Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

AMAIPrD Honda Oils &OOec Supersport Series Final Round: Virginia International Raceway , 5 BY HENNY RAY ABRAMS PHOTOS BY BRIAN J. NELSON ALTON,VA,SEPT.30 he race for the victory in the Pro Honda Oils 600cc Supersport race was as exciting as the race for the championship wasn't. On a cool and breezy day at Virginia International Raceway, Yamaha's Anthony Gobert atoned for a botched start and put himself into position to take the win on the final lap. Using a bold move on the inside of tum one, Gobert passed leader Aaron Yates, of the Yoshimura Suzuki team, then caught a break when Yates was held up by a lapper. It was Gobert's second 600cc Supersport win of the season. American Honda's Miguel DuHamel, who'd been with the pair for the second half of the race, was a close third. Gobert's margin of victory was 1.138 over Yates, with DuHamel just .182 of a second back. "That was a good feeling to look back and see that I'd gapped him in that," Gobert said of the final lap. "So it was a hard win for me, but it was a good win for the team, and it was a good way to finish off the year." Coming into the final race of the season, DuHamel and Gobert had a mathematical chance of passing Kawasaki's Eric Bostrom for the class championship, but that's all it was. Bostrom's points lead was so strong that he actually took the crown halfway into the 17-lap race. Once he'd completed lap nine, his race was official and he had enough points, even if he didn't finish, to take the crown. Bostrom went on to finish seventh, more than enough to win the title and make up for losing it by a hair last season. "Well, last year was last year," Bostrom said. "It definitely set my mind straight going into the wintertime. Just, it was like 'Hey, we almost won a championship, but there was a few races where we should have went and got points.' Maybe I played it too safe or something. This year we just said, 'Hey, I don't care if I fall of or whatever, I'm going to go out and win as many races as I can.' Unfortunately, we lost a few events out of the program, and that hurt everyone, but in light of everything else I guess it wasn't a big deal. So, it's nice to come into this race with a big points cushion, but all the same, it's like the worst thing you can do too, because you're coming in, like' want to go out and race, you know, and every race of the year we've been on the podium, except Daytona I guess. And then to come up here and have to cruise around, it's like way stressful. So I'm just happy it's done with. It's ee, , 5 I T (Above) Gobert (16) won the race, but, more Importantly, Eric Bostrom (32) emerged with the 600cc We. (Left) Miguel DuHamel (17) 1rtes to hold off Anthony Gobert (16), Aarony.... (20) and Tommy tt.yden (22) during quite close enough to go on down, but really, really close." By now the three were well alone, with Valvoline EMGO Suzuki's John Hopkins having taken fourth from Roberts on the 11 th lap, with Bostrom alone in sixth. The lead trio rode as one for a few more laps, Yates in front, Gobert passing DuHamel, then taking the lead from Yates on the final lap. Yates was pushed wide by a lapper and that was the break Gobert needed to clinch the victory. "I just didn't really keep it tight enough into one there, and Anthony [Gobert] showed up right at the last minute," Yates said. "There was just kind of like nothing I could really do but hope that he'd go a little wide there, and he didn't, and I was trying to stop just to get turned and try to shoot up under him, but he was actually just stopping right there in the turn too. So we just, that's how it was. And then I just tried to push it pretty hard, and I had these lappers up there that were, I was kind of focusing on them a little too much, just because I knew that it was going to be tough to get around them in a few spots. And at last off that little straightaway over there I got the thing hung out pretty far and just about run over one guy, because he was coming in on me and , had to stand the thing up. I about run off the track. You know, fortunately Miguel, I guess he had a little problem too and he wasn't that close to me and I managed to stay in front of him." DuHamel watched the leaders battle in turn one on the final lap and thought he had a chance, but it would take more than skill. "Tum one was so funny, because on the last lap when they went in 600cc Supenpott racing at VIR. defmitely a good one for the wall here [holding up his number-one plate]. This is about one of the tougher ones to win, for sure." Bostrom finished the season with 285 points, 20 more than Gobert, and 26 ahead of DuHamel. Gobert and DuHamel knew they had to win and the veterans both rode that way. Yates took the lead from the pole, but DuHamel was past at the stripe at the end of the lap, Yates second in front of Bostrom and Erion Honda's Kurtis Roberts. Gobert explained that he got a good start, but was quickly passed and got caught up in maelstrom in tum one. "Roger Hayden was coming around the outside and I kind of bumped a few guys and nearly went down in turn one," Gobert said. "It kind of got me going, because I realized that's what kind of race it was going to be." Yates took over on lap two, then it was DuHamel, with Roberts to third on lap three. Through lap eight, it was DuHamel out front as Gobert, who finished the first lap in seventh, surged forward. When he saw Bostrom ahead of him on the fourth lap, he pounced, thinking, "You know, I might be able to win this thing." He was on race leader DuHamel on lap nine, taking the lead in turn one. Having seen DuHamel slipping away early, Gobert knew he had to stay close. "' saw Miguel [DuHamel] in the front and I kind of nearly counted myself out, you know," he said. "' thought maybe I wasn't going to be able to get second in the championship. That was the only thing I cared about." Gobert controlled the pace for a few laps with Yates up to second ending the lOth lap. The Georgian made his move on 1 I, taking the outside line around Gobert in tum one. Gobert made his way past on lap 11 with Yates nearly taking Gobert's wheel out with a pass on the next lap. Gobert dropped to third. "Aaron [Yates) got a good run on me and went around me on the brakes, ~nd I thought I was getting there pretty good, so then I was a little bit stronger at the top, and I kind of went to go, but Aaron's kind of deceiving because he kind of brakes and then he lets them off and rolls in really quick," Gobert said. "' just wasn't quite close enough, and when he rolled in, I was kind of lucky to get pulled up enough that I did, , kind of just clipped the back of him. I wasn't II: U a • _ n __ S • OCTOBER 10,2001 13

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