Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

Pro Honda Oils6UUcc Supersport: Round 4 Aaron Yates (2 0) m a naged to hol d off his teammate Jamie Hacking (9 2) to w in the 600cc Supersport final at Road America. S T O RY AND P HOTOS B Y H E N NY R A Y A B RAMS ELKHART LAKE, WI, JUNE t t n or der to win h is firs t Pro Honda O ils 600c c Supers p ort ra c e of th e s eas on , Yosh im u ra S u zu ki 's Aaron Yate s had to do som e thing he o nce d id with fre q uenc y , bu t has m ostl y sworn off - he had to ride like a d irtt ra c ke r. On th e la st lap o f a very tense ra ce , which took ne a rly a n hour to finall y get started due to ra in and red flags , Yates ha d to ha ng out th e rear e nd of h is Suzuki GSX -R600 to keep te ammate Jam ie Hack ing at ba y . It wo rk ed where it ne ed ed to work , in a c rucial high -s pee d sect ion , and Yat e s h ad just e no ug h edge to beat Hack ing a c ro ss the stripe , win ning by just less th a n a b ike le ngth offic ia lly 0 .047 seco nd s . Kaw a sak i's Er ic Bo s tro m wa s a c lose th ird . "So m e tim e s you 've got to c ha nge yo ur style to ride the bike a nd some tim e s the way yo u d o th ings aren't re a lly th e fa s test ," Yat es sa id afte r his and Suzuki's first win of th e ye ar. "Ac t ua lly, a lot of th e t ime I've be en t r y in g re all y h ard n o t t o d o that be cause it' s not so good , it k ind of hu rts yo u o n th e br a ke s . You c a n ' t b rak e as hard as you ne ed to . When th e time is rig ht, it all wo rks o ut ju s t rig ht . When yo u go t to do it, if yo u' re ex perienced a nd you can d o it, it's a good th ing because it helps ." I What al so he lp ed wa s a re d flag . Light ra in began to fall just before the sche d uled t t : t 0 s t a rt o f the 600c c race . Th e rid ers p itt ed a ft er t h e ir wa rm -up lap , a ll but Erion Ra c ing 's Kurti s Robe rts wh o fell but m a de it ba ck . Th e race wa s fina lly sta rted ha lf an hour la te w it h Kawasa k i' s E ric Bostrom blitzing into th e lead , ho lding ne arl y a th ree second lead ha lfwa y into the second lap . It wouldn 't matte r because the ra c e would be sto p pe d again , There was a crash in tum five, where Roberts ' brakes fa iled and he T -b o n e d Valvo line EMGO S uzu k i's John Hopk ins , there was an o t h e r c rash in the kink , and ra in began to fall a ga in, so the field aga in returned to the pits . Th e co m plete re st a rt wa s g reen lighted nearly an ho ur a fter th e o rigina l sta rt. Th is tim e Bostrom c ouldn't get a wa y . He tr ied , but Ya mah a ' s Antho ny Gob ert went with h im , a s did Yat e s , Hacking and Hopkins . Hac king had struggled all thro ugh qua lifying, la nding on th e fourth row . In t he morn ing warm -up the te am finally fo u nd a s o lu t io n . T h e team rolled his s pa re bike off th e truck a nd he wa s two seconds a la p faster th a n h e 'd gone all weekend. He d id two laps, then the c rew had him park it so they could prepare it for the ra c e. Th e d ifference was startling. "Th e oth e r bike just wasn 't wo rk ing for me ," Hacking said. "I c ouldn't g o th rou g h t h e corner on th e othe r one . It fel t lik e I was on s q uare whe els ." "We nt o ut th is morni ng, ro de m y o ld b ike s , c o m e in, said th is thing 's not wo rk ing . Pu t m e b a c k o n th e back - u p b ik e . I did tw o laps and , boom , we were like low t 6s . I co m e in, they go , 'We need to do a lot o f wo rk to this b ike to ge t it ready.' So I q uit. I knew exa ctly what I had ," he a dded . G ob ert led the fi rst la p from Bos tro m an d Yate s with Yates us ing a do uble draft to go into the lead o n lap two , a spot he wou ld ho ld to the end , a lw a ys w ith comp a n y , though in c re a s ing ly less as t h e ra c e p ro gre ssed . "I was rea lly glad to get aw a y from a few g u ys in t hat second resta rt b e c au s e I d id n ' t wa nt to be rac in g with them ," Yate s sai d . "Yo u cou ld te ll e ve n from th e las t ra ce , he 's [Bo s t ro m ] foc used o n ge tt ing a wa y a nd go ing. And I wanted to be the re with him beca use I knew he could get going . T he draft p la ys a lot here. If you get hung up with some g uys tha t got fast bik es, and th en th e y kind of get in your wa y in th e corner, and it kills your dri ves." Bostrom wouldn 't be th e worry , it wo u ld be Hacking . Hacki ng pas se d Bo strom on th e si xth la p , Bostro m b a c k to s e c o nd , the pa ir s wa p p in g for several la ps with Ha c k ing a lwa ys in fro nt across th e s tripe , a lig ht ra in fa llin g to war d th e e nd. In th e fin a l st a g es Bos trom was u n n e rv ed b y t h e ra in an d settled into a s e cure third . "I k ind o f just c hi lle d o nce I got behi nd them and figured we ' ll m a ke a run a t th e end ," Bostrom sa id. "The n it started s p rinkling and I knew from the first ra c e it got really slippery whe n I was out in front. I th ink a ll of us had some pr etty good moments out there. So I fig ured it m ight be getting pretty bad because there were som e good drops com ing down in the ba c k. And those gu ys kept charg ing a nd I just mellowed out and I proba b ly m e llowed out too m uc h. I didn 't know. There was too much unknown a nd I s ho uld ha ve kept going ." Tommy Hayden (22) leads Kurtis Roberts (partially hidden) and Anthony Gobert (1 6) In t heir battle for fifth pl ace . c u e I e n e _ so • JUNE 20 ,2001 13

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