Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

ROAD RACE AMA/MBNA SUPERBIKE NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP weren 't overly i mpress ed w ith th e AMA's timi ng on flag th ro wi ng . "Think in g back to the 600 ra ce, a guy cras hed a n d they had the red fla g o u t before th e g uy e ven stopped rolling: ' Ml adi n sa id. "I sa w the smoke as w e were co m ing a round th e fast left a nd I th ou ght, 'O h, they 'll h a ve th e oil flag ou t or th e red flag : o thi ng was ou t, so 1 tho u g ht it m ust be cle an. I got th ere and sa w th e s h ine a nd th ou g h t, ' Here we go: I p icked it up and went straigh t o n the grass. I was lucky to sa ve it. If I'd cras hed th ere, I w o u ld ha v e been real pi ssed a t the AM A for not ha ving th e red fla g o ut. If Er ic (Bo stro m) w o u ld ha ve cras he d - that wou ld ha ve s ucked . T he red fl a g s hou ld have b e en o ut before Eric even go t ther e. It happen ed a t leas t 20 second s before Eric even go t there a nd those marshals s h ou ld ha ve been ab le to see th e shine on th e track ." "I d on 't under stand why they di d n' t ha ve the re d flag ou t soo ne r:' Pridmor e a d ded . " (T o m) Kip p c ras he d r ight be hi nd the gu y a nd we had to wait until the fro n t s tr a ig h t be fo r e th e red fla g ca me out . TIley re ally ha ve to p ick tha t u p a little soone r. As soon as Kipp wen t d own, the flag shou ld have co me out." Th oug h he w as forced to sett le for his second successive second-p lace finis h , M la d i n w a s pleased with hi s effort. "I ha d a good race and I di d the best I cou ld do," M la d in said. " I pushed as hard as I could . About 10 laps into the race, we we re all still bu nched up - Eric, Ben and myself - a nd 1 had a couple of front-end losers. It was p ro bab ly just a mental thing, but the front tire felt like it wa s vibra ti ng a bi t. T ha t's w he n 1 dropped back a little bit. 1 had a cou ple of slid es in the fas t left and I decided to cool it a b it. Eric go t away and Ben go t a way - a nd th a t' s so rt of w hen it was a ll ove r fo r u s . Bes id es that, everyth ing went good a nd I pushe d as h a rd as [ cou ld . Er ic jus t s moked e ve ry bo dy today a nd that wa s it. He rode too good for us: ' A mod est Er ic Bos trom refu sed to Round 12: Pikes Peak International Raceway Doug Chandler (10) had an off-day as he struggled to find tractio n w ith hi s Kawasaki. Chandler fi ni shed sixth, two spots ahead of Aaron Yates (20), who had brake problems. give himself much cred it, even tho ugh h e 'd w o n h is seco n d s t ra ight A MA Superbike ational - th e tw o wins co ming on tw o distinc tly different kind s of race tracks. 'T h e la p times fro m the w ho le weekend say it all:' Bostrom said . "Everyone was jus t so close. It was going to be a M unici pa l Stadi u m Daytona dirt track kind of a thi ng and yo u stood a chance of it ge tting b ro k e up if the lappers wo rked i n to it. I think I got a re a ll y clean lin e throu gh the lappers . Sometimes you d o and sometimes you don't a nd I d id . It 's reall y g re a t. Th e Honda w as hoo ked u p and fast. It wa s a pretty smoo th race. I lo st the fro n t e nd once going in to that tu rn-on e ch ica n e, a nd th a t opened up m y eyes. That wa s abo u t L-IS (lS la ps to go) . After that I just sa id , 'O ka y, yo u better ca lm d ow n: That ' s o ne place yo u d on 't wa n t to crash. I sa w A first .for Ben Bostrom F (.'r at least ano ther day , the boxing gloves would go unused. \Vith the Brothers Bostrom, Ben and Eric, no w occupying the American H onda truck togeth er as tea mmates wh ile Mig uel DuHamel recupera tes from his broken leg. bo xing gloves were purchased and placed in the truck - just in case a rivalry between the two heated up. Things did just that at Brainerd when Eric Bostrom won his first AMA Superbike National with championship contender Ben finishing third . Fortunately, it was Ben Bostrom taking pole position at Pikes Peak Internati onal Raceway and earni ng the championship point that goes with the honor. As of Saturday afternoon, Bostrom W ,15 only a single point behind Doug Chandler in the race for the AMA Superbike National Championship _and the gloves were still just hanging there. just behind Ben was Eric - with only .132 of a second separating the two brothers. But just think what would have happened in the back of the Honda truck if Eric had stolen that valuable point from Ben. NOh, dud e," Ben Bostrom said at the thought of it. "We actually have boxing gloves in the rig some big padded on e so no one ge ts hurt. But I'm happy for Eric - he w ent really quick. " s T t as quick as big brother Ben, w ho seemed at east:' and comfo rtable a t Pikes Peak. He was o enjoying the tight and twisty 1.315-mile, IG-turn layout, with its abundance of left-hand corners. When all W,lS said and done, Ben Bostrom had lapped at 54.661 seconds - good enough for the first pole position of his superbike career. e "There's a lot of lefts," Bostrom said . "You just keep going left, then you throw it right twic , and then keep going left. The bike's really good. The only problem L' the same as everybody elseit's all traction. I think mine might be working a little bet te r right now than everyone else's, I think last year the track felt like it was real abrasive, but this year it feels like it got smoothed off lIT something. Last year I don' t remember it being this slippery." Bostrom's first pole came at an opportune time. earning him a va luable po int in his ba ttle with Chandler. What about the championship point? Was Bostrom thinking about it? "You know, I was," he admitt ed. "We put that thing on there (the qualifying tire) and we went pretty quick. Then there was like three minutes left and Doug (Chandler) went out .. I didn't get off my bike. I just sat there in the sun and stressed. Eve ryone els e was watching the 1V monitor, 8 watcl;ing him circulate. Then he did a 54.8 and it was like, 'Oh, God, he's going out for another lap.' It was high stress. I was getting gray hairs in two minutes. Then I S.lW him pull in and I about fell off mv bike." Muzzy Ka wasaki's Chandler was also well awa re of the championship point, though there wasn' t a lot he could do about it. Apparently, the Kawasaki works well in the morning but struggles with findin g traction when the conditions heat up in the afternoon heat. Since Chandler couldn' t get the AMA to run the race either in the early morning or at night, he was looking for Mig ue l's (D u H a mel) bi ke afte r h e crashed the re last year:' Be h i n d t h e top fo u r ca me Eric's bro ther Ben - happy to jus t have fi n ished , but a bi t displeased at finishing fifth . Still, a crash in the 600cc Su pers p o r t final had left him a bit battered and bruised - a nother factor that didn' t help him m uch come race tim e. 'The crash wasn' t my problem in the su perbi ke race ," Ben Bostrom admitted. " It was s o m e t h i n g in the c lutch . It would make ba d no ises a nd I'd have to b a ck off. I c o u ld n' t come on to t h e stra ig h ta ways. I was rea lly fas t in the in fiel d , b u t I co u ld n ' t co me on to th e straig hta w ays. I' m rea lly lu cky that red flag came out because so meth ing cou ld have broke." Be h ind Be n Bo s tr o m came h is cha m pions h ip ri v a l, defend in g A MA Superb ike Na tion a l C ha m p io n C ha n- dler. He was som e w h a t su bd ued, but prepared to put it a ll o n th e line in Las Vegas. " I blewm y t i r e up a li ttle p a s t halfway: ' Chandler sa id . "I never ha d a ny tro u ble all week wi th it (the tire). I guess the red flag helped me. We ha d a pretty good motorcycle after this morning's pra ctice. We were able to do really co nsisten t la p times. We ' re e ve n goi ng to th e la s t ra ce - the rest of the year doesn't even cou nt. It' s a similar situation as befor e wi th Migu el (in 1996). We jus t re ally ha ve to wo rk o n getting a good se tu p for Las Vegas . We were jus t goi ng back w a rds ou t there. [ sa w him (Ben Bostrom) a nd [ kn ew w her e he was the w ho le tim e: ' O liver ha d ra n s traigh t a t the ch ica ne d u r in g th e ra ce, bu t h e mad e hi s way ba ck to the track in a lega l fas hion. He'd hoped for m or e laps because he thou gh t answers from his setup and he hoped to find them by Sunday afternoon. The defending AMA Superbike Champion settled for third on the front row with a 54.868. "I was looking up at the board so I could see the order," Chand ler said. "I just didn 't have enough today. I tried. In the morning. everything we do works really well, but in the afternoon it doesn't. It's probably more of the bike setup than anything else. We just don' t have it right yet." Spli tting the tw o championship protagonists on the front ro w w as Eric Bos trom on the ex- DuHamel Honda RC45. The younger Bostrom had lapped at 54.793 in the final session. "Ben has been going really fast all weekend," Eric Bostrom said, "I didn't think I'd be up as far as I am. The team did a great job of changing things last night - chassis, suspension and gearing. It's much better for me now. I' m glad Ben got pole - it's really good for the team. I think we have an advantage on the guys when it comes to going 48 laps. Our setup is right on." Filling out the front row was Friday's provisional pole position holder, jason Pridmore, on the Vance & Hines Ducati. Pridmore couldn 't match his 54.881 from Friday, slowing slightly to a 54.965 on Saturday after failing to get a d ear lap when the Ducati was fitted with the ultrasoi t Dunlop qualifying tire. He was also battling with an extremely sore lower b ack that made hard braking difficult. "It's a little bit more difficult here," Pridmore said of riding the Ducati here compared to Brainerd International Raceway, where he made his debut on the bike in july , "just bec aus e of the throttle control coming off the slow corners. It's a little bit different in that area and that's what we 've been wo rking on - trying to get traction coming o ff the slow comers. At Brainer d, eve rything was so flowing and fast, it was pretty easy. I'm g lad I'm as close < 5 I a m to these guys 1 because it seems like I've been proving myself the last coup le of races. It shows that I can go from one track to another, in really two different extremes, and be competitive - so thai'S good. I think a mid-54 was well within, but my qualifying was just a joke. Pascal (Picotte) crashe right in front d of me ,1Od put debris and stuff all over the track in my first flier. I waste my tire for half a lap just d getting back to start/ finish. I did a 54.9 on that next lap, but by the time I did my third lap, it (the tire) was going off. I didn't really get the dear track, I guess you could say." A pair of Yoshimura Suzukis would lead the second row of the grid, with Aaron Yates barely topping his teammate Mal Mladin. Then came Harley-Davidson's Pascal Picotte, seventh despite his crash I.. st session, on the VR10OO. Fill ing out the secon d TOl\' was Yamaha 's Rich O live r, the i lone factory Yamaha in the field as his teammate Jamie Hacking continues to recover from the broken pelvis he suffered at Brainerd. Row thre was headed by Yoshimu ra Suzuki's Steve Crevier, besting Vance & Hines Ducati's e Thomas Stevens, Harley-Davidson's Mike Smith and Fast By Ferracci Durati's Tom Kipp. A total of 13 riders ended up within a second of Ben Bostrom's pole-winning time as the Pikes Peak layout, and its sub-one-minute lap times, bunched the top riders together like no other track in the series.

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