Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

By Hen ny Ra y Abrams Photos by Gold & Goose lame it on Migu el. Well befor e his season end ed in tu rn one on a w et afternoon a t New Hampshire Interna tional Speedway, th e AMA Superbike lea der sa id that he th ought the AM A regulars h ims elf, An tho ny Gobert, Dou g Chandler, his teammate Ben Bostro m, and the rest - could keep the Wo rld Superbike riders off the podium in both races at th e Laguna Seca rou n d o f th e Wo rld Superbike Cha mpionship. "1 think a lot of us are really motivated righ t now. and I think we can keep those gu ys off the pod ium," DuHamel said. "1 thin k w e d efin it el y hav e th e depth in the field to do that. Everybody gets pretty psyched up for World Superbi ke, bu t you ca n ne ver co u n t those guys (the Wo rld Su perb ike regulars ) ou t. It's really some thing tha t I ho pe can happen. Our race pace there in April w as really fas t. Dou g (Cha nd ler) an d I had. a pace th at wa s th ree B ; l-"..;;- (Above) The Kawasaki World Supe rblke team will bring its two riders to Laguna Seca · Akira Yanagawa (left) and Neil Hodgson (right). (Left) Cas trol Honda's Aaron Slight (111)and Colin Edwards II (45) will be factors In the race • and either one could come away with a victory. (Below) PierFrancesco Chili hasn 't had much luck at Laguna Seca thus far, but he too could st rike It rich at the Northern California facility. ~-=----""-":----:..,.:..-=-,.,..--"" ~~La~gu~n;a~.~there.s ----..;;--.....-"'=--"'-=-= ....... seco nds faster than Kocinski and Foga rty ran there last year, so I guess you could say we would have won by three seconds. I did a 27.5 on the last lap while doing a wheelie. I'm really optimis tic of our chances in World Superbike and I'm feeling really good with the way things have been going for me lately. Mat (Mladin l.and Anthony (Gobert) wo uld like to show some pe0ple some things there. and that's Doug's track. I think it should be good ." (First, a correction: The first race was won by Castrol Ho nda's John Kocinski in a time of 41 minutes, 0.380 seco nds. He won the seco nd race in 40 minutes, 57.308 seconds. When DuHame l bea t Chandler this past April, his time was 41 minutes, 4.8 seconds - slower th an either race. So, no, he wo u ld not have won by those three seco nds. On the flip side, Yoshim ura Suz u ki's Mat Mladin qua lified wi th a tim e of 1:25.600, we ll un d er the 1:26.628 se t by Ducati' s PierFrancesco Chili last year.) Can the AMA regulars keep the WSB riders off the podi um? "Pretty mu ch impossibl e. That' s not going to happen," said Du cat i Perfor ma nce ' s Carl Fog ar ty, who chased Kocinski in both races last year. Throwing down the gau ntlet, Fogar ty ad ded, '1'11 be surp rised if any of the American cha m p ionship runners will get on the podium this year ." Without DuH amel, it's goi ng to be significantly ha rder. "For sure, with him (Dul-lamel) we ' stood a h ell of a cha nce," the current AMA Superbike Series points leader, Muzzy Kawasaki 's Doug Chandler, said. "1 don't know, I want to hope that at leas t one of us gets on the box in both races . I don't care who it is, if one of us can do that. The more that cou ld, that's great. We really lost one of our best hopes with Miguel going out, which is kind of a bummer." Another Ducati person put it this way: "No f---i ng way. You dreaming. What' re you, f-- -ing crazy?" Those we ren't the comments of a Wor ld Superbike Series me mber, but th ose of Fast Bv Ferracci's Eraldo Ferracci. "Miguel got to wa tc h h is m o u t h . I respe c t him beca use he's one tou gh cookie, bu t he ought to keep his mou th sh ut. Those guys, they mean bu siness." . Cas tro l Ho nd a ' s Colin Ed wa rds II sees it like this: "Tha t wo u ld be a p retty tough feat and I don't see it happening. The .thing about it is, no matter how the weat her is, no matter how bad the tires may be on that particular weekend, no matter what, we all find a wa y to survive some w a y. We all g r in d it out. Ca rl 's (Foga r ty) prob ab ly a typ ical ex a m p le of th at. H e just gr ind s and grinds and somehow he gets it to wo rk. I think we've all got the ability. Sure, at no way. We' ll be on the podium. No way. That' s the main d ifference fro m AMA to Wo rld Superbike: Those guys are just as good as we are. but the ma in thing is th e last two laps are d o or d ie in AMA. Where here, it's every lap. It' s not jus t the las t tw o or three laps." World Su perbike lead er Troy Corser of the Ducati team says: "It's sort of like going to Japan. You go to Japan and you know th er e' s going to be gu ys there who are fast. They're the first you' ve go t to beat because th ey're there; th ey've go t a setup and they know they can go ou t and d o 26s or 27s s tra ig h t a w ay from the pits. I feel confide nt I can go to Laguna, a nd if I d on't ge t up o n the podium then I'll be up there, I'll sco re points and if I d on 't, th en okay. But I like racing a t Lag u na . Th e b ike goes goo d at Lagu na. I think the hardest bat tie th ere is goi ng to be Antho ny (Gobert) . Because he's going to want to prove tha t he can still race with World Superbike rid er s - not tha t he needs to , beca use everyone knows he can . All the sa me, now that he 's on a Ducati, well, now it ain' t the bike. It was always, 'I' ll be ab le to d o this, tha t and whatever: He's definitely going to be a rider who's there, d oing so methi ng more than a ny of the othe r riders. I wo u ld n' t be surprised if he wasn' t back here (in W'orld Superbike racing) nex t yea r." Co rse r is n 't th e on ly o ne w ho believes tha t Gobert is going to be the man to beat. Fogarty said, "1 thi nk the H 8 ~ 15

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