Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

(Left) Mat Mladin's Suzuki gets gassed up and a set of brand-new tires during one of the two scheduled pit stops in the Daytona 200. (Above) Steve Rapp almost crashed in the kink, rode through the grass and then very nearly pUlled out in front of riders in the pack at the second horseshoe. up pitting four. times on the day and finishing an eventual 11 tho "I'm just frustrated and disappointed after I knew I was out of the race so early," Gobert said lilter. "I got held up a bjt from the start. I just wasn't being as aggressive as I should have been. I was saving the engine for the end, but I got held up. I guess I abused the tire, blistered it. It blistered up pretty easy. I wanted to finish in a good position, and I knew 1 could run 'ern down if 1 had to. I hadn't tested the bike on a full tank of gas; and 1 shott1a have, but it's a case of should've done this, should've done that. Then I thought we had another (tire) problem and carne back in; after that, I just cruised." Dunlop tire technician Jim Allen said that they could find nothing wrong with what was Gobert's third tire. Pegram ,,:as trying to keep the pres- sure on the lead duo and he ~harged into third place on the 13th lap. Shortly thereafter, he began to fade back with brake problems, eventually landing in ninth. "The brakes were gone after the 14th or 15th lap," Pegram explained later. "I got in the finish mode instead of the win mode after that. When I was third, I saw them a few second~ ahead and I was . riding easy. As. long as we had good pit stops, I thought I'd be in with a shot. Then I overshot three or four corners and decided it was better to finish than put it on the ground." Hacking was another who was encountering problems, though his were all pit-stop-related. When he carne in, the crew had problems with the quickchange equipment. He was in for a long time, and every time after that got worse. It eventually led to his demise. reason, more than ever, I'm feeling the rear tire. l've just got to quit thinking about it, because if you think about it twice a lap, it pans out for the rest of the lap. It's a bit sketchy." To make matters worse, Bostrom happened to be watching the first session in the International Horseshoe - right where his brother Eric crashed and broke his ankle. '1 was dog-sIow coming off that .comer/' Bostrom said. "I was standing over there, watching, cheering him on. I saw him put on that qualifier and make one lap and the thing spit him right on his head. I couldn't come off that comer after that. I'd be half-throttle, thinking. 'Tum the gas on, dummy.' It stuck in my mind, and I couldo't make P:lyself grab a handful." Other than that, Bostrom seemed to be content with his chances of victory on Sunday. '1 put the qualifiers on at the end, which is good, because you get an open track," Bostrom said. "But, on the other hand, you don't get a draft. It's okay. My Ducati ran really well. These guys all rode great, and I'm third. I'm happy to be on the front row, and things worked out really well. Tomorrow, we'lljust go out and do some pit stops with the team and just practice race setup to try to win this thing on Sunday. I jUst ran my race setup in qualifying with a qualifying tire, but there's always something to be learned. You go out tomOlTOW and run. around for a C()uple of hours and you learn things - things that just come to you without thinking about it. I think everyone up front will be running real quick lap times and there'll probably be up to seven or eight guys in the lead pack. r don't think anyone is going to go out there and go wide open and crash right off the bat. I think it'll be a good race for the fans and stuff. I'm excited." Fourth quickest was miracle man Miguel DuHamel. In his first race back since suffering a badly broken femur and knee last June, and with virtually no testing time because of late off-season bonegraft surgery, the American Honda rider was Simply amazing. Despite the fact that he hobbled around the garage area with a cane and had to be assisted by his crew just to get on the RC45, DuHamel lapped at 1:49.844 to put himself on the front row. He was at roughly 90 percent, but 90-percent DuHamel is apparently good enough. He was also aided by having one of the two fastest motorcycles on the track. '1 think it's been great," DuHamel said. "1 haven't had anything to complain about at all. All weekend, we've been fastest abnost, all through practice since we've been here. I've been more amazed than anything. Being on the front row - we were shooting for that, hoping for that. But being here - sometimes you don't make it As far as my physical condition, it's surely amazing - it's Crevier's race started to unravel when he lost a lap in the pits, with the crew struggling to get his axle back in. He then suffered with a blown shock and eventually crashed in the kink, fortunate to have escaped with just a bruised foot. Mladin pitted before DuHamel and a lap later was 22 seconds behind the French Canadian. When DuHamel exited the pits, the pair were together again. They'd stay that way until the second stop. Again, Mladin pitted first. This time, DuHamel had a bit of an edge on the Australian when they regrouped after the stop. But Mladin was able to charge his way back to the Honda's rear wheel. "1 think I might have been in front on the way into the first pit.stop," Mladin said later. "On the way out, Miguel was in fron t and he closed the door on me going into the horseshoe and I got past him a lap later. In the second one, he had a little bit on us and I had to work hard for a couple of la ps to pull up on him. Obviously, give full credit to his crew, because they must have done a really good job with the pit stops." Despite the intensity of the battle, by this point it was obvious that, barring a mistake by either one of the lead duo, tilis race would go down to the final lap. It did just that. On the final lap, DuHamel led into the chicane, despite trying to coerce Mladin to pass. . "In '96, I was sort of in Mat's shoes, and I couldn't even draft past and I had to do some stupid stuff," DuHamel said. "I was lucky, actually. Today, I really felt comfortable. The bike was really fast and from what I could tell, unless Mat was doing a really good job of saving something, I figured if I got out there pretty good and only threw a few weaves at him that it would be enough to hold him off at the start/finish. I tried braking early fot the chicane in the back there to see him go by, but he didn't go for that. We could have had a little snack in the chicane, we were going so slow, but we were setting it up for the drive." Mladin was having no part of it. He knew his only chance was to try to slingshot past the Honda on the run to r an incredible thing right now. The bike is an incredible joy. The RC45 is - it's the Honda Express. II's so fast, it feels really good and it's really stable. 1 just love that RC45. It's just getting to be smoother, faster and a better bike. I'm really happy with the setup we have for racing, for Sunday. We've got a stable bike and a fast bike." With the front row locked in from Thursday's sessions, Friday was left for the rest to try to improve their positions. The one rider who did the most was Fast By Ferracci's Larry Pegram. The Ohioan lapped at 1:49.813, quicker than DuHamel, and would lead row two. "I could have done that yesterday if I didn't fall down with some idiot lapper in front of me," Pegram said. '1t was in the first horseshoe and the guy is number 190 (Todd Keesee). 1 looked at the time sheets, and he's 25 seconds off the pace. So I'm on my flyer and I'm coming out of one as he's coming out of the pits. He doesn't bother to look over, and pulls out right in front of me. 1 . had to lock the front wheel and 1 slid under him." After Pegram came the first Muzzy Kawasaki, ridden by Aaron Yates. The Georgian lapped at 1:49.948 on Friday to top the factory Y~ of Rich Oliver, who turned in a 1:49.968 - the last rider in the 1:49s. Yoshimura Suzuki's Steve Ra.pp was the final rider on row two, lapping at 1:50.114 to set himself up for what would be his first-ever Daytona 200. '1 knt!!lv the bike was fast, and 1 know 1 can ride hard," Rapp said. "It felt good. The qualifiers have good traction, and that's the. only thing that slows you down here, is getting. traction. You put that tire on and it evens it all out because you're getting good traction for at least one lap. 1 thought top 10 would be nice in my first 200, but if 1 can do anything better than that, I'll be happy. 1 don't want to say that I'm going to win, but I'm going to go out there and do it. As long as 1 can get used to the bike sliding around for a long time. ThaI's one thing I've learned: that qualifying is so different from Tace setup.4 had to change stuff for qualilYing - just because it wouldn't work. I've been doing good race times with race tires." The second factory Yamaha qualified nin.th to lead row two, in the capa,ble hands of Jamie Hacking - last year's third-place finish, er. Then came the first of the Harleys - ridden by Pascal Picotte and not Scott Russell. Picotte lapped at 1:50.560 on Friday after a big crash on TIlursday when the throttle on the VRl000 stuck as the French Canadian entered tum one. Russell, however, wasn't around to try to better his 1:51.454 from Thursday's session (see Russell sidebar). "I'm really disappointed:' Picotte said on Thursday. "According to the computer, everything looks all right, but since [ crashed this morning the engine feels so slow. l.lllean like really slow. It felt really, really tight. I think about it (the throttle sticking) every once in a. while. It felt like it did it again in the comer going onto the banking. 1 just went in, rolled off, Slar\ed downshifting and then it just started pushing the front like hell. 1 was running SO wide, the front was hopping. I pulled the clutch in, picked the bike up and went off in the grass. We're working on everything - fork, shock, everything. It's taking us a little while to adjust. Today was the day to qualify on the front row, and I should have made iteasy. Last year I did a 492, and this year rm struggling at 50." The Harley team was using new Showa suspension components after using Ohlins suspension in 1998. Way back on the third row was Muzzy Kawasaki's Doug Chandler, though he thought it was nothing to panic over. "II's not over yet," Chandler said on Thursday, when things were even worse. '11's not as bad as it looks. It's just the setup. We made some mistakes. It'6 just one of those deals, 1 guess. Everyone kind of forgets about things; having new guys, they tend to do things a little different than what you're used to. You're under the assumption that it's the same, but it wasn't. It was drastically different." Filling the third row was Yoshimura Suzuki's Jason Pridmore at 1:50.877; the final rider in the 1:50 range. . '1 just want to finish the 200 and finish well," Pridmore said on Thursday. "Our bike,is working really well; the Suzuki is doing great. 1 just haven't tested down here or anything, so I'm basically at this point familiarizing myself with the bike and the track. II's kind of disappointing, because part of me came down here with the hopes of some 525, hopefully, and being healthy for the race. All of a sudden I'm doing 52s on race tires and I'm Ulinking, 'Wow! Maybe I'm going to do good.' Having limited experience with the qualifying tires, 1 put one on to see bow I'd do on it, and that way I'd gain some knowledge for when I put the second one on. When 1 went out on the second one, a guy feU off right in front of me. Then there were yellow flags all through the kink because someone else had fallen off in the second horseshoe. At that point, it was just botched. 1 don't want to push my luck here in qualifying. The main thing is, we have a good race setup and I know what kind of times I can do in the race. It's 57 laps - qualifying doesn't mean that much to me here." In all, 76 riders took part in qualifying for the Daytona 200, but only 58 would grid for the rae,e.

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