Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

yo u get on a Du cat i, y ou know yo u ' re ge tting on p robabl y the best motorcycl e in th e w o rld th ese d ays - a n d yo u' re expected to win a lot of races . You also kn ow that yo u' re m aybe going to ha ve some p roblems. Th is yea r th ey haven 't had that many, so 1 th in k th e y should c o unt th ei r bl essings a n d (c o n s id e r themsel ves) fortu na te th a t they ha ven ' t had more. "I go t held up wi th An tho ny just for a cou p le o f la ps, a nd Ben go t like a seco nd an d a half, th en h e s tretch ed it to lik e two - I thi n k like six or seven laps in ," Ml a d in ad d e d . " I s ta r ted co m ing b ack a co uple of tenths a lap, a nd that was w hen the oil had a lre ady sta rted . 1 got to like 1.2 o r so me thi ng, and th e thing w as oilin g tha t much that 1 knew he wa s going to ha ve to come in or th e th ing would break. I wa s looking u p th e race track to see when he was going , to go d ow n the roa d. It see med bad - there was a lot of sm oke." As for Pridmore le t ti n g h im b y , Mlad in a ltered the trut h justa tad . "Jason had a big m oment, and 1 just caugh t him righ t up," he sai d . "H e had m e beat toda y, but h e had a bi g moment, and 1 caught him up and overto o k him. H e was lucky to stay o n , 1 th in k. We did what w e had todo today. To be honest with yo u, when Ben came in , 1 was s tu p id to push it too ha rd . I so r t o f s lowed it d o wn five-, si x- or seven-tenths of a second a lap. 1 think 1 could have raced Doug, to tell you th e truth, but it wou ld ha ve been a tough ra ce to get pa st him, and I can't afford that at the moment. Th e extra five p oin ts woul d h a v e b e en nice, but 1 co ul d n ' t afford th at at th is stage." It was by far Pridmore's best effort of th e season, so meth ing he cre d ited to a recent t e am te st sessio n at Will o w Sp ri ngs in California. " I had a podium last yea r on another brand, but it's th is year's best," Pri dmore sa id . "It's been a b it of struggle, bu t we ha d a test abo u t a mon th an d .a half ago, and Mat (Mlad in) a nd 1 wen t out there (to Willow Springs) a nd we tested thi ngs. 1 found so me things tha t really suited my style, and fro m tha t poi n t on I jus t tried to get so me thi ngs accomplished . To finish as far back as 1 have at someraces this yea r, you start to lose faith in yo urself. I had so me help from so me othe r people m y dad, m y uncle. 1 go t stra ighte ned out, and here I am on the podium. l owe a lot to m v Yoshi mura Suzuki crew for never giving up on me." Pridmore also knew w ha t he had to d o in the closing stages of the race " on ce H ayden was ou t of th e picture. . . . " I h ad plus ze ro, a n d I kne w M at (Mlad in) wa s d efinitely backing off a little bit," Pridmore said . "We were -startin g to ca tch him. Basically, when I came past him, 1 wanted to make sure it was clean, kn owing the consequences w ere d eath if 1 would have taken him ou t. 1 nee d ed to ge t by him so 1 could get a little bit of a cushion, so that h opefully Nicky (H a yden) w ouldn't ge t upthere and we'd b oth be on the p odium." Well behind the two Su zukis came Eric Bostrom, th e young Californian far from thrilled with th e effort. . "I think w e were fas ter than tha t," th e you nger Bostrom sai d . "We go t a good start , but 1 just w asn't aggressi ve eno ugh, and w e w en t backwards. Then m y head go t kinda screwed up beca use 1 felt like a spode or so methi ng . Th en 1 was held up b y (Ste ve) Crevi er; and h e was goi n g p retty d amn slow. 1 wasn't strong on th e brak es when 1 needed to be to get by 'em. It pret ty much ru ined m y race. I feel like had w e never had th e bad first lap th at we had, I think 1 would ha ve bee n ab le to b e r ight up th ere . 1 probab ly co u ld n ' t (From left to right) Mat Mladin, the Doug Cha nd ler family and Jason Pridmore cele brate th eir rostrum finish es at MidOhio. h a ve m at ch ed Ben or Doug's pa ce, but w e could ha ve been right up ther e with the o ther guys, because w e' ve been on that pa ce all weeken d . 1 got in the wron g rnindset, a nd th e w ho le race wen t downhill fro m th er e." Pi co tte wa s n e xt on th e fac to r y Ha rley , foll owed by Crevier. "I go t a fair an d decent sta rt," Cre vier said. "I m oved u p a cou ple of rows, bu t 1 ju st fell back. I co u ldn' t e xi t too well . 1 was goi ng in good, bu t I couldn' t keep it still under acce le ra tio n. I tr ied real h ard." Ya tes' race was th e com p let e opposite of last yea r' s success h ere. Th e big Passing his always bee n somewhat .of a. problem at" Mid-Ohio. and Chandler didn't see that changing for Sunday.· "There are only so many places to pass her,e.·· Chandler said. "The first half of thetrack is no problem.' but,when you get back after the little horses hoe. you're kinda .stuck unless you really want to slick it to the guys you're on, You've really . got ,to have 'a lot of confidence in your bike so that you can get off line . andnot have the bumps tuck the front on you;" Defe nding' AMA 7S0cc Supe rs port Champion Rich ' Alexander Jr. wasn' t around come race time on Saturday afte rnoon. The Chaparral . Suzuki.rider packed up and left Mid-Ohio .after discovering that he was still suffering from his bout with Lyme's Disease andth ere was noway he could compete . "I'm heading home," ·Alexande r said on Saturday.morn- ' "1 -I thought I was healthy, but lcan't ride. In SOO qualifying. I thought I , g. was going to pass out again, like at Loudon. lcan't concentrate, 1 can't focus ,- it'snotqood, I don't know what -else to do . I guess it just takes Formula Xtrerne Championship leader Kurti~ Roberts showed up at ' time to get it out of your system. It' s like a badcase of heat exhaustion. v Mid-Ohio a bit urider the weather. He persevered to fi nish secondin the I' e never quit'at anything, but I've' got to quit this ·week. It's not safe for -race but was far from fit in doing so. "l got sick on an airplane,". Roberts , meto try. I'll just go horne and start all over again. I've got two weeks to ..... said. "There was a lillie kid sitting next to-me who was sick. It was nice. I 'geti t out of my syste m." . would have moved, but the plane was sold out. I fellasleepon the runway and woke u p an hour an,a half late r. and she's coughing all· over the . When Doug Chandler was as ked after W inning the Superbike National if . ' he was auditioning in front of the new bosses, hesaid: "Not really. It's place.". . reallyirrelevant: I'm outthere to please myself. At the start of the season , The busiest man in the paddock.at Mid-Ohio 'was Nicky Hayden. as the I was really frustrated knowlnq that I couid compete but not' having .the .younq Kentuckian'was riding in three 'classes .:S uperbike. ,SOOcc Super- . bike to do' it on. It's' tough, .but tt's times like this that make it all worth s port and Formula Xtreme.. "To a point. it helps me," Hayden said. "But doing again : everybody wOrking hard and'finally gelling the payoff. That 's this track. here is pretty physically demariding : more than most. I never . one of the bes t feelings you can experience out there raciflg." . .' thought I'd complain about gelling to ride too much, but I gues s I am. II's just kind of been mentally draining. not so much p~ysically.' We've got two .. Justh'ow'bad were things for Anthony Gobert inS unday's Superbike SOOS, and we've bee n trying to make .a lot of changes to get 'em better National? "He was ·terrible'." Mat Mladin said of how bad Gobe rt was than we have..Yesterday in superbike qualifying: they had me trying these 'goi ng wh e~ .he Caught up to, him .early in the race. : It was really bad. He different tires. By the end of the day. I was like. 'I don't even know.':I rode was very. very slow: It was just a 'matter of getting by Anthony. I think so many different ti res and so many different combinations. I'm all con- . those guys were ,lucky he didn't get in front of Ben (Bostrom). because maybe they both wouldn' t have finished the race' rt's all happening Over ' fused. Hopefully, it allworks out again a~d it'll be wcrth .it. " . ,': there at the moment. so maybe its the best thing that could've happened Three races. vthree Hayden victories. After'Saturday's 7S0ccSuper- to 'ern." Doug Chandler added, "He (Gobert> was really holding up the ' . spo rt and 'Formula Xtre me finals .' it seemed highly'.Iikely'. With Nicky parade. " Hayden winning the Xtrerne race' just an hour or so before Tommy Haycc ,den 'won the 7S0cc Superspo rt final. only S undaY.'S SOO Supersport . Because Gobert had lied the scene as quickly 'as possible following his final stood in the way of a Hayden swee p. ."We talked about that one . Superbike ,debacle, -crew chief Jim Leonard diagnose d the problem. time." Tommy Hayden said. "It'd be cool for. usto win ail three races ' "We used the wronq-sizefront tire." Leonard said.' "Anthony was the .one time. It'd be pret tycool. and hope fully one of us ' ca n puil it out . only guy in the field with the small-profile front. We thought wehad it'set tomorrow and we'dbe able to ,win ail three in aweekend. That'd be a ' up for It'-,obviously, we didn't. " As for Bostrom's woes , Leonard said, "If it wasn't leaking 'on. the pipe" no' one would have even known about pretty good thing for 'us." It all ca me to fruition On Sunday when the . . " . . ' brothe rsfinished first and second in the SOOce S upersport final, with ' it." N icky topping Tommy.' ,.,,, . .. .. .. . S illy season is beginning to heat up at the road races · the annual disAt the post race press conference follOWing the '7 S0cc Supersport final in play of posturing between the various, riders and teams in regard to who which Su zuki finaily lost -a race to the Yamaha RS. J a ke Ze m k e ' 'is going where for the foilowing season. It' s a time when simple converseO. tlons between riders and team owners are,viewed as contract talks, whe n answered the que stton about:whether it was humiliating to lose to a SO '"It' s 'not humiliating at ail." Ze mke said- "Tommy (Hayden) is a good rider, seldom-see n manage rs sudde nly sta rt ,s howing up at the races .' the ir :and this is a really.tight ,track. His ,bike ,was handling.awesome" and he pleated pants perfectly pressed and their calculators in their shirt pockets: was able toqet these unbelievable drives out of the comers. We' ve got ' This off-seaso n promises ,to be packed with changes . as only two of the ' more power and more torque: and our bikes tend to spin coming off the , . iop rider; - Nicky Hayden and Mat Mladin . have contracts for 2000 with Os comers , especially on a hot day like today: Actually, the 'SO have been theirexistinq employers . Therest .; Well. stay tuned. There's plenty of ' posturing to come in the . two races. . next . . .going around this track fasteranyway, so it'. . . . . , s not humiliating at ail." ' . .. ,' . " Georgia n struggled, havin g chosen th e w ro ng tire. "W e fig u re d o u t som e th in g yeste rd ay, and we were way off on the rid e height," Yates sa id . " It was pretty good this m orning. 1 ch o se a different tire to d ay, a n d it was wrong. 1 thoug ht it wou ld w ork a nd it di dn't. It neve r felt r ea l h ooked up. When it go t greasy, it w igg led, and it just d idn' t go too good ." Pegram w as eigh th, and d epressed. " I w as d own a l mo s t tw o s e co n d s fr o m what 1 d id y este r d ay," Peg ra m said . "That Super Tr ackers cra sh hurt m y s ho ul der . Yesterday 1 tried to go h ard a n d abo u t h ig h-sided - that p u lled it a g ai n . Afte r th at, 1 co u ld n' t do a n y thi n g." CN Mid-Qhio Sport s Ca r Course Lexington, Ohio Resull's : J uly 18, 1999 (Round 10 of 12) SUPERB I KE Q UA LIFY ING : 1. Be n Bostrom 0 :27.401); 2. Doug Chan d ler 0 :27.488); 3. Antho ny Gobe rt 0 :27.702); 4. Ma t Mladi n 0:27.875); 5. Pascal Picotte 0 :27.977); 6. Nicky Hayd en 0 :28.307); 7. [amie Ha cking 0 :28.321); 8. Jaso n Prid more 0 :28.368); 9. Eric . Bostrom (l :28.518 ); 10. Larry Peg ra m 0 :28 .813 ); 11. Aa ron Yates 0 :28.828); 12. Stev e Crevier 0 :29.164); 13. Scott Rus se ll 0 :29.766); 14. Steve R.1PP 0 :29.871); 15. Steve Gri gg 0 :31.-145); 16. Tri pp No bles 0 :31.877); 17. Ma rk Miller (1:32.189); 18. Jimmy Moo re (1:32.666); 19. Tom Kipp 0:32.741); 20. Jam ie Bowman (1:32.988); 21. Rad Grea ves 0 :33.081); 22. Ed .....ard Bartoli 0:33546); 23. Ja mes Rand o l ph 0 :33.663) ; 24 . Jake Zemke 0 :33.748); 25. Ric ha rd Al e xand er Jr . (1:33.937 ); 26. Andrew Deatherage 0 :33.981) ; 27. Ma ri o DuHamel (1:34.021); 28. Dean M iz d a l (1:34 .391 ); 29. G a br iel Henning 0 :34.676); 30. John Jacobi 0:.34.693); 31. James Doerfler (1:35.011); 32. Cory Call (1:35.105); 33. Mike Wal sh (1:35 .901); 34. T im Bemisderfe r 0:36.059 ); 35 . .1Si); 36. Todd Snyder 0:.36.370); 37. Sha ne Clarke 0 :.36 Jona tha n Bowma n 0;36521); 38. Rick Shaw 0 :..16.749); 39 . Da vi d Dup rey (1:37 .146); 40 . Davi d McG rath (1:37.207); 41. Shane Gonyea (1:37.333). SUPERBIKE FIN AL: I. Doug C handler IKaw ): 2. Ma t M la din (Su z) : 3. Jason Prid more (Su z); 4. Er ic Bostro m (Ha n); 5. Pasca l Picott e (H-D); 6. Steve Crevier (Suz ); 7. Aaron Yates (Kaw): 8. Larry Pegram (Due); 9. Anthonv Go bert (Due) ; 10. Ben Bostrom (Ou el; 11. Mar k M ill e r "(Ya m ); 12 . Ra d Greaves (S u z) : 13 . Mario Du Ha me l (Suz ); 14. Andy Deatherage (Suz) ; 15. Steve Grigg {Kaw); 16. Dean Mizd al (Suz ); 17. Jamie Bowman (Su z); 18. COry Call (Suz) : 19. Jimm v Moore (Suz) ; 20. James Doerfler (Suz ); 21. Jonathan Bowman (Suz ): 22. David Duprey (Suz); 23. Ti m Bcmisd crfer (Suz): 24. Todd Sny der (Suz ): 25. Sha ne Gonyea (Suz ): 26. Rick Shaw (Yam) ; 27. John Jacobi ISuz ): 28. Nickv Ha vd en (H en ): 29. Tr ip p Nobles ( H~D); 30 . L mes Ra ndolph a (Suz); 31. Edw ard Bart oli (Suz); 32. M ike Walsh (Yam) . Tim e: 38 min .•45.942 sec . . D istance: 26 laps . 62.4 miles Average spe ed: 96.581 mph Margin of victory: 8.826 Sl"C. AMA S UPERBIKE NATIONAL C ' S H I P POINT STANDINCS (After 10 o f 12 ro unds): 1. Mat Mladin (301/ 1 wi n); 2. Ben Bostrom (287); 3. A nthony Gobe rt (286 /5); 4. Do u g Ch a ndler (250 / 2); 5. Lar ry Peg ra m (233 /1); 6. Ja son Pridmore (214); 7. Aaro n Yates (208); 8. Eri c Bost r om ( 91); 9. Ja mie Ha ck ing ( 85); 10. Steve Cre vier (173); 11. Steve Rap p (166); 12. Mari o DuHamel (1 45) ; 13. Rich O live r (142) ; 14 . M igu el Du H am el (l 4t/1); I S. Pascal Picotte (137); 16. Matt Wait (124); 17. Dean Mizdal ( 12); 18. Jam es Ran d olph (07); 19. Ja mie Bowma n (91); 20. Cory Call (88), Upcoming Rounds: Round 11 - Brainerd, M innescta, August 1 Round 12 " Fountain, Colorado, September 19 '" '" '" 11

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