Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

were in tro u ble," Bost rom sa id . "The th ing wa s jus t sq u irmi ng . I kn ew th e bo ys had it o n the wa rme r for a lon g tim e and th at was the probl em. I tried th e bes t I could. I rod e as hard as I coul d a nd th e bi ke ra n g reat. 1 just had no grip. It was pa inful. The first cou ple of la p s I kn ew I h ad n o g ri p a nd I ju s t wan ted to stuff him (Mlad in) , So I rod e as hard as I cou ld a nd almost cras hed a few tim es . I had to let hi m go. Th ose other guys kept tryin g to pass m e and I kep t trying to block 'em pretty ba d. But I jus t ha d to give up at the end, or I was goi ng to crash ." On the 14th lap, Pico tte got arou nd Bostr om a nd a lmos t ins ta n tly the ga p bet ween the pursue rs and the pu rsued began to sh rink: 4.7 second s, 4.4 seconds, 3.8 seconds, 3.3 seco nds. Then the lead sta rted shrinking fast as the leaders started hittin g hea vy traffic - and su dden ly t he top fou r w e re closer th an freckles on a redhead . On th e 42n d of 48 laps, th e en ti re co m p le xi ty of th e race ch a n ged a s Pico tte and the Harley gra bbed th e lead for the first tim e with a pass on Mlad in in the tight, tu rn- th ree hairpi n. Itcarne as a co m ple te s u r p r is e to Ml a d in be cause he wa s o nly bei ng signaled as to w here Bost rom was . "Pasca l al most mad e me shit myself, actu allv," Mladin said. " Beca use I had 8.6 on Ben, and I just assumed Ben wa s the one th at was going to be behind me if I was in the lead . You know Ben's bee n kind of sayi ng it's either win the champio nship o r bust so rt of thing. He so rt of wanted to be in fro nt of me or w hatever. When I had 8.6 or somethi ng on Ben , I started s lowing d own and these guys jus t ra n the sa me pa ce th e w ho le race, obvio usly, an d I wa s getting a few slides and [ wa s thinking this wa s no good. I wa s pushing the fron t a littl e bit. ex t th ing I know, I'mgoing into tum tw o, I th o u gh t it wa s Be n . I had 8.6 o n th e board, but I thou g ht maybe I was reading .8 or something. All I hear is this big Harley; I thou gh t it was Ben be hind me. I look over m y shou lder and all I see is this three-bi ke train this wide and then it w a s like , 't he re y o u g o bo y s, it ' s a ll yo urs: But, no, I d id n't put up too much of a fight, th a t' s for sure, once I kn ew they were there. A cou ple of laps I tried to sort of ge t it going a little bit, but I wa s a littl e bit too nervou s at tha t stage to just wo rry abou t ra cing for a win ." And Hayd en and Chand ler followed . Now the battle was on - th ree men wi th no th ing to lose . Wisely, Mladin let the m go . On the 47th lap, th e w ise man him self ma de his move. Wit h Hay den flying under Picott e in tu m three, the pair wa s pu sh ed w id e. Th a t was a ll Ch and ler n eed ed . He w a s in th e hunt and h e smelled the kill. A lap later he led ou t of the hairpi n an d that was all she w ro te. Hayd en kn ew it. 'There a t the beg inning I got a good start from the third ro w," Hayd en sai d lat er. "Right befo re th e race Gary Mathers (Ho nda's team man age r) told me it wa s the last race of the vear, the last race for th e RC45, and he Jus t p retty much ' told me to go ha ve fun and bring it back - in a tru ck or whatev er. That's what I did . You kn ow I just we nt for it righ t th ere at the begi nni ng . I wa sn't moving up as fast as I wa nted to; an d th en a t the e n d I s ta rted fi ndi ng a p lace o n th e br akes for turn three. I was really making up a lot of tim e on the brakes, and yo u know I wa s just going for it. A lap and a half from the end I was leading an d I knew Dou g (Chand ler) wo u ld be coming. He's so good at tha t. He'll just wait until the end - he's reall y smart and saved his tire. I d idn't reall y save min e (Above) Bostrom (1) did his best to keep the cha rging trio of Doug Chand ler (10), Nicky Hayden (169) and Pascal Picotte (21) behind him ea rly in the race. (Below) Those three, however, were ab le to get by both him and Mladin and were left to wage their own personal battle for the vlet o ry - a win that ultimately went to the cag ey veteran Chandler. mu ch (lau gh s). I guess I should have. It wa s a fu n ra ce . I reall y e nj oy e d it. I d id n't have no th ing to lose. I cou ld just go for it, you know. Pascal (Pico tte) - he rod e r e all y good a n d I th ink Mat (M Iad in) d es erved th e cha m pi ons hip . He ste p ped it up w he n he had to a nd today he did exactly w hat he had to d o. . So I g uess it was a good d ay , a good week, a good year." With Cha ndler free a n d clea r, th e ba ttle was for second . Picotte d arted u nder Hayd en in turn fo u r and m an ag ed to not run w ide enough to a llow th e yo ungste r to co u nter. He was seco nd .- and happy. " It wasn't easy, of course, bu t I kind o f figured ma ybe Mat (M lad in) was goi ng to kin d of fade a li ttle bit the re near the end because he was ga m bling a ch am p io ns hip and he wasn 't going to throw it away again, " Pico tte sa id . "I th in k he was s tarti ng to s li de a bi t. I picked a softer tire and kind of ga mbled on it because I wa sn ' t comfortable at all wi th th e d ual compound. It seems like the VR1000 is pretty good at saving th e tire, so I took the ga mble and it see ms lik e it paid off. I had a great race ou t the re. I was havin g a ton of fun . I was Go-Show No-Show F or the first time in three years it 'a ppeared as though Australian Anthony Gobert was going to complete something that he'd started. Then it all went wrong when the Vance & Hines Ducati rider failed to materialize at Pikes Peak. A day prior to practice for the final round of the N\1A Superbike National Cha mpionship. Gobert told Vance & Hines crew chief Jim Leonard in a phone conversation that he had injured himself in a motocross training crash and that he was !lying horne to Australia. Leonard then called team owner Terry Vance, who in tum called rent-a-racer MikeSmith to fill in for Gobert. " I called and woke Mike (Smith) up and he couldn't wait to get here," Vance said. "It's an unfortunate situation." Although Gobert claimed to be injured, not many in the Pikes Peak paddock were buying it. "I believe if he is injured, then he should be here to support the team," Vance said when asked if he truly believed Gobert's story. Gobert and his teammate Ben Bostrom tested the factory Ducalis at Pikes Peak just a week prior to the event, September i-8, and Gobert didn't do anything at the test that led Leonard to believe that there was a problem. "He wasn' t a happ y guy, but I didn't have any indication that something like this was going to happen." Leonard said. Leonard did note that Gobert was the heavi est he'd be all en year, some 35 pound s heavier than Bostrom . If Gobert was close to securing a deal to ride for Ducati in next year's World Superbike - Series, many believe this latest episode in the 24-year-old's troubled career will likely be enough to kill the deal - especially as Ducali had high hopes of Gobert helping his teammate Bostrom in his quest to win the AMA Superbike title. "He hated seeing his teammate beat him," Bostrom said. "Maybe 1shouldn't have beaten him so bad in the test. If he comes here and gets beat, he looks bad. If he gets second and that helps me, then that's no good either." Gobert is scheduled to ride a MuZ 500cc Grand Prix bike in the Australian Grand Prix on October 3. '" '" '" en '" ~ Z E oS ., en Cl. 9

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