Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

Round 4: Sears Point Raceway AMAIMBNA SUPERBIKE SERIES Miguel DuHamel ran mostly alone until he was caught from behind by Anthony Gobert (95) late in the race. Gobert had to pit for a stopand-go penalty after jumping the start. The Australian did well to finish fifth. (17) Ducati on the start line and by the time the crew had helped him fire life back into the V-twin, the pack was almost a fulJ lap ahead of him. He carried on, though, finally moving past HarleyDavidson's Scott Russell to finish an eventuall1th. Russell was the last of the factory men to finish, as privateers James Randolph, Jeff Short and Rad Greaves rounded out the top 15 finishers. Among the notables not finishing were Fast By Ferracci's Matt Wait, who crashed on the 18th lap; Yamaha's Rich Oliver, who was knocked down on the seventh lap; Yoshimura Suzuki's Steve Crevier, who did the knocking down; and Yoshimura Suzuki's Jason Pridmore, whose bike expired on the sixth lap. Mladin did everything needed to pad his championship points lead, and his main rivals in the series title chase did their part to help as well. With the extra point gained by leading 23 of 25 laps, Mladin now leads Bostrom by 19 points after four rounds, 129-110. Pegram is third with 103 points, 10 points dear of fourth-placed Chandler. DuHamel is fifth with 89 points - 40 points behind Mladin. Temperatures for Sunday's National were much cooler than the previo).]s day's qualifying sessions, with cloud cover movin,g into Sonoma County. It didn't take long for something to happen, with both Hacking and Bostrom having problems on the start line. First Hacking stalled his Yamaha and was pushed off the grid, only to return with his motor fired prior to the green light. Bostrom, though, wasn't as fortunate, as the big V-twin is impossible to bumpstart. He had to wait for his crew to bring him the team's starting device to get the Ducati going again, but by then the pack was long gone. He was in for a long and lonely day. "I saw. the '2' came up, so I pulled in the clutch and went to put it in gear and I guess I wasn't giving it enough gas," Bostrom said. "When I put it in gear, it just cUed. I didn't know what to do except get out of the way so the 40 guys behind me didn't hit me. You know how those twins are, you can't bumpstart' em, but we tried. They ran back and got the starter, but by then those guys were a minute anead up in turn seven. I just rode around. My bike was great, so ,good. I didn't even have to push to do those lap times. It was lonely even when I caught people because I wasn't in the race. It was really a boring day. I was praying for a red flag. It was like, 'No red flag at this track, what's the deal?' You never get 'em when you need 'em." Bostrom's mishap didn't go unnoticed by Mladin. "I didn't know about Anthony (Gobert), but I saw Ben and I thought that was perfect, because he's obviously the first one behind me in the cham pionship," said Mladin. Vance & Hines' day got worse when Gobert was brought in for a stop-and-go penalty on the third lap, having been penalized for jumping the start from his front-row position. His day was also a long one, though he was at least in position to fight hard through the pack to finish an eventual fifth, after disposing of DuHamel right at the end. "I didn't feel like [·did (jump the .start)," Gobert said later. "But if the AMA said 1 did, then I did. I'm pretty diplomatic these days, you know, mate. I was sixth after the first lap, anyway, and I got fifth - maybe I could have been on the box. The Ducati is awesome and I'm happy to settle for tha t." Though he didn't believe Gobert had jumped, Mladin didn't waste any time in venting his anger. "Anthony (Gobert) sort of smoked it off the start line and got in everyone's way," Mladin said. "I was fortunate enough to get right through on the inside. I just sort of pulled my shoulders in and kept going and sort of jumped across the grass a little bit. That's how I got into third place." At the end of the first lap, it was Yates leading with Mladin in his wake, having passed his teammate Pridmore entering the final corner on the opening lap. Yates had just over a second on Mladin, but that wag whittled down to under half a second by the time they completed lap two. Yates had a huge slide exiting the corner prior to the Carousel, and Mladin pulled alongside, taking the lead on the entrance to the fast left-hander. "We knew what we had for the race here, so it was good to get out front," Mladin said. "I was thinking, with starting on the second row, if we got caught up behind a couple of guys and get into Brieflv... back to Southern California for the weekend to undergo more therapy on his recently broken neck. He is now hoping to be fit for racing action at Laguna Seca. Parity, parity, parity. Four 'different men have won the four AMA Supert:>ike Nationals thus far in 1999 .. on three different brands of motorcycles. Miguel DuHamel won Daytona on a Honda, Anthony Gobert won Phoenix on a Ducati, Larry Pegram won Willow Springs on a Ducati, and Mat Mladin scored his first win of the season at Sears Point on a Suzuki. Unlike the previous round at Willow Springs International Raceway. tire wear wasn't a concern, with the Dunlop-mounted rid· Defending AMA 750cc Supersport Champion Richard Alexander Jr. was forced out of the Sears Point round of the series after fracturing his right forearm' bone in his 600cc Supersport crash at Willow Springs iast week. Alexander was scheduled to have the cast removed and the arm examined by Dr. Arthur Ting after the Sears Point round. The New Yorker is hoping to be able to ride at Laguna Seca next weekend. -I'm going for it at Lagu· na." Alexander said, "They said three or four weeks, but he mng) is going to take the cast off and look at it. The problem is that it's my throttle/brake hand, and they said. that I stand a chance of breaking it off if I jam. it. Why it happene.d kind of bothers me. What the hell is a drainage ditch 'doing out there?" Aiexander crashed on the inside of turn three after being run off the exit of turn two, He slammed into a drainage ditch and was thrown off the front of his Chaparral Suzuki. 8 Alexander's ,Chaparral teammate Damon Buckmaster prac· ticed all day on Thursday and Friday at Sears Point but decided that he stili wasn't healthy enough to race. The Australian headed ers haVing two choices - front and rear - that tire technician Jim Allen felt could go the race distance. "I think we can make 'em happier this week, - Allen said. -I think we're in pretty good shape for Supert:>ike. and it looks like we can use the softer of two compounds in Supersport. " Doug Chandler knew what tire he was going to use for Sunday's National. but he wasn't letting the cat Qut of the bag - at least not in the postqualifying press conference. -I think there's. mayb'e three (choices)," Chandler said. "I've already made my decision, - To whith Anthony Gobert asked, "What is it?" Ben Bostrom had a completely different outlook on the tire situation, "I usuaily let (Gary) Mediey (his luner) make that decision: Bostrom said. "I just ride it. Aaron Yates had a get-off in Friday's session', sliding out in tum 11, but his definition of a crash is obviously different frpm the rest. "I just had a little low-side in turn 11 .. Idon't really call those crashes," Yates said, "It was just a 'little slide. It felt like we were going so siow in that turn over there, and i thought. 'Everybody's got to be going faster than this.' If you're going to fall, I guess thaI's the best place to do it. It falls pretty good. At Phoenix, I fell three times and oniy scratched the bodywork - except for the time it went in the gravel, and the gravel did that.- their rhythm, it was going to be tough. I really charged hard from the start and caught back up with Aaron (Yates). He got a little bit of a lead on us in the first lap and a half. He looked over his shoulder and I was there, and coming qut of the corner before the Carousel he got out of the seat, looked over his shoulder and I was right beside him. I had him, and I knew if I could stay in front of him for a lap, [ could pull away. I just ran some low 39s for a couple of laps and got a couple of seconds. At first I thought he was going to let me past, like he scared the crap au t of himself. And then all of a sudden he was back on the gas again and I'm like, 'What's going on here?' I was right beside him, but I had the inside, so I could hold it." That was it. From there, Mladin simply turned up the wick, lapping in the 1 :39s with relative ease, and pulled away to victory. Piece of cake. "We knew we could run 39s .whenever we had to today," Mladin said. "We did that for about 13 or 14 laps. On about lap 10, I knew that Doug (Chan- ' dler) was behind me and we had about 7 'I, or eight seconds by then, and that was enough to do it." By the time Mladin got by Yates, Chandler had moved into third place but was more than a second behind his teammate. He charged on, noticing that Yates was in for a long day with his rear tire - the two riders and their contrasting styles having completely different effects on their rear tires. While Yates gamely tried to 'hang with Mladin, Chandler bided his time. On the 12th lap, the pair of KawasaJcis were together, with Chandler making his move going into turn seven. Yates didn't have any fight left in his tires, and he was left to persevere in the hopes of maintaining third place. "It feels good to get back upon the box," Chandler said after pulling away to a solid second place. "We've been struggling the last couple of races and it . definitely feels good to get back into the groove and be competitive, or feel like you're competitive. Hopefully, we can use this as incentive and get rolling and do even better than last week. "He was trying really hard," Chandler said of Yates. "When Mat (Mladin) got by him, he tried to stay there and he did a good job, but he had a couple of moments down in four, getting on it a little too early and the thing would come around. You could see the tire started to show fea thering on the side, Despite getting new engine parts prior to Willow Springs for ~iS "'uzzy Kawasaki. Doug Chandler continues to use his old stuff. "We had a few things before Willow: Chandler said. -It was okay, but I didn't use it in the. race and here today. I'm not using that (new) motor. I'm using what we started the season with, what we had last year. and the year before that. We got the swingarm at the end of last year, and the biggest improvement was the '99·spec forks, so it seemed to work very well. We also got a different shock spec that went wiih that swingarm. Last year when I tried it. it was reai close and not a big difference from the standard one" with the rest of the pieces. But with the arm, I think it's a bit better." According to Aaron Yates, he doesn't have the new swingarm. Plain and simple. Miguel DuHamel is tired of talking about his injured ieg. "It's not too bad. - DuHamel said. "It's getting better. I just have to get it stronger, because I'm just nOt using it. When I'm braking, I've got to put the foot under the brake pedal to help me not go over the bars because there' s a lot of hard braking here and it's bumpy. Ican't squeeze the tank real hard uncler braking. I'm really looking forward to it getting better, because I'm tired of talking about it. It sounds like whining, and Idon't like that, so... Hopefully, this coming m.onth - after Laguna Seca I have a month off· I'll hit it really hard. Ican't wait to tell you guys that I'm okay and just riding bad today, The 600 is easier on me . it's a definite improvement from last year, The F4 is a lot better bike, and I have my team to also thank for that. The whoie team is doing a team effort. " Mat Mladin wasn't the oniy "me who had his fast .qualifying time

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