Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

AMAIChevy Trucks U.S. Superbike Series Rounds 2/3: California Speedway BRIEFLY••• The inaugural AMA weekend at California Speedway was marred by the death of Ricky Lundgren, 40. of La Mesa, California, following a freak on-track incident during qualifying for the AMA Superstock race on Friday, The accident occurred in the area of tum four on the speedway's 21-tum, 2.3-mile road course. Lundgren died when he was hit head-on by a riderless motorcycle that jumped the barrier separating two sections of the 21 -tum, 2.36mile road course. Lundgren was exiting tum four when he was struck by a bike headed east out of a 1SO-degree hairpin. The motorcycle that struck Lundgren was the Suzuki GSX-R600 of Jeffrey Tigert, Lundgren was pronounced dead at nearby Lorna Linda University Medical Center at 6:25 p.m. Friday. Cause of death was listed as blunt trauma to the head and chest. Tigert, who was four turns ahead of Lundgren during the fourth lap of the final qualifying session, lost control and came off his motorcycle as he started into the right-handed ninth tum. The riderless motorcycle slid across the asphalt and started tumbling when it hit the grass bemn. But as the motorcycle approached the three-foot concrete banner separating the sections of the track, it dug into the grass and launched itself over the banner and into Lundgren. Following the incident, the plastic barriers at that section of the track were raised to nine feet in height. Lundgren, a stockbroker, is survived by his wife, Kelly, and two-and-a-half-year-old twin sons. After finishing second in Sunday's MBNA 250cc Grand Prix, Team Oliver Yamaha's Rich Oliver took an opportunity in the post-race press conference to get up on his soapbox and campaign for the 250cc class. "Hopefully the show that Roland [Sands] and I put on today will say a lot about 250 racing, because the AMA is looking at 250 racing as one of the classes that they want to boot out next year, and if you ask me, it's one of the best classes they've got," Oliver said. "Today, Roland and I showed what a great 250 race can look like. I don't know this because I didn't see it. but I'm sure there were great races all the way through the field, Hopefully that will go a long way toward the AMA reconsidering getting rid of the best class they've got for real Grand Prix bikes." Oliver said that he had heard the AMA has plans to eliminate the 250cc GP, 750cc Superstock and Pro Thunder classes, and to move toward a format that would fold the Formula Xtreme class into the Superbike Championship. "This [250l is the only class where a , 7-year-old and a 40-year-old can have a good race. Nobody gets factory engines. We don't take up a lot of lime, and we don't blow up and oil down the track. It's a great series. " Erion Racing's Roger Lee Hayden and Valvoline EMGO Suzuki's Tom Kipp were among a group of riders docked one position by AMA officals for blowing the tum-one chicane during the Lockhart-Phillips USA Fomnula Xtreme final on Sunday, The penalty didn't sit well with Kipp, who felt that his incident had more to do with safety than overexbuerance. "My gripe is that the penalty wasn't discussed beforehand," Kipp said. "I was pushed up by a lapped rider. I had hit that curb the day before, and it had sent me into a 140 mph feet-off-the-pegs, bike-sideways-in-the-air position, So, I had the option of running over the curb or veering off and staying off and staying on the pavement. That's what I did. It seemed like the safest thing to do. I didn't feel like I really got in there that hot or anything. To make a long story short, I was docked a spot for it. Others were docked, too, but I didn't feel like I did it to gain any time by doing it. I was just trying to be safe. " Valvoline EMGO Suzuki's Josh Hayes said that he wililikeiy be out two months due to the serious left-hand injury that he suffered after crashing in the first Pro Honda Oils Supersport practice session at California Speedway on Saturday. Hayes underwent six hours of surgery at Loma Linda University Medical Center to have the hand pinned, plated and wired. "It's pretty much pulverized," Hayes said. "I broke a lot of bones and basically kind of degloved it. took the skin off when it got caught under the bike," Hayes, who was scheduled to compete in Sunday's Supersport and Fomnula Xtreme events, crashed in one of the chicanes on the infield section of the course. "I started in there, and I got some front-end chatter and almost lost the front, and I kind of picked it up," Hayes said, "then I hit the second part of the curb, and I was just trying to get across it in one piece. The bike just got to swapping back and forth until it bucked me off the back. Then it chased me off the track and rolled over me pretty good. It's obViously very disappointing. I was haVing fun this weekend. Now I won't be back for a while, " Aithough he may no longer be a fuil-fledged factory Ducati rider, Pascal Picotte said at California Speedway that he could not be happier with his new team, Austin Bleu Bayou Ducati Racing, "It's a little different, and we're using a little bit older eqUipment, but the bikes are actually pretty damned good," Picotte said after qualifying 10th, with a time of 1:27.631. "I'm actually surprised at how good they are. We're just shaking things down a little bit. They just put the team, the bikes and the rider together a couple days ago. Plus, we're running Michelins. I need to adapt myself to the new motorcycle and the tires, I still haven't had that many laps on a Ducati yet." As for recent suggestions that the reason he was fired from the HMC Ducati team for berating his team in 20 APRIL 17, 2002· Il: U Il: I • n e _ French, Picotte replied: "Really? That's not the way that I remember it. There were some things that we needed to fix, and Mitch knew that. I said that things were going pretty good, but in order to get to the next level, we needed to regroup and work a little bit better together. I didn't feel that I was being forceful about it. and even if I was, then we could have at least sat down and talked about it a little bit. I'm not 12 years old. If there was a problem, we could have sat down and talked it out and seen what we need" ed to do to fix it. If I was going to have bad things to say about the people that I worked with and be really down on people, then I think that I would have done it at Harley because there were times that I was very finustrated there, It was a rollercoaster, emotionally. It was really tough. I was happier than that on the Ducati. Mitch came to me and asked me if I wanted to work with Ducati, and I said, 'Yes, definitely,' But even then I told him to make sure that it didn't cause friction internally because we had a team already, and it could have been really bad to have a new face come in there and start spanking everybody, Now, according to them, I'm the one who caused friction with everybody?" Picotte said that he is now focusing on his future with Austin Bleu Bayou Ducati, a future that will include new Testastretta"powered race bikes at the very next round of the series, AMA Pro Racing Operations Manager Gary Mathers has resigned his position. effective immediately. "This was my last race," Mathers said from California Speedway on Sunday morning. "It's not like I just came here and stopped. It was Thursday at Daytona that I told my two bosses that I'd be done. I was the only one who came here for testing, Ron [Barrick] didn't come because he was off doing other things, I offered to them to come here and do this one because I was the one who was here for all the testing, So that's why I'm here, otherwise I would have been done after Daytona. When I started with the AMA. one of the board members came up to me at the AMA banquet - that's when they gave me that plaque for retiring. It was Mark Tuttle. He asked me if I was interested in doing that and I kind of laughed at him. It just hit me funny because I've been more or less a critic of the AMA from time to time over the last 20 years. I started thinking about it and thought that if they made me the offer and I've been one of their critics, it would be kind of hypocritical if I didn't take a crack at it. That's the reason I started. It's just gotten to the point that I'm the odd guy. I don't fit with that bunch in a way. Coming from the racing side. In racing, when you get beat. you talk about it on Tuesday and you do something about it on Wednesday and you keep going, you know? The AMA is kind of a status quo, traditional organization that doesn't move too fast. I'm just at the point where I'm not really doing them any good. I'm just wasting their money and my time so to speak. It's frustrating. I'm the one that's the problem. There are a lot of great people in the AMA. The people who come here and do the races, most of them are doing it for travel money. They're not making any money at this - they're just an enthusiastic group, They are a bunch of good people. I've just had the feeling all along that I'm not making things happen for them. I'm a people person. If you can get some people satisfied with what they're doing and you can make things happen for them, they will do their jobs and like it. I just feel like I've really let them down. We need to make some changes and we need to do some things, but it's me - it's not the group that wants to do it. I'm probably the odd man, i probably don't fit very well with them. It's not easy to say what's wrong because every day is a different situation. But there are a lot of things that have to happen to run a race and run an office. Pro Racing at the AMA is like a small company. If you have a small company, think about having a board of directors that meets four or five times a year trying to run it. It's just a very cumbersome way to get something done. I'm the one who feels that way, obviously, so it's probably me. I don't have any fans. I'd like to see my wife keep doing registration because she does a real good job and I think she's going to keep doing it. I'm retired and I live in North Carolina, so I will probably try and do something locally - something part-time." Mathers' tenure at the AMA iasted less than a year after a highly successful career as a team manager for both Kawasaki and Honda. Kurtis Roberts knocked himself out of both Superbike Nationals when he crashed on Friday during qualifying, injuring his right knee, "We were just starting to improve the bike and get it setup for here," Roberts said while lying flat on his back in his motorhome on Sunday morning. "I think we were in the top four. There were still some improvements to make to the motorcycle and getting it to handle around here. I was getting really excited because we were quite far off in the morning as far as setup went and it was getting better. We threw in a qualifier. I guess a lot of the other guys got warned when they went into the chicane with the rear coming around a bit on 'em. The first rider it kind of chattered a little bit the rear, the tire slid for just a second but it drove out fine. So I thought it was just a little cold. I went into the chicane where you're not even ieaned over to the right. I was coming out of there pretty much straight up and down and the thing 51: let go. I highsided. Nothing's broke, they said, though the doctors at Lorna Linda weren't up there with the best at all. I was in the hallway the whole night. I didn't get a room, You have four different doctors and they were each different. I never got the full story from anybody. I'm not sure exactly what what's wrong, but I know there is nothing broken. They did an MRI on the knee and X-rays on the knee and ankle. It's just really bruised in there. I can't believe I highsided almost going straight, It was like it hit oil almost. " American Honda's Nicky Hayden had a moment in the first of two Superbike Nationals on Saturday when a cone was kicked up by Aaron Yates. "One time, coming on the front straightaway, Aaron didn't make the chicane and he hooked a cone - the thing just about took my head off," Hayden explained. "Well, it wasn't that close. but anyway it came up in front of me and I had to do a quick little thing to get around it. It was head-high or windscreenhigh when I first saw it and I thought. 'This is going to get ugly,' But I didn't hit it." Jamie Hacking set a goal for himself of not crashing this year. His aim was to have a more consistent season and he was upset over his crash dUring Saturday's Superbike National. "I was kind of bummed about it." Hacking said. "That's what I'd set out to do this year - be consistent and not fall and make mistakes, It was an error on my part and an error on the setup part as well." Hacking finished sixth in Sunday's race despite getting no time to practice on his backup GSX-R750, Lapped riders were a problem during Saturday's AMA Superbike National. so Eric Bostrom decided to take matters into his own hands for Sunday. The result was less riders on the racetrack. "I got on Ron [Barrick - AMA's road racing manager] and they were supposed to pull 'em off if they got lapped before the halfway point." Bostrom said. "I pressured those guys because I watched the race on television last night and obviously the outcome of the race was affected by lapped traffic. " Nicky Hayden was surprised during Sunday's National when he encountered Anthony Gobert late in the race. "I didn't know what was going on," Hayden said, "I'd seen Aaron's [Yates] bike on the inside there. I looked up at the monitor coming on to the front straightaway and I didn't see Anthony. About a lap later, we lapped him." Mat Mladin knew Doug Chandler had him covered in Sunday's race. The red flag saved him, and perhaps even Eric Bostrom. "To be honest, I think Doug would have gotten both of us," Mladin said. "That's not something you want to admit, but he was catching us six or seven tenths a lap, if not more on a couple of laps, He was running flat to low 26s the last 10 laps. I kept seeing my pitboard and thinking there was someone on the racetrack that wasn't here yesterday. On the whole, I think I got lucky that they stopped the race three laps from the end," The majority of the riders were pleased with the way the debut race at California Speedway worked out. "I want to thank all the people at California Speedway," Mladin said. "They've been really accommodating and it's been a good weekend." Mladin did add that there are a few things he'd like to see changed for next year's event - though those changes are only to the racetrack, "I just think a little bit more needs to be done to the circuit to make it a really good circuit for racing," Mladin said. "The accident we had there the other day I think could have been avoided by haVing a gravel trap out there, something that could have caught the bike, something nice and deep, I think it's something we need to think about for the future. Up to this point, they've been very accommodating in listening to the riders and the people, They know where we live and they have our numbers so they can give us a ring if they want our opinion on anything. I think things are looking good for next year. It's a first-class facility." Eric Bostrom concurred: "The track did a great job with the people listening to us," Bostrom said. "I feel it's pretty safe, I know we had that freak accident on Friday and I'd like to see that section of track just a little bit different. We want to come back and racing in Southern California is the best. " The Honda RC51 didn't seem to have the advantage that it had in Daytona - speedwise - at least according to Anthony Gobert. "My bike seems to be good," Gobert said on Friday, "I followed Kurtis [Roberts] and we came on to the straight pretty much the same, I stayed with him in the draft. Apparently when he was behind me, he reeled me in a little bit, but not too much. I don't think there is quite enough room for them to use their top-end. I think the Honda has an advantage maybe from mid to top. I think our bikes get there quick enough that they don't really have an advantage here. I think the V-twin has an advantage anyway because of the way they put the power down." Nicky Hayden's victory on Sunday was the 1Oth of his AMA Superbike career, moving him into a tie with Mike Baldwin for "th on the all-time win list. Anthony Gobert's victory on Saturday was the 11th of his career, putting him 10th on the list - one win behind Doug Chandler.

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