Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

Road Race .Round 8: Laguna Seca Raceway (l eft) Er ic Bostrom (91) tr ies to ho ld off Colin Edwards (5) and Aa ron Sl ight (111) In t he second race. (Above) Troy Co rser (11) gives chase to Vanagawa, Bostrom and Chili. Corser ended t he day with six th - and secondp lace f in ishes. to and 1 held back a lot, but 1 feel a lot of emotion. It mean s a lot to come back and win . 1 feel like 1 go t dish ed ou t a pre tty ha rd punishment. I've been dealing with it - I just can' t wait to ge t back to a full year. Hopefully, I cou ld show wh at I can do over a -fu ll season, w hich wo uld be nice. "I assumed it was Troy (behi nd him) because of our ba ttles and Ben's experience, b ut co ng ra ts to Ben, he ' s been doin g awesomely, 1 thin k, and it won 't ,Brieflv... . . be long before he wins one - maybe even this afternoon." Yanagawa wa s pl ea sed with thirdplace - his fourt h successi ve third pla ce finish in the se rie s . Yanagawa ' s thir d place behind the two Vance & Hines rid e rs a lso g ave Dunlop a s w ee p of the thr ee ros tru m positions - wit h Gobert's win being the first of the year in Wor ld Super bike for Du nlop . "I'm ve ry ha p py beca u se I ca n ge t podium," Yanagawa sa id. "I had a bad crash here last year and I'm very happy because I came back her e agai n. My bike always good start this yea r and I'm not a frai d abou t s tarts . Mv ma ch in e was nice to rid e this time, a;"d also Dunlop tire wo rking really good. But by end of laps, m y rea r tir e had probl em s and I can 't keep good lap time. But, any way, I am very happy." Edwards rode his Cas tro l Hon d a to four th, the Texa n taking adva ntage of a good sta rt from the secon d row to barely hold off Fogarty at the finish. "I made a good sta rt, bu t I knew I needed one," Edwards said. "I felt like I was slipping the clu tch for miles off the start line. I knew 1 could hav e damaged the clutch, but I was so despera te to ge t off the line well. I can't complain too mu ch . I was the fir st Micheli n rid er home, but I was all over the place. With the extra heat tod ay, it meant I was hav- . Davidson back in Ap ril in Phoenix. Smith had to ask for time off from his regular job as a mechanic at Roswell Infinity, a car dealership in Roswell , Georgia, in orde r to take a ride on the Wh it e Endurance team asa rep lacement rider for Jean-Pierre Jeandat. '" '" '" ~ 8 RACE TWO Bostro m made "minimal chan ges" to his Duca ti between th e two races, and that may have been the difference. In a ra ce th at mad e the ten se first he is also the most success ful at it : " I think all the rider s out the re sort of don 't need it." Corser said. " It's the last thing ·you want to do afte r your normal qualifying. We're all thinking about the race for tomorrow. and to go out there and to have to do it ' for one lap - if you happen to have a slip-o ff because you're trying 100 percent and youqet injured. there goes your race. Or if you slip off and have to start from the fourt h row and don 't get injured , there goes your race as well. W e're all thinking abou t the race tomorrow mone so than being on pole . If you get to do the fast lap time during qualifying . than that's just lucky - you put in a good lap time and you start the race. There's a iot to lose in Superpole and no t much to gain. They don't pay us shit. basically, to do it. and that's why none of the riders like it as well - we get nothing extra and I'm sure they're getti ng 'a bit more . It's not a fun thing, but you've got to do it. If yo u're going todo it, you might as we ll be good at it." . '. S mith knew it wasn 't goi ng to be easy. and it wasn't. A ft er bei ng W ith slightly diffenent techn ical regulations and the mandatory use introduce d to his team for the first time on Thursday, Smith went of lead-fr ee f u el : you'd expect the AM A teams partic ipating In the W o rld Superb ik e round at Laguna to be sc ratc hing the ir . about trying to ge t himself back up to speed while also reacquainting himself with an RC45 - a bike he last rode for Camel heads. trying to figure out the. co rrect setti ngs " but that's not Honda in 1994.. "There area couple of layers of rust · one is getentirely the case . " All we had to do was change the gas to World ting on it and going , the other is get ting going on it. " Smith said. ·Superbike-spec," American Honda tuner Merlyn Plumble" said. Smith, who has ridden factory Kawasekis: Hondas and Ducati s "Japan furnishes us with the .numbers for the adjusters . It' s way during his career, managed to drop th ree seconds off his lap easy . The only othe r t hing is that Dunlop has some 16.5-inch times between Friday's first session and Friday' s qualifying sesfront s for us here that we haven't had, so we got three new fron t sion, 'thouqh he still ended up only"23r d out of 25 on Friday, lap' wheels for this race. Really, it's just changing the numbers (on the ping at 1:29.994 . Smith's best lap times came back in 1996 on his .fuel-injection) and that's it ." As for the difference in power proM uzzy Kawasaki, when he lapped at 1:27.4. The W hite Endurance duced 'by the RC45 whe n equip ped for the World Su perb ike . team ride came. at the reccrn mendation of former Camel Honda Series, Plurnblee said the differences are small, "We didn't do team ow ner Mart in Adams, who wro te a letter on Smith' s behalf The AM A riders see med to like the Supe rspole, most no tably any dyne wo rk this year..but in the past the difference has been . after being contacted by Honda. " I didn't even know he felt that Ben Bostrom and Anthon y Gobert - for differe nt reaso ns. " If small - less than one percent either way , The fuel-injection stuff is way about me, " Smith said of Adams . "That was the most satisfy I was a spectato r. I'd rather see Superpole." Bostrom said. " It' d delightful. ". . ing thing ." The differences between beinqa fact ory superbike be nice to out and paid to do it since you 'go o'u! and ,hang . ride r and a mechanic in a car dealership is ~ight and .day . accord your life out for one lap, but it' sdefinitely better for the eve nt. Things we re a little tou gher for the Van c'! & Hin es Duca t i ing to Smith . " It' s really a pride deal. Going from what you think is Even I enjoy watching it, you know. I didn't enjoy going aut arid team, though it didn't take t hem long to get things sorted out. " It a superbike star to sweati ng in the back of the shop... you spend doing "t. but I was all amped up watch ing it. I thought, 'This is' a was a bit of pain in the ass because we go t our part s ,late..., crew ' some time around here (racing) and your head can swell." Smit h ' great show.' W hen w e go outand run.aro und for an hour , the chief Jim Leonard explained. " It's just the fue l and differe ni throtended up finishing 17th in both races . spectators don't know what the hell is going on. Wh en Superpole tle bodies, and we're developing a map each time out. Our plan co mes ' aro und and the TVs go on, they ca n watch one rid er go . was to come in here and run their (t~e Ducati World Superbike .. Five-time World Champion Mick D o oha n was a popular visitor .. around and it just builds and builds with the 16th-faste st guy to team) fuel. plug their map in and go . W e didn't end up getti ng to laguna Seca. The Australian was acco mpanied to the track by the fastest guy, and the times just kept getting quicker and quick - :' their fuel and we had to struggle to get somethi ng else . W e start- . his brot her Scott, the. former Ducati superbike rider who suffe red . er,'1 think that' s pretty .co ol. I think it's pro bably bett erfor the ed off with what they're using, so -we did have a starting point. career-ending injuries at Road Atlanta in Georgia in 1994 . Al so in sport even if it' s harder for the' riders, so it's probably all right." . The throttle response still isn' t right and that' s Anthony' s (Gobert) attend ance were three-lime World Champion Kenny' Robert s and Gobert agreed . " Personally, I love it, really:" Gobert said.·" 1think biggest complaint right now. We' ll work through it. " · . former multi-time AMA 250cc Grand Prix Champion Jimmy Filice. it's good . I liked it. whenI saw Carl (Fogartylnot do very good . just because it made me more confident for tomorrow: I know that Of all the rac ers competing in the W orld Superbike Series: only : Although the Supe rpol e qualifying method - where the top 16 . if tho se guys aren't on the front row .'around here , if you don 't get one of them had to get time off from his job in order to be here. . from regul ar qualifyi ng battl e in a one- lap, do-or -die effo rt to away with the lead group then you mighl as well forget about it. Georg ian Mike Smith knows what it's like' to be a fact ory rider, . determin e the top 16 on the grid - is in Its seco nd year. it's still a really: I'm generally pretty good for one lap out, so I enjoy it. I just and he also knows what it's like to not have any of that. Back in point ofcontention with most .of the World Superbike regulars . want to be back in World Supers and do a full seasonof it - that'd be ntce ." . . ' . '. . . the saddle f or the" first time sin.c" his one-off ride with Harley- Surprisingly, Troy Cor ser is one of those who doesn't like it '- ye t go . ing p roblem s in p laces I've never ha d problem s all wee kend." Fifth went to Fogarty , with Co rser sixth after alm ost passin g his teammate in the Cor kscrew. "All I wa nted to d o wa s jus t fin ish ah ead of Carl in that first race becau se we wer e both havin g similar problem s," Corse r said. "I almos t ran in to him . We ca me to geth er a t th e top of th e Corkscrew and that was abo u t the only p lace I could make so me g ro u n d o n him. We came together and almos t bo th went d own, so I decided not to trv and pa ss him there . I didn't wan t to take us both ou t of the race. I ju st se ttle d for that. " Chili was seven th, Hacking eighth, Slight ninth and Eric Bostrom 10th. Nonfi nis hers included Yamaha 's Vitto r ia n o G uare schi and Kawasaki 's Robert Ulm, the pair cras hing together in tum five on the fifth lap; Goddard, who cras hed the Aprilia on the 14th lap; and Yamaha's Haga, who cras hed in Rainey Corne r on lap 20. b e

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