Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

Hacking ended up third - a. stellar performance for the new R7 in its AMA Superbike debut. , "I came from a good way back," Hacking said. "That was the first start we'd done on that thing and it's pretty much got a production clutch in it. I was kinda scared about revving it up and burning it up on the start, since we hadn't done a start with it. I was a pretty good ways back there and I sized everybody up, and I could just zip right underneath of 'em everywhere. I could go in on the brakes a lot deeper, and after I caught Anthony (Gobert) and Ben (Bostrom), I knew I had a pretty good chance of winning it with the pace I was running. Then the front got really bad, and rather than throw the tlung down the road, I kinda backed it down to try and cool the tire down a little bit and maybe make another . charge. I just didn't have enough tire left. It went off pretty bad because I was going into corners so hard at the beginning of the race trying to make up all the time I'd lost on the start. If we get a better start tomorrow - now I l>now what the bike can withstand. I. didn't have a clue. But tomorrow, if I can get a better star't then maybe I won't have to try that hard. I think we'll look at a different front." RACE TWO - The start of race two was nearly a carbon copy of that of the previous day: Gobert led. The rest of the race, however, didn't come close to resembling the earlier edition. This time Gobert had his head down .from the beginning. He knew his tires had lasted the day before, so worrying thoughts of blistering a tire if the pace were too hot were gone, Without the worry of tire failure, Gobert never let up and he led all the way to the red flag. Then he led all the way to ti,e meckered flag. Behind him, things were more interesting. The ambulance incident put M1adin in ti,e grass, but he wasn't the only one who had a dose call. "When I came over the lUll, if it had been five seconds earlier I would have rammed straight into the back of the ambulance," Gobert said. "It scared me because I was like, 'Did I miss a flag?' But tllere was only one flag here (at the start/finish). [f it had been just a few seconds earlier, [ would have been in the back of ti,e ambulance." After panic ensued, everyone but Mladin continued on, with Eric Bostrom leading his brotller Ben across the stripe in second place on the first lap. That didn't last, as Ben got by a lap later. Yates followed suit. The man on the charge, however, was Wait, who moved around Yates on the eight lap to take over third place. By this time, Hacking had entered the pits, his Yamaha suffering from "teething problems." Wait wasn't content with being third, some 5.2 seconds behind Gobert and three seconds behind Bostrom. He continued to marge un til the red flag 'was brought out by the Oliver crash - his final lap was actually quicker tI,an the two Vance & Hines bikes! '1t's funny that there is a guy laying down on the track in the chicane where the incident originally happened," Mladin said. "And he was there for seven la ps - even more, 10 laps - and Rim Oliver crashed and a lap and a half later the red flag came out. That guy was in a very similar if not worse position than what Rich was in. I can't understand why the red flag wasn't thrown for that guy, but it was thrown for Rich's crash." The red flag gave new life to Mladin's hopes, though he would start from the middle of the pack after moving to 17th at the time of the red flag. Mladin's pole, record Y oshimura Suzuki's Mat Mladin (right) earned his second pole position of the season, this one coming on a steamy Saturday morning at Road Atlanta. The Australian lapped at 1:23.890, taking almost half a second off Rich Oliver's 1998 qualifying lap record. "Yeah, I'm in a good mood," a ratller subdued M1adin said. "I had a good lap." The championship leader was hoping for better results than his dismal Road Atlanta of a year ago, when he finished sixth and 10th in the two races. "The bike's a lot better t1Us year," Mladin said. "We really struggled here; we finished 10th and sixth or sometl1ing. Hopefully, we can do a little bit better than that here today. If we don't, tIlen the lead in the c!lampionship is going to be pretty smaiL I hope for a better result today." Mladin also said that he was running a harder tire tIlan a year ago. '1 think this year we're using a harder one than we did last year," M1adin said. "We had the same option last year, but we didn't use it. I didn't tI1ink it would be as good this year, but it seems to be better." Second quickest in the unusually' early Saturday final session was Vance & Hines Ducati's Ben Bostrom. The • Californian lapped at 1:24.079, almost a full second I quicker than his best lap of a year ago. The former dirt , tracker was haVing a good time - as he always does I when he gets to slide tile bike around the race track. "It's hot outside and the track is very slippery," Bostrom said. "It'll make for a good race and keep a lot of guys up front. There's a big draft out back tIlat keeps people up, so it'll be a good race. The guy who is sideways tile whole way is probably going to win this thing. The neatest part is the tires: lap after lap, tIley don't fade away; they're just sliding all tile time. It's pretty fun. I Gobert led into one and was n~ver headed, though Bostrom and Wait kept him honest. At one point, Wait moved around Bostrom and into second, but shortly thereafter his bike expired. "Before the red flag, the plug wire broke," Wait explained. "The gas cap had also come loose and was spraying the guys behind me - plus I was burning up. Then my electric shifter broke, so the guys were pretty busy trying to fix everything. I got a pretty good sta rt and was hanging with those guys, but it got too hot and the clutch went tI1ink everyone had the same problem (with traffic) there's a lot of guys and you just have to pick out where you're going to pass tile guys. 1.ran around for about four or five laps on my Q (qualifying tire) and did one quick one." Doug Chandler put the Muzzy Kawasaki on the front row for the second straight race, lapping at 1:24.377 despi te struggling to get.a dear lap in traffic. "It was pretty good, you know," Chandler said. '1t was tough to kind of get 'em in early if tIlere was a lot of traffic out there. You wouldn't tI1ink that lappers would be a problem, but this track is so fast, if you catm one guy in a bad spot, it just throws that lap out. At the end of the session, I stayed out and I thought the track was really dear. I just tried to put my head down and I got a decent one in, so I'm pretty happy witll tllat." Chandler was also hoping to end a superbike winless drought that now dates back to Laguna Seca in April of 1997. Although the Kawasakis have floundered of late, he believes there's hope. "Throughout the years, the bikes have always fluctuated," Chandler said. "Some bikes are good some years and other years they're not. I think we've been very fortunate in having a good motorcycle for tile last couple of years. This year seems to be a struggle for us, but we're not that far away. So I'll keep my head down and keep trying. We're not that far away." Mat Mladin finished third In Sunday's restarted race, holding off fourth-placed Aaron Yates (20), away. It would just rev and not go anywhere; and it was free-wheeling into. the corners. Then it didn't work at aiL" Witll Wait gone, the Vance & Hines boys had it all to themselves and they coasted to first and second, with Mladin fighting through for an impressive third. The front row was filled by Vance & Hines Ducati's Anthony Gobert, the Australian a tad overweight after a vacation in Hawaii. The 1998 Road Atlanta "Big KallUna" lapped at 1:24.579 - slower than what he'd qualified at year a.go. "I just stayed in Hawaii and drank a bit too much beer," Gobert said. "I feel a little bit fat on the bike. Apart from that, everything's not too bad. The leathers are a bit tight, mate, and tile belt buckle is undone. Apart from tIlat, everytlling's all right. "It feels pretty good. I like this layout and our bike's a little bit better t1Us year as well, so everything is looking pretty good for us, hopefully. I want to try to get a good start and run witll whoever is setting tile pace. That's the aim, so we'll just see how it pans out. I did it on my good bike and I only got one flying lap and then the bike broke. 1 went out on the spare, and [ tI1ink that the tire might have overheated from being on tile warmer too long or something. The thing was just sliding around pretty crazily, so 1 had to just settle for the time I did. on ti,e first one. It would ha ve been nice to try and knock Mat (Mladin) off tile pole, but it wasn't meant to be for me today." The second row was led by Yama11a's Rim Oliver, the Californian alJ smiles in his first outing on the brandnew R7 superbike. Despite not getting on tile bike until Thursday afternoon, both he and his teammate Jamie Hacking, who qualified eighth, were over the moon with the new Yama11a and happy to be rid of the old stablemate YZF750. '1t handles better tIlan my 600," Oliver said, prior to qualifying at 1:24.678. Sixth on the grid was American Honda's Eric Bostrom at 1:24.685 - Ius best qualifying effort of the season. Then came Yoshimura Suz's Steve Rapp at 1:24.780, followed by Hacking at 1:24.909. Row three would consist of Muzzy Kawasaki's Aaron Yates, American Honda's Miguel DuHamel, Yoshimura Suzuki's Jason Pridmore and Fast By Ferracci Ducati's Matt Wait. The rest of the factory men completed row four: Harley's Pascal Picotte, Ferracci's Larry Pegram, Harley's Scott Russell and Yoshimura's Steve Crevier. 9

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