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
the g rid that had him th ird after just two laps and second after th ree (with Gob ert runn ing off the track) . Hacking th en went after DuHam el and was making headway into the Honda ri der ' s l e ad whe n he was p as s ed aga in by Gobert . Latching on to th e Aus tr alian, Hac k ing crashed on th e ninth la p of th e re st arte d race in tu rn five , endi ng his day. Ni ck y Hayd en had a cons istent if no t ea rth -shattering weekend , es pe c ia ll y when yo u co n si der t hat th e you ngster won b oth Sup erbi k e Nationals here a year ago. T hi s t ime, Hayd en struggled in th e d ry t o fifth place and then rode a st ead y ra ce to finish third in race two . His t eammate D u H a m e l turn ed things around dramatic ally when th e weather turned sour. After m an aging just an eighth on Saturday , DuHamel le d a lot of Sund ay ' s wet race unt il fin al l y s uccu m b ing t o Gob ert ' s att ack . St ill , he held on for second easil y his best outing of the season . K awa sak i's Eric Bo strom fini shed fourth on Saturd ay and fifth on Sun da y , losin g m o r e gro u n d in his attem pt to chase down Ml adin in the cham pionship points sta ndi ng s. After si x r oun d s, Mla din h o ld s a healthy 35 -po int lead over the C a li f o rn ia n , 198- 163 - and no one els e is even cl os e. Yamaha's T o m m y Hayden had a week end to bu il d on, finishi ng sev enth and sixth in the two races . But tho se res u lts were good enoug h t o move hi m t o t hi r d i n the ove ra ll st and ings. Wh il e the Duc at i teams co ntinued to struggl e, a light at the end of the t u nnel ca me in t he fo r m of HMC Duca ti 's And y Mekl au ' s fou rth -pl ac e finish in the wet rac e. He'd al so m an age d a ninth in the dry race on Satur day , bu t Du c at i 's fort un es went down hill from there. Competitio n A cc essories Du cati 's Larry Pegram finished 11th on Saturday and the n was taken out in the first comer of Sunday 's race by th e fly ing Hacking . HMC's Stev e Rapp di dn 't fare any better, fi nishing 12th on Saturday and then crash ing out on Sunday . The best of the Harley men over th e cour se of the weekend was Austin-Bleu Bayou's Jordan Szoke. T h e Canadian was 16 th in the dry and eighth in the wet. The factory team . meanwhile, fared worse: Pascal Picotte was 15th on Saturday and the n crashed on Sunday; Mike Sm ith was 14th and 17th over the course of the two races. K aw asak i 's Dou g Chandler wa s a qui et 10th a nd n inth ove r th e t wo days, strugg ling wi th a ba d set up on If Gobert was dominatin9 In the wet, the n M at Mladln (1) was equ a lly so In the dry. The Australian controlled Sa turday's dry race from start to finish , taking his f o u rth v ictory of the season a nd extendi ng h is championship points l e ad. Saturda y and persev ering in bad con di tions on Sunday. Erion Ra cing' s Kurtis Roberts didn 't have a good wee k end . H e crashed o ut of fo urth place in Satur day 's race, th en cr ashed agai n in the rain on Sun day . M l adin ' s wi n w a s hi s se c on d at Road A m er ica , wi th his othe r victory here coming in 19 9 7 on a Fast B y F e r r a c c i Du c at i. It wa s his 13th career AMA w in , wh ich m o ved him into a tie with Do ug Polen fo r seventh on th e all -ti me win list. He also ended a Suzuki drought at the four -mile circ uit that da ted b ac k t o Pol en ' s win here in 1988. A lm o st p ro phet ic all y , Mladin com m ent ed after Sat urda y' s victory about just how precarious bein g at the top in m oto rc ycl e racing is. Little did he know that things wo uld tu rn around so dras tica lly for him on Sunday. "Thin gs are go in g pretty well fo r us , bu t this is m ot or ra cing and any t hi ng ca n h ap p en , " Ml a d i n said. " O nc e yo u l et yoursel f ge t u p on a high a nd pret end you 're b ett er than everybo d y else, th at' s normall y when i t du mps yo u b a c k on your arse again . We 're doing good. The t eam 's strong, th e b ik e ' s stro ng a nd w e ' ll take that. " RACE ON E Although the race las te d only th ree qua rters of a la p , M ladin learned a lesson that he would use when the race was restarted. Mladin led off the li ne , but his teammate Hack ing soon shoved his GSX -R750 u p th e inside of him in turn five . Mladin then followed Hacking until the red fl ag was thrown , but h e'd seen e nou g h to kn ow th at he wanted t o do th ings differently o n th e restart. "J am ie [Hacking ] ca me under me in five and th ere wa s only three-quarters of the la p left un til we go t the red flag, but after he ca me under me he was holdi ng m e up: Ml adin sai d . " I could see he was slow in a few spots compared to me, or maybe faster in a cou ple of spot s , but in the s po ts where I could make up my time , he was ho lding me up. I d id n't want him to be in front of me in the second race because I wan t ed to have a clear track... The pas s wa s clean , if not a bit dicey cons ide ring th at Hack ing was passing h is tea mmate - and t h e cha mpionship po ints lead er. Bu t bot h riders seemed okay wi th it. " I don't th ink it was too aggressive and I don't thi nk he think s it was too agg res sive : Hack ing sai d. " He j ust left the insi de op en for me a little bit and I wen t down inside there, j ust like anybod y else would . If somebody leaves the inside open , so mebody 's going to run it down in there. I wasn 't going to do anything to jeopardize Ma t's points or anything. I knew I was in control when I went off in there ." On c e t he mess was cleaned up from the Ja mes Doerfler / Chuck Allen incident in th e fas t K ink section of the track , Mladin d i d exactly what he wanted to do - he cleared off. Kurtis Roberts (8 0) battled for second place In the dry race w ith Aaron Yates (2 0 ), Anthony Gobert 1161 and Jamie Hacking 19 21 before crash ing o ut of the race. cu e ... " I dra ft ed past hi m [Hacking] and actu ally al most hi t h im g oing into Ca n ad a Corn e r ," M l ad in said . " H e went a lot w id er th ere than I ex pec t ed h im to run and I alm ost h it him . I had to get out of it, g et back into it and I got him o n t he b r a k es going in t o Cana da Corner. I really tr ied to make the next couple of corners good just so he couldn 't d raft m e up th e front straight. He d idn 't and I w as stea d ily able to get it bac k out from there ." Wha t Mladin d id wa s slam the dag ge r s traight i nto th e chest of his riva l s . Th e y co u l d d o n oth ing but watch h im inexorab ly ease away until he wa s a comfortable fou r to five sec on ds clear. At t h a t poi nt , h e just maintai ned hi s advantage un til slowin g in the final laps to ulti mately w in by 1.8 56 seconds. Be h in d him , things w ere mu ch m o re heated . Initially , th e po sit ion was held by Ro berts . but Yates , Hack in g and Gobert each had turns in t he sp ot wi t h t h o se four fi ghti ng t h r o ugh o ut the race. Hacking held the spot on th e 12th lap, bu t then heavy traffi c in turn six cost him dearly. " Coming up to turn six. th ere was a lapper in the way and I tr ied to run 'er up in the re, get it up on th e insi de of 'em : Hack ing said. " And when I did I j ust ki nd of la unched over th e top of the h ill , lost the fr ont and drifted out wi de . Ku rt is [Robert s] got by m e and [Anthon y] Gobert got by m e. I had done t o o ma ny c ha rges b a ck and forth and by that time I'd pretty much used m y ti res up. If I could have got t en a good d riv e out of th is la st corner, I could have got him [Gobert] but I co ul d n't get a good d rive." The race for second was whittl ed down to just two - Gobert and Hack ing - whe n Yates slowed with wh at he thought was a bad tire , and Roberts crashing o u t, remounting to fi nish 13th. "I got up there but it was hell try ing to get around Kurtis [Roberts]: said Yat es , w ho h e ld o n to fin ish si xth . " H e w as reall y l a te on the brakes , then he 'd blow the middle of the turn , th en h e'd motor on. I did that for a while and then wi th about eight laps to go I fe lt a little vi bra tion in the rear. I didn't know what to ex pect , but I t ho ught I'd bli st ered a ti re. A s it turns out , it looks lik e the t ir e sp u n o n th e r im . It wo u l d just sl ide, hoo k , sli de... we ' ll make it better for tomorrow." Ro berts' crash was j ust a case of him being a tad ov erzea lo us . "I couldn't get it stopped : Rob erts sai d. "T here was no way I was goi ng n .. _ S • J UNE 20, 200 1 7