Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

a bou t fo u r th , b ut that turn two was good to him. "I broke in to tu rn two real good and got by tw o of them , and ( tho ug ht that I mi ght be able to ha ng with Dou g (Chandl er)." the younger Bostrom said . "And ( w ent through thr ee an d fou r too tentative on that first la p ~ a little bitout of the d raft. Do ug just d oes a fantas tic job on this race track. I would 've been really, rea lly ha p py to han g w it h him and m aybe ha ve so methi ng for him a t th e end, but it di dn' t work out." Chandler had about a second and a hal f on the thi rd lap and he eas ed away to the finis h. Bostrom had Yoshimura Su z uk i' s Aaron Yat es , H a yd en a n d C revier on him fo r the first handful of laps, then did his ow n thing. Yates too k h im self o u t by cras hing in the Cor kscrew on the second lap . ~ "Go ing in to the Corkscr ew, on th e brakes letting off turning it in, the front ju st w ent and that was it," Yat es said . " I was just runnin g dow n the co rner th e sa me as I had befo re looking d own the hill, and it just went." Th a t left the front to C handl er an d Bostrom. The pa ir had only to deal w ith traffi c to the end, and there was no one else in thei r wa y. Fo r Chandl er , backm arkers w ould pro ve to be nearly d isa strous . "O ne g uy a bo u t cleaned me u p in five a bo ut th ree o r fo ur la p s from the end - the second-to- the-last grou p that I passed," C handler said. "The g uy was go ing to outbra ke the guy he was racin g u p th e in s id e , a nd then a t the la s t mi nut e, he decided, 'Oh no!' and pulled ba ck ove r in line. I had a lr ea dv went a lon gside of him . I stood m ine u p and then I'm ou t in the mar bles." The real fight wa s for third, between C rev ie r and H a yd en o n du eli n g Suzukis, eac h rid er stro ng on differ ent pa rt s of th e tra ck and b oth a w are it w ould come d own to the finis h. Am eri ca n Honda 's Ben Bostrom had been in the mix earl y, but he kne w on the first la p that he didn't hav e th e machine to compe te. "We got a real bad sta rt - w e w er e like 15th, I thin k," Bostrom sa id . "Th en I passed six or se ve n guys on th e first lap. I almost cras he d three or fo ur tim es in th e process and I w as like, 'Ma n, maybe th e t ires a re s t ill.co ld.' A nd I ca me ar ound the next lap and I was like, 'This thing is scary.' Maybe w e just missed on the se tu p . Mayb e bec au se w e co ncentrated too mu ch o n the su perbi ke, we didn't to uc h th e litt le bi ke . Eve ry time I'd catch Stevie (Cre vie r) and th em ... It was hard to catch the m . I'd almos t cras h a lot catching them; the thing was dancing around. Mostly I was just losing the fro nt. The back was overriding the front." 50 Bostrom lurked nea rby, waiting for Crevier o r Ha vd en to make a m istake or take each other ou t. " It just slows us down," Crevier said. " It just let Ben (Bostrom) ge t close r to us. Wh en I shou ld focus m ore on chasing Eric (Bostrom), I cou ld n' t focus on Eric; I had to focus o n being pass ed in spo ts th at don ' t make a lap tim e, th ey just 'slow you d own." It seeme d th at no ma tter where they were during the lap, th e pair w ould be a t each other in turn 11, the fin al tight left leadi ng onto the fro nt straig ht. Hayd en co u ld a lways close on th e brakes th ere, and C revier tired of it ea rly . "I w as hara ssed by a kid w ho ca n b rak e deep in one of th e o nly turns on th e trac k y o u ca n cra sh in o n the brakes," C revier said , adding tha t his front forks we re set u p too softly and he was bo tto ming out under hard braking , (Above) The AMA 600cc Supersport Series gets under way with race winner Doug Chandler (10) leadi ng the way over Aaron Slight (20) and Nic ky Hayde n (69). (Right) The best race of the day was t he batt le for th ird betwee n Ste ve Crev ier (4), Hayden (69) and Ben Bostrom (11). "Tha t's th e o nly pla ce he ca n make a second on m e, or anv time. The rest of th e time he' s ju st siow . I d o n' t know w ha t the hell he's d oin g, but I'm trying to wi n a cha mpionship an d if he's thinking he's goi ng to be a future teammat e, he mig ht give it a littl e mo re thought rid e wi th a clea ner head." " I d id n' t th in k about it at all," Hayd en sa id of Crevi er ' s c ha mpi onsh ip hopes . " I hea rd he w as a li tt le upse t abo u t it." Their race wa s to be d ecid ed on the final lap . Crevier had third for mu ch of the seco nd half of the race, Hayd en tak - ing it only briefly . C revier was back in th ird on the 14th lap, w ith three to go to the finish , when the spo ts w ould be juggled . On the penultim at e lap Ben Bostrom wa s now up on them and made his way by Ha yd en in th e Corkscrew for fourth, th e yo u ng Su zuki rid er fo rg ing pas t hard o n the brakes In turn 11, C re vier w as just a hea d . The trio came up on lappers in turn si x, a stroke o f lu ck that mi ght have fre ed Crevier from the sha ckles pu t on him by the other tw o. Ben Bostrom had the best view. " As w e w e re goi ng th rough th o se guys, Stevie (Crevier) got through there pr ett y good and icky (Hayden) 100kL>d like he was going to follow the m and I was going to follow no matter wha t," Bostrom said. "W hatever ha ppen s to the la pper, he' s in trouble becau se I' m on the insid e and Nickv decided to brake ea rly and let the lapper close the door on him, That's w hat gave Stevie a break. It was scary. We went by one guy up the hill and we were going by another guy Stevie squeezed by . Nicky looked like he was going to squeeze by and I was going to shove it in; I didn't care. And then Nicky hit the brakes w he n th at guy turned in on him and, of course, Stevie took off. And I was reall y on th e ins ide and I ha d to sla m o n th e fr o nt brakes and I ju st followed him d own the hill. I kn ew I w a sn't go ing to d o a ny thi ng becau se I ke pt almo st pitching it away through nine a nd 10. Th e front wou ld s ta rt jumping aro u nd . Bett er to fin is h, beca use there's fiv e m ore races in th e champions hip ." So Bostrom se tt le d fo r fifth . Th ere was no se tt ling for third . Goi ng into th e final co rn e r o n th e fina l lap, Cr evi er left himself vulnerabl e and Hayd en pounced , making up considerable lime in tu rn s nine and 10, as he had the whole rac e. "Co ming in to the las t corner, I knew he w as going to be blockin g his lin es jus t like the last time Miguel (Du l-larnel) d id the same thing," Hayden said . "And I kn ew right at the end he would hang w ide just a little bit before he made his arch, and as soo n as he did I stu ffed him righ t there . A n d I s topped, b ecau s e every tim e I passed him th ere, he could get a bett er drive on me. So I wa nt ed to mak e su re I got a good drive 'and killed his . I thoug ht for su re he w o u ld come ba ck by me." , "I go t tr affi c, I co u ld n' t accele rate, a nd he' s ha rd on th e brakes," C revier said . "He just outbraked me - parked it t h ere . H e p a rked i t lit e ra ll y a nd h e blocked !TIe. Really goo d fo r hi m . But, really, I got bigger fish to fry." Ano ther Hayd en and anot he r H yp er Cycle 5uzuki were involved in the fight for six th . Hy pe rCycle's Jason Pridmore brushed off so me early-laps excitement to s lot into th e s po t , w it h M u z z y Kawasa ki's To mmy Hayd en hard on his back. This battle didn't have the exci temen t of the one for thi rd , as Pridmore would stay in front and wasn't being pushed all that hard. Though Hayden was a constant shadow, he di dn't have enough to make a move. "He got ahead of me like thr ee laps into it and I w as just trying to hang with him and, throug h traff ic so me times, he was ge tting away," Hayd en sa id . "A nd I could always seem to cat ch bac k up, but I could n't ge t around hi m . On the last la p I w as re al close and I m ade a m istak e going int o tu rn five - I got in too ho t, just my fau lt - and kind of blew my sho t. If I'd have ma yb e had a run o n h im in turn s ix g oin g u p th e h ill , bec au se I wa s ge tt ing kind of cl ose kind of close, but I wasn't as close as I was on the last la p . I blew the co rne r, so it was pre tt y much d one fo r th e la s t lap." Th e next ba tt le was over eig h th, a spo t held for most of the race by Erion Racing's Kurtis Roberts . Abou t four laps fro m the end he had compa ny, ho wever. Yoshimura Su zuki's Larry Peg ra m and Kawa saki -mounted Na te Wait , w ho ' d tu ssled wi th each other for the durati on, cau ght up to Roberts . The run from tu rn 11 to the flag wou ld decid e the position, and Roberts won it. Then ca me Peg ram and Wa it. 1-80 0-CYCLEGEAR ' s St eve Rapp ended up 11th aft er fini sh in g th e fir st lap near the front. The seco nd la p w ould be his undoing when he su ffered a lowsi d e in turn two a fter losing th e front end with no wa rni ng . " It didn't feel like I wa s going fas t," Ra p p sa id . " It was a su d d en th in g ." A ft er b anging th e ha nd le bar back in place, he took off to nearly crack the top 10. ,~ Laguna Seca Raceway Monte rey, Californ ia Results : July 11, 1998 (Rou nd 9 of 14) AMA PR O H O ND A O ILS 6001:(' 5 UP ERS PO RT FlS AL: 1. Doug Cha ndler (Kaw) : 2. Eric Bostrom (He n): 3. Nic ky Hay den (Suz): 4. Steve Crevier (5U2); 5. Ben Bostro m t Hon) : b. ).1",4.:'10' Prid mo re (Suz): 7. To mmy Ha yd en (Ka w } : 8 . Ku rt is Roberts (Hon) : Q . La r ry Pegram (Suz I: 10. Nate Wolit (Ka w ); 11. Steve R., PP (Su:,d; 12. An thonv Purd ue IH o n }; 13. Ke ith W il..on ISuz): 14. John Jacobi (5u z); 15. Eric Schnackenberg (Su z): 16. Bobby Keith (Hon); 17. Brian Perrier (H on) : 18. Karl Low ry (5oz) ; 19. Ant hony Doran (5uz) ; 20. Sc. n l Kow a lski (Hen): 21. \tar k Cemicky (K.H\"); 21. jeremy To ve (Suz) : 23. Dav id was-en (Suz) ; 24. Roman Frias (Bon); 25. Mike Voelke r (Hen): 26. Chri ... Voelker (lion); 27. Rand y Neher (He n ): 28. Ku rt Ma rm or (H an ); 29. Cerard Wa lsh (5 ul); 30. Dcmctri Sn ow (5uz); 31. Stua rt Strat ton (Suz ); 32. Thomas Belles (So I.); 33. Mike Klein (Han); 3-1 . lames Dickenson (5 ul.); 35. Rich Ale xander (Suz) ; 36. Aaron Yate (5ul:) . s Time: 25 m in.• 55.071 sec . D istance: 17l.aps. 37.4 miles Average s peed : 81). 159 mph M.ugin of victo ry: 3.819 St'C . AMA P RO HONDA O I LS 600 " S U P ERS I' O RT C SH lr POINT ST A ND INGS (After q of 14 rounds): 1. m Steve Crevier (253); 2. Dou g Ch.. dlcr (247 / 6 wi n~); 3. Ben Bostro m (243 /1); 4. Eric Bos tro m (220) ; 5. Nic ky Ha yden (217 / 1); 6. Migu el DuHa me l (198 /1); 7. Ste ve Rap p (95); 8. To mmy Ha yden (192); 9. Jason Prid more (181); 10. Larr y Pegr.. (164); I 1. Kurtis Roberts (163); am 12. Aa ro n Yak'S (124); '13. Richa rd Alexa nder (1IS); 14. Scan Kowal ski (102) ; 15. Jo hn Jaco bi (95) ; 16. Ke it h Wilso n (93); 17. Bobby Keit h (92); 18. Taka h ito Man (87); 19. Mike C iccotto (70); 20. An thun y Purdu t' (69). Upcoming Rounds: Round 10 - Lexington. Ohio, June 19 Round 11 - Brainerd. Minnesota, August 2 11

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