Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

ha of Ja mie Hacking, w ho fo r m ost of th e race w as embattled over the position w ith Fast By Ferrac ci's Tom Kipp, Kip p led nearl y the w hole way, but Hacki ng took the spo t when it mattered most - at the end . It w a s on th e 24 th of 26 la ps tha t H ackin g to o k over the posit io n, ca tchi ng Kipp so me w ha t off guard. By the time Kip p realized w hat had ha ppened, it w as too late. The re w as to be n o d e n y in g H a ck in g of h is seco n d straight seco nd -place finis h as the top two fini sh ing positions fro m Lo u don we re d uplicat ed , Thir d place at Mid-Ohio, a lso as a t Loudo n, wen t to a Duca ti, bu t this time it was Kip p an d th e Ferracci bi ke and not Anthony Go bert and the Vance & Hines machine. Gobert tested positive for m a riju an a in a tes t g iven by the AMA on Thursd ay an d was suspended for the rest of the se ason on Fridav afternoon (see "In the Wind " ). ' Kipp appeared to be on pace to perhaps win the fi rst AMA Su p er b ike National of his career at Mid-O hio. Although he didn' t ge t the best of starts, Kipp was fas t, se tting th e quickest la p of the race on the seventh go -around, an d he moved from sixth to second, looking the part of a man w ho had something in hand to match Yates. O n th e 16th la p, Kipp got to within a second of the race leader a nd lo o ked to be in the hunt. T hen, just as q uic kly, th at ga p h ad grown to 1.6 seconds; then it jumped to 2.6,3.1... And then Hacking took over the runner-up spot fro m Kip p . Beh ind th ose tw o ca me A merica n Honda's Ben Bostro m. Hot off his strong finish fro m the World Superbike ro und at Laguna Seca, Bostrom held second at the start of the race and he too loo ked like he coul d ma tch Yates' pace. Bu t th en it a ll went w rong as Bost rom let the p ress ure of bei ng Honda' s number-one ri de r ge t to h im . To p ut it bl u ntly, he s tarted thi nking too much . " I t hi nk w e s hou ld' ve won t h at ra ce," a bitterly disappointed Bostrom sa id , "The ra ce pace w as nic e and ea sy . Aaron (Yat es ) was d oing low 29s and I've been doing 28s all weekend. It w as just too much stress, too m any people telling m e not to go fo r a wi n, to go for the championship . All these guys w ant is a championship. I want to win ra ces and Win a championship. I just choked. All I wa s thinkin g w a s, ' W h e r e ' s (Do ug ) Chandler? Don't crash : I just didn't want to cra sh. I had a dream last night that I crashed. It was m y w orse race since Daytona. I wasn't even tir ed after .b e ca u s e I didn't rid e h ard enough :' Behind Ben Bostrom ca me Eric Bostrom, interestingly finishing fifth in his superbike debut - the same position that Ben had finished in when he made his superbike debut at Laguna Seca last year. Th ough the finish w as im p ressive, th e yo unger Bost rom ha d mixed feelin gs a bo u t it. H e said he'd run ou t of gas p hysica lly, some th ing fo r w h ic h h e ould be forg iv en co nsid er in g he w as co m p e ti ng in thre e cla sses ove r the course of the weekend . Yamah a's Rich Oli ver end ed u p six th a fte r a rather u neven tfu l rid e fo r th e m u lt i-t im e A M A 250 cc Grand P rix Champion. O liver pa ssed a fading Mat Mladin and his Yoshimur a Su zu ki late in the race. Mladin's race was a st ra nge one. Th e Aus tralian started slowly bu t soon started to reel in th e lead gro u p , losing no g ro u nd to Yates eve n th ou gh he w a s so me fiv e s eco nd s beh in d o nce h e m oved near the fro nt. Strangely, Mlad in (Abo ve) Ben Bost ro m (11) held down second early on before giv ing way t o first Kipp and then Hacking - (92). (Left ) Eric Bostrom finis hed fifth in his superbike debut. go t there a n d th en m y steriou sl y dropped backed. "Nothi ng happened - I just cou ld n't k eep up," Ml adin s a id . " I had a few problems, but none with the motorcycle. I'm not lying - lhave a few th ings to get sorted out." Battered and beaten, AMA Superbike N ational Champion D ou g Chandl er rode th e Muzzy Kawasaki home to a conserva tive eighth . Still hurting fro m hi s Laguna Seca crash, Chandl er sa id he'd mis sed on the se tu p, maki ng things w o rse w h en the N ational g o t und e r way . H e rode alone for the w hole race a n d was h ap p y to b e h eading h ome wi th time to heal before th e next round at Brainerd, August.1 -2. "We tried so me di ffer en t stu ff th is morning," Chandler said . "We've been getting pretty lucky at some places, trying d ifferent stuff; this time we didn' t. It (the bi ke) just wasn' t w hat I wa nted . It was probabl y a lit tl e better thi s m orn ing, but it wa sn' t eno ugh. I knew on th e ' firs t lap th at we were in trouble because I was running wide everywhere. I just wanted to try and m ake it better. In the race, I just wanted to finish , get outta here and ge t healthy," C ha nd le r's teamm ate To m m y H ayd e n , mea n w hile, got th e b e t t e r of Tilley 's Harley-Da vidson's Jamie Jam es after a race- long battle for ninth place. Th e race for the championship is now ju s t a two-man affa ir - Chandler vs . Bostrom. Though Bostrom gained four points on Chandler at Mid-Ohio, he still trails the defending champion by seven poin ts. Chandler may have struggled, but he fared be tter than some of the o the r factory sta rs - most notably Van ce & Hines Ducati 's Thoma s St ev ens and HarleyDavidson's Pascal Picotte. Stevens' first outing on Gobert's factory bike d id n't last a com plete la p as he w as high-sided at hig h speed on the first go-aro und . P ico tte' s d emise was likely more pa inful, howev er, as he looked to ha ve fo urth pl ace se w n up late in the race when th e ,VR1000 suffered an electrical problem that put it out of the race . Picotte deserved be tter after being consistently quick all weekend. Co mpa red to nearly all of the previ ous AMA Su per bike Nationa ls held thus far in 1998, this o ne was Dullsville. Yates got th e jump a t the start and was never h ea d e d . Kee ping tabs on where the co mpetition was via his pit boa rd , th e Georgia n was consist ently fast and w as d ecisive in traffic . He never gave the o thers much of a cha nce . "My race w as pret ty uneventful, really," Yates sa id . " I got a rea lly good start - probably about th e best one I've ever had - and I took adva ntage of th at. On the first lap I just tried to put in a good, clean lap and go as hard as I could without making any mistakes. From then on, I just tried to se t a pace and keep it like that. I was w at ching my pit board, and I w as slo w ly pulling a little ga p . When we go t in th e first of th e lapper s, th ey kinda closed back in again, but once I got by ' em , I could op en it back up. I was wa tching my timer on the dash and I thou ght I could run low 29s the w ho le time. At th at pace, I was ju s t stea dily inching away:' Initially, it wa s Bost rom w ho held down the second spot. Th e Cali fornian kept th e Honda there until the ninth lap. It was o n that lap that Kip p got aggres sive, sneaking under Hacking firs t and then Bostrom to tak e over second . From there, Bostro m w en t ba ck w a rd . O nce d is posed of b y Kipp a n d H a ck ing , Bos tro m sud den ly had his ha nd s fu ll with Pico t te and Mla din . Both were ahead of him w hen they ran in to problems: The Harley started m isfiring and Mladin started fad ing. Th at left Bostro m torun alone to th e finish in fourth place - though he w asn 't too pleased with it. 7

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