Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

AMA/Honda P I"'O O ils SOOcc S u p e l"'s p o l"'t S e l"'i es Round 2 : S e a l"'s Point R a c e w a y By PAUL C A RRUTHERS P HOTOS BY H EN NY R A Y A B RAMS SONOMA, CA, MAY 6 nt ho ny Go be rt is a fas t learner. In what was just the second AMA 600cc S upersport ra ce of his career , the Australian got the better of th e r e s t in the n o r m a l war zone that resides at th e front of the 600cc pac k to win at Sears Point Rac ewa y. Go bert was fast througho ut. He qual ified s ec o nd beh ind Yoshimura Suzuki's Aaron Yates - and for most of the red-flag inte rru pted race it was a battle between those two . Yates led ea rly, with Gobert taking the lead for the first time on the th ird lap . He he ld tha t lea d until th e red flag c a me out on th e seven t h lap wh e n Tyler Wad worth cr as he d in turn 1 1. A On the restarj, the ba tt le between those two resumed as th e y managed to p ull out a gap on the pur su ing pa ck . Then it all c h a n g e d o n th e eighth lap of the restarted race when Yates wen t down hard in turn 10 , his bike and body fortuna te ly finding a soft resting place in the Air Fence tha t lines the fast right-ha nder. Tha t allowed Gobert some breathing room and he wa s never head ed agai n as he c ru ised to a 2 .949 -sec ond win . "It was pretty good for me ," Gob e rt said . " G o in g into D ayton a I wasn 't sure ho w I would d o o n th e 600s . I d idn 't g et mu ch tr a ck time before hand and I kind a s trugg led a little bit in the ra ce , bu t I lea rn ed a lo t. In t he m e ant im e , I' ve trai ne d ha r d an d we went an d t es te d at B R I EF L Y••• All things consi dered , Picotte's 11th-place finish in S unday 's National was n't so bad. " I started cra mping right away and los t focus. " Picott e said after the race . " I cou ld do 355 in practice on race tires . but I co uldn't sus ta in that pace in th e race . So I slowed the pace to see il l co uld hold my position, since I cou ldn't do anything with the guy s in Iront 01 me." His teammate Mike S mith was larther back, in 15t h. "We kept missing on our setup all we ekend." said Smith, who decided to gamble on a suspension setup lor the race - a move that didn' t pay all. " It was a long race l or me, but I learned a bit more abo ut the bike. " The seepage problems that 10reed the cance llation 01 last year's race at Sears Poin t cropped up again just belore the start 01 750cc Supersport qualify ing on Saturday, The leak occurred on the inside 01 the exit 01 turn 11 - but not on the racing line - one 01 the prob lem areas last year . What made it surprising was that the Sonoma area hadn't seen a drop of rain fo r ove r a we ek. Comer wor kers tried patching the hole w ith co ncrete, then AMA road race manager Ron Barrick and direc to r of Pro Racing M errill Vanderslice were co nsulted. The fix involved putti ng a tr aff ic pylon over the hole. A n d rea s M eklau, HM C Ducati' s imported replacem ent l or the injured Scali Russell , wa s thrown in the deep end in his deb ut with the team and the AMA Se ries . Alter all. making your series A tlanta and le a rne d some thing s about the bike ." With Yates o ut of a ction, the battle for seco nd pla ce went to the line with Kawa sak i's Er ic Bo strom narrowly d efe at ing American Honda 's Miguel DuHam el, th ough not without a last" d itch effo rt by th e French Canad ian to find a way past the Californ ian . It ca me down t h e fina l corn er , with DuHa m e l has tily s lipp ing the c lutch to tr y to g e t a d rive o ut o f turn 1 1. Instead , his CBR600 F4 i went into a Al exande r has raced tw o cl as se s in o ne AMA Pro wee kend before, but never this clo se to eac h other. The New Yorker is co ntes ting the 750 cc Sup ersport and Formula Xtreme classes, bot h 01 w hich are run Saturday aft ernoon, separated only by a pair 01 25 0cc heat races . By the time 750cc Supersport race wa s over, Alexander was exhausted . " The biggest thing l or me this race was I got to get used to running Formula Xtreme and 750 bac k to back. M idway throu gh that race [75 0cc S upersportl. I was like, 'W hat am I doing7' My arms were ready to explode. I had to breathe and kick back . " Alt hough he wa sn't injured , K unis Robens was sullering fro m one 01 his hands goi ng numb. " It goes numb alter lour or five laps." Robert s said on Sunday morning . " It' s worse on the 60 0 . I noticed it la st week lor the li rst t ime when I was ri din g my motocross bike ," As lor his poo r qualifying resu lt t hat nette d him 10th overall in the S upe rbike class, Robert s said: "We'd j ust gone backwards. I wen t l ast er this morn ing [Sunday] than I did in qualifying . We'll be all right lor the race . " Ro bert s ended up cras hing out 01 the 600 cc Supersport race and l inishing 10 th in the Superbi ke National. Anthony Goben and Miguel DuHamel were the only top runners to use D unlop' s salt-compound rear tire. Gobert rode the tire to Victory w ith D uHamel finishing fift h, " To be honest , with abo ut 10 laps to go , I was kind 01 kicking mys elf." Gobert said. " I thoug ht the mediu m one would 've been bette r, The trouble is the salt is so much better at the sta rt 01 the race , You can't allord to give up w hat yo u do il you run t he medium, I think he [Ni c ky Hayden] was on the salt one [he wasn'tl , but V -twin s put on the salt one so much smo o ther. He was saving the ti re. I kind 01 burnt mine up comi ng thro ugh the guys and tryi ng to catc h him, " Dun lop ti re technician J im Alle n wasn' t certain that Gobert had made th e righ t choice , " I rea lly t houg ht An thony made a mi stake," Al len said alter the Nat ional. " But it suits the way he likes to ride the motorcycl e. " debut at Sears Point isn' t lor the la int 01 heart, " I need more prac tice ." M eklau said alter qualifying 16t h on Saturday, " M aybe 1wa nte d too much fro m this race. A ft er seve n months off a bike. first time on this circ uit and learning the ways of a new tea m. I can't expect too much. A to p-10 finish would be realistic . W e're trying a lot 01 thing s. mo st take us fo rwa rds, some are in the w rong direction, but it' s all a learning curve . W e've got enough inlonmation to put tog ether what I think will be the right setup lo r tomorr ow ' s race.· Meklau ended up finishing 14t h in the National. A tta ck Suzuki' s Rich A lexander had a ruthl ess introduction to how p hysically demanding his sea so n will be at Sears poi nt , Nicky H a yden made a lot 01 change s to his mo torcycl e over the co urse 01 the wee kend. It wa s hard wo rk lor bo th him and his c rew , and it required a litt le bit more l oc us Irom Hayden, "T he firs t day I was pretty tentat ive. " Hayd en said. " M y guy s did a great job. They made a lot 01 improvements to the bike. I did a lot 01 loo king at the computer. I probably look ed at th e com pute r more this week than I have in a long time, trying to make improvements , I haven' t been on a bike since Dayt ona. I rode my !XRJ 100 once in my driveway, The li rst day I was ju st rusty and real te ntati ve, I spent a lot 01 time in the trailer thinki ng and not as much time riding around on a scoo ter waving to girls. I was really locused to get up there. " Au stin Bleu-Bayou Harley-Davidson 's J ordon Szo k e ended up 13th in the Superbike National. " W e wer e going at it pretty good the re. " Szoke said. " I'm not even sure wh o won the stinkin ' race, Gobert, eh? That' s two tod ay - that' s not lai r. W e had a good bat tle back there l or aw hile - a bunch 01 us. It' s my seco nd race on the bike . and I think things are going well. We 're gelling the chassis sorted out bett er eve ry weekend, " It wa s also Szoke' s lirst visit to Sears Point . " I love it , It' s like hom e . A lot 01 the guys Aaron Yates (2 01 crashed right i n f r o n t of Anthony Goben (hid d e n) in the final laps of t h e 600cc S u perspon fin al, h a n din g Goben h is fi rst-ev e r w i n I n the c lass. vicious s lide , tossing DuHamel out of the saddle. He ma de th e save to put himself on th e rostrum in third place. Fourth place in what was easily his best ride si nc e u nde rg oi ng se rio us injury in the 600cc Supe rsp ort final at Day ton a in 200 0 wa s Bruc e Trans po rtat ion Gro up 's Jos h Ha yes, The don't like so me 01 th e wall s , but to me it' s no t that bad, It' s a grea t physical racet rack. I' m really happy with how I'm riding and how the team is doing. We're running we ll and I' m really happy. " Alte r t he S uperbike National on S unday altern o on, Jam ie Hacking explained his reasons behind ignoring the AMA' s meat ball flag alter he 'd jumped the start . "Alter the 600 race [in whic h he crashed], I kinda wan ted to get my conlidence back up, " Hack ing said . " I wasn 't go ing to co me in to begin with. I do n't care if 1 knew lor a lact that I jumped the start . II I knew that I jumped it lor real, I still would n't have come in. I wanted to run with tho se guys . I've never done good here. I think I've done actua lly good here this year. I proved in that Sup erbik e race that I cou ld run just as last as those guys in front. and I came fro m the third row . I know that the next race we are go ing to my ho me track. I w anted to stay out there and ride the bike, learn more about the bike and get my co nl idence up." N ot pulling in cost him a lap and he was credited with 16th place . The Yamaha team was na t ura lly e la te d wi th th e outcome of S und ay ' s rae i ng at Sear s Po i nt. It' s be en a lo ng road l o r t he t e am that ha s s tr ug g le d si nc e taking th e te am in ho u s e in 19 9 7 , and t h is w as really th e ir fir st taste 01 AMA Superbi ke victory . A lter all , S c ot t Ru s sell' s D ay t on a v ic t o rie s in '9 7 and '9 8 we re won w ith his W orld S uperbike crew. "It l e el s good , " crew c hi e l Tom Ho usew or t h. " I st ill c an ' t beli eve it. I have n 't c ried in a lon g t ime. " The S u p e r b i k e w in wa s t he 14th in AMA Superbik e history lo r the tuning l ark company. The D ucat i dry s pell c onti nues . H M C Du c at t' s Ste v e Ra p p ended up l inis hing eighth in the Superbike National. one spot bette r th an Larry Pegram on the C ompetition Ac ce ssories D ucati, " I' m sore, and it kind 01 takes the energy out 01 yo u, " said Rapp, who crashed during Friday ' s qualifying . " That and the heat and not riding lor six wee ks . I le lt fine - I was ju st riding as hard as I could. It was j ust a lack 01 setup time - te sting tim e, W e have a lot 01 new stull and every body is ju st trying to ge t it going . W e've changed the crew aro und, and this was my first race with Slick [BassI. I' m pos itive that I w ill do bet ter . I think t his w ill be the worst track l or us , even though it's my home track . " Pegram sullered from a rm pump. " I co uldn 't hold on," Pegram said, " I don't know w hat's wrong with me, I tried to ride through it and it just got worse. I couldn't grab the brake or turn th e thro tt le, I wa s la st enough to be top -fiv e here. so that is good lo r the rest 01 th e season because I usually don' t go well here. I think we 're looking really good . " cue I EO n e vv s MAY 16. 200 1 11

• Cover