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AMA/Chevy Trucks U.S. Superbike Series Round B: Pikes Peak International Raceway and my elbow. There was nothing I could do. The bike didn't want to get back up. But I kept it running and got back up and came around and caught [Pascal] Picotte. He was having bigger problems than I was, I guess. We got a top-five finish. That's not bad." For Hacking, getting passed on the final lap wasn't in the plan. He'd been balked by a lapped rider late, and that helped Yates, but still he was pleased with a podium finish. "I wanted to come out here and pay my guys back for the all the hard work they did for me this weekend," Hacking said. "The Superbike was great all week. Last year, we struggled here a good bit with the bike, but this year I'd say it's 50-percent better. It still needs improvement, but the bike has been pretty decent. This morning, we made some changes to the rear and dropped right down into the 55.0s, and I was pretty happy with it. Traffic was bad. I played it real safe with some of the guys. I could have hung it out a little bit more, but I figured I'd already fell once [in the 600cc Supersport final] and there wasn't any use in doing it again. I had a pretty good split to fourth place when I was in third. I ran Mat [Mladin] down, and the lappers kind of went against me. I didn't know who the hell was catching me at the end. With one lap left to go, I Doug Chandler looked to be In the hunt for a top finish when his Ducat! expired with a broken fuel pump. 10 JUNE 12, 2002· cue I _ Miguel DuHamel leads Pascal Picotte through one of Pikes Peak's many tight comers. DuHamel crashed but still finished fifth. Picotte ended up sixth. went to the outside of one guy going into tum one, and I don't know what he did, but he didn't go down the hill, he went up the hill. I don't know how I got tumed down there. I knew whoever it was behind me, they were going to be on me because I was all the way to the grass and it was so dirty out there. If I'd have turned it hard, I would have fell." As Yates said, DuHamel had already bit the dust by this time - in turn three, the same spot that claimed Hayden. "We kind of took a big gamble before the race, and we changed offsets and made it two or three clicks worse than it was before the race," DuHamel said. "We hung in there and obviously it would have been interesting to see where we finished if I didn't tip over in that comer. There are a lot of tire patches and asphalt patches in that corner, turn three, where everybody has fallen. I think it's a comer if you do nothing wrong and you hit the wrong line, you're probably going to go down. I tried to save it with my knee n _ vv s Picotte was slowing fast toward the end of the race, though a pushing front tire had hampered him from the very beginning. "I was losing the front really bad," Picotte said. "I fell off the bike and saved it one time - it was a miracle. Kawasaki's Eric Bostrom (right) earned his first pole position of the season on a hot and windy afternoon at Pikes Peak Intemational Speedway, the Californian one of a few riders who were able to improve their lap times while using qualifying rubber. Bostrom lapped at 54.391 seconds midway through the session to take pole position, besting American Honda's championship points leader Nicky Hayden by a scant 0.205 of a second. Bostrom did the lap after being forced to ride his backup bike when his favorite bike suffered a mechanical problem at the outset of the final qualifying session. "This aftemoon was an interesting one for us because we got things better, and I guess I pulled my head out of my ass," Bostrom said. "Things were a lot better this morning, and it felt pretty good. But the bike that I liked didn't run, and I jumped on the other one and it didn't feel that special to me. It was like, 'I hate riding this thing.' They lengthened it out a bit, and it made it feel decent, but it was like Nick [Hayden) said, here you are on a bike you're not even comfortable on and you're going no slower than you were on your other bike. It's like, 'How do I make time here? I've got one bike that I like and one that I hate, and the times are exactly the same.' I was a few seconds behind Mat [Mladin) on my fast lap, so maybe I thought I could just try and beat him through the infield." Bostrom's lap was off Hayden's lap record from last y.,ar. The riders were in agreement that some new bumps were likely the cause of the slower pace. Uke Bostrom, Hayden was a bit frustrated that he couldn't go quicker. He was one of several who opted not to use qualifying rubber, instead going for a softer race tire· albeit one that wouldn't go the distance in a race at the facility. "I got a little bit frustrated toward the middle of the session," Hayden said. "I was doing the same times that I was doing this moming. Even with a new tire or a tire that had a few laps on it, I just kind of got in a rut - low 55s. It was frustrating because I'd been there since yesterday, the last three sessions. Toward the end, I put on a softer tire and got through there a little bit. Eric set a pretty good mark and as soon as I saw that I knew it would be tough. It was a good time, and I just wasn't quick enough. I didn't run a qualifier because I've been having bad luck on 'em and I don't go faster on 'em. Right now, Jt just seems a little silly for me with the position I'm in to take a chance on one. That's about it. It was windy. I thought I was at Willow [Springs] or something. I was having a hard time getting in a rhythm in the beginning." Blimpie Yoshimura Suzuki's Jamie Hacking had his best qualifying effort of the season, putting his GSX-R750 third on the grid. "We've just been putting some laps in to see what the thing is going to do later in the race," Hacking said. "I managed to put some low 55s together in a pretty shaved-down tire, so I was pretty happy with it. The wind actually helped me through tum one. It seems like I was struggling earlier on, with the bike just wanting to push out there. This is my first front row this year on the Superbike, so things are getting better, definitely. We're getting a bit more comfortable on jt, and hopefully we can keep making improvements." Fourth went to Hacking's teammate, defending series champion Mat Mladin. The Australian was surprisingly upbeat after a few races where his disposition can be described as nothing if not dour. Mladin was pleased, mainly because he'd found something with the bike that made it work well with race rubber. He'd tried a qualifier but wasn't happy with the result it produced, but he was on the front row with a race tire and was confident of better things come race time. "Today went okay," Mladin said. "With about 20 minutes to go, we'd done a bunch of stuff to the bike that really made a big difference in lap times with race tires. We probably found three, four, five lOths of a second consistently just with that change, so I was really happy. As soon as I went back out. it was like, 'Jeez, this is a lot better now.' We really got going good. We managed to do heaps of low 5s there for 10 minutes, 10 or 12 laps, and it felt good. I stuck a Q in, and I just didn't like it. I'm really suspect on the qualifiers now. They just don't feel as good compared to race tires as they used to. I'm just really going from getting every pole, almost, one year to really struggling with qualifying. I've just lost confidence in the tires. We've had a few bad ones and you just don't know if you're going to get thrown over the bars anymore or not. I just did the best I could. I did 4.9 or something with the first Q, then put another one on. My first split was really fast. I think I went 17.4, 17.5 first split, which is a really fast first split. But unfortunately, at this place, if you get one guy in a bad spot it really costs you a lot oftime and that's what happened. I got a guy in the wrong spot and went 4.9 again. That's okay. We're on the front row and pole position or fourth doesn't really make that much difference. We're looking forward to the race tomorrow. It's going to be a long race, especially if it's hot. Forty eight laps around this place is going to be long, and I think everybody for sure will be slipping around after the first 10 or 15 laps. It's going to be an interesting race." Mladin was complimentary of Bostrom's effort. "That's a pretty decent lap in those conditions," Mladin said. "Good on him." The second row would be led by Austin/Bleu Bayou Ducati's Pascal Picotte (the last man in the 54-second bracket), with BJimpie Yoshimura Suzuki's Aaron Yates, HMC Ducati's Doug Chandler and American Honda's Miguel DuHamel filling the second row. In all, 42 riders were within 112 percent of Bostrom's best effort, though the 43rd qualifier was 6.086 seconds slower than the factory Kawasaki rider.