Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

start with the field after his fuel cap was left ope n on the wa r m u p lap . A ft er being splas hed with gas, Kip p p u lled over to the pit wa ll at the start and got awa y at the ba ck of th e field . He finished 13th. When the ra ce was green-lighted, Pridmore sped to the front , taking Hacking, Ben and Eric Bostrom with him, and then Mladin. The riders strea med out in a line for the first few laps, wi th Prid more stay ing ' ou t front while Hacking moved in to second on the third lap, then into the lead on the sevent h go-around . " 1 tell yo u wha t: I co uld n' t believe how comfortable I was for the six la ps," Pridm ore said . " I led and kep t wondering wh ere they were. I thou ght it would be a big draft-fest. I d id n ' t ha ve any doubts I could be there at the end ." Hacking held on for three laps before Bostrom go t by, the pair swap ping back and forth in fro n t o f Pridm ore, with Ha ckin g drivin g to the lead ou t of tum one when Bostrom wen t wide. Mlad in ma de his way in front of Eric Bostrom on the 10th la p, the last time he would lead him. " I wa s tr yin g so hard, I th ou ght he w as goi ng to g e t m e ba ck d own th e strai ght, but I must have pu lled a bit of. a gap a ro u nd there so me w here a nd I was trying tha t har d that 1 ran off com ing o ut of turn tw o a n d h e go t m e aga in," Mlad in said . " I was ju st try ing to ge t a bit of a br eak. Because, all thin gs being equal, m y bike was wo rking very well aro u nd th e ba ck. I was very fast aro und ther e." Hackin g was back in front for lap 1I, though Ben Bostrom used tra ffic to go u p the inside .o f Hackin g in tu rn two. Then Hacking returned the favor in tum three. A few turns later Pridmore was off the track , dropping to fifth. " I still can't believe what I did , but that's a pa rt of learning," Pridmore said. "I made one little mistake and that kind of cost us . I just got in tum six a little too deep." Prid more fell behind Eric Bostrom an d Mladin, the pair just off the leaders. On the 15th lap , Hac king was aga in in the lead , a nd now Eric Bostro m and Mlad in we re 'abou t 1.5 seco nds beh ind and closi ng. "As s oo n a s th a t ha pp ened (Pr id more running off the track), that's when the pace pic ked up," Mlad in sa id . "He got going and that's wh en we caug h t up to those guys ." " I wa s h avin g troub le getting in a groov e," Eric Bostrom sa id . '1 was riding kind of lous y, just missin g my apex poi nts and stu ff. I think maybe beca use I was excited , but not settled like 1 sho uld be. I was kind of struggling for a wh ile. An d th en Ja son ra n o ff the tra ck and tha t moved me into thir d and I th ink that tha t kind of lit a littl e bit of a fire u nder me. 1 sta rted hitti ng lines a little bit bet ter, bu t I still wasn' t rid ing reall y good and maybe it was my inexperi en ce on the bike. The n we came up to Jamie and Ben." They caugh t the m with abo ut th ree laps to go, and Eric Bost ro m and Ben Bostrom swapped spo ts - Eric go ing from third to first, Ben the opposite - on Mat Mladin Mr. Pole T here has been no be tter q ua lify ing rid er th is yea r than Mat Mlad in. The Yoshim ura Suzuki rider captured his sixth po le position of th e year with a blistering new track reco rd with les s than a minute to go. The time was more than a seco nd under the two -y ear-old lap record o f Ales sa nd ro Gram igni. More impress ive was that the Aus tralian had to sit ou t 30 minu te of th e sess ion with a bloody nose, and put his s time together w ith a rush in the final 10 minutes . The nosebl eed s ta rted abo u t 15 m inu tes into the sessio n. Mla din pu lled in and laid o n the g ro u nd for ha lf an hou r to stanch the bleed ing. When he had it under control, he ran two laps on a race tire to get up to speed. th en p ut on the qualifier . His best, a 1:37.263, was well under Gram igni's 1:38.305. In c fac t, the top nine rid ers were und er G ram igni' s re ord , A nd the top six wer e all on different brand s of mo torcycles. Witho u t his nosebleed , Mladi n felt he cou ld've g one a few tenths faste r. O ne fas t lap is o ne thing, w inning a race is qu ite anot he r and, despite six po les, he hasn't been able to win a race this season. "1 think in the last cou ple of races, it's a couple of guys have got o n good motorcycles:' Mlad in said . "So me oi the mo tor cycles are very good; i.e., Eric (Bostro m) las t race a nd this .race, and Jason (Pri d more) this race . You just got to look at the speed tra p' w hat's happening do wn the front straight and then yo u've go t to run a m ile hold ing the throttle full y flat o ut an d yo u' re o r 6 mph dow n - it makes a big d iffer ence. We' ve go t to d o th e bes t we can do. We've go t not hin g to lose now. If anyone gets in m y wa y, I'll be coming th rough - w hat ever it takes: ' Mladin knocked Yama ha's Jam ie Hacking back to second , the Sou th Ca rol inia n pos tin g th e fas t time until being mov ed d own a spot with abou t 45 seco nds to go. Ha cking ha d run his fas t lap in pursuit of Fast By Ferracci's Tom Kip p . Kipp en ded ttp 10th. " 1 kind of ca ug ht him , then he kind of held m e up go ing through tu rn one 0 11 my fast lap: ' Hacking sa id . As for wh ether the Yamaha had the pow er to hand le the long Brainerd front s traight, Hacking said: "We're close. We're now ncar as fast those g\IYs (Honda) and the Duca ti, I'm rig ht there. My race paces are good . 1 w ent just as fast on my race tin'S as I qu alified yesterday on qu a lifying tires , consis tently; lap after lap: ' Jason Pridmo re mad e an impressive debut o n the Vance & Hines Duca ti, q ualifying third. It ha d been a tumultuous few weeks for Pridmore. He'd been disqualified from his seco nd place finis h in th e 750cc Supersport race at Mid-Ohio for illegal fra me mod ifica tion s. The n Suz uki term in at ed th e ir contract the 19th lap, after Eric go t the best drive d own the straig ht. This time arou nd, the lead qua rtet ra n four wid e. " I was havin g trou ble seei ng my pit boa rd, I don ' t know, just because I was blind or something ," Eric Bostrom said . "I d idn' t kn ow how man y laps were left, w hic h is kind of bad . And it just ha ppened that we came into the fro nt right abou t the right time - it just worked out pe rfect. I kin d o f got lucky in th at aspect." . Eric Bostrom led aga in o n the 20th lap, with Hacking agai n second, a n d Mladin now third - in fro nt of Ben Bostrom . " I d idn ' t kno w w ho it was," Ben with H yperCycle Suzu ki a nd Pridmor e decid ed not to cont in ue contesting the class (SL'e .. Briefly.."). His deal wi th the Va nce & Hines Duca ti tea m came toge ther quickly, a nd he proved their faith in him wasn't misplaced . "To be ho nes t wit h yo u, I'm probably o n one of the best bikes here, if not the best ," Prid mor e said . "There's a lot of luck involved . 1 mean, a w eek ago, I wa sn 't sure w hat I was going to be d o ing, and no w I'm on the Van ce & Hines Duca ti team . I can' t bel ieve I go t to th e top three, but I'm real excited to be here." Though he'd rid d en Suz u ki GSXR750 Superbikes, he had n't ridd en a V- tw in, so the Du cat ! took so me getting used to. "Every time I get on the bike, I ge t a littl e bit better, aod I think we ha ve p retty 'good race se ttings for tomor row," Pridmo re sa id . "Like Ma t (Mlad in), I fclt like 1 cou ld've gone qu icker. We had an oil-line probl em in the pits a nd I di d n' t ha ve tim e for a second qua lifier. It's pr obab ly o nly the second tim e I've e ver do ne a quali fying to start, so I \...-as a little cau tious - even with the good lap that we put in - an d I feel like that if we could have put an ot her qualifying tire on, we m,l y ha ve go ne just a 1ittie b it quicker. I'm not sure w hat Ma t's lap tim e wa s. I do n't kno w if I cou ld have got him, but I think I could have go ne a little better anyways." Pri d mo re agreed that he had about 5 mph on Mlad in, a big help on this horse po wer -hu ng ry trac k. A me rica n Honda's Ben Bost ro m was fou r th fastest after experimen ting with di fferent front en ds. "I thin k my bike's going to be pretty easy on one tire," Bostrom said . "We tried a different front end and 1 kept going, 'This isn't so good: Th ey kept thro win g differen t front ti res at the thing and I'd just go , 'Hey, it's the fro nt end: So the guys put the o ld front bac k on the thing and we we nt righ t ou t and clicked off 38s on race tires and I was like, 'Tha t's mo re like it: " Why d id he choose the o ther front end? " Beca use Eric (h is brothe r) ha d it on," Ben Bostro m sa id . "Tha t's no t the only reason . It' s just because I ran it at the beginning of the season , an d I crashed o n it a cou p le of times and I thou g ht it m,l y be better and I rom it at Laguna. And th e sa me front that I had at Loud on was wo rking bitchin' . We kept try ing to run tha t, but we th ou ght it wa s a litt le s ke tchy . I tri ed the o the r fro nt end . It di d n' t wo rk . I a lm ost cr as hed in turn one. Lost the front real bad and 1 was like, 'Tha t's it, that's eno ugh for me: and we put the othe r on e back on for qua lifying. The other one tend s to make the front more of a s lide r. Like yo u can throw it in a nd if yo u' re slid ing the ti res you can feel the fro nt s lide . It'll let go rea l bad, but most tim es it'll come back . It' s a little harder to hit th e apexes, but it's just mo re feel on the fron t. A nd the on e I' m runnin g now, it ' s m or e so lid , like it 's r ight there all the time or it' s no t there. A nd yo u' re jus t crashing. You d on ' t eve n kn ow it. Differ ent tripl e clam ps and a ll th at. I jus t say 1like tha t one, d on 't like that one: ' Mik e Smith was th e surprise of th e second row. Th e Georgian, w ho hadn't raced since th e AMA Willow Springs National Eric Bostrom's o lde r brother, Ben Bostrom (11), ended up fini s hi ng th ird . when Jamie Hacki ng (92) crashed o ut of the ra ce on the final la p. Bostrom said of Mladin. " I saw my lap board, plus one, the next lap I was being passed . I was like, 'Wha t th e hell was th at ?' I look ed ba ck a nd Eric w ent by a nd I saw Ma t and I came u p on that lapper and things just didn't work ou t." It would be the last lap, a nd the pack was running up to tu m one. "When those guys we nt by me, I was like, 'Oh man , this is going to be a hell of a ra ce: a nd th en we ca me up into back in April, was chose n to repl ace Thomas Wi bon on the seco n d H ar lev -David s on VRlOOO ea r lie r in t he week (s ee " Briefly..: ' J: Smith adj usted q uickly, consistent ly running fas ter laps than his teammate Pascal Picotte and alw ays lurking near the top of the field . . " l'rn su rp rised to be here, actu ally: ' Sm ith sa id . "The bike is ru nning reall y we ll. I d id n' t real ize I'd gone tha t fast. I was o ut th er e, just kind of cruising, tryi ng to get th e Harl ey u p th er e. Just ou t ru nning times, tr ying to g e t fam iliar with th e bike all week end . The team' s been able to get th e th ing goi ng real good . I'm jus t ge tting o n wi th it pretty go od ." The reaso n seems to have much to do wit h rid ing s ty le . Wh ile Picotte like'S to stee r wi th the rear w heel, Smith tends to usc the fro nt end har der. "I definitely push it on th e en tra nce to th e corner, and the bike loves that," Smi th sa id . "I can tuck the front o n it a cou p le of tim es a nd there a re very few bikes you can d o that with tha t I've ridden. You can get in and make a mistake and make it up . The bike mak es really good tor qu e: ' The last o f the six d iffe rent manu facturers wa s Kawasa ki, wit h MBNA Superbike Champion Dou g Cha ndle r taki ng sixth on the Muzzy Kawasaki, d espite nagging inju ries from his past tw o races . "I' m stilI leery of pushin g it, es pec ially with the q ualifiers ,just because of w hat ha ppened at Ohi o: ' Chand ler said of his spill in practice a t Mi d-Oh io, follow ing a hor ri fic cra sh a t the Lagu na Seca roun d of the World Su pe rbike C ha m pions hip. "Mentall v, 1 kno w what I wa nt to do, but I'm kin d of limi ted still, physica lly, as far as reac ting . It's sore as hell. It's a bit colored," he sa id, showing off a purplish bruise the entire len gth of his inner righ t thig h, "and I have a stiff a nkle a nd I d on 't wa nt to push it. I'm just wa iting, to be the best I can be for tomorrow. I'd hat e to crash it again and s tart a Uover:' Seve nth fastes t, in his second ride o n the A merica n Ho nda RC45 Su pe rbike, was Eric Bostr om . His time would have been better had he go tte n a ful1l ap on his second qualifying tire, but he d id n't. . "I really blew it:' the yo ung er Bostrom sa id. "We were su ppo sed to hav e two qua lifying tires a nd I went out on the firs t o ne a nd I thou ght I blew eve ry turn on the track. I mean , just tota l moro n. 1 wen t out in the gravel comi ng off of here and the thing was a 37.9. I'm like, 'Ma n, that was really, really easy: So then, w he n I cam e back in, we changed the other o ne and we were the first g uy to ge t the checkered flag, so we ne ver got out on the second one. It was unfortunate because I think we w ould have been much hig her than where we wer e at." The team had a se tbac k in th e mo rn ing, w hen the Honda threw a cha in an d put a hole in the case. The d elay cost the team base setup time, accordi ng to Bostrom . The last ride r on the second row wa s Yoshimura Suz uki's Aaron Ya te s, th e win ner o f the pa st tw o AMA Superbike Nationa ls . Th ree in a row was a lot to ask, co ns id er in g the power d eficiency th e Su zukis faced .

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