Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

Chandler (Due); 7. Pascal Picotte (Due); 8. Jake Zemke (Hon); 9. Jason Disalvo (Suz)! 10. Brian Livengood (Suz); 11. Andrew Deatherage (Suz); 12. Brian Parriott (Suz); 13. Larry Pegram (Suz); 14. Alan Schmidt (Suz); 15. Ty Howard (Suz); 16. Rich Conicelli (Suz); 17. Dean Mizdal (Suz); 18. Shane Clarke (Suz); 19. Robert Jensen (SUl); 20. J.J. Roellin (Suz); 21. Scott Jensen (Suz); 22. John Dugan (Suz); 23. Marco Martinez (SUl): 24. Randall Mennenga (Suz); 25. Dave Ebben (Suz); 26. Justin Blake (Suz); 27. Mike Luke (Suz); 28. Shane Prieto (SUl); 29. Douglas Duane (Suz); 30. Jeffrey Purk (Suz); 3 t. Giovllnni Rojas (Suz); 32. Leo Venegll (SUl); 33. Roger Hendricks (Suz); 34. Chris Voelker (Hon); 35. Robert Christmlln (Suz); 36. Shllwn Conrad (Suz); 37. Jason Knupp (Suz); 38, James Compton (Suz); 39. Jllmie Hacking (Suz); 40. Vincent Haskovec (Suz); 41. Scott Hermersmann (Suz); 42. Eric Spector (Suz). TIme: 34 mins., 51.487 sec. Distance: 16 laps, 64 miles. Average speed: 110.161 mph. Margin of victory: 0.356 sec. RACE nYO: I. Miguel DuHamel (Hon); 2. Nicky Hayden (Han); 3. Eric Bostrom (Kaw); 4. Aaron Yates (Suz); 5. Jake Zemke (Hon); 6. Doug Chandler (Due); 7. Pascal Picotte (Due); 8. Jamie Hacking (Suz); 9. Brian Parriott (Suz); 10. Craig Connell (Suz); 11. Chris Ulrich (Suz); 12. Andrew Delltherage (Suz); 13. Vincent Haskovec (Suz); 14. Rich ConicelH (Suz); 15. Alan Schmidt (Suz); 16.Robert Jensen (Suz); 17. Shane Chtrke (Suz); 18. Jason Disalvo (Suz); 19. John Dugan (Suz); 20. Dean Mizdal (Suz); 21. Shawn Conrad (Suz); 22. Larry Pegram (Suz); BRIEFLY••• Perspective. KawasakI's Eric Bostrom won the Superbike pole with a time of 2:08.510 for the four·mile Road America course. The fastest qualifying time for an Indy car? A lap of 1:39.866, at 145.924 mph, set by Dario Franchitti in the August 2000 CART race. The 2002 AMA meeting marks the first time that the track's full· track surveillance system has been put to use for a motor· cycle race. Road America outfitted their four-mile road course with fiber-optic cable in the middle of 2001, the system hooked up to 16 television cameras that monitor the track. The system is standard for an FIM-homologated track, which seems to be the track's motivation. Road America made few mends with some of the charges they levied on the riders and support personnel. Any official or competitor parking a motorhome on the grounds was charged $75 through Friday, with the fee going up to $150 on Saturday. What was irksome was that they were handed a slip of paper upon entering that said that spectators parked free. In any case, the riders felt especially put out since Road America is the only track on the AMA calendar to charge motorhome parking. Another fee that rankled more than a few was the $5 the track demanded for any package accepted by the front office, and $50 if track personnel have to help with the delivery. Yoshimura Suzuki had to pay $200 to retrieve 40 tires they'd had shipped in. Again. it's the only track with such usurious fees. When the track and AMA public relations staffs went looking for riders to attend an autograph session, there was predictably little cooperation from the motorhome crowd. It was appropriate that American Honda's Miguel DuHamel christened Canada Comer. The French Canadian, who now calls Las Vegas home, said that it happened on the first day of practice. "I went in there the first day of practice and there was a guy going in there at 2 mph, and I almost hit him. I had to do an incredible recovery, landed on my face and the shield broke the bubble. It was nice. It was a nice wake-up call for the first day. " Auslln/Bleu Bayou Ducati's Pascal Picotte had the services of a Michelin technician, in from France. for both last week's race, at Pikes Peak International Raceway. and this week at Road America. More importantly, he had new tires, not that they made much of a difference. The new-profile tire came apart at PPIR fairiy early on. At Road America, he was using the older profile, though he had even more new tires. 'The old tire works better than the new profile," he said after qualifying ninth. "We've got a ton of tires to get through. By far, we're not there. - Picotte said that he hadn't tried a qualifier since he wasn't comfortable enough with his race setup to test it. Corona Extra EBSCO Media Suzuki may field a team in the Suzuka a-Hour race, if all the pieces fall into place, according to team prinCiple Tim Saunders. "It's not definite yet. but we'd like to do it if we can cover the costs." The team was invited by the race organizers, with whom they're working to make it happen. What they'd race and who would ride it is still to be determined. Saunders said it wasn't likely that Superstock number-one Jimmy Moore would make the trip as long as he was in the championship hunt. which he is. That would leave it to Steve Rapp and Australian Adam Fergusson, who has experience at Suzuka. Another alternative would be a tie-in with the Corona Alstare Suzuki World Superbike team, which would shuffle the deck. As for the equipment. the team could take their own machines or they could work something out with the Suzuki in Japan. or Alstare. "We hope to have something confinned in the next couple of weeks, - Saunders said. Moore is hoping that he can sew up the championship in time to make the trip, though that's a tall, almost impossible, order. As Aaron Yates said a few weeks back at Road Atlanta, "there's no replacement for displacement." Attack Suzuki's Ben Spies drove the point home at Road America. An AMA radar gun caught Spies' Suzuki GSX-Rl 000 speeding through the radar trap at the end of the front straight at a speed of 182 mph, backing it up with a 181- and a 180-mph run. The top Superbike was Nicky Hayden's American Honda RC-51. at 179 mph. Clear Channel's Bill Syfan said that he was leaving his post as director of road racing after the June 15-16 New Hampshire International Speedway round of the Formula USA Nationai Road Race Series. "Loudon's my last event." Syfan said in the Road America paddock, where he'd originally come to work on the 23. Randall Mennenga (SUl); 24. Shane Prieto (Suz); 25. Mike Luke (Suz); 26. Chris Voelker (Hon); 27. Scott Hermersmllnn (Suz): 28. Justin Blake (Suz); 29. Robert Christman (Suz); 30. Douglas Duane (Suz); 31. Eric Spector (Suz); 32. Jason Knupp (SUl); 33. Dave Ebben (Suz); 34. Giovanni Rojas (Suz); 35. Roger Hendricks (Suz); 36. Leo Venega (Suz); 37. Lee Acree (Suz); 38. Scott Jensen (Suz); 39. Mat Mladin (So2); 40. Brian Livengood (Suz); 41. Marco Martinez (Suz); 42. J.J. Roetl!n (Suz); 43. Jeff Nicky Heyden (313/6 wins); 2. Eric Bostrom (273/1): 3. Aaron Y.to, (260): 4. Mlgu.1 DuHamel (245/2); 5. Pascal Picon. (228); 6. Mot M1adin (207); 7. Brian Parriott (192); 8. Jamie Hacking (183); 9. Brian Livengood (180); 10. Doug Chendler (151); 11. Rich Conicelli (150); 12. Andrew Deatherage (147): 13. Anthony Gob.rt (118/1); 14. Vincent Haskovec (113); 15. Dean Mizdal (109); 16. Alen Schmidt (104): 17. John Dugan (98): 18. Marco Martinez (80); 19. Scott Jensen (69); 20. Shene Purk (Suz). Clark. (66) Time: 34 mins., 43.211 sec. Distance: 10 laps, 40 miles. Average speed: 110.599 mph. Margin of victory: 0.007 sec. Upcoming Rounds: Round 11 - Brainerd, Minnesota, June 30 Round 12 - Monterey, California, July 14 AMA/CHEVY TRUCKS O.S. SOPERBIKE C'SHIP POINTS STANDINGS (Aft.r 10 of 16 rounds): 1. August 3-4 FUSA race. As for the reason, Syfan said it was a matter of direction. "We had a vision for 2000. It's gone in a different direction. It's a function of the needs of Clear Channel. I support the series and it will continue on." The FUSA series has been through three corporate owners. Pace Motorsports was the first. coming in for the 2000 season with large purses and hefty points funds. They were the new kid on the block, but they had the deepest pockets and the longest anns, and a tight four-class series, well-supported. Corporate reality would soon set in. At Daytona in 2000, Syfan was told that Pace had been bought out by SFX Motorsports. By the end of the year, the economy was tuming sour. SFX decided it needed to add more classes to generate revenue_ "That's when it went from four classes to 10 classes," Syfan said. The purses and points fund were cut for 2001. For 2002, there was a financial necessity to combine FUSA and Championship Cup Series, making the event seem more like a club race, than a pro road race. At Daytona in 2001, Clear Channel took over. "The economy necessitated that they not invest too greatly in the series." Syfan said. Though he'll leave the company after the Loudon race. Syfan said he'd work the next race, at Mosport, outside of Toronto, at the end of July. Syfan said he had no immediate plans, though he'd like to stay in the industry as a consultant. Graves Motorsports Yamaha's Damon Buckmaster is trying to see the silver lining in the cloud. The cloud was the sudden ruling by an appeals board that the Yamaha Rl/R7 hybrid he rode to victory in the first three races was illegal. The team worked feverishly to build him a motorcycle for the race at Pikes Peak Intemational Raceway last week. and Improved this week. The silver lining - the potentiai of the new, more Rl-based. hybrid. "It's good to see that the R~1 is race~competitive now. We're going to overcome this and get back on top and start winning some races. I actually think the R1 chassis has got more potential than the R7 chassis we've been using. I actually think they've shot themselves in the foot because, when we get this right, it's going to be better. - Adam Fergusson was happy to get back on a proper racetrack after last week's run around Pikes Peak International Raceway. The fonner World Supersport rider said it reminded him of Monza, another high-speed track with a long run through the woods. "Compared to last weekend, when we were at Pikes, I love his place. It's probably the best track I've been on since I've been here. Atlanta I liked as well." Fergusson said he was looking forward to Mazda Raceway at Laguna Seca. The last time American Honda's Miguel DuHamel won a Superbike race at Road America, he was teamed with Mike Hale on the Smokin' Joe's Honda team, and Mike Smith was racing a Fast By Ferracci Ducati. "It was really a hard battle, with Mike Smith on the Ducati and Mike Hale my teammate on Honda, back then on Smokin' Joe's. If I remember correctly, the last lap we had like six position changes. Canada Comer, Mike [Hale] passed me on the brakes and he went a little wide and I dove on the inside and everybody thought we bumped and we didn't. He was just trying to come back and take the line away from me and he took the drive, and I just got him there." Asked if thought he'd ever win again, DuHamel joked, "This morning I almost didn't come to the track, but I said, 'I'll give it one more shot.' I believe in myself quite a lot and I believe in my team also. I knew it was going to come. It's a hell of a time to have a beggar's winner, you've got to go out there and win it with the caliber of guys we've got in America. It feels great. It's been too long. " Timing. as they say in comedy, is everything, and .Iamie Hacking's couldn't have been much worse. The BlimpielYoshimura Suzuki rider used Friday's qualifying press conference to disparage his crew, after a journalist asked him if he felt better about the way the team was coming together. "I'm not going to put down my team or nothing, basically it's me and Tom Houseworth's team," he said. "It's nobody else's. I don't have... the other guys I got, I got one guy that's working out of the office on my bike. I'm just going to get through this year and look for some guys next year. That's a big problem in my team right now, a big organization, the other guys are just not willing to step up to these guys' level. The first session, we had a mechanical and I lost 15 minutes in the session. We had some oil leak and stuff. The guys are getting better, but it's just not top-level stuff that I need to be competitive every week in and week out. - Hacking has given them plenty of opportunity to show their stuff, destroying motorcycles at California Speedway, Road Atlanta, (where the engine was broken in the crash), Pikes Peak International Raceway, and Road America. This weekend's crash wasn't entirely his fault. Coming up the front straight, he got into a tankslapper that knocked the front-brake pucks back. What riders learn to do is tap the brakes to make sure they're active. When he went for the brakes, there was nothing, until the second try when he grabbed hard and the front locked, sending him and the motorcycle tumbling into the gravel trap outside of tum one. "He was straight up and down when he fell," said HMC Ducatl's Doug Chandler, who was following him at the time. Up to that point. Hacking had been right in the mix, running comfortably in the top five. What atso makes the criticism odd Is that Hacking's contract with Yosh is up at the end of this season and conventional wisdom says that he'd want to ingratiate himself to any potential employers. Graves Motorsports Yamaha's Aaron Gobert will retum to the U.S. on Tuesday, June 11, so he can attend the Yamaha dealer show in Las Vegas later in the week, with an eye to returning to racing at Brainerd International Raceway at the end of the month. Gobert is still on crutches and needs one more X-rayon the 21 st to detennine whether his right leg is strong enough to race. "If the doctor's happy with it. they'll let him ride," Gobert's mother, Sue, said at Road America. "The rest of him is great. Mentally, he's raring to go. He'll be at Brainerd. He's planning on riding." Anthony Gobert isn't quite as far along in his recovery. Anthony visited Dr. Ting just prior to the Road America race weekend and was told he needed to keep his leg elevated for another week. "He won't make the Brainerd decision for another week," Sue Gobert said. "If he crashes again and breaks it. it's not worth it." On the Tuesday prior to the Road America weekend, .lake Zemke (below) found out he'd be making his Superbike debut on Kurtis Roberts' Erion Honda RC-51 Superbike. On Thursday, he sat on it for the first time. On Friday morning, he rode it to the seventh fastest time. ahead of the Ducatis of Doug Chandler and Pascal Picotte. Not a bad debut. but not good enough for the Northern Californian. "I went qUicker on my Formula Xtreme bike," said Zemke, who clocked the fastest time in the first FX practice on the Bruce Transportation Group Honda CBR954RR. "I don't think that's supposed to happen." Zemke got the chance to try the Superbike after it was detennined that Kurtis Roberts still wasn't healthy enough to race. Ultimately, it was American Honda team manager Chuck Miller who made the call, and it wasn't an easy one. "It was a difficult decision," Miller said. "Jake and Roger [Lee Hayden) both had great results." Miller said he'd been watching the pair for a few weeks, trying to decide who would go best. Both have run strongly in the Fonnula Xtreme class in recent weeks, which made the decision harder. "No matter what decision you make. somebody's going to get the short end of the stick," Miller said. The RC-51 had been idle since Roberts hurt his knee at California Speedway in Fontana in early April. "At a certain point. we want to pay back the sponsors who've invested in the Superbike program and justify the costs," Miller said. Kevin Erion, Erion Honda's team owner. said that he'd requested the move earlier in the season to keep the exposure up for his sponsors. Parts Unlimited, one of the team's primary sponsors, is based in Janesville, Wisconsin, a few hours south of Elkhart Lake. "It's not one thing, it's a combination of a lot of things that made sense." Erion said about the move. The process began on Tuesday, when Miller was told by Roberts that he wasn't quite ready. He broached the idea of putting Zemke on the bike, and Roberts supported it. "In Europe. they never would've waited this long," Roberts said. As for the future. this may well be a one-race deal, Miller said. "This is not a preliminary for next year," Miller said, "just an opportunity for him to ride the machine." Miller, who previously predicted Roberts' return at Road Atlanta and Pikes Peak International Raceway, said he expected him back for the next race in three weeks' time at Brainerd international Raceway. "I hate to be quoted again, but at Brainerd Kurtis [Roberts] will be back. We're on a week-by-week basis." cue I • n e _ s JUNE 19, 2002 13

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