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/128110
Bo s trom , who wo n h is fir st ra c e si nc e Pike ' s Pe a k in August of la s t ye ar, set a new race record of 8 1. 120 mph , completing the ra ce 's 39-laps (62 .4- m ile s ) in 4 6 m in ute s , 10 .3 87 second s. Ha yden had p ushe d h is way by Yosh imura S uzu k i's J a mi e Ha ck ing , who 'd run thi rd e a rly in th e ra ce, on the 26th of 39 la ps . Hac k in g nev e r gave up , crossing th e line .2 74 of a second behind Hayden at the end. "J a m ie [Ha c king] p ushed me t o the end , fo r su re , " Nick y Ha yden sa id. Ka wa s a ki's Chandler ra n a lonely si xth the e ntir e ra c e , lo s in g touch with the le ader s earl y a nd s ett ling in fo r the long haul. "It was p rett y uneventful ," Chandl e r sa id. "We 've be e n chasing bal an c e in the bike. It wa s o kay, but wasn't really how I rea lly hoped we'd have it." HMC Ducat i's Steve Ra pp bro ke away from a qua rtet to finis h se ve nth , after pa ss ing A m e r ic a n Hond a ' s Miguel DuHamel on the e ighth of 24 laps . DuHamel he ld off Yamaha 's To m m y Hayden for e ighth , and Com p et it io n A c c e s s o r ie s. c o m ' s Lar ry Pe gr a m c a me in 10th. E le ve n t h went to HMC Du cat i's Andy Mekl au , by himself and a lap d own , wit h Austin-Bleu Ba yo u / Be ll Coun ty Racing 's Jordan Szo ke 11 th o Early o n it was clear th is was a two-rider race - Bostrom vs . Mlad in. "I knew that it wa s go ing to come down to the start, because this p lace is so hard to pa ss on ," Bostrom s aid. "We got a great lau nch a nd we put in some fast la ps in the beg inning and I was hoping that m aybe nobody could com e with m e , bu t o f cour se Ma t [Mla d in] just wasn't going to let g o. " Bostrom was in t h e lead , Mlad in wa s in h is shadow , and it appeared that he was biding his time , waiting for Bostro m to e ither make a mistake o r burn up h is tires . Nothing of the sort happened. Mladin had pr oblems with his front tire . He'd also gone to a large r rim s ize on the rear , but it didn't work as we ll on the back section o f the cou rs e , wh ere Bostrom excelled. "H e was quic ker on th e b a c k , " Mladin sa id . "I k n e w it wou ld be a prob lem in th e bac k section, th e way we set the bike up like that, if I didn 't get the best start." Mladi n's best chance came on the 2 9 t h la p , with the Australi an go ing under Bostrom in turn three, Bo strom taking it ba c k in turn s ix when they ran into a bac km arker. Aaron Yates got a ba d start but still managed to work his way through to a third-pla ce finish. His Yoshimura Suzuki t eammate, Jamie Hacking (9 2) , en de d up a close fifth. "We came in behind a la p pe r a nd th e lappers brea k your c o n c e nt ration and we saw some guys two o r three t imes out there and so I th ink I just re la xed a li tt le to o much , " Bo s t ro m said . "Co mi n g up on th e guy , I was hoping I could get under him in the cente r then o n corn er ra th e r th en o n the bra kes , and Ma t c am e b y . I w as d o ing ha lfw a y decent, so he went a little wid e and I gassed it up and went by . I guess that was th e d e cis ive moment in th e ra c e t he re." "If Jordan [Szoke] wa sn' t th ere he park ed it in the turn - I h a d it ," Mlad in s a id . "If I could get pa st, th e job was done ." A few lap s la te r, Mlad in had a c los e brush with Me k lau , wh o wa s being lapped , go ing th rough turn eight, apologized , then set ba ck a fte r Bostrom . Th e re was never a g o od c h a nc e to make th e move , and Bo strom had the win . "We chose th e rig ht t ire s and the right set up and I th ink I could launch off th e corners and that got u s up there," Bostrom sa id. After Yates botched the start - he was s ixth on the first la p - h e was looki ng at nothing but work. Team m at e Hacking was ahead of him and he kept c hipp ing away , closing up a t hi rd of the wa y int o th e ra ce and pas si ng h im on th e 13th lap . He c o uld see the le a de rs ahead of him , but there wasn 't mu c h he could do. "I just kind of diced my way right through everybody , and once I got up th er e tho se gu ys had a litt le gap and I just couldn' t ne ver close ," Yates said . "A c t u ally , I g ot to run in beh ind Ja mie for a while a nd started losing a litt le g round. " J a m ie ran wide in thre e and made it e a s y to get around him . I kind of settled in t o a pretty n ice pa c e there and got go ing and was pretty c o m fo rt a bl e, " Yates said. "I Pascal Picotte (211 looked se t to t urn in hi s be st result of the season , but he cra she d the fact ory Ha rl ey. Doug Chandler (1 01, Y at e s (201. N icky Hayden (6 9) and Steve Rapp (821 try to c ha se the Harley down early In t he race. cycl e pushed pr e tt y ha rd for a wh ile and finall y just de c ided I' m not catch ing these gu ys . I started sl iding a ro und a b it. Th e traffi c was co ming and I g ot to th in ki n g a bout d iffe re nt th ing s . O ne th ing I got to th ink ing a bo ut was watching that GP last n ight and how n ice th at trac k was th at th ose gu ys we re runn ing o n a nd it ju st kind of really pisses you off wh at yo u 've got to do ov er here . It's not as fun as it c o u ld b e ov e r her e . Gett in g t wo Suz u ki s up he r e o n t h e pod iu m, that' s good, but I wanted to be in the race , and I wasn't in it." Hacking woul d succumb to Nic ky Ha yden as wel l. Hay den' s sta rt wasn 't great, a nd pa ss ing was difficu lt. "It wa s kin d of a frustra ting race," Hayden sa id. After pas si ng Harley- Dav idso n ' s Pascal Pic ot te and Chandler , "I went after J amie [Hack in g] a nd c a u g ht him . I wa s a ble to get b y h im . He pushed me to the end." Hayden s a id he pla yed it a little bit sa fe on t he final la p and Hacki ng ca ught up . "I fig u red J a m ie [Ha cking) wa s going to pu s h m e to the e nd for s ure." After Ha c king cam e Chan dl e r , lonely in the middle. By th e third la p , he 'd sett led in t o s ixth a n d th ere wasn't much he c ould do to improve. "I rea lly thought I'd be ab le to run w it h tho s e gu ys , " C ha n d le r sa id . "We 've bee n be hind a ll weeke nd ." Rapp wa s next ac ross t he line . He was in front of Du Hamel until nearly hig h sidin g o n th e thi rd lap . It took until the e ighth lap before he could re -p a ss DuHam e l and , by then , sev enth was th e best he could do . "I think th a t's where I would hav e fin is he d an ywa y ," Rapp sai d , "b ut it would ha ve been nice to have be e n more in the race." DuHame l stu ck wi th h im for a wh ile , then fell back into the clutches of Ya m a h a ' s T omm y Hay de n . Du Ha m e l had fo und a chassis fix just before th e race , and it wou ld help late r, but not s o much here. Hay den pressed him a lmost to th e end , a nd DuH a m e l knew it. "It' s like' he had a laser be a m on m e ," DuHa m e l sa id. "Wha te ve r I d id, he did." T om m y Ha yd e n ran into a trans mi s s io n proble m in the morn ing wa rm-up. It was inte rm ittent, m ostly in th e fi r st tQree gears, an d o fte n whe n he came onto the front straighta way . He t u rn e d off th e e lectri c s hifter , but that didn 't seem to help. At the e nd , he was 10 se c o n d s behind DuHa me l. Com p e t it ion A c ce s s or ie s . c om 's La rr y Pe g r am was next ac ro s s , n e _ s • JUNE 27 . 2001 7