Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

ROAD RACE A A/MBNA SUPERBIKE M SERIES • because I was followin g him. But I definitely had a little bit of an advantage." Pridmore ran off the track while in th ird, droppin g to fif th before taking one spot back. He w as p leased wi th his finish and a little su rp rised at how long he'd been able to lead . "I' m new to the ga me and I lost concen tration for a split second and ran off the tra ck ," Pridmo re s a id . "I th ink I co ul d have go tten all the gu ys on th e Vance & Hine s team on the podium. I think I could' ve been a contender for the end of the race. I was just sitting behind Ben and Jamie at the end of the race." His teammat e Thomas Stevens wa s fifth, equ aling his best finish of the year. Steve ns had tri ed a new fro nt end on Satu rday and found it wasn' t right. The team guessed on the setu p, hop ing to cut th eir losses, an d Stevens felt comfortab le for the first time in a long time. Th en ca me Yama h a's Rich O liver, w h o ' d be en wi th Er ic Bo strom a n d M ladin in pu rsuit of the lead ers early on, before the pace got a little too hot. Muz zy Ka wa sa ki' s Dou g Chandler wa s seventh , losing valuabl e champions hip points due to a leg injury he suffered at Mid-Ohio. Chand ler had a deep bruise the length of his right thigh and wasn 't able to move left to right on the bike, nor was he able to han g off as far as he needed . With ' Bostrom finishing third , Chand ler now holds a two-point lead, 298296, wi th three ra ces to g o. Mladin moved to third with 260 po ints . By Hen riy Ray Abrams Photos by Tom Riles BRAINERD, MN, AUG. 2 n o n lv h is seco n d-ever A MA Superbik e j a tio na l, Eri on Racin g' s Eric Bostrom ro d e Migu el DuHamel's Am erican Honda RC45 to a stu nning first Superbik e win before a cro wd of 18,500 on a cool and overcas t day at Brainerd Internati onal Raceway. It w a s a ra ce that had four d iff erent lead ers, inclu d ing Jason Pr id more fo r the fi rs t s ix laps in hi s d ebut on th e Vance & Hi nes Ducati , but it was Eric Bostrom leadi ng the last thr ee. Th e yo u nger Bost rom was quick to give cred it to his crew - Ray Plumb, AI Ludi ngton and Joey Lomb ardo - for giving him the fastes t bike on a ve ry fas t trac k. Any less, an d he might not have been ab le W hold off Yoshim ura Suzuki's Mat Mladin, who made up his top-speed d eficien cy with inspired rid ing on the track's infield (turns three through 10). In the en d, it was n' t enoug h , a nd Bostrom too k the win bv a scant 0.358 of a se co nd . H is ol der b rother Ben took third after nearl y being ru n off the track by a bac kmarker while goi ng th rou gh the flat-out turn one on the final lap . "My b ik e wa s just a missile ," Eric Bos trom said . "It tru ly wa s." Even so, Eric Bostrom wa s w orried that Mlad in wo u ld com e at him on the final lap . "I definitely was (wo rried )," he said. "The pit board d id say like .i seconds on th e fin al la p. I tri ed reall y hard to go goo d on the last lap. I wen t thro ug h one a nd tw o jus t su per b, an d th en in t he infield I kind of go t exci ted a few times , and I kind of fou led it up. I did look back out of the bus stop and I saw that I had a little bit of a cus hio n. My bike was run nin g so fast on the back straight, I did n't th in k that Mat (Miad in ) would really have a cha nce to come by me." (Above) Jason Pridmore (41) led the early going of the AMA Superbike National at Brainerd International Raceway - in what was his deb ut for the Vance & Hines Ducati team. Ben Bostrom (11) gives chas e. (Right) The battle for victory came down to one between Eric Bostrom (117) and Mat Mladin (66). At the line it was Bostrom, in just the se cond s uperbike race of his career. "I' rn ge tt ing a littl e bi t sick of no t winning one, but ba sically we lost the race down the straig ht today and tha t's it," said Mlad in, wh o'd qu alified on the pole for the sixth time this yea r. "I'm not tak ing any thing away from Eric or those guys, but we cou ld never stay in the d raft. The Suzu ki done well - it was handli ng ve ry well . Around th e ba ck, we had it all over him. It was unfortunate I co uldn' t ge t there firs t, but tha t's the wa y it goes. It was a pretty fast pace, and cong rat ulations to Eric. All I could do was s tav the re a nd do th e bes t I could and wait for the last few laps and trv to stick it in her e and the re. Unfortunately, we came up one place short. I'm ' looking fo rwa rd to get ting back to a cou ple of race tracks witho ut straig hts." After ge tting caug ht out by the lapp e r, Ben Bost rom wa s rel e g a ted to fourth , but he took. th ird when Yamaha's Jamie Hacking, who'd led the most la p s by pushin g t h e und erp o wered Yamaha YZF750, cras hed on th e fina l lap exiting the tu rn-n ine bus-stop tu rn . Hacking's rea r end slid out, then the fron t tu cked , an d he hit a barrier. The rea r Dunlo p was missing about a I -foo t chu nk down the center, though it wasn't im media tely known if tha t w a s w hat caused the crash. Hacki ng was tran s p o r te d to St. Joseph ' s Hospital in Brainerd wi th a possi ble pelvis injury. Ben Bostrom and Hacking had ru n down race leader Jaso n Pridmore on the seventh lap ; Hackin g went by first, then Bostrom a lap lat er before ta king the lead on the 10th lap. The pair soo n built up a slight gap, bu t thev we re ru n d o wn b v Eric Bostrom 'and Mlad in in the finalstages, with Be n drop p ing to fourth o n the penultimate lap. He never had a cha nce for the w'in after ge tting balked . And he wa sn ' t close eno u gh to make a ru n at Hackin g, even thou gh he knew his bike was bett er than Hacking's. " It (Hac ki ng's Yam ah a ) ran pretty well," Bostrom said . " It wa sn' t as quick a s my Hond a . I was feelin g a bit bad about it. I wa s thinking, 'Me a nd Jami e ar e goin g to race this thing out and on th e las t la p I'm go ing to draft by hi m and try to win this thin g jus t because of sheer hor sepower'. He wa s ridi ng excellent , but I had a bit of a po we r advanta g e . It lo o ked li ke he was CU ll ing through th e infi eld rea l good. See med like his Yamaha was spin ni ng up h is back tire a bit mo re because I was able to prese rve the th in g , m a ybe jus t Yosh imura Suzuki's Aaron Yates was eig h th with traction proble ms , bo th in the tir e a nd th e rear shock, and Stev e Crevier brou ght the Yoshi mu ra Suz u ki TUOOOR ho me in ninth. Te nth p lace went to Jord an Szo ke, the 19-vear-old Canadia n w ho was making h is d ebu t as th e replacem en t for M ike H al e o n th e Fas t By Ferra cci Ducat i. No t onlv d id Bostrom win hi s firs t race in his i econd trv, he did it in record time - break in g D;'H a me l' s yea r-old record. Bostrom com pleted the 2I-lap, 63-mile race in 34 minutes, 39.790 seconds a t an a verage s peed of 109.0 50, jus t fa s ter than DuHa me l' s mark of 108.460 m ph . Amo ng the nonfin ishers were both of the Harlevs, Mike Smith, who was making h is d eb u t as Tho ma s W il s on .s replacem ent, had the tra nsmiss ion on his V R1000 lock up in fou rth gear on the wa rm u p lap. Pascal Pico tte mad e it to within five laps of the end when a thr ottle-p osition sensor fai led for the third time this week en d . Fast By Ferracci's Tom Kipp could n' t

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