Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

~ ::: -: , Crev ier will be armed wi th a GSX-R750, as the com pa ny scales d own its involvement with the TL - at least for the 1999 se ason . T he six th-p lace effor t w a s a good one for the new bike, and Crevier ended up finish ing seventh in the series s ta ndings by virtue o f the fi nal -r ace result and the fact that Yama ha's Jamie Hack ing fin ishe d the seaso n o n the injured list. Yama ha 's Rich Oliver en ded his season wi th a seven th-place finish, though h e was in th e hunt for fift h fo r th e major it y of th e race . In th e end, both Stevens a nd Crevier beat h im to th e line. Muzzy Kawasaki 's Tommy Hayd en finished ninth in his final ride with the team, with Fast By Ferracci's Tom Kipp end ing his miserabl e season wi th a lOthplace finish - on e spo t ahead of his new teammate, Ca n adi an teen ager Jorda n Szoke . Behind Szoke ca me Cha n dler, then Valvoline .EMGO Su zuki' s Grant Lopez, and final1y the Yoshimura Suz uki p a irin g of Aa r on Yat es a nd Larry Pegra m, w ho rou nded ou t th e top 15 finishers. Gobert and Pridmor e were the only fa ct or y s ta rs w ho failed to fi nish th e race . Thoug h the ba ttle for the championshi p was of keen inte res t to everyone, M ladin s im p ly s tole th e show on a sunny Sunday afternoon in Sin City. The Australian and his Yoshimura Suzuki GSX-R750 we re fast th rough out p ractice and qualifyin g, a nd things d id n' t get any easier for the competition when the lights turned green on Su nday. Mladin jum ped out front and wa s ne ver head ed , lapping in the low 1:37s early in the race to p ull away from every bod y. He see me d to be ab le to go fast whenever he need ed to, an d w hen Gober t showed sig ns of bei ng ab le to close th e gap, Mla d in simply turn ed it up another notch. - The end resu lt was Mlad in's first win of the season, a nd it came just a d a y after h is seven th po le position o f the yea r. The season en ds wit h Bostrom edging Cha n dler in th e se ries s ta n di ngs, 355-342, even thou gh neither rider ma naged to w in a Superbike N a tional in 1998. Mladin and his sing le w in ended up third with 330 points; Oliver was fou rth wit h 285 poin ts, leadi ng Yates, Kipp , Cre vie r, Hack ing, Go ber t a nd Miguel DuHam el to fill out the top 10 in the final stand ings . Everyon e knew goi ng into the series fina le that the race wo ul d feat u re tw o races in one : the battle for victory, and t h e batt le be tween Chandler and Bostro m. Whe n the pack charged into turn one at the sta rt of the 25-lap race, the ba ttle for victory was for al1 practical purposes over. Mladin had a pla n: Get out front and stay the re. He executed the schem e (Above) Ben Bostrom came away from Las Veags with seco nd place In the race and theAMA Superbike National Champ ions hip. (Left ) Mlad in was simply stunning In Las Vegas , leadi ng every lap en ro ute to vi ctory. perfect!y and no one was goi ng to ge t very close on this day . "It went just like the way we wanted it to," Mlad in said later. "The plan was to ge t ou t at the sta rt and try to ge t five or six seco nds . We got it to six seconds o n abou t lap 10 a nd basicall y held it there. We caught a little bit of traffic and Jaso n (Pridmo re) pulled it back to five. I was still ru nn ing reasonable times - high sevens (1 :37s). When it came back to five seconds , I put m y head back down and ran a cou ple of more low sevens . Then he cra she d and I had p lus 15. The last fou r la p s, I had to let Jamie James go back by me because I was going th a t slow. Th at ' s th e way it goes . It wen t good for us, an d it's good to win one ." La st yea r, Mla d in wo n th e Ve gas fina le - bar ely. He was riding a Miche- 00 0\ 0\ ...... ""'~ ...... l-< III ..0 ' o ..... u o 7

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