Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

Road Race Final round:Pikes Peak International Raceway AMAIMBNA SUPERBIKE NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP rea ll y fo cused , yo u k now, I coul d n ' t r ea ll y give u p o n e se co n d b ec aus e, I mea n , th ey we re a ll b ehind me, ri gh t there. I co u ld look a t m y p it bo ard: ' Plus three -ten t h s , two- te n t h s , s o m e t i m e s zero-ze ro: and that m e ans h e ' s li k e , ri ght th e re . I co u ld actually hear N icky's fr ont ti re s c rea m i ng some t i mes . I cou ld n' t give up a t all. "My rear tire sta rted vibrating lik e 10 laps o n fro m th e e nd, so I s ta rted kind of th inkin g ab ou t it a nd ch a nged m y lin e a little bi t. I h ad to be rea lly , reall y smoo th o n th e thro tt le, no t losin g th e rear, so I s t a r ted tr y in g to ca r ry a lit t le m o r e speed o n th e front and it was worki n g pretty good . I'm g lad to b e h ere again , esp ecially fo r all th e Ha rle y -Da vidso n fa n s a n d es peci a lly fo r all t h e p eople w h o have b e e n b e h i nd th e ' p rog ra m since '94. I m ean th o se gu y s h a ve b een wo rk ing reall y hard and th e y d eserve m ore p odiums tha n th ey h ad . Hopefu lly, we' re going to ke ep that m omentum w e h ad th is y ea r. We had som e ups and d o wns, bu t it see ms like the fu ture is lookin g great so far, so I'm really h appy to be h ere toda y. " Follo w ing tho se three across the lin e w as Mladin , 9.7 secon d s beh in d . Anothe r seven sec onds later came Bo strom already thinking of ne xt y ea r . "Life g oes o n, bu t I ca n' t w ait ," No one was better than Mat Mladin in 1999. Although he won only once, he was there each and every weekend, and that consistency resulted in his fi rst AMA Supe rb ike crown. High drama A .,; N ~ CI> .c E CI> c.. CI> en 10 lmost eve ry final super bik c qua lifying ses sion is filled with d rama . No ne were more so tha n the final qua lifying session of th e season one w it h far-reaching cham pi ons hip implicat ions . Like all the others, there was a championship point at sta ke for the man who earned the pole position. Thi s o ne mea nt so mething, and it showed . Plain and simple, thing s got ugly. Nea ring the end of the session, Yosh imura Suzuki's Mat Mladin had established himself as the man to beat for pole position . TI,e Australian had put a 54.009-second lap in the book - a new lap recor d - and had th rown down the ga u n tlet for his clos est cha mp ions hip ri val, Ben Bostrom. Bostrom. how ever , never got the op po rtunit y to res po nd. Th e Cal iforn ia n rolled int o pit lane a nd fitted his final qualifying tire in the waning m oments of th e session, o nly to ru n into Mladin on wha t wo u ld have bee n his flying lap . Tha t's a relati vely no rm a l occu rrence in qua lifying, with rid ers trying to use othe rs an d t heir draft - to better thei r laps. Thi s clea rly wa s n' t the case thi s tim e. Thi s o ne was blatant, and not ma ny on pit road di dn' t n ot ice w ha t was ha ppen in g . Mlad in had cruised down pit lane in plain sig ht, wai ting for Bostrom to exit the final corner. He then exited the pits a t the per fect time to thwart or at least pa rtial ly thwa rt - Bostrom 's lap . On 12:30 p.m. Sunda y, the AMA handed down a decision on th e matter . After reviewi ng video tape of the incident , they notified Suzu ki that although Mladin would re tain his position on pole, he wouldn 't get the championship point that went along with it. In making the rul ing. they cited the follow ing from the AMA rulcbook: Chapter 6, Section B/ 3, pa ragraph (I) ; "Engaging in ,"I ny unfair pra ctice, misbeh avior or actio n detriment al to the sport of motor cycling in ge neral, whether or not related to a specific com pe titio n." It wa s based on Mladin a nd the fact tha t he "attempted to inter fer e w ith Bos trom 's qu al ify in g effor t," sai d an AM A spo kes man. Mladin den ied a ny wron gdoing. "I seen Ben pu ttin g a qu alifier on and I think he'd already used one, so we stuck one on and followed him out, " Mladin said on Saturday , pr ior to learning that he'd lost his champ ion ship point. "H e came in the pits so I cou ld n' t chase him. I was hoping to ge t a bit quicker la p time. I waited for him again a nd he di d n't wan t to tow me again. I was just try ing to get a bit qu icker lap time." When ques tioned as to what hope he had of doin g a better lap time while starting from pit lan e as the se ssion concluded , Mlad in said : "I didn't know what time it was ." As for the race, Mladin was confid ent tha t he had the G5XR750 up to spee d and read y to wi n the Superbi ke Na tio nal w Bostrom sa id. "Now I really can' t wait b ec ause I lo st. It ' s going to b e like the long es t four m onths of m y life." Championship. He was also angry that Va nce & ' Hines Ducati was pennitted to test at Pikes Peak so close to the race d ate (see Briefly...). He was also upset tha t Bostrom had earned provisional pole position on Friday using the back-up timing system b ecaus e h is D u ca ti d id n 't h ave a tra nsp o nder on it (see Briefly...). It all added up to a rather tense post-qua lifying p ress confere nce: "The bike feels pretty good," said Mlad in. "I' m pretty happy wit h it. Th e thing is working good . The race tires feel good, everything feels good . It' s a sha me that Ben (Bostrom ) is so upset abou t not ge ttin g the pole. The y te st ed here e ig h t d a ys a go , s o th ey sho uld ha ve been up to speed . Yeste rday, he didn't ha ve timer on so he should n't hav e gotten the pole yesterday either, but he d id. That' s jus t the way it gOt.'S. There are some funn y things happeni ng in the las t couple of weeks. Obviou sly, with Ducati here te sting Tuesday an d Wednesdav, I d idn't beli eve th at would be right :1 always classed Friday as the firs t day of the even t - as there is a point up for Pole. I figure that 's got to be the first da y of the even t. "There' s obvious lv a lot of co ntroversy go ing on about that. It d oesn 't seem like anything is going to be don e about it and I think that's wrong. And then the sam e thing yesterday, Ben didn't have a transponder on and he go t the lap time, a nd I didn' t thi nk that was ri ght. As mu ch as th e p ho to fin ish or wh a tever gav e him the lap time, in most ins tances, in all cases that) know with myse lf. I got pulled in once to pu t a transpond er o n. I kno w of a number o f tim e . I thi nk Dougie s (ChandlerI at Daytona got held in the pits for 15 minu tes without a tran spond er because he didn't hav e one , and th en all of a su d den a t the last race somebo dy gets a lap time w ithout a transponde r. I persona lly don't think that' s the right thing to do, Tr ansponders are a necessity as far as going for lap tim es, so I think we go t ripped off ye sterd ay for the pole. Like I said, there's been funny things happen in the last cou ple of weeks, and I don' t thin k it's helped o ur chances for the cham pionship o ne litt le bit. I think were ge tting a bit of a raw deal on it all." Even thou gh a champ ionship was at stake, no one co u ld remember it getting this ugly. "This point was impo rta nt." Mladin sa id . "Every point is imp ort ant at this stage of the ga me. I' ve bee n steamed a little bit abou t the w hole thing since they were here testing eight days ago . That started building up w ith me and I'm pretty angry about tha t. I came in here pretty det ermined to get the pole and · try to win the ch am pions hip, Wha tever it takes to do that. I'll do it." Bost rom was liv id , though his anger wa s tempered somewhat by the pr ess co nference. "It's just something that some rid ers do because they're pretty desperate," Bostro m said . '" just want to say that I'd never, ever want to win anything like that. I couldn't feel good abo ut it for the rest of my life and I'm sure he won 't ." Bu t this day b el ong ed to C hand le r a n d Ml adin. " I tr ied to g o wi th Mat, but I just h ad a tough time ge tting b y Ben (Bostro m), so [ k in d o f had to go to pl an B a nd just trv to co nse rve the tire the bes t I co u ld fC;;r th e e n d o f th e race:' C h andler sai d . " I was figuring I h ad a good ch a nce o f them co m ing b ack to m e o r m e ge tt ing ba ck up in th e r e wi th them, and as it was it w o rked ou t reall y good . As the la ps wou nd d o wn, [ ju st s ta r ted p us hing a little bit harder. [ think fro m la p 20 o n , [ ju st wan ted t o -se e w hat [ could g ive it. T h e th in g ju s t kept taki n g it gelli n g bet te r, b e t ter a n d b e tter. W e w ere catch in g up to M a t a n d 1 th ought, ' W e ll, this is g o ing to b e rea IIy goo d.' T h e three o f u s, as the laps w ere winding d o wn - it w as go in g to b e a good la st co u p le of laps . I' m just thank fu l we h ad e no u g h for. th e m . Yo u kn o w the t ir e s w ere p er fe ct. I to ld N ic ky t h at th in g w as as good o n th e 45th la p a s it was o n th e fift h lap of th e race, so I was re al h appy w it h m y c hoi ce. T h e bike was s e t up p erfec t a n d [ think it was just easy o n the t i res . You kn o w a ll w eekend [ n e v er h ad a ny tr ouble with th e softer tire - as far as p utting a lot o f laps on it and having the th in g bli st er. It never d id ." C revier crossed th e line 22 .1 seconds be hi n d Chandle r with Pegra m n arro wly hol d in g off the. charging Smith for seveN e n th. At w hich point, Mladin injected, "You won the pole yesterday like that." "Their team tactics are pr etty poor, so I apologize to the gestu re I made to the guys on the wall because it's not their fault (Bostrom had mad e a hand ges ture to the Yoshimura crew) ," Bostrom continued. "I was pretty upset wi th Matbecau se he d id so mething tha t's just really bad sportsma nship." As for waiting so long in th e session to d o his bes t lap, Bostrom said: "It was perfect because there was no one on the track. I wanted to ge t out there a t the last minute and it was absolutel y pe rfect. I caught Mat in the esses and he was kind of weaving around a bit, and we just didn't get the pole. " Bostr om ended up wi th a 5-I.186-second lap, a time that orne from the first sess ion . It was good enough to put him SL -'Cand on the grid, just ahead of surprise front- row quali fier Aaron Yates on the Muzzv Kawasaki. "It really feels -kind of wei rd sitting here," Yates said alter posting a 5-1 after posting a 54.519. "It's like, wow! We'v e just been struggling and th is weekend we' ve go t Vic Faso la working on my bike an d I th ink it's reall y helped a lot. I'v e had a tendency tu go a certain wa y with my setup. For som e reason th is yea r. every tim e we ge t to the track every thing on the bike is comple tely d ifferent than what it was. We start from that an d we wor k all a round a nd never ge t the thing right. But right from the start , Vic found a cou ple of th ings . He's been working on these thin gs for a pretty good while, on the Kawasakis, and it's been really good to me all weekend. The qualifier didn't really do mu ch for me yesterday . A lot of these guys, they pu t a qua lifier in an d they go a seco nd fas ter. It's unrea l. Toda y, we struggled a lot with grip with the sa me setup we had yesterday and we cou ld n't figure it ou t. Right with abo u t 20 minu tes to go in the session, we tried a d iffere nt shock tha t we almost skipped over. I'm glad we d id becau se it really made a difference. I got back into the 55s and got going again. We puta qualifier on, got a red flag. and came in. It wo rked out just right. I had a pretty free tr ack on. th a t last one . It co uld hav e been a little be tte r beca use I messed up in a few spo ts, butI'm happy to be on the front ro w ." Muzzy Kaw asak i's Doug Chand ler finally figured ou t the an swer to the prob lem he 's had with dual-compound tires . "I'm not going to use one," Cha nd ler sa id a fter putting his Muzzy Kawa saki fourth on the grid wi th a 54.578-second lap . Fai r enoug h, but wou ld a non-dual-compou nd tire go the di stance? "So far it's been okay," Cha nd ler said . "We don 't really hav e any thing to lose, so we're go ing to take a ga mble and try somethin g. Hopefully, I can manage the tire and it'll go the distance. I tried two of them (d ual-compounds). It's someth ing that's just, I don't know. I can't get them to wo rk for me so I have to go back to somet hing more standard . When we do that, I' m a lot happier and feel better on the bike." The second ro w wou ld be hea ded by Yoshi m ura Suz u ki's Jason Prid mo re, followed by Harley-David son' s Pascal Picotte, Yoshim ura Suzuki 's Steve Crev ier and Fast Bv Ferra cci Ducati's Larry Pegram. . Yamaha's Jami e Hacking, who crashed in the final sess ion a nd brought out the red flag , ended up ni nt h quickest. just ahead of 10th-p lace qualifier icky Hayden - on the first of the two factory Ho nda RC45s.

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