Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

Fifth went to American Honda's Miguel DuHamel. Again. an eventful race was had by the French Canadian. He'd crashed out of fourth place on the 37th lap in the same spot that claimed Hayden, though he was fortunate enough to get the Honda to fire back to life (as opposed to Hayden's. which simply just caught fire). With the thin pack of factory stars still circulating. DuHamel got back up in sixth place. He would eventually end up fifth, as Austin/Bleu Bayou Ducati's Pascal Picotte encountered both tire and mechanical ills late in the race. Both of those factory men, however, were lapped by Mr. Pike's Peak himself, Eric Bostrom. With Doug Chandler out of action with a broken fuel pump on his HMC Ducati, the rest of the top 10 went to the privateers. The best of them was White Tip Racing's Brian Parriott in seventh place. Then came Colorado Power Sports' Ricky Orlando, Nicolodi Racing's Vincent Haskovec and HSA's Brian Livengood. When all was said and done. the championship had tightened up a bit. thanks to Hayden's goose-egg score. but there's hardly any suspense to come from that. After all, Hayden still leads by 42 points over Bostrom. 253-211. Yates is next, on 204. Mladin is fourth. with 181 points. just one better than Picotte. Hayden showed that he's not perfect. and that has given the others at least a glimpse of hope. "I just lost the front on the brakes real early: Hayden explained. "I got in there, and I was just going hard, trying to catch up. I got a bad start again. which is bad. And I just got in there and was trying to ride hard, trying to catch up. I was just kind of tipping it in. I didn't have my knee down or anything. I just let the front get away from me. I've been fighting the front end all weekend, pushing the front a lot. No excuse, I just made a mistake, and it's just one of those deals. It's tough around here to make up time. I was just riding hard to try to catch up. I'm glad to be okay. I don't know what happened, why it caught fire. I was still sliding, trying to get away from the bike. and it was on fire. I was kind of hung under the bike. and the thing was on fire. and I was trying to get out from under it. I was just trying to get up there with Eric. I wasn't hanging back at all." The race was by no means a thriller. As always, tight and twisty racetracks don't produce classic battles. This one was mostly follow-theleader. And no one led other than Bostrom. As has been the case of late. Bostrom killed them off the start. And they never caught back up. "The track is strange and has a weird feel about it," Bostrom explained later. "For me, everything felt pretty planted down. but sometimes you'd just lose the front. It's so easy to see how guys get caught out. It's just a strange place. We were pretty focused coming into this round because we know it's going to be an uphill battle next week. We knew we'd won here before and we were going to do it again. I was real determined." Determined he was. And there was no catching him, though initially it appeared that Mladin could keep him honest. The Australian knew, though, that he couldn't keep up. Just when he thought that second would be his, his tire started to disintegrate. "The tire came apart the whole way around," Mladin said. "On lap 20, it started vibrating, and lap 24 it started coming apart. It just shredded itself. I went from doing 55s to doing 56s with a bit of vibration, then from 56s to 58s and 59s. and then 750 Supers port riders were overtaking me. It just split open. It looks like somebody got an axe... it just had an axe mark over the whole thing. I couldn't run Eric's pace. I guess if I To the victor goes the spoils: Bostrom pops the bubbly after an impressive victory in Colorado. really wanted to spin the thing up and run hard, I could have run something close to Eric's pace, but I didn't want to do it because I know the problem we have with tires. Eric was riding too good. He had the thing set up and was just hosing us through the first turn there. I couldn't do it at a pace that you have to run here to keep the tires." The defending champ cruised home fifth. Meanwhile. up front. Bostrom was just trying to keep the faith. He knew lappers would be his biggest foe and they were. "I was pushing real hard, but that wind ... we had some big moments in that wind." Bostrom said. "It would just totally grab you and pull you offline and pull the front end out from under you. I almost fell down a few times, even in turn one. Things went pretty good. The lapped traffic was a joke as always. I almost got taken out on about the eighth or ninth, or whenever we got into traffic, somebody lost the front end right in front of me. I was right behind them. and they almost fell right on my front tire. I had some other close calls and I was trying to take it easy. The guys allowed me a little cushion. which is real nice of them, it's like you take it as easy as you can and they [the lappers] still almost catch you." With Hayden going out on the 16th lap and Mladin running into tire woes, second place looked like it belonged to Hacking. After all, Yates had been taken out of the race by his stop-andgo penalty. Or so everybody thought. That's wasn't the case, however, as he fought and fought hard, battling to the very end with a last-lap pass of Hacking. "It's easy to say, yeah: Yates said when asked if he thought he could have challenged Bostrom if not for the stop and go. "But at the start, the clutch sort of grabbed a little bit. I was trying hard to get a good start and the bike sort of creeped. I knew the light was coming, and it finally came, and I had to let it out. I knew it was close. I thought I was all right there, but I saw the guy on the second lap with my number. "I came in and tried really hard not to go too fast on pit road," Yates explained. "They have a 55-mph speed limit and sure enough I saw the guy with the radar gun right on me. I was trying to do right and thought. 'Yeah, this feels about 53, 54 ... • I stopped and went. When I was taking off, there was nobody on the track and I was like. 'Man, did everybody go by?' I just got back right in front of the next pack. I was kind of disappointed because I couldn't go any faster than a 56.5, and I had a clear track in front of me. Finally guys started coming towards me, and it made me charge a little harder. I was real consistent on my lap times, and I was just really surprised to see some of the guys coming back. I saw Nicky crash and burn. I was chasing Miguel [DuHamel]. and he slid off right in front of me. and then Doug's [Chandler] bike quit right in front of me when I caught up to him. Then Mat [MJadin] was having a problem. and it was easy to get by him. When I saw Jamie [Hacking], I was like. 'I'm going for it.' I knew Eric would be tough here." It was quite a ride for the Georgian, and it netted him the runner-up spot. Other than Bostrom, he was the talk of the paddock after the race. The race may have been won by Bostrom, but Aaron Yates (20) was equally spectacular. The Georgian Jumped the start and was forced to pit for a stop-and-go penalty. He then stormed back to pass his teammate Jamie Hacking (92) on the final lap to finish second. cue I • n • _ OJ: • JUNE 12. 2002 9

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