Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

AM AIC hevy Trucks U.S . Supe rbi ke S e r ie s R o u n d 9 -10 : M id-Oh io Sports Car C o u r s e g et him down th e ba ck straightaw ay b e c au s e I was goo d on t he b rak es , th e sa m e as yesterday. I got a dr ive on him but h is bik e k in d of took a ste p a n d cam e b a c k , a n d it jus t mad e m e s h u t off a litt le b it. He opened it up abou t 10 bikele ngths . I ou t- b ro ke h im , but I cou ld n't get it s topp ed in time. I wa s low, b ut he wa s ev en lo wer . I t rie d him on th e b ra k e s g oi ng int o s e ve n , b ut I wa s too far behind him to m a ke it stick . I cou ldn 't get it stopped a ga in , and he CN went back underneath m e ." s e aso n -lo ng s trug g le wit h h is arm pr oblem s. "It wa s fun, " Ro berts s a id . "Ba s ica lly, yeste rda y we we re go ing q u ite a bit faster. I d id n't get a good sta rt ag ain , an d I passed a few g uys o n th e firs t lap. I got Mig ue l, a nd I ha d him be hi nd m e th e wh ol e ra c e. Th e la s t la p going in to t he e sse s, th ere was a lapped rid er rig ht in fro nt of m e , a nd I ju s t he s ita ted . I wa s clo s e eno u gh fo r Mig uel t o s t u ff it u p un d e rn e a t h m e . I heard h im and thought , 'Oh , no way.' I figu re d I'd The top three from Sunday's race celebrate with racew inner Nicky Hayden flanked by secondplace fi nishe r Mat Mladin (left) and th irdplace man M iguel DuHamel (ri ght ). going to be my managers for another two years, but afte r this year I'm up with Team Hammer. It' s something [going GP racing] I really want to do. I want to go to Europe and check it out a few more times before I really decide to go with it. It helps that I have BRIEFLY••• Let th e fa ns d ecide. The AMA had what they called an "AMA Superbike Tour Survey " at the Mid-Ohio Sport s Car Course, with the quest ionnaire being passed out at various locations around the track. The one-page document asked fans some basic questions such as ..How did you first beco me interested in Superbike racing?" as well as some more pointed quest ions like "Should a rider be allowed to use a back-up bike in a red-flag situation?" In all, the questionnaire asked 27 questions. Those who filled it out became eligible for four free tickets to next year's AM A Superbike National at M id-Ohio . The Harley-D avidson fact ory team had an interest ing Friday at Mid -Ohi o . W hile trying new fork selli ngs , Pascal Picotte crashed during the qualifying session. When his teammate Mike Smith sto pped to pick up the stranded French Canadian. Smith stalled the motor on his V R1000 , leaving both of them stranded. To make mailers worse, Smith later high-sided the VRl 000. Erion Racing's M a rk M iller crashe d tw ice durmq practice for the Formula Xtreme race - once on Friday and again on Saturday morning. The secon d one hurt the most. wit h Miller thinking he may have bro ken a small bone in his right foo t. Saturday' s crash was of the high-side variety in turn seven, when the water pump broke and put water on Mi ller' s back tire . Friday' s crash was a low -side. "This is the first time I've walked on it. " Miller said on Saturday morning. "I think I've broken a small bone in my foot. " Miller was forced to qualify on his back-up bike, and the Californ ian ended up ninth quickest. Miller also crashed out of the final when his C BR929 blew up. The planned a ppeal board meeting to decide on the fate of Mat Ml adin's championship point and $5000 fine fo r the comments he made at a post -qualifying pres s confere nce on Saturday afternoon at N ew Hampshire International Speedw ay never mate- rialized , wit h a ve il of secrecy surrou nding the entire subject. "There was a hearing scheduled and the AMA called the hearing off until a later date for some reason," Mladin said. " Other than that, I don't know. I'm not sure what is going on exactly." Beyond that. M ladin refused to comment. Dillo fo r the AMA with Ron Barrick saying only. " I can confirm that the hearing was postponed . I do n't kno w anythi ng else beyond t hat. " Nu merou s sources say t hat the AMA has received a lett er from a lawyer representing M ladin and that more time is now needed to decide their co urse of action. The appeal board did meet , however, to decid e on the Jamie Hacking 's appe a l regarding his Road Ameri ca penalty . The board ruled in favor of the one-lap penalty the AMA handed down when Hacking 's crashed Suzuki GSX-R750 was taken under the team's awning during the red-ftag period at Road America. Rules stip ulate that any wo rk performed on a motorcycle durinq a redftag race stop page must be done on the hot pit. "We're disappointed w ith the results. " Yoshimura Suzuki team manager D on Sakakura said. "We thought we had a real good shot of winning (the appeal]." Valvoline EMGO Suzuki' s John Hopkins had his seco nd outing on a YZR500 Grand Prix racer after the Laguna Seca round of the AMA Series, wit h Hopkins testing the Red Bull Yamaha at Brno in the Czech Republic. the same circuit on which he tested the bike last year . Now there' s a chance that Hopkins will be racing in the Gr and Prix S erie s as soon as next year. "It went really points with three races to go and don' t have any motorcycle problems, I think I can handle it from there . But these guys are riding fas t and t hey' re riding hard and t hey put the pressure on. And Mi chelin experience . Ther e' s a little mor e grip ove r there wit h has shown that in the past. You just have to play it and see how it those things because they have more special tires, but for the most part everything's pretty similar." goes to morrow . " Yamaha's An thony Gobert opted out of bot h AMA Superbike Nationals at the M id-Ohio Sports Car Course, instead focu sing solely on the 600cc Supersport final - a series in whic h he is still in title contention. " My wrist is too sore, " Gobert said of the broken wrist suffe red at the Loudon N ational. " l' m in so much pain right now. W ith so many left -rights, left-rights, it' s just killing me." Gobert believes he will be ready to compete in bot h classes again next weekend at Brainer d Int ernati onal Racew ay , a tr ack t hat won't be as hard on his injuries as the tight and tw isty Mi d-Ohio. " Brainerd will be six weeks out [from the time of his injury] ," Gobert said. "And Suzuka [the 8 Houri will be seven weeks - I think that will be enough time. By Suzuka I should be 100 percent. " As for this recent Suzuka test. Go bert was pleasantly surprised with his perfo rmance. " I was surprised," Gobert said. "At first I felt like I was just gett ing in everyone's way - like I shouldn' t have been out there. The Japanese guys told me to just keep riding and things got bette r. I did a 13.8, an 11.8, a 9.8, a 9.2 and a g .o. I was quic ke r tha n [Noriyuki] Haga and the second quic ke st Yamaha." Although he's been back from Japan fo r a wee k, Gob ert was still feeling the effect s of jet lag. " I haven't been sleeping really good since I've been here," Gobert said . The Australian will team with Haga in the Eight Hour on a factory Yamaha. Aft er testing his surgically repaired forearm s in the first Superbike pract ice on a humid and muggy day at M id-O hio Spo rt s Ca r Course, K urt is Robe rts declared himself nearly fit. The A merican Honda rider was sixth-fastes t among Sup erbike s in the first practice sessi on aft er puttin g in over 20 laps. He also put in a number of laps on his Honda F4i. "They're a litt le weak. but no arm pumping." Robert s said before the first qualifying sessio n for Saturday' s Superbike race. Though his forearms didn't bother him in practice , " It' s going to in the race." he said. " Physical fitne ss is a part of it. I think we 'll be alright." Roberts had been suffering arm-pump problem s with his forearms for over a year when he finally decided to have the surgery followin g the Road America doubleheader in June. During his recovery, he wasn't allowe d to ride a mot orcycle and hadn' t ridden until just after the AM A round at Mazda Raceway at Laguna Seca 10 days ago . Robert s rode his moto cross machine for three days, then packed his motorhome for the cross-country drive. He left Hickman, California, on Friday, ar ri vi ng o n W ednesd ay , at w hich po int t he ele ct rics in hi s motorhome blew out. Yos himura Su zuki's M a t M ladin came close to e clipsing the tra ck recor d at the Mid-O hio Sp ort s Car Cour se during Friday qualifying, despite losing the morning session to the same problem which bedeviled him at Laguna Seca. As soon as he left the pits in the moming pract ice, Ml adin discovered the same transmission problem which struck early in the race at Laguna Seca, but close inspection changed the diagnosis. "We've now fo und that it' s not the gearbox, it' s a clutch problem," he said. "We actually slipped a motor back in that we used the first day at Laguna Seca that we neve r had any prob lem s with and it' s good . Got a brand-new clutch now , a whole new clutch sys tem to put in. At Laguna I thought it was a gearbox problem. but it wasn't. It feels like it goes into neutral when you're in the heat of a race or whatever. it felt like it was going to neutral, but it actually wasn't the clutch was disengaging, it still had a little bit of drive. It would just disengage. That' s what happened then and that' s what was happening this moming. So we really couldn' t do anything. In four of the comers where [at Mid-Ohio] I'd use second gear. I had to use third gear, similar to the race last week . We got it sorted out. " good," Hopkins said. "The ti mes we re dece nt. I defini tely got along wit h the bikes and I got to know every body this time. It' s prett y goo d beca use they all speak English. It helped that I' d gone to the tr ack and I had it in the back of my mind the feel fo r the bike. It we nt really good and the seco nd day I got going a little faste r. M ainly , I was j ust having a lot of fun on the thing. There's actually a deal on t he table right now . I'm going to tes t it After winning Satu rday's A MA Superbike National. Ml adin was asked about his po ints lead and how he'd go about protecting it again her e soo n, but I' m not too sure where it' s going to happen . down the stretc h. "W e 'd love to try and wi n tomorrow 's race . " I'll be testing it again soon." Hopkins said his contract with Team Mladin said. " If we do and the order finishes the same then we will have a better point s lead. Then we have to go and do a good job at Brainerd as well. That'll leave us three races. If you have 30 Hammer runs out at the end of this seas on, making him a free agent. " M anagingwis e , [J oh n] Ulrich and ID oug ] Gonda are 10 AUG UST 1, 200 1 • cue I e n e _ s whe n there' s pressure , you can make mistakes . I think everyo ne What used to be fairly entertaining pre ss conference s following AMA Superb ike qualifying and races have turned into rather dull affairs since Ml adin was fined $5000 and had a championship point taken away for post -qualifying comments at Loudon . Now Mladin's an swers are succinct. and the Australian even brings his own tape record er to make sure he 's not misquoted . If a publica- tion misquote s Ml adin now, they get a letter in the mail telling them so. With traffic obviously a dilemma at the tight and twisty Mid -Ohio, Mladin was asked about the situation in the press conference afte r Saturday' s qualifying . "Traffic is never a problem," he said with nary a smile. Yamaha's Anthony Gobe rt has been fined $2500 and placed on probation for comme nts he made pos t-race in television and new spaper interviews regarding his coo l-o ff lap alterc ation with Yoshimura Suzuki' s J amie Hacking following the 600 cc Supersport race at Laguna Seca. Hacking has also been placed on probation fo r his part in the incident that saw the two punching and kicking on the coo l-dow n lap. As is becoming t he norm in AMA road racing, bot h riders declined to comment on the issue. Nicky H ayden is wise beyo nd his years . He show ed that in Sunday' s Sup erb ike Nati onal when he made cer tain he didn't interf ere with the battle betwe en Mat Maldin and Eric Bostrom for the Superbike National Championship . "W ith those guys going for the championship, I've been there before and had guys ride like idiot s and do banzai stuff and not even care about it. I didn't want to do anyt hing stupid." The tire failure that cost Eric Bostrom a ce rtain podium po sition on Sunday was just bad luck as he'd chosen the same tire that was used by race winner Nicky Hayden, runner-up Mat Mladin and third -place finisher M igue l DuHamel. Bostrom wa s also unhappy with the tire he received for the 600 cc Supersport final. Adding to Bost rom 's gloomy tire day was the fact that a tire problem on an inbound Ameri ca We st fligh t from W ashington D.C . caused a massive delay in Bostr om's departur e from Co lumbus on Sunday night. Though the extent of the damage wasn't known on Sunday afternoon , Mat Mladin's Yoshimura Suzuki apparently had a fa i rly bi g failure on the final lap of the Superbike National. "I don't want to make any excuses, but I was in fifth gear the whole last lap ," Ml ad in sai d . " I knew I had abou t a plus - 11 o n Mi guel [DuHamell . To tell the truth, the last couple of turns I was looking over my shoulder because I was going that slow . I didn't know it was Miguel, but I knew it was third place. It pretty much stopped coming past the start/finish. It was on three cylinders there for a while and the last half a lap it was on a coup le and there's only a couple left after that. These guys only have a couple, but it's different. " D oug C ha ndle r went from one extreme to the other on his tire choices over the course of the wee kend. On Saturday , he chose a soft tire. On Sunday he we nt with a harder compound. " I ran a harder tire," Chandler said on Sunday. " I just figured if it was hot it would be bette r at the end. It was a fun race. I could run with 'em [DuHamel and Robert sJ. but I didn't have anything fo r 'em. I didn't have the side grip I needed . I had to stand it up to get out of the corners, then I started pushing the front . It was a pretty exciting last lap and Kurtis [Roberts] loo ked pretty marginal. My effo rt is there - it' s just getting the thing to feel good underneath me to run their pace . " Jam ie Hacking 's Su nday w asn 't as good as his Saturday. Hacking cras hed out of the 600cc Supersport final while leading early and t hat basically ruined his day. "This mom ing' s crash just ruined my conf idence at this place," Hacking said. " I' m disappointed in myself because I rode like a fag. I want ed to win that 600 race so bad. I was just too aggressive."

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