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AMAIChevy Trucks U.S. Superbike Series
Rounds 4/5: Sears Point Raceway
seconds after four laps and over three
seconds by the seventh lap. From
there, it was just a case of watching
the board and maintaining his lead.
"I felt like I was going good, but I
couldn't read my pit board, so I didn't
really know if I was pulling out a
gap," Hayden said. "All the boards
were out there. Mine used to be green
and now Miguel [DuHamel] made his
green, too, and I think there's one
other one so I couldn't pick my board
out for nothing. Once I seen it, I had a
little bit of a lead and I felt real good.
Kind of once the race went on, I had
a problem and picked up a little bit of
a chatter. It made it really tough.
Those last few laps were a handful. I
saw those guys coming back toward
me and I was just trying to get back
through traffic. I couldn't really go
any faster, you know? I was having a
pretty bad chatter. I was just glad to
hang on. It feels really good to be
winning another race. A doubleheader. It's just awesome that it's going so
good. The team right now is just awesome. I mean, all my mechanics
work so well together. Merlyn Plumlee
and those guys, they just... there's
not enough good things I can say
about them."
DuHamel had moved around Yates
in turn seven on the third lap and was
able to pull a gap as he tried in vain
to catch his flying teammate, Hayden. The gritty veteran never gave
up, but neither did Yates, who got the
better of a battle with Bostrom and
then set off after DuHamel. With three
laps to go, the Georgian was on the
RC51's rear wheel as the pair got
stuck in traffic through the esses. He
made his move a lap later on the
entrance to turn 12, taking over the
runner-up spot he would hold to the
end. DuHamel, meanwhile, stayed
close but was battling a broken
shifter. It wasn't bad enough to cause
him too much concern, but it may
have prevented him from making a
late run at Yates.
"You know everything went really
well," DuHamel said later. "The bike
was running strong. I was just trying to
keep Nicky honest out there. He was
doing a great job. You could tell that
he was going off his board and making
sure that I didn't get too over-enthusiastic, but trying to keep the gap
decent. He caught some good traffic,
but he caught some bad ones, too.
That spurred me on. I don't know, it
just excited me to get faster. With like
six laps to go, I radioed in to AI [Ludington, his crew chief] and asked how
many laps to go and obviously this
was how I know it was six laps to go.
He told me six. I felt pretty good. I
went, 'Well, I think Nicky's got some
sort of problem. He seems pretty tentative.' I'm like, 'I think I can give him
a run for his money' and I think I
clicked off close to pretty low 30s -
33s, I mean. Then I went to shift a
gear and there was no more little shiftlever thing. There was just a bracket
left and the knob that sticks out. The
actual shifting was gone and that really messed me up. Actually, I was surprised. It was working pretty good.
Aaron [Yates] was already on his way
before that happened. I mean, it would
have maybe been a two-way battle for
the lead if that had not happened. I
was really happy. I'm really happy
with the bike the way it worked. "
Yates had made the most of a bad
situation. His GSX-R750 was still far
from perfect, but his hard riding had
more than made up for the deficiencies.
"I'm pretty happy," Yates said. "Me
and my Suzuki always seem to go
pretty good around here. It took a little while to really get the ball rolling,
it seems like. We made a couple of
changes last night, made the bike a
bit better. It was a little bit better
today, but not much. You know, I was
riding pretty hard out there and doing
all I could do to hang on, really. You
know, I'm just happy to be up here on
the podium. We made it [the rear suspension] just a tiny, tiny bit better,
but we've got an idea. We've got a
new shock guy. He's really good to
work with and we're getting pretty
close on things. He's learning what I
like and we're working pretty close
together. It's going to be pretty good
for us in the future."
Once Yates got the better of him in
what was the battle for third, Bostrom
settled in for a relatively easy fourthplace finish. If the Californian was
able to relax at the end of the race,
it's rest that's going to be welldeserved as he was slated to jet out
of San Francisco early on Monday
morning for Italy, where he'll compete in next week's World Superbike
round in Monza, Italy, before jetting
back for Road Atlanta the following
week.
In fifth place for the second
straight day was Picotte, who had
chosen a different Michelin tire from
the day prior. It turned out to be a
mistake.
18 MAY 15, 2002' c u e I •
n
!Lett) Pascal Picotte finished fifth In both
races.
(Above) The man of the year thus far,
Nicky Hayden.
•
_
s
"We picked a different one that
was supposed to be safer," Picotte
said. "But it just fell off. I thought I
could hang, then it just lost grip
on the rear. It started vibrating a
little bit, so I just managed my
way, scoring good championship
points. I think I could have stayed
with them, not Nicky, but maybethe other guys. Everything was
really good - the suspension,
everything. We're making progress
and it's getting better all the
time."
Mladin crossed the line in sixth,
barely ahead of Hacking, in what had
been a long, frustrating weekend for
the defending series champion.
"It's been an extremely difficult
weekend, not only for me, but for the
whole Suzuki team," said Mladin.
"We've been having a lot of trouble
with getting the bikes set up for the
conditions, but just haven't been able
to find the correct settings to suit.
When things aren't working how you
want them, you can't push the bike
past that point. Leaving here with a
Yamaha's Anthony Gobert (right) ended up grabbing
pole position for the two AMA/Chevy Trucks U.S. Superbike Series events at Sears Point, setting a new lap
record and gaining a valuable championship point in the
process. The Australian lapped at 1:31.692 to eclipse
Mat M1adin's best from last year, though track changes
really make the old records obsolete.
Gobert still thought there was more to get out of the
factory R7.
"I'm not happy really with the setup we have right
now: Gobert said. "We tried some things and went backwards a bit and ended up back where we started. I rode
the setup we had here last year and where we've come in
12 months, the bike feels a lot better. When we've been
testing, we've been backing the old stuff and the new
stuff, and we haven't really had enough time to dial in the
new stuff. When you're riding 600 as well at these tests,
you're time is divided, so it's not really a three-day test,
it's a day and a half. We've still got a long way to go in
getting it all sorted out, but I'm more than confident that we'll gel the job done."
Behind Gobert came Nicky Hayden and his American Honda RC51, with Hayden clicking off a 1:32.149 - just a fraction of a second quicker than Blimpie Yoshimura Suzuki's
Aaron Yates, the Georgian filling the front row.
The second row would consist of Yates' teammate Mat M1adin, American Honda'lI
Miguel DuHamel, Auslin/Bleu Bayou Ducati's Pascal Picotte and Yeshimura Suzuki's
Jamie Hacking.
The Suzuki team was enjoying the use of a new Dunlop tire - designated the 950, a
World Superblke-spec (ear lire.
"We stuck that tire on and there you go, sort of, almost two seconds a lap," said
M1adin, who dropped 1.5 seconds and was second-fastest after Frroay's qualifying. "It was
just that much better everywhere. Unbelievable, really."
Dunlop'S road race boss Jim Allen said the tires, the 950 and the softer 209, were
brought in from World Superbike stock. There isn't a big difference in make-up be!:Ween
the 950 and the standard 555 and 587 that the AMA riders use, but the difference on the
track is considerable.
"The tire is just overall better," Mladin said. "It's better on the !\.ide, it's better acceleration grip, it's better entry, it's just better everywhere. It was pretty good. It almost felt Uke
a qualifier. When I came in, I said to the guys, 'Are you sure you put the right tire on?'
And they said, 'Yeah, that was the one.' It was a good tire."
Gobert was coy about whether he'd used the tire on Friday.
"I'm not sure. I think so. Maybe. Probably. I don't know. You could really say what you
really feel, but we choose not to. Whatever."
Others were less coy, insisting that he had used the tire, though he chose a qualifier fOl
his fastest lap on Friday aftemoon.
Allen said that Dunl