a rr a nd hi s VRl OOO round ed o u l the
to p 10 fini shers . Ev ery one else was
lappc'Ca rr (56.800); 11. Gt-rald Rllth metn Jr.
(5fdU'i); 12. Tllmmr tldy.lt'Il (:,o.R741; 13. [)o llg Pnl...,
(57.055); 14. Michal" Taylor (57.186); 15. Th oma:o. W il~n
Jr . (5 7.209); 16. Ja :o.o n Pridmore (57.2-15); 17. T rip p
Nob l~ (57.3JO ); 11:1. IJaul Harrell {57.4n l; 19. Eric Moe
(57.9 Ibl ; 20 . Ku r t Dim ick (5g .~5g ) ; :n. Jdfrc \' Vo~
(58 .9&3 22. Da le Kieffe r (59 .026 ); 23. Ricky O rtmdo
);
(SQ.l36); 24. JalTlt:'S IU ndol ph (59.405); 25. Ch ristop h...,.
.
JUnkin (59.519); 2b. John Jacobi (59.682); '27. A nthony
Lu po (SCI .ns); 28. Ril.: drd AIt''lanJt"r Jr . (59.760); 29.
h
\t...rl..Milkr l;Q.774); 30. Bridn Cil~ (5'1
.912); 31. Jimmy
\-f(lu ft> (I:OO,03R); .'\2. Shitnt" a.ulw 0 :00.281); 3::'- 0 .....
Snow 0:(I(L1;'1 );:'\4. rMvid Kieff" (1:OO.484~; 35. Michill"l
Ba m~ (1:00.667); 36. IJto
nni :o. Burke (1 :00.667); 37. Bria n .
Leh lr ldt n :01.45i1;:IS. Terry Tl"'I (1:01.567>; 39 . Doug
ke
Vickery IUJ1
...2SJ); oW. T. Ru.~·• .-ll Strobridge 0:02.652).
•,
SU PER81K E H~AL: · I . Miguel Du Hamel (Ho n); 2Doug C handler (Ka w ); 3 . Tom Kipp (Ya m ); 4 . Ma t
Ml.ldin (Due); 5. Steve Crevier (Ho n); o. Pascal Pirotle
(Suz); 7. Alron YVt"ns (D uel ; 10. Ch ris Carr (H· D); t 1.
Mich .....L T.. y lo r (K.ilw); 12. Tripp Nobles (H· D); 13 .
~r-", k1 Rothman Jr. (Due); 14. Larry Pt'gram (Ka w); 31. Jim my Moore (Su z); 32. Do ug
Pol...n .(Suz); 33. Sha ne Cl. lte (Suz ); 34. Eric Moe (Kaw);
u
Chandler
all the warI
n what was the AMA's first visit to Pikes
Peak Internation al Race-way, Dou g Cha ndlcr.bccamc the race truck's first motorcycle pole-position hold er and, obviously , the
tra ck's firs t mo torcy cle lap reco rd holder. The
MlI?7.Y Kawasaki rider did so hy tu rn ing a
55.575-socond lop (8·1.211 mph) on the ti ny
1.315--mile race track, whi ch is si tua ted inside <1
'l-mi le banked lW;:11.
With the majority of the factory stars having tes ted at the new Pik es Peak ea rlier in the
sum me r, the tra ck d id n't prese n t many sur prises. Some had criticize the track following
d
the tests , es pt'Ciallv after the surface had startl.td to C(lm~ apart. ·Otht.> n, liked tht> layout, but
.lll were in <1grccrnent th at tht:' r<1ong su rface
wa.... fa r It"".. tllan adeqmltt". sPaler WitS u"'t"d to
fix ct'rtir
assessm e n t o f th e> tr a c k, though the ac tua l
fdcility i ~ J.:o nsidert'd fintt-rate.
"T hey just d idn't spend any money to d o
the infield," Steve Crevier said. "The banking
is nice, but the infield pavement is the shits."
T he man who end ed up mastering the
tr icky ro ndihons b~t was Chandler, de-spite
not being overly comfortable with the slower
traffie. His quick lap ca me in the St"Cond ~~
sion • mu ch ea rlier tha n expec ted - mainly
there - I'd get one, then get held up . I think I
got the lap in around the m iddle because I still
had tw o tir es It-ft. I thought I could have go t it
better on e in, but we put it (another tire) on
and it was cold. With only having two rightha nd ers on this tra ck , by th e time the righ t
side starts to come in , the left sid e starts going
off. W.. a com pro mise. The traffic' will make it
tough, reall y tough."
"I'm .111 right on tin'S at this point," Chandler added , confident in his dual-compound
Du nlo p» after running race di stance in the
morn ing s ess io n. "We're still t rying to
improve the gri p . The tires that we have to run
hen .' don't have tha t great a grip, and I just
keep trying to make it be tter ..Every COTner, the
thing se ms to wa nt to break away ea rly, so
e
we've been working on that since yesterday,
tr ying to ma ke i t better. We make small
ch a nges, nothing drastic, but when you 're
c hnai ng so m e t hing like that, you ' re never
happy. I did 56.1 this morning with a race tire;
it depends a lot on temperature and traffic. I
can run pre tty steady mid-56s and some pretty
low .~, a nd I'm pretty comfortable. If it' .. hot,
it 's going to be a bit slower, and of course the
traffic is go ing to slow us down."
Afte r C ha nd ler came Yoshimu ra Su zuki's,
Pascal Picotte , the French Cana dian dOID,z; his
quick times on Frid ay afte rnoon. He struggled
somew ha t in th e final session, which hel d in
windv renditions, an d had to fa ll back on the
55.68B..St.'Cond lap fro m Friday .
.
'" used a rpgtilar ha rd tire," Picotte sa id. ""
t hin k t hat 's w hat I w ent fast er w ith. I jus t
coul dn 't put .1 la p together tod a y . I d on 't
kno w if it was because of the wind ... I was rid ing really good, the bike was really sta ble, bu t
we just could n' t put a lap toget her. Then I put
J qual itying tire on and I started pushing the
front. We cha nged th... front tire and a lso rim
size that helped really a lot , and I sto pped
pu sh ing th e front. But by that point, the rear
tir e w as really gone. We just managed doing
56 low , 56 flat. 1 wa s a bit quicker yes terday
an d I don't know why . Corner one was reall y
dif ficult with tht" wi nd - I had a hard time to
mak e it steer."
A nd then the raindrops started falling...
" I wa s thi nking abo u t it - the ra ind ro ps
we re on my faceshield," Picotte added . "I was
th inking abou t other' stuff instead of being
really focused. The bike's working rea lly good.
Our ra ce setu p is perfect, and I can't complain
a t a ll. Suspension, engine, brakes ... it just
wo rked really good . I'm reall y comfortable out
ther e and I'm not riding over my head nt <111."
Mu ch as thev were in their criticism of the
Infield pa vement, the top riders were also in
agreeme nt tha t tr a ffic wou ld be d ia boli cal.
r~cl ce o fficial .. annm!O ced t hat if a rider was
l<1pped tw ice, he would Ix bLlck-fIaggt..'li . Th e
top rid t't'S figurl'd th ey would be in tr affic , in!:iide o u tsi de, but it's al ways kind of
do-or-die. You j u~t ha ve to pra y" that they
don 't blClck yo ur line . 'f yo u d e-d d t" to go,
yo u\'e go t to go. You c.,n't hesitat e or yo u' ll
hit him. You've just got to go . Her e, you have
to thi nl dbo u t yo u r~elf instead uf thin ki ng
",bout the other guy. I d on't think there ,,'ill be
mu ch passi ng. You can a hvay .. pass a guy on
the ins ide, but he won 't II\<1ke the comer....
Vance & Hines Yama ha's Tom Kip p was
Olble to gt' t intu the 5s.st'Cond bra cket o n Satur·
day ., tte moon, larrin ~ a t 55 .934 to tak e the
thir d spo t on the front row.
"I'm definitely happy' \t\oith that last result,
with qu .tlifying.." Kipp ~id . "Tn thi~ morning's
pra ctice session, we took a major step back\"ilrd in traction and in th e way the bikp was
drivin h out of tlu. comers. We were like a second off frum wht're we n~t'd to ~ and so
>
we kind of went back to where the bike wa s
yesterday. It took probably half that session
before I fell I had the bile that 1 had yesterday
• whi ch was a really good ...etup. \Vp were able
to put qu alifying tires on and go, but the differenc e between th e way the race tire felt in
th is second session \'50. the way it fell this
morrung was ni ght and day. We're happy. Wekn ew w e we re going to run good here. We
were really fast at the test. The front row's
good ; we need to be o n the front row . You
wo uldn 't think this would be a good track for
th e Yamaha , but apparently it is. The Yamaha
seems to be vr:r happy here. There a re a cou i
ple of pla ces where the bike feels real hea vy."
Filling the front ro w wa s Smokin ' Joe 's
Hond a' s Miguel Dul-lamel, th e hottest rid er in
the se ries after v..r inning the last two rounds in
Minnesota and Ohio. DuHamel's qualifyin g
wa s dramati c, thanks to a crash on Frida y
morning that d estroyed his A bike. He quahfied o n Friday a fte rn oo n with a .56.340 after
borrowing Ben Bostrom's RC45; then he came
back on Sa turday with a brand-new bike (put
together la te Friday ni ght by his crew) and
logged ,\ 5.';.9 ~.
"Firs t of all, I don't know w hy they (AMA
offici a ls ) put t ha t l ittle k in k co m ing back
inside:' Du lIarnel said of the ma keshift chicane. "When we tested , I ha d the same exact
thing that they have here, but in stead of h aving that thing forcing us back in, 1 ha d it open.
The n it was a rea l passing p la ce where you
could go inside or outside of a slower rider.
Wit h that thing th e re, you can 't p ass any where. Yesterday (Friday>. I went in there and
pu shed the front and hit tha t curbing. The
front wheel jumped and almos t e nd ued . I
came in and cha ng ed the front because the rim
was bent. The only other rim we had with a
tir e on it wa s the sa m e tire I had in Loudon
wh en I c ra s h ed . Th en the exact sam e thing
happened that happened in Loudon. 1 did two
lap" on it a nd it was fine . On the third lap , I
we nt in there, not doing anything spec tacu lar.
th rew it in and it was just nev er there. It jus t
wa shed o u t completely. I did n 't eve n slo w
d o ....'1l,so I w as boing maybe 140 mph . I don 't
kn o w how fas t, but it see med pretty fast to
me. l tried to pu ll a way from the bike a nd it
ju s t st arte d flippi ng. I slid what felt like a t
least 100 yards .
'" have to thank AGV because the ' leathers
h e ld up great. T h e leathers w ere totall y
destroyed . but I didn't get a scratch . My hat 's
also o ff to the Smokin' Joe's crew . Th e bike
wa s like 4 ff:'t"t lon g and 3 feet hi gh - it was
totally destroyed . They put .1 bike together for
me for today, and they worked their asst.S off.
'
To be on the frunt row right now is quite an
a ccomplishment. I'm really happy . It (the
crash) cost us that session. obviously. The next
session, r bOTTO\wd Ben Bostro m 's bike to just
try a nd q ua lify. Tha t b ike was n' t ::'0 bad maybe a bit down o n po wer. I did a fairly
de cen t rime on tha t bike. Today was my first
d.1Y on my ne bike, so I had to get readjus tw
ed . It too k a few laps just to ge t the han d k..'bars.
right - just little things like tha t. We were
going faster and feste r in the session , "0 that
wa s cncouragtng. And we have some more '
plans for tomorrow. it' s completely my fault
th at I crashed, but we just ran out of rime.
Tha t's wh y we' ll have to use tomorrow's practice s('s<; io n a s a te:;t. We have to go fas tt"r.
Dou g (Cha ndler) is at Ic<1st tw o-tenths on 0..<; a
lap a nd that's too mu ch here to try and make
up. We wa nt it to go faster, a n d if w e ca n
m ak e it more co m for ta ble-, th en obviousl y I
.....o n't have to p u ~h <1 S ha rd. We' ll settle for '
eith er o ne; it has to be m ore comfo rta ble, o r
it':!. go t to l"'>t' a fa".tltr bike....
The ...€'('ond ro ..... w a s led by Yoshi m ura
Suz uki 's Aaron Yates, d espite a Saturd a y
a fternoo n qu a lifying cras h. The Georgia n
la p peJ at 56.061 to It"dJ his tt'ammat e Larry
Pegram (56 .076), fast By Ferr a cc i' s Mat
Mtiid in (56 .223) and Smoki n' Jot"' .. Ho nda 's
Steve C re\'ier (56.469) O row 1\\70 . Row t hr('('
n
w ould fea tu re Van ce & Hin e s Du cati ' s
Th om.ls St e ven s, Harlt')'-D.1\'idson 's Ch ris
Carr , FeTTa cci 's Ge ra ld Rothman Jr. , and
Mu77.Y Kawi'lSil ki'<; Tommy Hayden.
In all, 40 riders qU<1Iified for the National,
and it was likt!ly that traffic would pla y a big
role in the OutCOffilt of the race.
" If a g u y' , going anywhere undpr a
m inut e, it' s impossible to pass," DuHa mel
said .
