Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

AMAIChevy Trucks U.S. Superbike Series Rounds 4/5: Sears Point Raceway making progress. It's getting better every time we go out and I'm building my confidence. I'm new to this thing. I wish we had more testing time, but we're still managing to find our way. We got a fifth. If we look back to Fontana, we got fifth but a lucky fifth on Saturday. On Sunday, I was much better, more consistent on lap times and we were faster. Now, we are in the hunt for 10 laps I would say, maybe a little more. The suspension settings were not quite perfect, and I got blocked in traffic quite badly. At that point, I just tried to keep the person behind me. There wasn't anything I could do about Anthony [Gobert]. It feels g09d to be up there, but at the same time it's like, 'What am I doing up here? Can I really do this?' It's hard to believe it almost. " Yates got the better of MJadin on the final lap, this after the two had come together earlier in the race. Mladin wasn't pleased with seventh place, knowing that his chances of eaming another Superbike title were getting slimmer by the minute. Even more frustrating was the fact that all three Blimpie Yoshimura Suzukis were having problems with the rear suspension and they weren't sure they could fix it by Sunday's final. "Things are definitely not going the way we hoped," said Mladin. "We are trying a lot of things to get the bike up there, but we seem to be losing out everywhere as well. We seem to have stood still with our development of the bikes since last year, while other teams such as Honda and Yamaha have made very good forward progress. I'm not sure what we have to do, but all I know is that, whatever it is, it will have to be a big improvement if we are to be competitive for the rest of the year. As for the race today, things were going well until about lap 10 when I was hit by Aaron [Yates] and lost a lot of time as a result. When the Hondas got past Anthony [Gobert] they just checked out and left the rest of us to dice between ourselves. I'm expecting tomorrow's race to be just as tough, so we'll have to sit down with the guys and see what we can come up with for the bike." Hacking also had a rough day, fighting his ill-handling GSX-R750 to an eighth-place finish. "It wasn't a very comfortable ride at all," Hacking said. "I don't know what's wrong right now. All three of us [the Yosh riders) are having the same problem ... I think the shocks are fading. We definitely have to work on our setup. It was uncontrollable pogoing around everywhere. We're having a meeting in a minute to talk about it. Mine was the same as Fontana - the bike was really bouncing around on me." Chandler's ride was a far cry from the impressive performance put forth in his debut with the team at California Speedway. There he charged, here he was relegated to just fighting a Ducati that wasn't properly set up. "I think we had too much compressioR in the front end," Chandler said. "I think we may have just screwed up and overlooked it. I don't know. It was chattering so bad through the esses and over all the crests. I just never felt I could push it - it'd just take off. Things should be a lot different tomorrow." 16 MAY 15, 2002' c u e I • n The battle of the privateers came after Chandler, with Parriott taking a relatively easy 10th-place finish. RACE TWO Hayden put on a riding clinic on a wonderfully sunny Sunday aftemoon in Sonoma County. Wanting a holeshot badly, Hayden got what he wanted, taking the lead as the pack stormed into tum one for the first time. "Right from the start, actually before the race, I wanted to get the holeshot today," Hayden said later. @fi](J@ff§ @@@fi]@D@ "I don't think that we should be racing here really this weekend. I think that we should all be getting together and packing up and driving home, really." Strong words from Yamaha's Anthony Gobert after he took the provisional pole on Friday at Sears Point Raceway, but words that were echoed by Blimpie Yoshimura Suzuki riders Mat Mladin and Aaron Yates, second and third fastest, respectively. "I honestly believe that somebody really needs to really think about whether we should be here with the state of the racetrack," M1adin said. "It's a shame that the track's as dangerous as it is," Yates said. "It's worse now than it used to be before. You just have to make yourself ignore that and you go out there and do your job and it really sucks." The opprobrium was mostly heaped on tum one, one of the few areas of the track not to be improved during the four-year-Iong, $55 million capital improvement project. Sears Point Raceway President Steve Page heard the comments second-hand and was clearly upset. "With the millions of dollars that we've spent to make these kinds of improvements, to have the kind of reaction we had today is pretty shocking," Pllge sllid. Page has led the transformlltion of the Sonoma circuit over the pllSt several years. Many of the improvements hllve mllde Sears Point one of the most spectator-friendly tracks llnywhere. But the riders, and NASCAR drivers, have also beneftted. "It's pretty tough to identify an area of the track that has been brought to our attention as a problem where we haven't responded and spent a lot of money to be responsive llnd provide a better racing venue," Page said. AMA Road Race Manager Ron Barrick agreed. "If you go tum by tum, there's virtually no place that hasn't been improved over the Illst severlll years. And maybe we took a step backward in tum one with the new configuration until the project is complete. But relllly, that's the only place that I can think of that hasn't seen improvement over the years." Tum one wasn't the only area the riders found offensive; it WllS just the worst area. The problem cropped up while addressing llnother rider concern, the drllg strip. In order to avoid the drag strip, which, in the past, the riders had to cross on the run from tum 11 to tum one, the track was moved to the left. Instelld of slowing for a false comer at tum one, the riders now blaze Into the comer much faster, 30-40 mph faster Yates estlmates, which narrows the margin of error and makes the paltry run-off and ensuing obstacles that much more ominous. Sellrs Point's Page said it WllS the AMA which ultimately decides on the conftguration and llny changes to the track. "We've spent a good deal of time over the IllSt few years discussing with them the chllnges that needed to be made to this track, what we we're capable of doing, what the timetable is for various chllnges," he said "I think we've been pretty forthright about what that timetllble is lind I think we've met that timetllble." "Tum one, bllsically we were looking to go around the drag strip and that's really the only option they hlld. to go parallel to the drag strip," the AMA's Barrick said. "When we lliways talked about what the ftnal configuration would be, that's ultimately going to be II better deal. But they're in a point right now where they Clln't move that hillside until they have some other things accomplished." Sears Point's Pllge explained that permits have been holding up the necessary tum-one changes. "Inside the land-locked llrea of tum one is the existing waste water trelltrnent plllnt for the raceway. We have a new plant that has been constructed but we haven't gotten he approval to hook it up and put it on-line. Until that new plant is operational, we cannot abandon those old ponds. That's Whllt prevents us from grading that hill back and putting in the new bridge. Both of those should be in place next year." The explanation dido't appease the riders. "I honestly feel unsafe out there," M1adin said. "It's hard for me concentrate with looking at what's going on out there." e vv so "Actually, I tried to make a bet with my crew chief, Merlyn [Plumlee], that I was going to get the holeshot. Actually, I may have tried a little bit too hard because I used quite a bit of clutch. When I got up to the top of the hill for the back-shift, I had a little bit of slack so I was a little bit' nervous there until I hit the first straightaway and saw that it was okay. The first laps, it was really good. I felt really good the first few laps." Good enough to lead Yates by one second after two laps, nearly three What made the attacks surprising was thllt expectations had been raised lifter the positive comments made by American Honda's Nicky Hayden lind HMC DUCllti's Doug Chllndler following their recent visits to the track during riding schools. Others pointed out that riding a streetbike in a racing school is a long way from riding a fllctory Superbike at racing speeds. "I don't mean to put this off on somebody else, but I mean we hllve had a couple of riders test here, llnd I just personally talked to Doug Chandler on the phone after the test." the AMA's Barrick said. "I read what he sllid in print, obviously, and I wanted to hear a more detailed report from him directly. And I clllied him and we spoke for a while. Yeah, he had concems about tum one, but it didn't sound like there was anything that would prevent us from putting on an event here." Chandler saw it differently. "It's better, but it's still not good," Chandler said. Tum one is a problem for two reasons, the speed and the changing pavement surface. With the old configuration, Chandler said he'd downshift a gear and get on the brakes. "Now, you just tum it in," he said, the pavement changing well into the tum. Chandler did say the esses were "quite a bit better. They eliminated the bridge and moved the Annco away. Tum nine is a little better. Ten, we're kind of stuck with it. Those two comers have new pllvement so they're quite a bit faster. I'd go off some times into 10 and would almost be too hot. That's not the place you want to make time." Though Chandler saw tum nine as improved, Milldin didn't. "Through tum nine I'm on the rev limiter in fourth gear wide open," Mladin said. "I mean there's only three foot of run-off and there's no air bags and there's no nothing, even though air bags are not the fix. There's nothing. I'm probably going to get bent over and reamed again for saying something, but I'm lost for words." Mladin may not have gotten reamed, but Gobert's remarks prompted a visit from AMA Pro Racing Director of Competition Merrill Vllnderslice, who was seen in animated conversation with Gobert. Whllt bothered Chandler lind several others was thllt construction continued during Friday's practice. "I'm real disappointed with the trucks and tractors moving dirt while we're going around," he said. He also said that he didn't think the track was up to snuff for II Superbike doublehellcter. Hllyden said, "Tum one's obviously a lot worse, but the esses are better. For all the work they did, I don't see where they made a lot of improvements. ]t's really not too much different." Bllrrick didn't see llny changes this weekend. "I reaIJy don't know what options there are," he said. "We've thought about it and I've talked to a couple of riders if they had any suggestions for something that we could do differently for them that would make it better for them. No one's really had anything to say other than just take the bridge and hiD away, and that's just not possible." On Saturday morning. Page added to the comments he made Friday in reaction to the llttllCk on the track by the top three qUlllifters by issuing a statement, firmly laying the blame at the feet of the AMA. Yamaha's Anthony Gobert, one of the riders who severely criticized the trllck, apologized for the remarks after taking the pole position for the Supercuts AMA Superbike Chllilenge. "It is the responsibility of the sanctioning organization to set llnd enforce standards for racing circuits," Page said in the last paragraph of the statement. "We have responded year after year to track issues raised by the AMA, often at the 11 th hour, with aggressive and expensive improvements to this facility. Our door has alwllys been open to the riders, but very, very few have ever approached us personllliy on safety issues. The competitors in the weekend's event wouid be well-served to raise trllck issues with the track and sanctioning body before airing them in the media. "Over the last five years, Sears Point Raceway has spent millions of dollars and moved millions of cubic yards of dirt speciftcally for the beneftt of motorcycle racers," Page said in the statement. "On every occasion that we have been asked by AMA race officials to make safety improvements, we have been responsive." Page met with AMA officillis on Saturday moming to discuss the situation. Vanderslice had met with representatives from both Yamaha and Yoshimura Suzuki on Friday. The Yamllha meeting was confrontlltional, according to those familiar with the meeting. "We kind of sllid a few things about the track that obviously we didn't mean to blow up and be such a big deal," Gobert said. "We just kind of said a couple of things, and obviously maybe it wasn't the best time to say that. Uke everything, we always leam the hard way." Henny Ray Abrams

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