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AMA C h e vy T r u c k s U . S . S u p e rbik e Serie s R o u nd 7: New Hampshire International S p e e d w a y fatigued from the heat with his rece ntly repaired forearm muscles cramping, eN New Hampshire IntematiDnal Speedway loudon, New Hampshire Results: June 17, 2001 [RD und 7 of 141 Q UALIFYING : I. M at M l adln ( 1:0 9 .5 6I) : 2 . Aaron Yates (1 :09. 893): 3 . Eri c Bostrom ( 1:10. 0 19) : 4 . Do ug Chandl er ( 1: 10. 2 49) ; 5 . N ic ky Hayden ( 1: 10 .51 9); 6. Steve Rapp ( 1: 10 .5 72 ) ; 7 . Ja mie Hack ing (1: 10.575): 8. Pasca l Picotte (1 :10 .887) : 9 . Tomm y Ha yden ( 1: 11 .0 26 ) ; 10 . Lar ry Pegram (1: 11. 104) ; I I. A nth on y Go bert (1: 11.299): 12. A ndreas M eklau (1 :11.533); 13 . Jor dan Szoke (1 : 11.6 57 ): 14. Migue l DuHame l (1 ;11.667); 15. Mi ke Smith (1:11.760); 16 . M ike Cfccotto ( 1:13.115) : 17. Eric Wood ( 1: 13.646): 18. Richar d Alex ander ( 1:1 4 .0 43); 19 . C harle s C houin ard (1 : 14.200); 20 . Ch ri s OIrich (1: 14 .274); 21. Mik e Barnes ( 1:14.299); 22. J immy Moo re ( 1: 14.434): 23 . Richard Neenan (1: 14 .984); 24. Vincent Haskovec (1: 15 ,02 3): 25 . M i k e Ga llagh er (1: 15. 075) ; 26 . M aure -Ce re d e (1: 15 .4 39 ) ; 27 . Dean Mi zdal (1 ;15.522 ); 28. Mich ael Nik se (1 :15 .723) ; 29. David Mci ntyre (1: 15.72 3): 3 0. Tony Mei ri ng (1 :15 .80 8) : 31. Dale Dandr ea (1 : 16 .559). SOPERBIKE NATIONAL: I. Eri c Bo stro m (Kaw) ; 2. Mat M1adin (Suz); 3. Aa ron Yates (Suz); 4 . Nicky Hayden (H on) ; 5 . Jamie Hacking (Suz) ; 6 . Doug Ch an dl er (Kaw); 7. Steve Rapp (Duc) ; 8 . Miguel DuHamel (Hon); 9 . To mmy Hayden (Yam) ; to . Larry Pegram (Duc); 11. Andres Meklau (D uc); 12. Jordan Szoke (H·D ): 13. Mike Clccc ttc (Suz); 14. Michael Bames (Suz); 15. Mauro Ceredo (Suz); 16 . Charles Chouinard (Suz); 17. Dean Mizdal (Suz); 18. Pascal Picotte (H· D): 19. To ny Meiring {Suz}; 20 . MichllCI Gallagher ( Suz) ; 2 1. Michael Niksa (Suz) ; 22 . Richard Neenan (Suz). lime: 46 mins.. 10.387 se es. Distan ce: 39 laps, 62. 4 miles. Average speed: 8 1.120 mph . Margin of victory: 1.036 sees. AM A/CHEVY TRUCKS U.S . SUPERBIKE C'SHIP POINT STANDINGS (A ft er 7 or 14 round s): I. Mat Mladln (230 /3 wins): 2. Eric Bostro m (2 00/1 win ): 3 . ( TI E) Nicky Hayden / Do ug Ch an dl er (16 3); 5 . Tommy Ha yde n (161) ; 6 . Aaron Yates (155 ): 7 . Jamie Hacking (1 46/1 win) ; 8 . M iguel Du Ham el ( 13 6) : 9 . Lar ry Pegram ( 133): 10. A nthony Gobert (126 /2 w ins): I I. Steve Rapp (124): 12. Kurtis Rob ert s (11 4) : 13. Jordan Szoke (1 13); 14 . Mike Sm ith (108); 15 . A ndy Me kiau ( 103 ) : 16 . Mau ro Ce re d e (8 6); 17 . Pa s c al Picotte (73) ; 18 . Andy Deatherage (67) ; 19. Dea n Mizdal (51) ; 20. John J acobi (48) , Upcom ing Rounds : Round 8 - Monterey, California, July 7 Round 9 - Lexington, Ohio, July 22 T raditionally , the four Superbike riders at Saturday afternoon's front-row press conference discuss their motorcycles, why they went fast, why they went slow, why they 'll win the race or not, Not so at Loudon, The gathering was a con tentious affai r, the riders as eager to discu ss th e safety prob lems of the 1,6- m ile road co urse as thei r own performances, Leading the way, on both the track and matters of the track, was Yoshimura Suzuki's Mat Mladin . First thing's first. Mladin was th e fastest of the 31 riders, his fifth pole of the year keeping his perfect qualifying season intact, and he set a new lap record along the way, The track, though hot, was marginally cooler than Friday, and Mladin took advantage to speed to a best of 1:09.561, well under his mark of 1:09 ,947 from last year, Before he said any thi ng about his lap , he wanted to correct some wrongs. "Obviously, all you guys are going to get this on tape so hopefully noth ing what' s said in here isn 't going to be m isquoted, because there 's been a lot of misquotes in newspa pers and stuff," he began, The article Mladin was referring to clai med that after Friday qualifying he refused to talk to reporters to protest the track conditions, wh ich simply wasn't true , After setting the record straight, he repeated his displeasure with the track, senti ments agreed to by most of the front row , and a slew of others. "As far as I'm concerned no money's been spent on this track in the last 12 months to fix it up for us, Money 's been spent to fix it up for NA SCAR, but not for us," he said in reference to the sealan t which was app lied to the oval portion of the racetrack, but not the road course. NHIS has been the scene of two deaths in NASCAR races in the past few years and the sealant, and a subseq uent laser -leveling of the track, was clearly a reaction t o those incid ents, "I think these guys will echo the same opi nions, I'll tell yo u now, I'm tir ed of readin q some shit." A s for th e record lap , Mladi n said third fastest Eric Bostrom and 10th fastest Larry Pegram balked him. . "As I said ou t there on the microphone, some of these factory riders need to learn how to get out of the way when they're coming into the pits ," Mladin said. "If they're doing a 14 [1:14) or something comi ng into the pits, and sorneone's doi ng a nine [1:09), they're going to get caught real quick. Th ey don't look over their shoulder, they don't do nothing." Bostrom , who qualified third fastest, responded by saying, "I don 't like getting in any body's way, Last week in qualifying we ended up about one -tenth off th e pole and we ended sixth, but I had to pass five guys on my fast lap and three of them in corners. I guess it comes and goes. I didn't realize I was in anybody's way. Because Mat [Mladin] pull ed out behind me and, obviously, I thought that if he was going for a qual ifying lap he'd m ay be give more of a gap, So I didn't know if he was on Qs [qual ifyinq tires) bec ause it was pretty early." Mladin said he tried another lap on the same qualifier, but co uldn 't improve his time. His teammate, Aaron Yates , was the only other ride r in the nines, ,3 32 of a second behi nd Mladin, afte r goi ng too soft on his front tire choice, "I k new we'd go a little faster today tha n we went yeste rday because everybody gets a chance to do thi ngs to their bike to m ake the m bett er," said Yates, who held the provisio nal pole, "We found a few things that got better, My qualifying lap , we put a soft tire in the back. I ended up with a little bit of push in the front and wasn' t real confident and didn 't want to throw the thing down anywhere, I was pretty happy to get in the nin es, My first lap was a 10.0 and then I saw that somebody do ne a 9.5 , I was like, 'Man, that's going to hard to beat .' I did my 9.8 and that was all I had and I kind of pushed it aro und in a couple of spots and decided that's it, I'm not even going to try any more, Th at was kind of my fault a little bit. Th e guys ask ed me if I wan ted a new fron t and I kind of passe d it , up, Next time, we'll go for it." As for the tr ack , Yates said, " Every yea r the tra cks get rougher, more tim es on them, m ore car s and every th ing else , Bikes get faste r, tires get better and you 're j ust go ing faster and fast er. You look at our speeds and we're faster and faster in the turn s, so when you fall you' re go ing faster and wh en you hit something there 's nowhere to go out there when yo u fall. " Bostrom 's view on th e trac k was that "as far as the racetrack 's co ncerne d, it's the same tra ck that we'v e alw ays been co m ing to and it's dangerous as alw ay s. I ki nd of agree with what Mat said there." Doug Chandler made his first app earance on the front row in just ov er a year, since last year's race at Road Atl ant a, "T here for a while I tho ught I was just ki nd of lo sing tou ch with eve ry bod y, " th e Kawasaki rider said, "I didn 't wan t to give up trying . 1 co me to this place and for some reason or anothe r, I tend to get along with it all right, no t that I li ke it , but my bik e, I can get it working pretty good to get around here decent, and everything was going good so just hung in ther e and got a front row ." 10 J UNE 2 7 , 2001 • cu e I B n e vv s (Above) M iguel Du Hamel (17) held off Tom my Hayden (22) to fin ish eighth. Larry Pegram (7 2 ) ended up 10th. (Right) Eric Bostrom's victory was his first of the season and It moved him slightly closer to Mat Mladln In the championship points standings. (Below) Steve Rapp (82) holds off Miguel DuHamel (17 ) en route to fi nishin g seventh.