Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

sixth-place finishes. He now trails Hayden by a whopping 75 points after five rounds. Mladin's teammate, Hacking, also' struggled with the same sort of suspension problems, the South Carolinian sliding and hopping his way to eighth- and seventh-place finishes over the course of the two races. Then came Chandler, the last of the factory men on both days, with White Tip Racing's Brian Parriott and HAS's Brian Livengood ending up as the top privateers. Parriott finished 10th on Saturday and Livengood was ninth on Sunday, besting Munroe Motors Ducati rider Thomas Montano, who ended up 10th. Yamaha's Anthony Gobert came into Sears Point with the most hope of staying close to Hayden. The Australian came to Northern California just 14 points behind, but he left 60 points in arrears. On Saturday, Gobert finished fourth on an ill-handling, improperly geared R7, but on Sunday it all went wrong. Gobert very nearly crashed on the exit of turn 12 early in the race but made a miraculous save. It was not without consequence: In the process of saving what looked to be a certain crash, Gobert ripped the handlebar and a footpeg off his Yamaha. He didn't hit the ground, but he was forced out of the race - his championship aspirations taking a serious hit. So, just like that, Hayden leads Gobert, 178-118. Yates is third with 116 points, just two clear of Bostrom. Then comes a tightly knit group of Hacking, Picotte, Mladin, Livengood and Chandler. DuHamel's two rostrum places moved him to 12th in the series, but non-finishes in the first two rounds have killed his chances. RACE ONE This one had the look of a classic, with the factory bikes running nose to tail around the snaking 2.32-mile racetrack. Gobert was at the head, Chandler at the tail - in between were DuHamel (after a great launch from the second row), Bostrom, Hayden, Picotte, Mladin, Hacking and Yates. For the first eight laps, the battle up front stayed tight, with Gobert controlling the pace and the Hondas of DuHamel and Hayden looking for a place to strike. Yates was back in seventh, but only 1.8 seconds off the lead. This one was going to be good. Or so we thought. On the following lap, everything changed. In the pass of the year thus far, Hayden shot past both DuHamel and Gobert heading into the tight right-hand turn seven on the ninth lap and the race was never the same. DuHamel knew he couldn't wait around any more, so he zapped Gobert on the following lap heading into turn one. Bostrom also saw Hayden starting to streak away, so he busted his move on the Australian in turn seven later that same lap. ObViously, Gobert was having troubles - but more on that later. "You know, coming out of the carousel, I had a good run going and kind of got by him [DuHamel] again and kind of just used a little momentum or a little draft off him actually and the speed of the bike, I got up there," Hayden said later of the pass. "Sometimes that corner - when there's two people in front of you it's hard because you get by one guy, the next guy's right there, so it makes it a little tight. I was seeing a little daylight through both of them and I went for it. It was cool. I liked it." By the end of the 11 th lap, Hayden had put a second on DuHamel, thanks a bit to the French Canadian being balked going into tum 11. The gap stayed about the same for four laps, then DuHamel was slowed again by traffic, and the margin grew to 2.7 seconds before jumping to over three seconds, then 4.6 seconds on the 19th of 26 laps. "I was right there behind Anthony [Gobert], and I thought he was just planning on going maybe slow," DuHamel said. "I thought maybe he just picked a soft tire and was going to work up to speed. He wasn't really holding us up. He wasn't holding me up. I was just letting him determine the pace of the race, and I figured, 'Hey, if they're happy at this pace, I'll just stay there.' In hindsight, maybe if I had passed him and put my head down, I know I would have gapped him. I was quite a bit faster than he was. He [Gobert] didn't hold me up much, just to follow him, and I said, 'If this is all the other guys have got, then I'm going to be leaving these guys pretty soon.' I was just cruising It was a difficult weekend for Mat Mladln 11) and the Suzuki team, though Yates' 120) strong effort on Sunday made up a bit for the team's dismal showing. around there, showing him a wheel. I was putting a lot of pressure on him, though, trying to get him to make a mistake. I was showing him a wheel on one side, the other side, and I said, 'I'll just keep it in line and see if I can start pulling away.' We did 33s, which is a pretty decent lap time, but obviously we weren't [pulling away]. Nicky made a move past both of us, and right away Nicky started putting his head down, so I got by Anthony, then that was it. I was basically just running after him the rest of the race." It was really just a case of lead maintenance for Hayden once he got clear of Gobert, and he ended up crossing the line 2.7 seconds ahead of DuHamel. It was a win that showed how far Hayden and his Honda have come from just a year ago, when Gobert beat him to the flag. "I mean it shows the improvement we've made with the bike and myself," Hayden said. "It's hard to tell if our speed was better this year because the track's different, but last year I was just coming off an injury, and at the end of that race I didn't really feel that strong, but today at the end of the race I felt great so I was real happy about that. Everything went really smooth except for one time with about three laps to go, I kind of came up on some lappers and they made a pass over there in 3 and 3A. They were really going." DuHamel was naturally pleased with his result - by far the best of the season for the French Canadian. "I feel pretty good," DuHamel said. "The team did a really good effort. I mean, we've been pretty strong on race tires all through the weekend and today we basically put in our qualifying time on race tires. The bike's working really good. The race went really well. Just a few times I got caught up in slow traffic. " Then came Bostrom, alone in third place and not entirely happy about it. "Well, Obviously it's not so good because we're sitting in third, but Miguel [DuHamel] and Nicky [Hayden] did a great job," Bostrom said. "We're going to have to step it up if we want to try to hang with them and try to go after them tomorrow. Basically, I don't know if we have a rim problem or what is up, but this morning we spun the tire on the rim in practice and had this huge chatter in the bike - and in the race it happened again. From about like a third of the way through the race on to the finish, the thing was just all over the track. I don't know what the deal is with my rim, so we need to do something and give those guys a run for their money because it's not much fun when you're watching them run away from you." Gobert held on to finish fourth, his problems three or fourfold, as the Yamaha was different than the one he'd qualified on pole with. He'd also escaped from the group behind him when Yates struck a lapper, who in turn crashed in turn seven, giving Gobert some space over his pursuers. "It was a couple of things," Gobert explained. "The pipe got a big crack in it so we lost a lot of horsepower. Then, on the first lap, I found my gearing was wrong and I was on the rev-limiter everywhere. And the shock was so soft it was like riding a chopper. It was all wrong, and I don't know why I didn't notice it in practice, except maybe I wasn't riding as hard. I thought the engine was breaking, so I nursed it, and that's when I fell back. Then I realized who was behind me and I just tried to go. Tomorrow should be a lot better. We salvaged fourth, so that's not bad with all the problems we had." Picotte was next after holding off the struggling Suzukis in the closing stages. He'd been with the lead group on his Ducati, and it felt good. It'd been awhile since he'd raced a motorcycle capable of keeping him close. He'd also won the Ducati race within the race. "The bike is pretty good," Picotte said. "We still don't have much track time. We have a new engine, new chassis, new bodywork, but old suspension. It's getting better and we're Eric Bostrom had a good weekend, finishing third and fourth In the two races. cue I • n __ S • MAY 15, 2002 15

• Cover