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AMAlChevy Trucks U. S. Superbike Series Round 12: Mazda Raceway at Laguna Seca (Left) Australians Mat Mladln (1) and Anthony Gobert (16) had weekends they'd rather 10rget at Laguna. Mladin suffered hand Injuries In a practice crash, and Gobert stili Isn't recovered from a broken leg. (RIght) Chandler (10) charged at the end 01 the race to beat Yates (20) 10r third place. It was the second successive podium finish for Chandler. wanting to fare better in front of a large audience that included the World Superbike field and its team brass, but Bostrom proved for the second successive year that it is he who seems to have Laguna figured out best. At least when it counts the most. As much as he doesn't particularly enjoy finishing second, Hayden could be content with the fact that he took another bag-full of points with him after a hectic, stop-and-start day of racing at Mazda Raceway at Laguna Seca. Sure, Bostrom cut into his points lead by not only winning the race but earning pole position and leading the most laps - but Hayden still has the upper hand in the points chase, leading his Kawasaki rival by 36 points, 381-345. Four races remain in the series, two at the MidOhio Sports Car Course and two at Virginia International Raceway to close out the season. Third place went to HMC Ducati's Doug Chandler, his second straight third-place finish. Chandler, who lives in nearby Salinas, was inspired and it showed in his results. In the only portion of the race that counted for anything, Chandler was fourth off the start but he wasn't content to stay there. Instead, he ran down Blimpie/Yoshimura Suzuki's Aaron Yates, hounded him from behind, and finally passed him on the 22nd of 28 laps to take the final rostrum spot. 18 JULY 24, 2002' eye • ... Yates battled with a rear tire that he wasn't particularly fond of to finish a comfortable fourth, clear of an allFrench-Canadian battle between American Honda's Miguel DuHamel and Pascal Picotte. Picotte tried to best his countryman on the final lap, but DuHamel (despite sore ribs from a 600cc Supersport crash the day before) was having none of it and he held Picotte off at the line to finish fifth. Picotte was sixth, miles ahead of a struggling Anthony Gobert. The factory Yamaha rider was making his return to racing after suffering a broken leg in May, but he wasn't strong enough physically to put in anything close to a Gobert-like performance. He was disappointed with his effort at race's end, a lack of strength in his leg not allowing him to move around the motorcycle enough to be effective. His result led him to pull out of Sunday's pair of World Superbike races. "I just don't have any movement in the leg," Gobert said, "that's the problem. I can't use the rear brake properly; I can't get in the right position. It's just a big problem. And the Yamaha is really underpowered right now and with me being injured there's just no chance. I tried as hard Miguel DuHamel (17) gets the Honda RCS1 sideways ahead 01 countryman Pascal Picotte (21) In their battle 10r fifth. n e wv s as I could in the beginning, but I just can't afford to crash and make the injury worse." The battle of the privateers went to White Tip Racing's Brian Parriott, even though he was forced to ride his Superstock bike when his Superbike blew up during practice. Still, the Californian had enough to best Arclight Suzuki's Craig Connell. Team America's Jason DiSalvo rounded out the top 10 finishers. The race lost two of its stars in one incident on the fourth lap when Erion Racing's Kurtis Roberts crashed on the exit of turn 10, leaving Blimpie/Yoshimura Suzuki's Jamie Hacking with no place to go. The two collided and crashed, their day finished. Fortunately, neither suffered an injury. Defending series champion Mat Mladin's disappointing season suffered yet another bump in the road when he crashed his Blimpie/Yoshimura Suzuki in the final World Superbike qualifying session, held just prior to the start of the Superbike National. Though he didn't suffer serious injury, Mladin's hands were banged up and his results showed it. The Australian bravely started the first portion of the race, but didn't re-grid fro the restart, his bruised and swollen hands causing him to.o much discomfort to continue. "I tried for a few laps out there, but my hands and head were aching;" said Mladin. "I was dropping back through the field after a couple of laps and it wasn't really worth it for me out there in this condition." Not much changed in the chase for the championship, though Bostrom did gain six points on Hayden. DuHamel is still third with 298 points, 11 better than Yates. Picotte continues to have a stranglehold on fifth with 277 points, 42 points better than Parriott, with the privateer still holding off Chandler by 26. . The race got under way full of promise with all the factory stars running nose to tail on the opening lap. It didn't take long for -the top three, however, to break away - with Bostrom, Yates and Hayden pulling clear of the battling Roberts and Hacking. It all came to a halt on the sixth lap when Roberts and Hacking went down in a heap on the exit of turn 10, the latest incident in a horrible season for Roberts. "I went into that corner and the thing kicked back to the inside and threw me off the inside, which was strange," Roberts said. "It was spinning a little bit, but was pretty far out of the corner. I didn't even slide off the track. I stood up in the middle of the racetrack. I was pretty well out of the danger zone. It just kind of sprung back to the inside and threw me off. I