Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

en ~ _ N -5 ...., 14 rain here in April, referring to wh at was to be the fi na l ro u nd o f thecha rn pi ons hip. "We' re running ou t of races: ' Th ird tod ay wen t to Erio n Racin g's Kurtis Rob ert s, wh o'd tra cked dow n American Honda's Eri c Bos trom, the . ea rly-race leader, an d passed him wit h tw o la ps to go . Th ose tw o were well clear of Nickv Havd en, who rod e a lon elv race to fifth. . - Sixth place wa s contested bet w een Yoshimura Suzuki's Jason Pridmore and Mu zzv Kawasaki's Aaron Yates u n til Pridm'or e pulled away with a few laps to go to collect his bes t finis h of the yea r. Yates had bee n having bra ke problems all weeke nd - he crashed hard in p ractice o n Frid a y - and ha d nothi ng fo r Pridm ore at the end . The n came a four- rider squa bble over ei g h th , wo n by Yosh imura Su zu ki' s S teve Cr e vi er, w ho w as s ha dowed acro ss the line in qu ick order by Parri ott Mot or's Brian Parriott , Valvolin e EMGO Suzuki's Joshua Ha yes, and Yoshimura' s Steve Rapp. The firs t tim e the race was g re en flagge d, it was quickly red-flagged, wit h Mike Doran falling in turn one and g etting run over by his close friend Bryan Kovari ck. Doran wa s taken away in an ambulance, and Kovarick made the restart. He wou ld finish 28th . The seco nd s ta r t w ent t o Eric Bostrom , wh o o p e ne d up a ga p so qu ickly that it looked like he migh t be ge tting awa y . He kn ew th at could n't happen and , soon enoug h, the race came to him . "Th e start was good," Bostrom said, addi ng, "I kind of knew, unfortunately, tha t as mu ch as I would've liked to have a s ho t a t i t , I w a s afraid we d idn 't because we never go t to flow throug h t he co rne rs a ll w eek end . Th e se tu p wasn't on and there was so little time to d o anything a bo u t it . Th at was w hat h u rt u s. We ha d no en tr y s peed and e very time I tried to enter with those guys, I was on th e ragged edge a nd I knew that wa sn't going to last." It took a while for Hackin g's tire to co me in , but once it d id , he d ro ve by Bostrom on lap fou r, wit h Tommy Hayden , who' d qu alified on the pole, joining him on lap nine, and with Bostrom tem porar ily by himself before Rober ts came up. Hayd en wo uld make his pass in turn two on the 1Ith lap, say ing he thought that Hacking had gone the wrong way around a lapper. " And I was behind him a n d go t luck y because of his mis take and was able to ge t by the first time pretty easy," Hayd en said of the pa ss he made with the assist an ce of so me lapper s. "And fro m there I just kept m y head d own and ran a good pace a nd tri ed not to make any mista kes." Hacki ng said he 'd been runnin g a stea dy pace behin d Hayden until he had brake-fade problems jus t a little past halfway. "A nd I went to adjus t it going up the hill and when I d id , I reached up a nd killed the motor and I didn't kn ow what I'd done," Hayden sa id. "I thought the bike had died on me. And then it took a little bit to realize that I had to switch it bac k on. Tommy had ga pped me p retty good the re . Th en I caug ht the wrong end of the lappers and it was just one thing after another." Because of the tightness of the track, traffic wo uld be especiall y crucial, and many rid er s felt that the 40-r ider field was ove rc rowd ed w i th mo vin g ch icanes. Tho ug h he had a slight ga'p for a lap or two , there was little in Havd en 's lead and Hacking stru ck back on iap 16 - the penultimate tour - a gain in tu rn tw o with a mov e th a t seemed to s u rp ris e Hayd en , wh o'd go tte n into the loop ing left a bit too eagerly. " W h e n h e go t b a ck by m e , I did make a mistake: I got in a little too hot a nd h ad it bac ked in a litt le too mu ch a nd d rifted wi de a nd he was a ble to come up und er me," Hayd en said . That he'd bee n able to reel him back in ga ve Hacking hope for the fina l lap. "Wha t mad e it feel so good is that I was ab le to ru n him back down ," Hacking sa id . "Tha t built my confid en ce up pretty good when I ran him back d own a nd pa ss ed him . But I k new w he n. I passed him and roug hed him up a little bit, it kind of got him flared back up." Hackin g wa s in the lead at the start o f t he fi nal lap, wit h H a yd en again using turn tw o to take ove r the po int. " I knew I d id n' t have mu ch lime to get back by him," Ha yden began of his daring insid e turn-on e move, "so I wa s able to ge t a good run o n h im and it di dn' t see m like that lap he di dn't hav e a good ru n the re, either - so it helped me ou t eve n more. I was ab le to ge t by an d just kind of rod e d efensive the last lap and di dn't take too man y chances a nd was ab le to hold on." "(The bike) was wo rking really good ou t of tu rn 11," Tommy Hayd en sa id, " It was hooki ng up good. I was able to ge t a good d rive ou t of there. I was able to d o tha t a ll w eek. And I knew th at would help me in the race beca use a lot of times there's peop le rig ht on my butt. Here there's not a whole lot of places to ge t by, so it's a big advantage to be able to ge t ou t of ther e so I was able to ge t a run. Down ther e, I knew whenever he went by that he'd on ly hav e one lap to get aro und and I knew it wa sn 't going to be eas y. I wa nted to sta rt fro m the, begi nning of the last lap and try eve ryth in g the whole last lap. I wa s able to get by an d hold him off." "H e's pretty s trong ri ght th ere in turn two," Hackin g said of the las t-lap pass. " I co u ld hold a pretty tight lin e right on Bostrom with several laps to go. Th e pa ir hit traffic and Roberts felt he had the advantage beca us e he was the seco nd rider through a nd so he cou ld ge t them easily. "And that allowed me to catch him," he said , "and then I jus t got a good drive on him ou t of four a nd just ou tbro ke him go ing into five and held on for a lap and a half." Ea r ly in th e ra ce , Nicky H a yden • ·efI'Y BrI I" w asn' t like we lapped one person. we were lapping fiv e pimpl e 'at a lime, .lt 's ridiculo us .. Ii • • Qualifying ,was jus t as bad , practice wa s jus t . '~ . as bad, It takes away from the show because M or e tha n a lew 600cc Supersp o rt riders so many ti mes the o utcom e of th e race is ' commented 'on the amount .of traffic, Of the dete rmined by the lappers. Take Road Atlanta.. 40 starters, only 20 completed the full 17 laps. for example: Ben (Bostrom) might have been with riders in traffic early on , Yoshimura Suzuable to win that first race, but he didn't have a ki's St eve Cr evier ran into one lapper as he .chance to outbrake him (Anthony Gob ert> on was closi ng o n M uzzy Kaw asak i' s A aron . the last lap becausea lapper got in the way. Yates . and might have made a run at him, " but It' s like, 'Okay. we've got a full grid but we 'r e the re was some idiot. a backmarker • he ·s · going to take away from the rest of the class : probably a really nice guy. but I'm going to call I've had plenty of people tell me, 'I'd love -to him an idioi ', goi ng into five. He ran Aaron watc h 15 ?Uys if it' s going to be a good race.'" wide . ran me wide: 1 sometimes l eel that the AM A needs to look a lot close r at a grading ' ErionH onda' s Kurti s Roberts finished third, .system. ,Get rid of some of the bad traff ic out iwo spots 'in fron t of teammate Nicky Hayden . there. We lapped one guy twice, That should who wo uld 'have picked up an extra point if never happen at a professional event. That' s ' Roberts had dropped back and finished behind Just telling yo u that sorneo nes 'too slow and him , .W ith Nick y Hayde n in the thick of t he t oo dangero us, " Am eric an Ho nda ' s B e n champio nship h unt with his brother To mmy , Bostrom' fell' much the same way, - l' had one ' Robert s was asked abou t team orders, " No , guy almost take me out and crash not mor e, there we're no team orde rs before t he race , than an inch in front of me in five: It was just so You we re kind 01 t hinking about it. but they ridiculous how many slow guys are out there , do n't tell me to finish behind Nicky , whic h I These guys should have yellow 'plates, Does it . probably, w ould have : Same thing he would really make a better race out 01 it to endanger probably do for me in the 900 championship. If all of our lives? But we 've got a full grid, And there were team orders, I definitely would have let him catch up and go by, But there weren't " It' S just·ridiculous, I don't know when we started lappi ng people, butIt wa s early ,.And it so J just concentrated on my own race." " . . I

• Cover