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Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/127991
(Left) Anthony Gobert (95) opened up a lead early on and looked like a potential race winner, but his Ducati failed him and he was forced out of the race. (Below) Larry Pegram (72) used an advantage gained with his Michelin tires to beat Bostrom (1) to the finish line. Four more factory men circula ted well below the positions you'd expect, with Muzzy Kawasaki's Doug Chandler finishing 11th, followed by Erion Racing's Nicky Hayden - in his Superbike racing debut - and Muzzy's Aaron Yates. Harley-Davidson's Scott Russell returned to action to finish 14th, just ahead of Canadian Kawasaki rider Francis Martin. The race put a serious dent in the championship aspirations of American Honda's Miguel DuHamel and Vance & Hines Ducati's Anthony Gobert, as both failed to score points. Gobert started the race from pole position and seemingly had thing under control before his Ducati failed him once again. He pitted with a misfire and attempted to rejoin the race, but that effort only lasted for another lap, as an electrical problem forced him to call it a day. DuHamel, meanwhile, was in the lead group when he crashed in spectacular fashion in turn three on the 20th of 25 laps, the factory Honda RC45 cart- Gobert's bombshell A wheeling to a stop between turn three and five. DuHamel and the lead pack had encountered lapped. traffic entering turn three, and the French Canadian ended up running into the back of Hacking before finally throwing the . Honda down the road. Fortunately, DuHamel didn't appear to have done any further damage to his still-ailing left leg. The most notable other nonfinisher was Pascal Picotte. The French Canadian had the factory Harley-Davidson VRlOOO up to fifth and was gaining ever so slightly on fourth-placed Mladin late in the race when an oil-line fitting broke, ending yet another inspired ride by Picotte. After three of 13 rounds, Mladin leads the series by just three points over Ben Bostrom, 92-89, with Pegram creeping into third with 82 points. By virtue of his three sixth-place finishes, Pridmore is fourth with 75 points - tied with Oliver, who has turned in 3-9-7 finishes in the opening three races. nthony Gobert's plan wasn't to save his best for last. Instead, he would go out and throw down the gauntlet right away - then wait and see what happened. It didn't work on friday, but it worked to perfection on Saturday and it resulted in Gobert's second pole position of the season and a new lap record at Willow Springs Ra.ceway. By the time things got serious in Saturday's final qualifying session, Gobert (right) was already in street clothes, haVing lapped at 1:19.206 on his qualifying Dunlops early in the session. Then he sat and waited, confident that no one could better his effort. A it turned out, he was right - though there was a bit of nervousness right at the end when his Vance & Hines teammate Ben Bostrom lapped at 1:19.425 on his first of two laps on qualifying rubber. Fortunately for Gobert, Bostrom's tire was only good for that single lap, and Gobert's claim on pole position was safe. "1 was a bit nervous," Gobert said. "But only because I got held up a bit pretty much on all my laps. I was a bit frustrated because [didn't do the time that I wanted to. I think for sure if I hadn't been held up, J could have done an 18, but as long as I'm on the front row, I'm happy. But it's always good to be on pole to earn that extra point." . It ctidn't faze him that his Friday plan of doing his best early didn't work - he knew that Saturday would be different because of the qualifying tires. "[ know pretty much what [ can do," Gobert said. "[ know what my limit is. Unless you have a tire to do it or a setup to do it, there's no point in going out. Yesterday we worked on tlte front suspension a bit and it wasn't as good as what I would have liked, but today it was really good. Yesterday we decided to stop toward the end because of that fact, and we just waited until today when we had a better package. Today it was really good. We set it up for racing, we've run a lot a fuelin the bike, and it's good. We're looking pretty good for tomorrow if everything goes all righ t:' lie also knew that, like last year, the race would feature numerous riders at the front - and a few left for the finish. "If it's going to be warm, which it pretty much is going to be, I think there will be a lot of guys at the front," Gobert said. "But you're going to have to be real conservative on your tire because The race began with high temperatures and low winds, and with tire wear on the minds of everyone involved. With the exception of Picotte, who was gambling by rwming a standard Dunlop 602, the rest of the Dunlop-backed riders had their bikes fitted with the harder, dual-compound tire. Pegram and Wait had Michelins, but they were • starting from well back in the pack. It wouldn't matter. When the light flashed green to start the 25-lap race, it was Mladin getting the best jump. He went into turn one with the lead but came out of the fast left-hander in third place, suffering a momentary loss of front-end traction. Bostrom and DuHamel slid by and Bostrom held tough to lead the pack across the stripe on the opening lap. Before they arrived in turn one, however, it was Gobert in the lead. And it ed burning it. I guess I just chewed it on that first lap. Yesterday, I went two laps on it and I noticed that Gobert went two laps on both his tires. I only had one tire for today and it just went one lap. One tire is enough, if it goes two laps." While Gobert was completely sure of his race setup, Bostrom was anything but certain of what he had for Sunday. '1 hope my race setup is good because my qualifying setup was right on," Bostrom said. "[ don't really know yet. T don't know. Hopefully, (Gary) Medley and the boys get it ctialed. Jimmy (Leonard) said that nobody was going fast on the race tires - [hope he wasn't just trying to make me feel good." thing in reserve in case someone catches Third fastest was somewhat of a surprise, with Yoshimura me or goes by. If I do that pace and peo- Suzuki's Steve Rapp lapped at 1;19.495 to best his teammate ple go with me, I'll either lower that pace Mat Mladin, who circulated at 1;19.959. a bit and let them lead, or if I'm getting "We're not going to change anything, just leave it like it is:' away a little bit, ['II ke