Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/128109
ra Suzukis we re out.. . a t least for th e moment. "I got in a litt le too deep ," Mlad in said of his first c ra sh. "In th e dr y you c a n just s crub it off if yo u get in deep. but in the we t it was gon e ." Then ca me a proble m with a sticking throttl e . "I ha d no vis or and the thr ottl e was s t ic k in g a bit everywhere ," Mladin ex p lai ned . "It stu ck again going up the hill a nd I just had to hit the bra ke and get off it. 1 started running ba ck beca us e you never know . You've got to get up and keep go ing . S omeone offere d me his mountain bike to ride , but I figur ed I'd crash that a s well. " Repriev e ca m e for Mlad in in th e form of the red fla g . The ba ckup bike was readied for action and Mladin was back in bus ines s. And Hacking 's c rew also made the necessary repairs to get h im ba ck on trac k , though a s the m a n who caused the red flag he wou ld have to sta rt at the back of the grid . One Aussi e 's gain was a n o t h e r Aussie' s los s a s Gobert wou ld have to sta rt a ll over again - just when he 'd esta b lished his dominance in the wet co ndition s . By t he ti me the red fl a g was thrown , th e ra ce wa s a lready void of Pasca l Picotte a nd his fa ctor y Ha rle y. Picotte had crashed in turn 13 o n the s e cond la p . At 3:2 0 p.m. , th e race started a gain with Gobe rt blasting to the lead heading int o turn o ne . Th a t' s wh ere Pe gra m ' s d ay e n d e d wh en h e was collec te d by the hard -c ha rg ing Ha c king , who was he llbent o n getting ba ck up front in a hurry from his s pot at th e bac k of th e g rid . "He h it m e s o ha rd I was sitting there a n d m y b ik e wa s g on e ," Peg ram sai d . "He jumped th e c u rb and n a ile d m e , k n o c ki n g th e bi ke right out from under me ." Th e next to go in th e driving rain was Rapp - th en Roberts, almost in su ccession. "I was just following Nick [Ha yde n] a nd Eric [Bostrom]," Roberts sa id . "I just lost the front. I don 't know wh y . It just folded on m e. " From there it a p p e are d t o b e a two -man ra c e as Gobert and DuHamel pulled a g ap on the rest, (Above le ft) Nicky Hayden (69) finished fifth an d third In the two races at Road America. Here he races with brother Tommy (2 2) du ri ng Saturday's race. Tommy Hayden ended up w ith seven th - a nd sixth-place fi ni she s. (Ab ove right) The dominant ones: Anthony Gob ert (le ft) speaks Australian with countryman M at Mla din (right). with Nicky Ha yd en , in th ird , already 5.3 seconds beh ind after the first lap . Ha cking, t hough , was on th e m ov e and he was there to capitalize wh en Gobert ra n off th e track on the third lap in tu rn sev en . The Australian hammered th e throttl e in the g ravel tra p and c a m e back on course , nearly getti ng h it by Hac king in th e process. "Miguel [D uHame l] ap p lied a bit m or e pressure after the restart," Gobert s a id . "Tha t forc ed me into... well , it wasn't re a lly a m ista ke . In the first one I was holding first th e who le wa y through the righ t hande r. The n in the second one when it was a bit drier, I wa s holding second. It fe lt like Miguel wa s run ni ng up on me th rough there , so that o ne lap I tr ied to keep it in first . When 1 shut th e throttle the rev s were that high an d the b a c k c am e a ro und a nd I went off the track . I felt th at 1 had done s o much in the first part an d 1 t h o u g h t I co uld win t he race, so I d idn 't want to see that go dow n th e tu bes. I d id what I cou ld. I just opene d the thr ottl e , pin ned it, a nd turned it. It wa s ju st like a m ot ocros s ru t a nd I zipped ba c k o n th e track . After that 1was so motivated ." An d of the m oment with Ha c king ... " He gave me a b it of , you k now [m aki ng a h an d ge s t u re] . I thi nk it wa s a thum b s up. He wa s say ing good jo b on the save ." N icky Ha yd en als o got aro un d Go be rt , but it wou ldn ' t las t. The Ya m a ha rid e r s tarted c h argi ng and des p it e be in g 14 sec on d s d own to ra c e le a der DuH am el, h e d idn 't g ive up . He cu t th a t defic it to nin e sec onds, then to 8.4 seconds and th en to 3.3 s econds. Later th a t lap, th e se venth o f the restarted ra ce, he passed Ha c k ing (in turn s ix ) a nd DuH amel (in turn 11) . End of story . His 2 :3 2.9 lap t im e co m p ar e d t o DuH am e l' s 2 :3 7 .02 was d eva stating . "We had a good rain s etup a nd I got some gre at s t a rts ," DuH a m el said. "Me and Anthony were gon e in the first part and it was a go od pa ce . It was going to be exciting to th e e nd . Th e n we got th e re d fla g and it was pretty much the sa me scenario . I was suffering with a litt le b it of vibra tion with th e fro nt brakes a nd I just kept using th e Hon da p o wer t o get b y Anthony . When I saw him make the m istake going into seven, I saw him save it. 1 knew when 1 went by I was t h in k in g, ' Ma n, th is is not o ver. Unless the b ike sto p ped , I know he 's co m ing back.' I had to try and focus a nd ge t ba c k into it by m yse lf, an d t h e n th e rain c a me a bit a nd 1 g ot some fog in my sh ield . But it wouldn 't hav e ma de any differen c e. I h ad an e ight -second lea d and yo u feel pre tty ba d wh en you ha ve a n eig ht -s econd le ad and d on 't win the race . When s omeone catc hes yo u from eight s ec onds , yo u're no t doi ng s o good ." Ha cking a lso mov ed arou nd DuHame l b u t s h o rtly the re after c ra s he d out in turn five , e nd ing his d a y . From th e re the suspe nse was o ve r with Go bert tak in g the vict o ry over DuH am el with Nic ky Ha yd en ca pturing a lonely thi rd. "It wa s tough ," Ha yd en said . "The first few laps wh e n it was re ally wet it was sketchy . 1 made a huge m istake the re wit h o u r t wo la p s of p ra cti c e [they were g iven two la ps to get used to the wet co n d it io ns p ri or t o t he race ]. Co m ing o ut of Canada Corner, it high s ided m e . It was so q ui c k . It didn 't give m e any warn ing . It shook m e up a little bit. It wa s a hard hit and 1 though t I was go ing to sl ide into a wall. My h e ad h it pretty hard . After th at 1 wa s just putting . On th e first lap 1 rod e like a sis s y for a few corn e rs , a nd a lot of guys we nt by. I picked up the pace a nd kind of moved up. 1 was g lad to se e th e red flag bec ause 1 th ought 1 could get up with the leaders . Merl yn [Pluml e e - his tun er] m a de s om e change s to the front that m ade it a lot ea sier to steer. I g ot a good start again. Th en J amie [Hacking ] ca me by, mak ing m e look bad , but he looked pretty loose. When he fe ll off that kind o f h anded me the podium." eye I e Meklau held off Bostrom a nd Tommy Hayden for fourth place. "I h ad a good sta rt in both sec tion s ," sa id Meklau . "I knew that sa fe ty wa s re a lly important for the first fe w la ps. I had to ge t th e feeling of the t ires on the wet track and needed time to a dju st to the wet conditions. When I passed Eric Bostrom I kne w I wasn't com pletely in th e cle a r. 1 had to watch my p it bo a rd unt il the gap h a d g ro wn . A s soo n as I saw th e white flag for the last la p I knew th at was the sign to sta y steady and ma ke no mista kes . I'm ve ry happy with m y re s ult toda y." Bostrom wa s s uffer ing from a la c k of grip . Between t he t wo Superb ike sta rts , Bo s t rom h ad s witc he d tir e s from the Dunlop KR2 88 (t he sta nda rd looking rain tire) to the T3D (the one with strai ght cut lines in the ce nter) . "We c ha n ge d it b e cause it wa s getting d rie r," Bostrom sa id. "It was a ba d idea . The th ing wasn 't on. It was kind of a bum mer the way it wor ked o ut. We did n 't im p ro ve ou r situation at al l. Ba s ic all y , I u s ed up all m y e ne rgy in the firs t couple of laps to kee p it on two wh ee ls . 1 kinda used m ys elf u p. It had no gr ip and it wasn't so good - pe riod ." Tommy Hayden view ed the week e nd a s a step forwa rd . "Sixth a nd s ev enth - I made a st ep for wa rd th is wee kend ," Hayden said. "I' m h op inq t o d o the same n e xt week. Th e bik e didn 't wo rk ve ry good in the wet." Mlad in wa s s ev enth and c o unting his blessings . "I went int o turn five in 10th or 12 th a nd I saw Eric [Bostrom] just a few riders in front of me, " Mladin s a id . "I fig u re d , ' All rig ht , this h a s been a bad day a nd I don 't want to make it worse. ' As it turns out, fifth to s e venth was just two po ints - b ig deal. I just wanted to take the bes t I could get and go ho m e . Whe n I saw th e red flag, I thought, 'Perfect - ta ke it when you can get it.' " Although Szoke gets c redit as the t op pri vateer with his eighth -place finish , Bells Suzuki's John Jacobi was t he true p rivateer he ro of the d ay. Driv ing to the ra c e in h is pi c k u p truck , h is S uzu k i GSXR -7 5 0 in the n e vv S • JUNE 20 . 200 1 9