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
A MA Chevy T rucks U. S . S u p e r b ik e C hampion s h ip Rounds 5/6 : R o a d Ame r ic a Andy MekJau [1031 had his best outing since c oming to the AMA Series. The Austrian finished fourth In the wet ra ce on Sunday, besting Eric Bostrom's [3 21 fifth-p la c e finish. d ler sai d. " W e 'll change it fo r tomor- trian obvio u sly feeling m o re at home at Road Amer ica - a track more simi la r to those he 's raced on in Europe. Rain saturated the area early Sunday ro w and sho u ld be a ble t o pick u p a few te nth s." RACE TWO What a d ifference a day makes. He beat Chandler to the line after the two had battled for the duration. " I had a perfect start to the first r ac e," said Meklau . "I'd moved into se venth position and was ready to go into b attle when the red flag came out. My second start wasn't as good as the first. I had a small slip on the start and had to rec apture the lost places. I knew where I was faster, but I had to bide m y time, fin all y sli p streaming him between turns five and six and o p en ing a gap almost imme- to make it. I h it the t ire wall and dropped it . Then I cou ldn't pick it up and as you can tell I'm running right up fron t now. With a little b it mo re right away. It actually started before I got it up because that's where my hand was [on the starter]." That left Ha c k ing and Gobert to battle to the finish line, with the Aus tra lia n taking the spot by just a 10t h time on the b ike and a li ttle b it more fine tuning on the setup , and y o u can of a second. " I was a little b it disappo inted when the y restarted i t because I knew here with my bike being ' a bit down on horsepower, I knew I h ad to kind of surprise the guys and get away from t h e m on the first lap ," Gobert said. " E v e r y corner it seemed like I went up the in sid e of somebody , but I got into one of them a b it hot out the back and sq u ee ze d Mat [Mladin] a little bit. Unfortuna te ly, there was a red flag . The second restart I was k ind of struggling a little b it. On the straights I was getting hosed , even when I was in Kurtis' [Roberts] draft he would pull f ive or six bike lengths on me. I was in second or th ird up here on the first lap and b y the t im e we got to turn one I was in about seventh . I felt li k e pu lling in the p its, but I pe rse vered and did the best with what I could . Jamie kept bumping me a bit in the corners and be ing a b it desperate . That was k ind o f lo o k fo r me." Kawasak i 's Bo strom bene f it ed f r o m the Robe rts i n ci d ent and a l so from Yates sl owing , but he st ill felt he could ha ve been better than fo u rt h. "I wa s th ere t he wh o le t ime , but I j u s t h av e a la c k of stra ig hta w a y speed," Bostrom said . " I had a lo t of troub le pass ing guys . I got aro u n d Gobert and some of the guys, then he [Go be rt ] came by and I wanted to go fo rwa rd with him. The guys in fron t of me were just killing my lap times . I tried Miguel [DuHame l] in fiv e but ran o f f. I lost four to five seconds ri ght there. When I didn't have anybody in my way, I cou ld go k ind of fast. I g ot back by Miguel again and T omm y and Aaron . If nobody is in m y wa y , I can go fast." Fifth place ended up g o i ng to Nicky Hayden, the Honda rider losing brake fluid from his rear brake early o n and that hampe red h is i n i ti a l progress. " I lost the rear brake," N icky Ha yden said . " A n d for the first la p s th e hold ing me up and then I burnt up my t ire a b it so I decided to slow and cool the tires a b it, then pick t he m tire felt greasy. I d ropped way off th e pace and I guess when it ran out of fluid I could start going again . It's d is appointing . The bike felt good and it was fast. We 're j u st hav ing a hard t ime catching a break r ight now. In off one by one once they settled the part I got a good start then the d own. A few guys , maybe includi ng myself, were doing a few maneuvers that were a l ittle bit suspect. It was a red flag came out. Then I got a bad start in the second one. I've kind of been behind all weekend - it's more frustrating race fo r me :" Hack ing, m eanwhile, has to be pleased with his races of late as he continues to prove tha t he belongs at th e fron t of the Superbike races . " I' m gett ing more time on the b ike ," Ha cking sa id . "T h at's what it takes . That's all I needed. The win has boosted me up a little bit, but I'm getting rea l comfortable on the bike me than the b ike right now . Mat [M ladin] obviously is going really fast , but I'll definitely be better tomorrow ." Yamaha's Tomm y Hayden, DuHamel, HM C Du c at i' s Meklau and Kawasaki 's Chandler rounded out the top 10 finishers . For Meklau it was his first top- 10 fi n ish since he joined the series in th e second round at Sears Point, the Aus - 8 JUNE 2 0 . 2001 ' cue I e ne"":. afternoon and it changed everything . Naturally, the race featured a red flag. It came on the fifth lap and it saved Mladin 's bacon. With the defending two-time champion seemingly putting it on cruise control in fourth place wh ile Gobert, DuHamel and Hacking diced it up in front of him, he crashed . Not once , but tw ic e. The first one came on the third lap , not too long after word came that Yates had crashed in turn eight. M ladin's crash came on the entrance to the Carousel , but he was up quick- d iat ely. But it w as too late to impro ve m y position furthe r ." Chandler sa id he 'd chosen too soft ly and ci rc u la ti n g i n 18 t h. Then he o f a rear spring. " I t would wobble down the stra ights when it'd set down ," Chan- six. Shortly thereafter, Hacking went crashed aga in , in a stra ight line as he climbed the hill from turn five to tum down in the kink , bringing out the red flag . Just like that, all three Yoshimu- Whenever the AMA is handing out championship points, Yoshimura Suzuki's Mat Mladin somehow manages to scoop them up quicker than anybody else. Qualifying on Saturday moming was no different. The AMA offered its usual championship point for pole position and Mladin, as usual, scooped it up. For the second straight day, Mladin clic ked off the quickest time - a 2:09 .071 - but it still wasn't as fast as the 2:09.068 he'd tumed during Friday 's first qualifying session. Do magical things for long enough and you start to claw your way into history books . This pole position was the 19th of Mladi n's AMA career and it put him at the top of the alltime list, moving him out of a tie with Doug Polen. Now it can be said that the Australian has sat on pole in AMA Superbike competition more than anyone else in history. Joining him on the front row were his Yoshimura Suzuki teammates, Aaron Yates and Jamie Hacking. Spoilin g the all -Suzuki party was Yamaha 's An thony Gobert, with the Australian sneaking his R7 into the second slot on the front row. It was tight at the top, with the top nine Superbike men all circu lating in the 2:09s. As is becoming the norm , however, Mladin is the one who seems to be able to click of the lap he needs to put him right at the top. "It feels good." Mladin said. "If only I was Spanish than maybe I might get the chance to win a World Championship , but I'm not - I'm Australian. It's good to get the pole and the extra point that goes with it. I thought we were going to go faster, but all weekend our bike has been pretty slow , We're act ually a couple of miles an hour down on Aaron [Yates) and three or four down on Jamie [Hacking ] so we're trying to figure out why that is the case. That's not too promising, but again that was a good lap and we seem to be all running around the same times on race tires - in the low l Os. I remembe r last year low lOs was the fastest lap of the race and it was a one-off. I think it will be a bit quicker this year." The man who came closest to matching M1adin's pace was Gobert, with the Australian lapping at 2:09.089 for second on the grid . He did the lime on his backup bike after his number -one machine threw a chain midway through the session. Though he refused to use it as an excuse, Gobert admitted that he felt more comfortable on the bike that tossed the chain - the bike he would be racing later on Saturday . "It's going to be really close as it always is here." Gobert said. "Just hopefully you can get away with the lead group , That's all that really mailers here. I did one lap on a Q [qualifying tire] and when I went over the start/finish it had lO.l [his on -board computer) or 10,3, I was really disappoi nted because I'd put a lot into that lap . I thought I'd better wait and get a tow , but nobody came around. Just as I came in the pits , [Doug[ Chandler and [Steve) Rapp went past. I was a bit disappointed that I didn 't wait and try to get a tow from them. But it's pretty risky to hope for a good lap just from getting a tow. I was happy. I was surprised thatI'd done that time . Mat is always hard to beat, especially hard on a qualifier. He's good at pulling that one lap in. He's pretty smooth and he's a hard guy to beat. I had a few problems and that was pretty frustrating ." Next to Gobert was Yates, the Georgian putling his Yoshimura Suzuki firmly on the front row. "From last year we had a lot of guys up there battling back and forth and from the times today it looks like a lot of guys are there,- Yates said. " But it depends. You look at the overall qualifying thing and it doesn't really count because a lot of guys put a soft tire on and go. I feel pretty good because I ran a lot of laps in the low l Os, high nines on my race setup. I'm feeling a whole lot better than I did yesterday. It looks like the Yoshimura Suzukis are going good because even Jamie [Hacki ng) was going in the nines on his race setup and you can see that Mat [Mladin) was too." The third Yoshimura Suzuki, ridden by Road Atla nta race winner J amie Hacki ng, filled the front row. American Honda's Miguel DuHamel would lead a row two consisting of three Hondas and the lone Kawasaki of Eric Bostrom . Erion Honda's Kurtis Roberts and American Honda's Nicky Hayden qualified seventh and eighth , respective ly. The final session was stopped twice - once for a crash and once when a tree limb fell onto the circuit.