Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

Bostrom will be near the top when the series points are added up in October. Hut there are bound to be some learning pains along the way. At least thaYs why I've put him no higher than fourth. Hey, I may be wrong, but if I am, it will only be in that 1 predicted him to finish lower than he actually does. It won't be the other way around. 5. Doug Chandler - #10 Age: 33 Hometown: Salinas, California Team: Muzzy Kawasaki Best result in 1998: Second (Daytona, Laguna Seca, Sears Point) Ranking in 1998: Second in AMA Superbike Championship, second in 600cc Su persport Championship Doug Chandler nearly won the AMA Superbike ti tIe for a fourth time in 1998. He only lost out on the opportunity to do so when his Muzzy Kawasaki failed him in the final round. Chandler didn't win a race last year, but he came close on severa I occasions. [f you look at the series point standings, Chandler had a heck of a year. He not only finished second in the superbike chase, but he was second overall in the 600cc Supersport title and won six of those races along the way. And he's not done yet. [n fact, he could make me look ieaIJy bad by climbing his way to another title in 1999. [ just think that he's going to miss the relationship he had with his longtime tuner, Gary Medley, and that might make him slip down the charts in 1999. There is no doubt tl,at Chandler can still run at the front. He's done it time and time again, and he's done it without looking as though he's even trying hard. His style is such that he appears to be at 90 percent while the others are at 110 percent. His talent on a motorcycle is such that this may indeed be the truth. Maybe he isn't trying as hard. [n 1999, he's going to have to, or he's not going to finish any higher than this. Chandler doesn't push things to the point of crashing when things aren't right, and his crash at Loudon was Simply out of character. When he's inspired, he's among the best in the world (remember the World Superbike round at Laguna Seca?), and just when you think his best days are behind him, he pulls something out of the hat to make you realize how good he really is. The series has never been more competitive than what it is sure to be this year. There will be some pushing and shoving at the front, and Chandler will have to give maximum effort in order to compete for the title. He'll also have to have a team thaYs at the top of its game - at each and every race. 6. Miguel DuHamel- #17 Age: 30 Team: American Honda Best result in 1998: First (Laguna Seca, Willow Springs, Sears Point, Road Atlanta) Ranking in 1998: 10th in AMA Superbike Championship; 12th in AMA 600cc Supersport Championship Miguel DuHamel is probably the toughest man in AMA Superbike racing. In 1999, we're going to find au t just how tough he is. - Prior to suffering his badly broken leg in june at Loudon, DuHamel was the man to beat for the 1998 AMA Su perbike crown. He'd won four races going into Loudon and he led the title chase. Then all hell broke loose. He crashed in qualifying and crushed his leg, his knee and his title hopes. And there's still a big question as to just how recovered he will be when the season . starts in 1999. That and that alone is the only reason I have DuHamel this low. If he's healthy, he'll win. I have no doubts that he's lost any of the drive or bravado that has made him one of the best. 1 only question just how healthy he will be when the flag drops on the '99 season. Racing here will be better if he is healthy, because he can run with anyone on any bike at any race track. When he and Gobert were at the top of their game in the middle of the season, the racing was never better. It suffered when he wasn't around, and irll sulfer again if he can't regain the physical strength he needs to compete. We can only wait and see on this one. 7. Aaron Yates - #20 Age: 25 Hometown: Milledgeville, Georgia Team: Muzzy Kawasaki Best result in 1998: First (Loudon) Ranking in 1998: Fifth in AMA Superbike National Championship; 10th in AMA 600cc Supersport Championship Aaron Yates can win one week and finish eighth the next. He can be tl,e fastest guy in America one week and an also-ran the next. just look at MidOhio and Br;li.nerd of last year. Yates dominated at Mid-Ghio, qualifying on pole and winning the race. At Brainerd, he qualified eighth and finished eighth. just a few weeks later. Okay, Brainerd isn't a Suzuki tra.ck - but Mat MIadin managed to finish second on one, rlidn't he? All that stands in the way between Aaron Yates and a Superbike ational Championship is consistency. If he shows up at each and every race like he did at Loudon and at Mid-Ghio, these guys are in trouble. Perhaps a change in team is exactly what the doctor ordered. After several years on Suzukis, Yates moves to the Muzzy Kawasaki team for 1999, and it may be the change in scenery that jump-starts his promising career. Rob Muzzy haS proved before that he can take young riders and make them into cl,ampions. Aaron Yates is his latest project. 8. Scott Russell - #4 Age: 34 Team: Harley-Davidson Best result in 1998: Third (Brands Hatch round of World Superbike Championship) Ranking in 1998: 10th in World Superbike Championship It's down here where things start getting difficult. I'm picking Scott Russell to finish eighth because he's Scott RusselL I think there will still be times when the Harley-Davidson VRIOOO lets him down, but when it doesn't, [ think he'll score points. And if the bike doesn't let him down very often, he'll finish higher than this. Russell has proved himself; the Harley still hasn't. Russell can still ride a motorcycle. His last two years of World Superbike racing were a disaster, especially 1998. I don't think he wants us to remember him by those final two years. He wants to go out with a bang, he wants to give the VR its first win, he wants to be remembered in the legendary status that a man with his credentials should be remembered. Russell's Harley debut will come at Daytona. There's no better place for that to.happen. And there's no worse place for it to happen. Russell is "Mr. Daytona." And the Harley. Davidson is a popular motorcycle to have at· Daytona - as long as it's at the beach and not at the Speedway. Russell is hoping he can change that image by bringing Daytona 200 glory to a team and a motorcycle that has yet to have any. Russell thinks he can win at least one raCl' in 1999. I.Ys hard not to believe him. 9. Rich Oliver - #97 Age: 37 Hometown: Fresno, California Team: Yamaha Best result in 1998: Fourth (Road Atlanta) Ranking in 1998: Fourth in AMA Superbike Championship I know how hard Rich Oliver works, and I know. how frustrating it must be to the 37year-old when he sees someone like Anthony Gobert show up, go fast and win - all without half the work ethic of Oliver. Last year Oliver was consistent, but he wasn't spectacular. The high point of his season was his pole position at Road Atlanta, bu t he couldn't matel, that effort in the race. This off~season has seen Oliver at or near the top in every test session. He's made himself the man to bea t for the 600cc Supersport title, and I think a strong start in that class may end up hampering his superbike efforts. I think by the middle of the year Oliver will be concentrating on winning a 600cc title and that will likely keep him from finishing higher in the superbike title chase. Yamaha will also get the new R7 at some point in the season. lt won't be here in time for Daytona and it's going to take the team some time to get the bike figured out, especially considering the fact that Yamaha's World Superbike team has already struggled with the R7. If the bike is everything irs supposed 'to be;both Oliver and his teammate jamie Hacking can run near the front. So far, iYs nothing close to what iYs supposed to be. 10. jason Pridmore -4143 Team: Yoshimura Suzuki Hometown: Ventura, California Best result in 1998: Third (Pikes Peak) Ranking in 1998: Eighth in 750cc Supersport Championship Jason Pridmore showed everyone that he could ride a superbike in 1998. In his first outing on the Vance & Hines Ducati, Pridmore led the National at Brainerd before an off-track excursion dropped him to an eventual fourth-place finish. At Pikes Peak, he finished third behind Eric Bostrom and Mat Mladin, and in the series finale in Las Vegas he was third until crashing in water left behind by teammate's Anthony Gobert's Ducati. So in his three outings, he was near the front three times. But he was on a Ducati, Gobert and DuHamel weren't there so the field was diluted, blah, blah, blah. There were a thousand reasons why Pridmore's outings rlidn't mean much. Butl think they were very meaningful. Pridmore was presented with a Ducati and he did the most he could with it. He didn't tell DuHamel to break his leg and he rlidn't tell Gobert to smoke pot.. I think Jason Pridmore may be the most underrated rider in AMA road racing. So why do I pick him to only finish 10th? l.t's simple. I think it will take Pridmore some time to get the Yoshimura Suzuki up to speed. Hey, it's no Ducati. He's also coming off a badly broken wrist, and he's also in a team where you can get lost rather easily. His strong relationship with Mladin may help him in this department. If Pridmore gets it going early in the season than [ predicted, he'll finish much higher than this. WILD CARDS There have never been more quality riders left out of the Top 10 than this year. [Ys gotten to the point where you can't even get all the factory riders in the list, much less the quality privateers. At the very top of the wildcard heap is Yamaha's jamie Hacking, Yoshimura Suzuki's Steve Crevier and Harley-Davidson's Pascal Picotte. Any of these three could surprise me and jump to any spot in the top 10 - especially Hacking. If he hadn't missed nearly aU the offseason tests due to injury, he'd be in my top 10. As it is, we're still not sure about his fitness level, and we won't know until Daytona exactly where he stands. Crevier will be consistent as always and it may be enough for him to get to the Top 10. Ditto for Picotte if the Harley can stay on the track and he doesn't get caught up in all the Scott Russell hype that will surround the Harley camp. Yoshimura Suzuki's Steve Rapp is a question mark. He's crashed nearly every time he's tested this off-season and r think he's got some learning to do on the superbike. He'U certainly have strong outings on the 600, but just how quickly he can adapt to the level of superbike racing remains to be seen. Perhaps the racers who could surprise us the most ~re the two Fast By Ferracci Ducati riders - Larry Pegram and Matt Wait. Pegram was signed so late in the off-season that he wasn't even a factor for most of the off-season. He comes armed with tutoring from Kevin Schwantz, so who knows how far he could go? He's been fast before, so he can be fast again. There were just too many questions marks for me to put him in the top 10. The same goes for his ·teammate Wait. He could be the biggest surprise of the 1999 season or he could be the biggest bust. Again, you just don't know. One thing we do know is that one or more of these wild-card riders will jump to the Top 10 and make me look worse than usuaL I just can't.tell you which one it'll be. MR. NOT-So-RIGHT Henny Ray Abrams has been better than I have at picking a Top 10 lately. Last year, however, kind of set him back a bit. He predicted that Mike Hale would win the title. By midseason, Hale wasn't even riding and he never did anything that showed the true potential tl,at many believe he still has. So Abrams' string of correctly picking two straight AMA Superbike Champions (actually, the same one - Doug Chandler) is history, and he's on a losing streak - albeit not on one as long as mine. Abrams' Top 10 is included below. WHAT DO THEY KNOW? For years we've heard the riders' thoughts on our Top 10. Some agree with us, some don't. This year, we decided to do something about it. At the Daytona and Laguna Seca tests during the off-season, we presented riders with a list of the 15 men who had signed up to race factory superbikes in the 1999 AMA Superbike ational Championship. (Larry Pegram signed on with Ferracci too late to make the cut.) All the riders had to do was pick their top 10 from those 15. One of the top factory riders refused to participate, and one was left out because we Simply never caught up with him. The others, however, aJl jotted down their votes for the Top 10 and those results are Iisted below. All of the picks were tabulated (a points system was used - 10 points if the rider was picked to win, nine points for second, eight for third and so on) and one Top 10 list is presented, based on the overall results from the riders who participated. CIII I :Iii I 11IIIII;: b. ~ ~ ~ Q 4. S.~~ t1. Aaron Vate. 7. Rich Oliver 8. Miguel DuH.eme1 9. Scott Ru••ell 10. J •• on Pridmore 29

• Cover