Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

__-, - ,I - AMAlChevy Trucks U.S. Superbike Championship ~ - road --- -- race -: --- --- Final Round: Virginia InteN1ational Raceway could've done quite a bit better, I think. I know," he said. DuHamel explained that the pit signals he was getting were wrong, both on his position and the interval. "It was worse than being in the dark. I had bad information on what was going on. Who was where," he said, adding that the bike was working well and he should have finished fourth, or possibly third. "I never got a pit board that Doug [Chandler] was coming up on me. It was '+ 10, P4.'" lAbovel Mat Mladln leads Aaron Yate., Doug Chandler and Andy Meklau during the 94.S-mlle race. (RIghtl When all __ said and d_. Mat Mladln had given the Yoshimura Suzuki team Its third-straight AMA Superblke title. the end of the 32nd lap, handing the lead to Gobert. Yates was the only rider who hadn't pitted. Gobert held .183 of a second on Hayden ending the 32nd lap, Hayden taking a few thousandths out the next lap, Yates in third, but soon ~ot, Roberts to move up, but over 14 seconds back. Yates pitted ending the 34th lap, rejoining the race in sixth. Hayden drafted by Gobert on the front straight at the start of lap 35 and held it across the stripe. Roberts was well back in third, secure in the spot, though fourth was a fight between DuHamel and Chandler. Yates was next, then Tommy Hayden, MekJau, Bostrom, Rapp, Pegram, and down in 12th, 53 seconds behind the leader, Mladin. Once in the lead, Hayden took command. A lead of 1.32 seconds on the 36th lap became over two seconds on the next lap and grew, then shrank, Gobert never conceding. When he was trailing Gobert, Hayden thought he was trying to slow the pace down, trying to save his tires and energy for a last-lap dash. "So I knew I wanted to try to get in front of him and make him work the whole time to the flag," Hayden said. '" got back in front of him and got a couple of good laps and lappers went my way and pulled out a little bit and he brought it back." "I feel real happy now, but I was really frustrated at the fmish because I felt as though Nicky and I were pretty close and it just depended on lapped traffic a bit," Gobert said. a OCTOBER 10,2001 • Due • _ "And I still tried to keep the pressure, but I kind of wanted to bring it home as well. I figured I got Sears [PointJ, Nicky deserved that one. Hopefully, I'll get my turn again." Gobert admitted that the earlier 600cc Supersport race, which he'd won, had taken its toll. "It was kind of a hard, tough for me, decision because 1 didn't want to get up to Nicky too soon, because I knew as soon as I did he would up his pace and it was going to sort of wear me out a little bit. But I couldn't help myself. When I got up there and did that and I kind of wore out a little bit." Roberts was next across, not challenged by Chandler, who finished fourth. Chandler said the strategy aU along was to wait as long as possible to pit. "We did 40-50 laps on fronts in testing, no problem," Chandler said. Chandler was the only rider to change tire compounds during the race, going from the older soft Dunlop 881 to a newer, more universal 555. DuHamel was an angry fifth. "I n _ _ ,. Even when he pulled in, DuHamel thought he was fourth. "I was happy with P4. I was out there making a smoke show for the crowd because the way I saw it, no one was in front of me." Yates was sixth, slow at the start after getting hung up behind teammate MJadin and not sure if he should pass him. "I was trying to ride defensive for him and everyone went past me on the front straight," Yates said. Yoshimura Suzuki's Mat Mladin had been fastest in nearly every Superblke practice and qualifying session this year. Final qualifying at VIR was no different. The session was redflagged with about 16 minutes to go with Yamaha's Anthony Gobert at the top of the charts. But soon after the session was restarted, Mladin used the first of his qualifying tires to better Gobert and lower the track record. With his second tire, he nearly equaled his record iap and turned a time that also would have secured the pole. It was Mladin's ninth pole in 10 tries, tying a record with Mike Baldwin. To Mladin. the point he eamed was more valuable than the record. "The pole's pretty important," Mladin said after clocking his 1:25.428, "because up until, if you look at the points, which we did this morning, without the pole I could have finished 10th, and we [Eric Bostrom and Mladin] would have been in a tie for points. But because I've won four races and he can win three if he wins tomorrow, that means I stII win [the title! anyway. As it stands now, alii need is 12th place. You never know with racing what can happen. Things can happen to the bike. or maybe you need another pit stop. Those couple of positions could be vital. So I mean, a point's a point It doesn't seem like much, but a 17-point lead and nine points from pole, it's important" After taking provisional pole, Mladin predicted that it would take a 1:25.1 or 25.2 to take the pole. He didn't approach that mark, but knew that the 1:25.689 he tumed on Friday wouldn't hold up. "I knew Anthony [Gobert] was going to have a crack at it, and I thought Nick [Hayden) would probably get a bit closer than he did," Mladin said. "But, we had to stick one on. because Anthony done it really early. I was out there on race tires thinking about maybe going a couple of tenths quicker, but trying to set the ride up for the race. But when Anthony done it, it was fairly uneventful. Both laps I got [balked by) one rider, but I never got in a really bad place. I got one of them at the top of the hill, and that's when I out· braked myself a bit and ran a little bit wide. A tenth of a second maybe. But it was a pretty good lap." Almost as important as Mladin's lap was Eric Bostrom's. The Kawasaki rider needed the point more than Mladin, but didn't come close, ending up seventh fastest. Losing the point for the pole was less important than not being able to find a set-up he could feel comfortable racing with. Yamaha's Gobert was back on the Superbike for the first time since his ruinous crash at Loudon in June. He'C: practiced before, but this was the first time racing the bike and said he felt out of sorts on the bike. "Since Loudon. 1haven't really done too much on it," he said. "I've done a little practice to keep in the flow. But I still felt a bit rusty on Friday. Today I felt a lot better. So I'm pretty happy." Gobert's lap of 1:25.489 was strong enough for second place, and he, like Mladin, thought it would take more for the pole. "I figured that maybe a 25.3 was going to be enough," he said. "It was a little bit frustrating, because on the first lap [on my qualifier] I did 25.5. The second lap's normally a little bit qwcker. But on the second lap, I got held up. I'm not saying I could have, but I could have had a better shot at getting pole. But still. Mat's [Mladin) hard to beat. He went one tenth quicker than me. He always seems to go a little bit quicker than me in qualifying. But I feel good. because I haven't been on the Superbike for a while because of my wrist. And now I can get some consistent laps together. I haven't really done any testing or anything. I've ridden the bike a little bit, but these guys have done a lot. And to come straight back and be where I am, I feel good." The final two spots on the front row went to Hondas - American Honda's Nicky Hayden and Erion Honda's Kurtis Roberts. Hayden is the only rider other than Mladin to take a pole, his corning in the previous race at Pike's Peak International Raceway. The second wouldn't be forthcoming at VIR, not with the little problems he ran into on his qualifiers. "The [first qualifying) tire felt so good I was kind of pushing the front around, and just, I don't know what happened," he said. "I was really slow on that one. My next Q I just didn't feel like it qwte had the grip. I think I was just trying a little bit too hard. I thought I had a few more tenths ,n it. " Even his first lap wasn't perfect. "I was really lucky on the qualifier," Hayden said. "I had a big moment over up through the esses. I was coming up on a slower guy. He looks back and seen me and I think maybe he tried to go faster than me and got on the throttle and slid right in front of me, like here [holding his hands about a yard apart). And I had to go out to the grass, and It was really loose through the grass. And luckily, I think the only reason I saved it, I came across a piece of pavement where the road was going this way, and I got on the brakes really hard and then I had to get back." Roberts had his own problems on way to his fourth fastest time. "When we went from the race tire to just like a 505 soft race tire, it would actually grip so that when the thing would hook up, if you hit a bump it would just really unload," he said. "So I tried to remember that with the qualifier. When we threw on the qualifier, the first one was really good. I kind of got blocked a little on the lap, just coming onto the front staightaway. I kind of left a lot out on the racetrack. So it was like, you know, the second same tire I figured would be, I knew I could push it more and go for it. Then just at the start of the lap, corning onto the front straightaway, I hit the ripples and the thing just unloaded. My feet were above my head. I landed on the gas tank. I don't know how I did it. I couldn't breathe very well. I still got a 26.2 out of it to get on the front row."

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