Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/128154
AMAIChevy Trucks U.S. Superbike Series Rounds 415; Sears Point Raceway By PAUL CARRUTHERS PHOTOS BY HENNY RAY ABRAMS SONOMA, CA, MAY 5 I!'iJ nly 19 points separate eight rid~ ers in the AMA/Chevy Trucks U.S. Superbike Series points standings. Unfortunately for those eight, that battle is for second place. As it has been since day one of this series, the lead in the championship belongs to American Honda's Nicky Hayden. After a truly dominating performance at Sears Point Raceway that saw him win both legs of the doubleheader, it's becoming increasingly obvious that he doesn't have many nicks in his armor. His riding is immaculate, his motorcycle and crew are as strong as they get. Add those three things together and it'll keep you up at night if you're one of the other eight. They may think they still have a chance, and you'd expect them to, but catching Hayden at this point may prove more difficult than Chinese arithmetic. When two days of racing concluded on a sunny Sunday afternoon in Northern California's wine country, Hayden had amassed a 60-point lead. Dominant? The young Kentuckian has won eight of the last nine AMA Superb ike Nationals dating back to last year. For this year, he's four-for-five - five starts, four wins. In the race that he didn't win (the first of two races at California Speedway), he finished third. 14 MAY 15. 2002' e y e I e In Saturday's race, Hayden led 18 of the 26 laps, averaged 96.623 mph and won by 2.775 seconds. On Sunday, he stepped it up a little more, leading every single lap, averaging 96.798 mph, and winning by 2.715 seconds. Two perfect races by a young man who is truly on top of his game. Second best over the course of the weekend was Hayden's teammate Miguel DuHamel. The French Canadian did his best to hound Hayden in both races, getting close but not close enough both times out. On Sunday, he came the closest, getting n e .... Si to within a second and a half of Hayden, but he ended up losing second place right at the end to a hardcharging Aaron Yates on the Blimpie Yoshimura Suzuki - the bright spot in an otherwise dismal weekend for the Suzuki men. Kawasaki's Eric Bostrom had a good weekend, though it wasn't good enough to please the Californian. Bostrom finished third in Saturday's final and fourth in Sunday's - a consistent weekend that proved to be frustrating for the Kawasaki man who so badly wants to win races again. Anthony Gobert (16) may have led the first of two AMA Superbike Nationals at Sears Point early, but It was Nicky Hayden (69) who led them both when it mattered. Hayden ended up winning both portions of the doubleheader and he now leads the championship by a massive 60 points. Like his teammates Mat Mladin and Jamie Hacking. Yates struggled with rear-suspension woes all weekend, though he persevered to finish second on Sunday after ending up sixth on Saturday. He said the bike still wasn't right even after Sunday's race, but it was closer and he was able to ride around the problems to pass DuHamel in the closing laps. Fifth place in both races went to Austin/Bleu Bayou Ducati's Pascal Picotte, the French Canadian getting better all the time on the new bike and in the new team. He stayed with the lead pack early in the race both times out and was able to hold off a majority of the factory men in the waning portions of both races. He also took some satisfaction in beating the team that fired him, HMC Ducati, with his replacement Doug Chandler struggling with setup problems all weekend that led to ninth- and eighth-place finishes. Three-time AMA Superb ike Champion Mat Mladin had a weekend he'd rather forget. Suspension problems meant that Mladin was never on the pace. and he finished the weekend with dismal (for him) seventh- and