Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

ROAD RACE AMA/MBNA SUPERBIKE NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP (Left) Yoshimura Suzuki's Aaron Yates won his second successive AMA Superbike National. (Above) Doug Chandler, still hurt ing from his crash a week earl ier at the Laguna Seca Wor ld Superbike round , ended up eighth . "It w as so perf ect," Bostrom said of how the race was unfolding in front of him . "I thou ght Yates was goin g to bust out so me 28s, and I was just going to follow him and see if he cook ed his tire. Th en the old w ris t ju s t s ta rted go ing ' backward - I even d id some 31s ." Picotte's run at the fron t lasted u ntil th e 21st lap - just five laps from w hat wo u ld have eas ily been his best finis h of the yea r. "The clutc h wa s go ne at the start and it was hard to g e t into co rne rs a fte r th at," Picotte sa id. "It was ho ppin g in the rear. Then it s tarte d m issing . It ' s reall y tou g h to work so hard for no thing . I would hav e b een fo u r th . Li ke Lou don , [ think it (the mechan ical pr ob[em ) is so me thing related to the throt tleposition senso r." With Bostrom he adi ng south, the bat tle for second look ed se t to go ·the d istance between Kipp and Ha cking. In the end , th ou gh, it was Hacking - takin g Kipp by surprise. "It' s ge tti ng to feeling pr etty good:' Hacking said. "I' m sta rting to ge t used to this podium id ea. It went really goo d . Lappers wer e a big problem today, but everyone knew that going in. Some guys Fearsome. fivesome S ix d ifferent bran ds of motorcycles co mpe te in the AMA Superbike Series. Five of them were featured in the top fiv e afte r qualifying . Whi ch one was m iss in g? If yo u guessed the Harley-Da vidso n VRlooO, you 'd be dead wrong . In fact, it was the Kawasaki tha t failed to climb to the top of the char ts, with the Suzuki of Aaron Yates (rig ht) lead ing the Ho nda of Ben Bostrom, the Harley of Pasca l Picotte, the Yama ha of [amic Hacking and the Ducati of Tom Kipp. The first Kawasaki wa s 11th , surp risingly not in the hands of d efending Superbike Na tiona l Champ io n Doug Chandler, but instead being ridden by his yo ung teamma te Tommy Hayd en. Cha nd ler, who was still suffering the effects of his crash in the World Su perbike race at Laguna Soca, was well back, qualifying in 14th plac e. Yates not o nly earned po le po sitio n, he also s mashe d his o w n lap record by nea rly a full second, lapping the 2.4-mi le Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in 1:27.887 to break his o ld mar k of 1:28.610. It was the Yoshimura Suz uki rider's firs t Int erstate Battery pole position of the year, and his first since last yea r at MidOhio. The Geo rgian also earned the $1000 a nd single cham pion ship point that go es to the fast qualifier. Ya tes ripped off tw o laps in the 275, and said he would like ly have had a th ird q uick lap in su ccession whi le using th e Dun lop qualifiers. we re jus t completely dan gerous because they ar e so slow, but th at's racin g and we all had to d eal wit h 'em. I didn't get the good sta rt th at I usually ge t. Yate s go t a go od start. I think that's his first one in God kn ows how lo ng. I'm glad for him. He deserves it. He's been rid ing hard all weekend lon g. " I ki n d a go t h eld u p b ehin d Ben (Bostrom) at the start of the race," Hacking added. "He's got a little mot or on us guys. I had him covered in the all the corners, but wit h this tr ack, you jus t can't pass anybody un less you pull a hairball move; that early in th e race, it rea ll y wasn't necessary to pull off so me crazy m ove . [ knew Kipp was hauntin g m e down in tu rn 11. I cou ld hear tha t bi g thi ng [ike a bear a ll over my back. He th ese guys we re . AMo n (Yates ) jus t ou trode us, and all these guys rode coo l. As Pascal (Pico tte ) p ointed ou t, it's cool that there 's four differ ent brands on the front ro w. Tha t's kind a nice for the spec ta tors . Sunday is going to be it tou gh race, for su re. Th er e'll p robabl y be fiv e or six g uys rac ing fo r th e lea d th e whole time ." Picotte and the Harley had by far th eir best qualifying effort of the sea son, with the Fren ch Canad ian lapping at 1:28.221 to take th e th ird s pot o n th e fr ont ro w . No th ing mu ch h as chan ged , according.to Picott e. . "The cir cuit suits the bike," Picotte said. "The first time wh en I tried the VR a t Dayton a, I told Ste ve Scheibe, T ha t thing should go really good in O hio, Bra inerd, Co lorad o and Vegas .' So we sho we d up her e an d th e thing was working . On Frida y mornin g, I set the fas tes t time in th e firs t pr actice wit h a 29.1 (] :29.1). In qu alifyin g, we tried a d ifferent setti ng and we went ba ckwa rd . Tod ay, we just went back to w hat we had on Friday morning - with a little bit of a cha nge . I just we nt faster. Yesterda y, [ couldn't put on ilny qualifying tire and I just used a race tire. I can do high 28s, low 29s wi th the race tire. For me, that would be a comfo rtable pace." The changes tha t Picott e and crew d id mak e to the VRl ooO centered aro und the sus pe ns ion as they tried to stiffen things up a bit for the tight, technical and bumpy race track. "We ran a little bit s tiffer on the spring; we d idn' t really have an ything stiffer, "Pico tte said ." Th e new Ohlins fork seems to have really so ft inter nal valving this ye ar. We've been increas- mo rning we spent a lot of time screwi ng with tha t, go ing every whic h way and seeing wha t hap pens. We found something that feels pretty good." Second qu ickes t to Yates wa s American H ond a ' s Ben Bostrom, the man who is sud denly Chandler's bigg est thr eat in the AMA Superbike Championship. Bostr om lapped a t 1:28.132 on q ualifying rubber and was looking forwa rd to ge tting back to race tires for the Na tio nal. R §3 ~ ~ 8 ing the comp ression, and jus t goin g s tiffer an d stiffer. The stiffer we go, the better the bike works so toda y we wen t e ve n stiffer. Toda y we had on e s p r ing to ma ke i t even s ti ffe r. We a lso switche d to a O hlins sh ock on the rear inst ead of the other sh ock. And it seems a lot better . O ther th an th at, th e VR just suits this race track and I like it here." Filling the fron t row wa s th e factory Yam a ha ridd en by su p erbike ups tart [arnie Hacki ng . The 27-year-old wa s riding hard as always and ho t off a very successful World Su pe rbike debut a t Lagu na Seca just a week ea rlier. "We' ve been strug gling," Ha cking said . "We 've had a reall y bad wobble in the bike all the way down the back straigh ta wa y. I d on ' t kn ow w ha t it is; we 've cha ng ed everything on the bike . That' s just been killing my drive going down the back stra ightaway and into turn five ; it's really been upse tting it. I've still got a w iggle, but if I sit up on the back of it, it goes away. If I sit d own on the sea t, th e thing sha kes like the re's no tomorrow. We 've been wo rking on tha t. We're reall y getting so me good feel out of the fron t end. You need so me good fee] out of the front end on th is tra ck because ther e's a lot of bumps and stuff . We struggled to ge t in to the 28s and we d id some changes to the rear shock - now I can run mid- to low 28s with it. That's w hat's going to be the race pace, so I thin k w e 're goi ng to be in the "The bike's good," Bostrom sa id . "I d on't kno w if the Hondas like qua lifiers or no t; we were sliding the front - bu t I be t all hunt. "I can ge t a goo d sta rt - 1 know that for a lact. The bike 's "l'rn getting into the gr o ove ," Y at e sai d . "Lately, we' ve s been working . The las t lap wou ld have been a good one, too . But there was a guy in th e wa y back th ere so I ju st sa id, 'O h, wel l. 1 hope I got it.' The bike's working really good. It' s tu rn ing good; the tire' s hooking u p fairl y well. I haven 't rea lly had an y prob lem s this week wi th rear wh eelspin like we usu ally do. It's the same tires we'v.c been funn ing ev erywhere, but some thing with the track is just wo rking. It seemed rea lly rough when we wen t ou t yesterday, bu t w e've jus t been fine-tuning things w ith my fron t end , trying to get a little contac t feel in the front. This finally snu ck it up undernea th me. [ kn ew then that I had to get Ben the next time he got balked up by a lapper, Luckily, I got by him going into' three. I knew I had to put my head down o r else Kipp a nd Yates were just going to run away with it. I just kep t Tom right there in my sig hts the w hole time. I jus t mana ged to keep on my pace and keep him righ t there. With a few laps to go, I really put my head down a nd decided to use the lappers to my advantage. It came out well." Kipp w as d isappointed to have lost ou t on seco nd, but was well aware that thi s was eas ily hi s best o u ti ng of th e yea r. " It fe el s grea t ," Kipp said . " We ha ven 't been anyw here near the podium .all season long, unfortu na tely. It's been kind of a tou gh road getting here, but we kn ew we were ru nning we ll right out of the box. We started practicing on Thursday and the Fast By Ferracci Ducat i felt real stro ng all weekend . I'd be lying if I sa id I wasn' t disappointed, thou gh . We really thoug ht today was goi ng to be the day. We had a good opportu nity to final- wo rkin g reall y good. Yes ter day , I got o ne lap of qu alifying . Toda y I go t one reall y slick lap and go ing on my seco nd one I w ent into turn three and there's a guy sitting up in there . J blew that on e off, so I reall y only got on e lap of qualifying . But l ca n't co mplain because we'r e all right there together. It don 't matter if I'm outside of the front row or sitting on the pole." Leading th e second row wa s Fast By Ferrarci's Tom Kipp, the lon e man on the team now that Mike Hal e and Ferracci have parted company. Kipp looked co m fo rtable on the Mid -Ohio Sports Car co urse, his hom e race track and a p lace where he'has always ridden well , and it show ed wit h a 1:28.649. Lining up next to Kipp would be the second of the two fact ory Yarnah as, thi s one ridden by vet eran Rich Oliver. Then came Mat Mladin on the Yoshimura Suzuki. Mladin's final qualifying session was ruined w hen he crashed his good bike in the Key- hole and wa s forced to ride his backup bik e for th e rest of the session. "We los t a bit of tim e, but we 've got tomor row morning," Mladin said. "The bike only suffered cosmetic damage, so we 'll be right." The last man on the second row was American Ho nd a's Eric Bos trom, in his su pe rbike debut as the rep lacement rider for the in jured Miguel DuHamel on the facto ry RC45 . Bostrom wa s impressive , showing maturity and speed as he la p p ed at 1:28.789 to top a lot of more-experienced su pe rbike men. He was also fam iliar with th e po wer of the bike, having rid den the Erion Racing CBR900RR a ll year. "It's very similar, actually, " Bostrom said wh en asked to com pa re the RC45 to the CBR900RR. 'T he 900, even thou gh it' s a li ttl e heav ier with the w e ight limi t, turns in a litt le nicer because it has mor e back prt..~su re . It almost wants to ho ld a lin e better than it (the RC45), but the superbike has tricker suspension, more ex pens ive suspension, and it's a little better. Overall, th ey are su rp ris ingly close. The 900 definitely has a lo t. more grunt down lo w, but th e superbik e w heelies a lot. Th e ergonomics are a lit tle bit d ifferent, and I'm beating myself up on the su perbike' s screen becau se I hav e an over-the- tank ridi ng style . I've been chipping up the front of my helmet. Overall, it's not too hard to jump ofi on e and on to the o ther ." The third row wou ld co nsis t of Yosh im ura Suzuki's Steve Crevi er , Van ce & H ines Du catis Thomas Stevens, Mu z z y Kawasaki's Tommy Hayden and th e Yoshimura Suzuki of Larry Pegram. Uncharac teristically, Chand ler was on the fou rth row, joined th ere by Tille y' s Ha rley-Davidson 's [am ie james, Christopher Rankin and Canadian upstart jordan Szoke. "I just wasn't happy with anything," Cha nd ler said . "Myself, the bike... I'm s trugg ling . Today (the Sunday mo rning wa rm up), we we nt pretty go od . This is one of the harder places to come .from the back because it' s so tight and narro w -'we' ll jus t ha ve to wai t and see."

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