Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/127962
Bostro m su rp ris ed the racing world by winni ng both Brainerd and Pikes Peak. With the sho wdow n in Vegas loomi ng, everyo ne will b e back (exce p t Du Hamel ), a nd it' s lik ely the win ner won' t co m e fro m the top three in the champions hip. If non e of this trio w ins in Vegas 7 a distinct, if no t likely, possibility - it w ill be the first time a rider has won an AMA Su perbike title withou t win ning a race. Chan d ler sees bo th sides of the argnm en t. He h a s n ' t wo n a Su perbike National thi s yea r bu t is ti ed for the p oints lead . Con ver sel y, he 's won six AMA 600cc Super sp ort races but tra ils Yoshimura Suzu ki' s Stev e Crev ier (who has won on ly oncefby 16 p oin ts , b y vi r tu e of ba ck- to-ha ck non fini sh es at Sears Poin t and Road Atlanta. " You see bo th s id es o f it beca u se, shoo t, we were d o m in a n t in the 600, we've wo n six races, and unless Crevier does so me thing silly, w e're not go ing to ge t it," said Cha nd ler, wh o tu rns 33 the Su n day before th e race. "I' m o n both s ides . I'm winni ng t he Su perbike (Series) with no wins, and yet I'm go ing to lose the 600 with six wi ns. 1 can play bot h sides. Tha t' s how it is. In the 600 we w ere d omin an t, a n d th en w e had DNFs, so we had to go after it aga in - so th en w e w o n s ome m ore . That' s ju st how you' ve go t to do it, giv en the situ ation y o u' re p ut in. In th e Su perb ike, we' ve always been up fro nt, so why risk it?" "Too man y po d iums a nd no w ins it's kind of frust ra ting:' sa id Bostro m, describing how he sees his season . This . was to be the yea r he wou ld appren tice und er DuH am e l o n th e A me r ica n , Hond a squa d , u s in g this season as a build ing block for fu ture seasons. Then DuH amel to ok h im s e lf ou t w it h th e Loudon crash and Bostro m was suddenly thrust into the nu mber-one seat - and the role of Honda's so le champion ship con tender. "I was taking this year as a learning ex perience:' the 24-year-old Sou the rn Californian said . "I never expected to win the championship. I wa s hoping to ge t top thr ee in point s, win some races, and prepare for next year . I just wanted to be consistent. - top five all year. After the crash at Loudon , I thought I lost the title and didn' t ever want to cras h again. Then it was just, 'Beat that green bike: " "I think I'v e done a good job all year; it'sjust when yo u have a few mechanical problems, wha t do you do abou t it?" the 26-yea r-old Mlad in asks. "You look a t it, and (Anthony) Gob er t. was there. . I'm not den yin g th at Gobert was there, a nd he' d probably be in the lead , bu t un fortunately Gobert took himself out. Mig uel' s was a racing acci d ent a nd that's u ndersta ndable; he had a crash and that's the way it goes . But An thony took h imself ou t in a totall y different way than w hat sho uld've happened ." Bostro m's stra tegy for chasing the number-on e plate in Las Vegas is simple: Beat Doug Chandler, or cras h ou t. "I ha ve not h in g to lose and eve ryth ing to ga in:' Bo st rom sa id . " H e (Cha ndler) wants it, but unfortunately I thi nk I wan t it a little worse. He 's go t thr ee of them." This is Bostrom's first sho t a t a championship tha t Cha ndler has alrea dy won three times. So, in experience and hand li ng th e pressure, Chan d le r ha s th e edge. He took a domi nating w in in Las Vegas in 1996 to sew u p the crown and, after qu alifying on the pole wit h a new track record , rod e around in eig h th place to take his third superbike title last year. "In 1997, I cou ld n' t take a ny risks," Chand ler says. "I though t we ha d a prett y . good bike. We qualified on the po le aga in, but it wasn't as easy as it w as th e yea r before. The year before, the on ly clo se tim es were ' (Larry) Peg ra m's - everyone else was al mos t a second . off. Las t yea r, it was ju st wi thin ten ths ." Wha t it carne down to at the en d of las t season was tires, Chand ler believes. "T he fi rs t year (1996 ) was an unk no w n since we did n' t hav e th e d ual -compo und (tires), and now we have d ual-co mpound, p lus the thi n ga uge on on e side _ just to red uce the heat," he explains . "For some reason I ' thi nk our bi ke doesn't like th e thinga uge tir es, or we can't seem to get the th ing to wo ~k as good with that ti re . That see ms to be the bigge st problem. When we ru n a standard tire on a norma l track, our bike's good . But wh en it ge ts hot, we just slow down more than th e o the rs . That ' s w h e re I th in k our proble m lies." The p r obl e m mi gh t be r im s ize . Cha nd ler favors the 6 1/ 4-inc h rim, a w hee l tha t pu ts maximum heat on the edge of the tire wh en lea ned over, and one which uses the thick part of the tire h ard er. Cha ndler was th e on ly rider using the wider rim at Vegas las t year 'and the only rider to ha vea p roblem. That hasn 't been the Muzzy Kawasaki team' s on ly problem th is yea r. The sq uad ran a linked-bra king sys tem that cost t hem resu lts early on . They haven 't use d it since Elkhart Lake. The first time he wo n at Las Vegas , his bike was perfec t. To tr y to get bac k to tha t poin t, Ch a n d le r re ce n t ly tested a t the Las Vegas Motor Speedway, alo ng w ith Ben and Eric Bostro m, as well as and Aaron Yates and Ma t Mlad in. The track was dirty and no one came close to Cha ndler's po le time from last vear. o "We tr ied a few th in gs; we d idn ' t h a ve nothing, but ju st kind of had to p lay with different links and stuff - like we've ru n at Daytona wh en we have to us e reall y hard tires to try to ge t more grip;" Chand ler said . As for w h e t he r or no t th e bikes w ould be cha nged fo r th e final ra ce, Cha ndler said , "The b ik e s ha ven 't cha nged since '96." The Honda RC45 has, so the edge in equ ip m en t g oes to Bos trom . Ne it he r bike has suffered a mecha nical DN F this year, bu t the Kawasaki has been mor e bedeviled by nettlesom e problem s than the Ho nda . Chand ler and Eric Bostrom were the fastes t a t th e te st , but for Chandler it wasn' t about times - it was abo u t being competitive. "That's why I wanted to get my bike working the bes t and be ab le to go ou t there and do the tim es if need be," he said . 'T m tryi ng to get our bike back in the hunt with eve ryo ne else. I' m kind of ups et. It seems like we've kin d of lost what we u sed to havean advan tage on. We've got to ge t tha t back." Bost ro m's times wer en ' t representative. H e was s till recover in g from his 600cc Su p erspor t crash 'a t Pikes Peak and his injuri es hurt him enoug h so that he cou ldn' t get on Dr off the bike. "I said, 'That's enoug h: I've go t tw o we eks to get fit: " Bostrom said . "In two weeks, I'm hoping I' m 100 per cen t, or at lea st 90 percen t. O nce th e adrenaline .M any expect that one of these three will win the race in Las Vegas: Eric Bostro m, . Aaron Yates or Anthony Gobert. All three have won already this year: none of the three are in the hunt for the title, however, ge ts goi ng , there's no pain u nt il afterwa rds." Bostrom said his enti re focus was on tra inin g for the final race . Chand ler is also com ing off an injury, but his wa s m uch earlier in the year and he was fit a t Pikes Peak. He ma y h a ve a slight edge here. ' Bo t h b ike s hav e th e ir s t rengths , Bostrom believes. "The Kawasaki stee rs we ll; my bik e hooks u p: ' Bostrom sa id . "He tries to save the back, I try to save the fron t. It's going to be a seesaw ba ttle." Th e Honda certai n ly ha s a po,,ยท,' r advantage, but it isn't the kind of rower he can put to use on the :C ,b -mile Las Vegas road course. "T h e ra ce track isn 't tha t fas t ," Mladi n says. "You' ve got a little bit of a fast straig ht there, bu t it's no big deal. I' m sure it' s no t going to com e do w n to spee d, like at a race track like Brainerd, for instance. Most tracks suit the (Suz uki) okay - it's just that when you ge t to th e fas t tr acks where yo u need hor sepow er, the bik e' s not su ite d . O u r bik e han dl es good and everything, as everyone knows. Every one says our bike handl es good and we shou ld be fast, but I'll take a fast mo torcycle that ' s ill-handling any day - no problem ." Cha n d le r s ees the pot entia l fro n trunn e rs a s be in g Gobert ' a n d Er ic Bostrom. "Potentiall y, those guys will be the on es goi ng for the win - and Mat (Mlad in) as well: ' he says. Be n Bos trom sa id hi s bro ther Eri c was "hop ing we go on e-two. At Co lorad o we w ere pre tt y m uch one-two when I lost th e clu tch . Aaron (Ya tes ), Mladin wi ll do whatever it takes to win the race." Ben Bostro m ma y get help fro m his brother Eric; Chand ler w ill al mos t cert a inl y ge t n o h el p from tea m m a te Tommy Hay de n: advan tage to Bostro m. "Fro m wh at I've seen, Doug already ha s a head start, becau se Doug was a bit qu icker than him for sure, " Mladin said . "Eric was as quick as Doug, bu t Ben w asn't. " The championship is powerfu l mo tiva tion for bot h rid ers . Bu t there is more. Shou ld Chandl er win, he'd be the first rider to take the cro wn four times. "You tend more to expect it," Cha ndler says of the possibility, "just because yo u 've been so su ccessfu l in th e p ast. You' re harder on yourself. I kn ow we can do it. It's been a crazy year, with everyone having trouble here and there." Never havin g wo n a race, and hav ing watched his yo u nger brother Eric wi n ' two, Bostrom has to prove - to himself as mu ch a s a nyone - th a t h e ha s the good s. "I ha ve to w ove to myself that when the p ressure is on in the last race, I can come out ahead," he says, di scounting the noti on that he wan ts to teach Honda a lesson for not re-signi ng him for 1999. He has since sign ed with Van ce & Hines Du cati , "The re's not an y so rt of grudge toward them." Cha ndler isn't su re he bu ys it. "I would th in k i t moti v a te d him more, to prove to them that they're making a mistake, that he can win a cha mpions hip," h e says. "A nd I don 't blame him . That's a bad d eal." Bostrom is equally la u d a to r y of Cha ndler. ' "He' s a really grea t rider, tough to beat ," Bos trom sai d . "He wa nts it bad . Tuesday, when we rod e at Las Vegas, he was going fast." Motiva tion wise, it's a wash. Any thing can hap pen in Las Vegas, and it probably will. Recen t history tells u s th at n e ither C ha n d le r n o r Ben Bostrom, will w in th e rac e . But th at's okay, becau se no one's goin g to reme mber who won the final race - an d th ey will rem ember who won the title every time the number-one bike rolls up to the start lin e next yea r. Whe ther it will be . Cha ndler or Bostrom is anyo ne's guess. Bu t the ir fig h t - alo n g w ith Gobert's return, Mladin's attem pt to ....'in his first race, and an y of a thousand other sub0 plots - make thi s race a must-see. 11