Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

ROAD RACE AM AIMBNA SUPERBIKE N ATIONAL C AMPIONSHIP H By Henny Ray Ab rams Photos by Tom Riles LOUDON, NH,JUNE 21 he 75th Loudon Classic will foreve r b e reme m be r ed a s the we ir des t AMA Su per bi ke ra ce eve r ru n. From the tim e the bikes were u nl oad ed on Th u rs day to when the y were carted away on Sunday evening, nothing mad e mu ch sense. There were h or r ifi c acci de n ts th a t changed the natu re of the cha m pionship, there was close raci ng, and there were me chan ical failu res and unchar acteristic cras hes bv the steadiest of rid ers. ju st wh en you ' th ou gh t you'd s een it a ll, yo u and the 39,000 who showed up for the rain -plagu ed weekend - saw so mething else. . When it was all sorted out, Yoshimura Suzuki's Aaron Yates sh owed that he was full y re covered from th e w r ist injuries tha t took him out of thr ee early rac es by winning a n inc id ent-plagu ed race late on a w arm but cloudy after- T noon . 12 Yates cam e b y hi s s econd ca ree r AMA Superbike National win ho nes tly, takin g the lead from Yam aha ' s Jamie Hacking on the 11th of 39 laps and hold ing him off to the end . Hackin g took a caree r-bes t second, wit h Vance & Hines Ducati 's Anthony Gobert third despite having a mo torcycle that gave him little confid ence in the fron t end. But before the race was even begun, the wee ke n d was jinxed. Am erican H o nd a ' s Migu el DuH amel, w ho was lea di ng th e ch a m p io ns h ip en te r in g Loudon, endured a horribl e crash in tu rn o ne o n a w et tr a ck in Sa tu rd ay afte rnoon's qu alifying session , suffering a compo u nd fracture of the left femur an d a brok en knee. His championship season is certainly over and he may no t Round 9: New Hampshire International Speedway retu rn to ra cing this year . (See "In the Wind ." ) Harley-Davidson' s Thomas Wil son also cras hed in turn one. His spill came on Friday w hen he went in to the wall feet firs t. He suffered bila tera l femur fractures in both legs as well as a sha ttered pelvis. His season is over and it will be some time before he'll be able to wa lk. Those two incid ents, and another in Pirelli Formula Xtreme practice, caused the AMA to make changes to the tu rnone runoff area and forced a lot of rid ers to recon sider their stra tegy . " I co u ld n' t rid e yes te r d ay," Yoshimu ra Suzuki's Mat Mladin said on Sunday night, eve n thou gh he' d qua lifie d o n the pol e position fo r the fift h time. That didn't help him in the race. While leading th e race on th e 10t h lap , M ladin h ad hi s e ngi ne ex pi re bet ween turns six and seven, the Austr ali a n s te p pi ng o ff of th e Suz u ki GSXR750 before it came to a s to p. He wa lked bac k to the pits, go t in his rent al car, and left the facility. The team di d n' t kn o w th e specific fail u re, th ou gh Ml ad in s pecu lated that it may ha v e d ropped a valve. It dropped one in practice the previous week in Elkhart Lake. Mlad in had set the fastest lap of the race on his last com plete lap . Muzzy Kawasaki's Doug Cha ndler, the rider whose reputation is one of consistency, lost the front end and crashed in turn one on the final lap while closing in on second-placed rider [am ie Hacking. "T o h av e su ch a n op po rt u n ity to bu ild a cus hio n (in the cha mpio nship ) and to throw it away on the last lap I'm so p is sed a t m y sel f," C ha n d ler said . Because the field lapped up through ei gh th place, Chandler w as cred ited with ninth pl ace and moved into the Ben Bostrom (11) led the early stages of the AMA Superbike National at New Hampsh ire International Speedway. Bostrom eventually crashed and rem ounted to finish seventh, leav ing Jamie Hack ing (92) to finish sec ond beh ind race winner Aaron Yates. cham pionship lead with 251 points, two mo re than Gobert. America n Hon da ' s Ben Bos trom, w ho carried Honda's hopes in this race in DuHamel's abs en ce, also saw his race come to a prem ature end . While lead ing the race on the ninth lap , Bostrom went in to th e tu rn-si x ca ro use l too h ot, str aig htened up, then rod e off the track and tipped over. He rem ounted to take seven th place. "MIa d in kept pre ssurin g m e and th at ' s why I mad e th e mi stak e," Bostrom said . H e m o ves into third in th e p oint standi ngs w ith 240 points. As the a tt rition moun ted , the fiel d moved forward, wi th Yoshimura Suzuki's Steve Crevier tak in g up fourt h place on the final lap whe n Ch andler fell. Earlier, Crev ie r a nd th e Su zu ki TLl O OOR twin had been in a twins race, chasi ng the Du ca t i twin of Gober t a nd the Harley -Davidson VR I000 o f Pa s cal Picotte. Picotte pull ed in on the 24th lap w hen his eng ine di ed . The team made has ty re pairs an d he wen t back ou t for a few la ps b efore calli ng it a d ay. He'd b een runn in g fifth wh en th e e ng in e failed . M o ving u p to fi fth w a s Thom as Steve ns, the Van ce & Hin es Duca ti rid er ecstatic 'that he could finish that high his bes t this year - with a fractured clavicle. Stevens had brok en the right collarbon e during Saturday morning's practice sess ion. It was the same colla rbone he 'd. broken a t Laguna Seca in Ap ril, thou gh the br eak wasn' t as severe. "Tha t's the best fifth place you could -a s k for wit h a fractu re d cl a vicl e," Stevens said . Taking a ca ree r-bes t si xth was th e strugglin g Tommy Ha yd en. Hayden has had a hard time on the Mu zzy Kawasaki this year and he was hoping this would be a boost to his confidence. He made a lat e run at Stevens, but the Ducati rider turned up the pa ce and held him off by about 1.5 seconds. Then came Bostrom, cha rging to the finish and turnin g in the second-fastest lap of the race. Yama ha 's Rich Olive r was eight h, the for mer 250cc GP champ appearing to have tro ubl e ge ttin g into the corners la te in the race, pos sibly d ue to brake problems . N int h went to Chan d ler, the twotime defending champion unable to resta rt after the turn-on e cras h. Yos himura Su zuki 's Larry Pegram was 10th, lapped by Yates. Among the no n finis hers were both Fast By Ferra cci Ducatis . T om Kipp crashed in turn two while ru nning in third on the 11th lap. "I think I hit a s li ck spot on the track," Kipp said. His teammate Mike Hale injured his shoulder in' a practice crash on Saturd ay . After the s p ill, Era ld o Ferra cci d ecided to terminate his contract, endin g what was a troublesome year for both (see "Briefly..."). Hale left on Saturda y night without commen t. The race beg an under a cloud, literally and figuratively, late on Sunday afternoon . Bostrom ju mped ou t fro nt , followed by Hacking, Mladin and Kip p, with Mladin goind under Hacking in the turn-six carousel on the seco nd lap and setting out after Bostro m. He a ppl ied pressure in tu rn six on la p fo u r, going u ndernea th Bos trom, wi th the Ho nda rider tak ing it back on the exit. It happened again on the eighth lap, with Bostrom taki ng it back furth er thro ugh the comer. The pr essure go t to Bos trom, because on th e n in th lap he moved ove r to protect the line. "I was co nce n tra ting on pro tecting the inside line from Ma t:' Bostro m said. " It was hu rt in g m y la p ti mes . H e s h o ved it in there and I passed him back. That Jap I went way inside, so far insid e that I couldn't make the comer. I tucked the front end, saved it, then put it in the gravel trap. I picked it up, di d a cou pl e o f slow laps to make sure th e brakes and shifter were okay, then took off. I w as tr ying to make up as ma ny position s as possible." Mladin's term at the front was short. Going d own the hill from tum seven on the 10th lap, his eng in e broke and he walked away, angry at his second nonfinish in a row (he was tak en out on the fir st lap of la st wee k's race at Road Am erica by Picotte). Mladin was in a prim e position to make a mo ve in th e cham pionshi p when the engine stopped, and he wa s understandablv furious. Ha ck in g inh erited th e lead on th e 10th lap, with Yates and Kipp trailing, bu t Kipp wouldn' t be there for long. "I didn 't d o a ny th in g differen t," Kipp said of his turn-tw o spill. "I went a cou ple of feet low er , but I did n' t go in any hotter. I went down in there and the next thin g 1 kn ow, I' m slid ing on th e ground . It's the first time all season I' ve lost the front in tha t situation." On th e next tou r, lap 11, Yates was out front, with Ha cking a ttacking and Cha nd ler next. That would be the or der all the way to the fina l lap, when Chandler fell. "Stu p id me:' Chandler lamented . "I

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