Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

Round 3: Willow Springs Inter~ational Raceway Tommy Hayden (22) managed to hold off the advances of Aaron Yates (20) and Jamie Hacking (hidden) to win the 600cc Supersport final at Willow Springs. Steve Rapp (82) crashed while in the lead pack. AMAIPro Honda Oils 600cc Supersporl Series Round 3: Willow Springs Int" Raceway Haydell ~ Tommy! By Paul Carruthers Photos by Henny Ray Abrams ROSAMOND, CA, APR 18 eading into Thursday's first day of practice at Willow Springs International Raceway, Yamaha's Tommy Hayden despised the place. He loathed the race track, he wasn't comfortable and he definitely wasn't confident. He was a beaten man. What a difference a few days make. By Sunday, Hayden had put the negatives behind him. He was fast, smooth and in the right place at the right time and all of that amounted to what was the first AMA 600cc Supersport win of his young career. Considering he had to gain some three seconds from his previ-. ous best lap times, it was quite an accomplishment. "I went three seconds faster than when I tested here," Hayden said after becoming the 33rd rider (and second Hayden) to win an AMA 600cc Supersport final. "When I tested here, I hated it. I couldn't get going, I couldn't get the bike working. I was so frustrated when I tested here during the winter. I.was really dreading coming here, but I just tried to be focused. I put my head down Thursday and figured this place out. You can't give up a race if you're going for the championship - especially after my Daytona finish. You've got to be there every week if you're going to win the championship. The bike just kept getting better and I was getting better and I finally got comfortable out there." The bike was Yamaha's new R6, and it was Hayden who gave the bike its first victory in AMA racing. He did so by besting his teammate Jamie Hacking, who turned in his third successive podiurn finish - three quality results that have given him the championship points lead. H ~ ~ C 20 Third place today went to the always hard-riding Aaron Yates, the big Muzzy Kawasaki rider doing everything he could to make up for the deficits of the ZX-6R. Erion Racing's Nicky Hayden finished fourth after being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Hayden was running second behind Yates on the final lap when the Georgian got the Kawasaki completely sideways in turn three. Nicky Hayden was on the outside of the Kawasaki and had nowhere to go. Forced to slow, both his brother Tommy and Hacking were able to go by and Nicky couldn't make up the difference in the five corners to the finish line. He was still only .397 of a second behind his brother as less than half a second covered the top four finishers. Fifth place went to Josh Hayes on the Valvoltne EMGO Suzuki - the first Michelin-shod bike in the field. Hayes ended up 4.3 seconds behind at the fin· ish but was well clear of sixth-placed Rich Oliver on the third factory Yamaha. Yoshimura Suzuki's defending class champion, Steve Crevier, was seventh, with Erion's Kurtis Roberts, 1-800CYCLE-GEAR's Jake Zemke and Chaparral Suzuki's Tom Kipp filling out the top 10. Notables not in the top 10 were American Honda's Eric Bostrom and Miguel DuHamel, the pair finishing 14th and 15th, respectively. Bostrom is still recovering from his Daytona injuries and also had an off-track excursion, while DuHamel started well behind the pack when a crewmember failed to turn on his CBR600F4's fuel. There were some Suzuki stars who also struggled, with Yoshimura's Steve Rapp crashing out of the race on the 16th lap while in the lead group; Chaparral Suzuki's Richard Alexander Jr. crashed after being hit by Takahito Mori, who had been forced off line by Jason Pridmore; Pridmore, in turn, eventually retired after fighting a traction problem caused by tlle wrong tire being mounted on his GSX-R600. With three races under their belts, Hacking leads Nicky Hayden by just a single point, 93-92, with Tommy Hayden third on 85 points. Five-time champion and Daytona winner DuHamel is now eighth with 62 points. Willow Springs was no exception to the rule thay.AMA 600cc Supersport races are always classics, and it started out with a Yates holeshot into turn one. something else that is beginning to become a habit. The Georgian led for two laps before giving way to Tommy Hayden, who had hoped to pull clear. "I was fourth at the start and was able to pick right through 'em real quick," Tommy Hayden said. "This morning I got down to the 22s, so I thought that maybe I could get away. I put my head down a little bit and ran a . few laps, but Aaron (Yates) wasn't having none of that. He went back by and I kinda followed him around a little bit to see what he was doing." What Yates was doing was riding his rear end off, sliding the Kawasaki all around the race track with reckless abandon - typical Yates style. "I got my third holeshot in three races," Yates said. 'The Kawasaki leaves the line pretty good. I just tried to run some good, clean, smooth laps. I knew someone was back there; I was trying to look at everyone's lap boards to see who had a 'Plus' because everyone had a 'Plus 0' and I was wondering who all was back there. I didn't want to look, and then Tommy (Hayden) came by on the front straight and I was behind him for a lap or two. I got back by him, because to run my pace, I had to run it into the turns a little faster because I couldn't really accelerate out as good as he could." Meanwhile, Hacking was there all the while - wishing he hadn't wrecked his best bike the day before. Then it nearly happened all over again as he was rammed from behind on pit road prior to the start of the race. "I about got took out right before the race," Hacking said. "Someone plowed me up going out of the pit exit right here - it ripped my leathers all to hell and I thought I was done right there." He wasn't, but if only he had that other bike. "I knew I was going to have a tough race because I ruined my 'A' bike yesterday in qualifying," Hacking said. "On that thing I could just ride around here and be real comfortable on it and do low 23s. I had a good bike and it was just a stupid mistake. I went around someone in turn three and did the same thing Aaron (Yates) did, but I couldn't save it. It totaled the bike and I had to ride the 'B' bike. I managed to do what I had to· stay up there with 'em. It didn't have the top speed down the straight that the other bike did and that kind of hurt me a little bit. The other bike was really good, and I guess I learned not to ruin my bikes anymore. That was a lesson learned. It was a good race. I was really weak coming out of turn five and my strongest points were eight and nine and coming out of turn two. I knew the race was going to be a bar-banger and I had to stay on my toes." Nicky Hayden was also in the lead pack, which was whittled down to four riders when Rapp exited stage left in turn three on the eighth lap. He would remount to finish an eventual 30th. .It would come down to the final lap and they all knew it. "Everybody was just jockeying back and forth for position," Tommy Hayden said. '1t was a good, clean race and my bike - I felt like I had the fastest bike - it was running awesome today. I felt like I could win at about the halfwa y point - if I could just get myself in the right place on the last lap. Everything just worked out for me. I was in third going into three and it was going to be tough from there, but when Aaron made that mistake, I was able to get right past Nick (Hayden). I got a good draft out over six and was able to get Aaron." Yates' mistake was a big one, as he got the Kawasaki completely sideways in turn three. It was his inistake, but it proved more costly for icky Hayden than it did for Yates. The Georgian got the Kawasaki righted in time to save himself, but icky Hayden was on the outside and couldn't do anything but watch as his brother and Hacking went by. '1t wasn't really me who saved it; it just decided to stay'upright," Yates said. "1 was very thankful for that, because I knew those guys were right on my ass and it would have been a mess. I don't think it was all that bad, really. It might have looked bad, but.·.. I felt the front tire sliding for a bit there and I had the shield up in my neck. Then it was like, 'All right, maybe they had to back off a bit: and I got on the gas. They ended up

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