Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

Road Race Final round: Pikes Peak Int~rnational Raceway AMA/MBNA SUPERBIKE NA TlONAL CHAMPIONSHIP By Paul Carruthers Photos by Henny Ray Abrams FOUJ\lTAu'!, CO, SEPT. 19 h is one had e v e r y t h ing : An ins pi re d veteran wi nne r w ho outsma rted th em all; a HarleyDavid son VR1000 in second place; an d a wi de-eyed rookie fin ishing third . And , mor e imp or tan tly, the har d est working man in AMA roa d racin g fina lly came awa y wi th th e Superb ike Nationa l Cha m pio nsh ip. That man is Mat Mladin. In what was his fou rth se a so n of AMA Supe rbike ra cing, Mladin emerged from a tense final rou nd wi th the pri ze tha t he'd coveted for so lon g and work ed so hard for. The 1992 Australian Su perbike Champion did exactly what h e needed to d o to wi n a well~ deserved titl e. H e ju m p ed out fr on t, ::Iii mai nta ine d a co nsta n t cushi on to his !II cham p ions h ip ri va l Ben Bostrom , a nd wa s wise enough to let the af or emention ed threesome go by withou t a fight. III It all resulted in a fourth -place finish and the title. If it was big for Mladin, it ~ was hu ge for Suzu ki. While Miadin has ~ been striv ing for four years to acco mQ pli sh thi s fea t, Suzu ki and Yosh im u ra have been at it much longer. Ten yea rs g: afte r Jami e Jam es took its last title on a Q) Yoshimura bik e in 1989, Mladin ga ve gf Suz u k i it s fo u r th A MA Su p erbik e T a! :! . Cii ~ C1l g. tJ) 8 cro w n, "Yeah, it essen tia lly we nt to plan ," Mladin said a fte r th e race. "We go t a good sta rt. We got the holeshot and put our head s down. I ran some fast laps p rob abl y for a littl e more than ha lf of the ra ce, and I think with abo u t 15 to go we had plus eig ht and half or so methin g on Ben (Bostrom). We we re only ge tti ng splits to Ben , and at tha t stage I decided that was enough. We slowed it up anywhe re bet ween a half a second a nd a seco nd a lap a nd every thing we nt well. So tha t' s wha t we came here to do. We had a strategy this yea r to be as cons isten t as possib le. Wi n them if we can wi n them; take seco nd or thi rd w he never we ha ve to, and it worked this year. Hopefu lly, there won ' t be too many guys getting too mu ch fas ter next year and it mi ght w ork a ga in . Who kn ow s?" Fittingly, the man w ho won the race was Mladi n's friend and former Cagiva 500 cc G rand Pri x teammat e , Doug Ch andler. Almos t exactlv 10 vears after he won his firs t-ever AMA Superbi ke N at ion al (a t Mid -O hi o on Augus t 6, 1989), Cha ndler proved that there's still plent y of fight in the old.dog. O ne of the few ride rs in the field wh o elected not to u s e Du n lop' s dual-compound tire , Chandler bid ed his tim e, sa ved a tire like no one else can, and was there at the end to give Rob Mu zzy's team a victory in its send-off race. Second place wen t to Pasca l Picotte and th e H arl ey-Dav id s on VRI000 , rna tching the V-twin's best-ever perfo rmance in a Superbike N ation al - and its best in a drv race. And for a wh ile, it look ed li k ~ th e hard-r idi n g Pi co tte wo u ld give the team mu ch mo re. On the 42nd of 48 lap s, Picott e pus hed the VR past Mlad in and into the lead - and he would ho ld it for five laps. It looked like the VR wo uld fina lly win. But th en th a t· pesky 18-y ear-o ld N icky Hayden took over. Rid ing the factory Honda RC45 in its final race, Hayden proved tha t he belongs with the big boy s o f s u perbi ke raci ng as he led a a tional for the first time . H is lead , tho ug h, d id n' t last and ultimately it was Cha nd ler wh o moved around him an d int o a lead tha t he would hold for the fina l two lap s. For tun ately, the race for the win was as good as it was - because the battl e for the cha mpionship didn' t come close to meetin g the hi g h expec ta tions th a t a heated qualifying session had promised (see qu alifyi ng sidebar). Mladin had a plan and he stuck to it. He sho t ou t fron t and immed iately pu t Bostrom in a hole. And Bostrom alread y knew he was don e. He wou ld la ter say tha t he knew his rear tire wasn ' t up to sn uff on the wa rm- u p lap. From there he was sim ply tryi ng to do w ha teve r he cou ld to keep it close. It wasn ' t en ough . Mladin finished fourth wit h Bostrom a fadin g fifth. End of s tory. With all the cham pionship hype and the thri lling race for the lead, those who circula ted b ehi nd d id so re la tive ly unnoticed . Sixth place we nt to Yosh imura Suzuki's Steve Crev ier in his final rid e for the te am - a n d per haps h is fi n a l AMA Superbike rid e. Behind him came Fast By Ferracci's Larry Pegr am , wh o st ru ggled wit h a badly wo rn rear tire. Th e n ca m e Vance & Hin es fill- in racer Mike Smith - im p ressive in what was only his th ird race of the season. Smith was brough t in to repla ce the missing-in-action Anthon y Gobe rt, who Mat Mladin (66)jumped out to the early lead of the AMA Superbike National at Pikes Peak. He didn't stay there , but he did everyth ing he needed to do to take the crown over Ben Bostrom, who suffered with a lack of grip to ultimately finish fifth - one spot behind the Australian. was somew here in Aus tralia when the race started a t 2:10 p.m. on Sunday . Ni nth place went to Fast By Ferrac ci' s Matt Wait with Ha rley-Davidson' s Scott Russell rounding out the top 10. A high ly compe titive AMA Superbike season conclud ed with six different men wi nning the 11 rounds: And in this race, the top five positio ns were filled by fiv e different brand s of mot orcvcles . Bring on 2000. . Th e 48- la p ra ce go t s ta r ted w it h Mladin blasting a way from th e field . O bv iously inspi red by every thing th at had happened in the past 48 hours, the Aus tralia n wa s in ten t on blistering the field en rou te to tak ing his titie. Bostrom was seco nd and it looked as thou gh the sma ll cro wd on han d was goi ng to ge t exactly w ha t th ey'd come for : Mladi n v s, Bostrom - for all the marbles. It wasn' t in the cards . Mladin sim ply pu lled away. He led by a seco nd aft er two lap s, 2.1 seconds aft er six laps, 3.5 second s a fter 10 laps and 4.4 seconds after 12 laps. Bv this time, the other three - Picott e, Ha yden and Chand ler - were hounding Bostrom and looki ng for a way past. Bostrom knew his da y was do ne, but he was trying to hang on no netheless. " I knew on my warm-up lap that we

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