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AMAIChevy Trucks U. S. Superbike Series Rounds 13/14: Mid-Ohio'Siports Car Course Sunday's Superblke race saw a repeat of the Hayden (69) and Bostrom (32) show, with the two riders leaving the field In their wake. lap, the lead was 4.5 seconds. It grew to 5.5 seconds by the end of eight laps before Hayden was able to catch up a bit in traffic, bringing the gap down to 4.9 seconds after 10 laps. But just as quickly, it started to grow again when Hayden hit the same traffic snarl. "Early in the race, the first lap or two, 1 just kind of was tiptoeing around," Hayden said. "I just let my skirt fly up. Eric just pinned it from the green light, and I was just kind of building up to it. The track, I thought it might be a little more damp, but the track was good straight away. His first lap was so good, his first two laps, he just kept pulling away and got out to a big lead. It looked like he had a big group of traffic that really hurt him, and kind of got momentum going back my way. And I could just see him out of the corner of my eye sometimes, really moving around out of [turn] one and out of the keyhole. I seen that, and I thought, 'Man, just keep going, keep pushing after him. '" By the halfway point in the race, Bostrom was 7.6 seconds ahead and the race was finished. There was no way he was going to be caught. Right? Wrong. Just a lap later, Bostrom hit traffic and lost two seconds off his lead. Hayden would also get balked, but not as badly. Combine the traffic with the fact that Bostrom's rear tire had gone off, and the lead started to evaporate - rather quickly. By the end of 18 laps, Hayden was just 4.4 seconds behind and he could see his rival in front of him. On the 19th lap, Bostrom turned a 1:31.6 lap; Hayden clicked off a 1:29.7 lap. Goodbye, lead. Hello, Hayden. With 21 laps in the books, Hayden was just 1.8 seconds behind. Then it was .6 of a second a lap later. They started the final lap with Hayden only .07 of a second behind and the battle was on. With just a few corners left in 12 AUGUST 7,2002' II: U II: • the race, Hayden pulled up next to Bostrom on the entrance to turn 13, a fast left just three corners from the finish. It looked like he was going to stuff the RC51 through on the inside, but he thought the better of it. The pair might not have made the corner if he'd tried. "I was wayan the inside, for one," Hayden said on why he didn't finish the move. "And you know, maybe if it was a little different situation I'd definitely maybe went for it. But there's a lot more right now to really lose, you know, than going for it. But it was close. And like I said, if it was last year this time of year, the way it was going, I definitely would've went for that move. But it just didn't happen. For one, I was just way on the inside, and I had to really slow down to make the corner. But I had good position on him. Maybe I should've went for it. But 1 got beat. 1just didn't get it done, really." He had one more chance - try to get a run out of the final corner. He did that, but came up short at the line, losing to Bostrom by just .034 of a second. What had started out looking like one of the most mundane races of the season had suddenly turned into one of the most thrilling. "The last lap, last lap and a half, 1 got close to him, but there was just nowhere to really put a safe pass on him that 1 felt comfortable with," Hayden said. "Eric was just riding really hard. I mean, the last lap was probably about the hardest I've ever seen Eric ride. Which is good. He was just going for it." Bostrom had worked too hard to let this one slip away. He dug deep and gave it everything he had - traffic be damned. "We certainly had a lot of trouble, you know," Bostrom said. "At the beginning, it was actually great. I felt like we could run a pretty decent pace. I don't know, it felt like the setup was good on the front, but on e n _ vv s the back we were beating up the tire real bad in the beginning. It was just coming around a little bit too soon. And then it just totally went off halfway through. I really rode hard. It's kind of like, my bike and the way I like to ride, and everything, the way I've got it set up for, I like to carry some corner speed, and I like to lean the thing over real far. And today, every time I'd try to tip in, it would just about hit the steering stops. And a couple of times it did - once especially on the last lap. So it made it really tough because I couldn't really ride the way I like to ride a bike. I couldn't fling it off into the corner. And Nick did a good job catching me." The race for the win had turned out to be a good one. Not so for the races behind. Once he'd realized he couldn't match the leaders' pace, Yates settled in for a lonely ride to third place. "My bike wasn't really working as good as it really should have," Yates said. "When the tires went off, the thing just got to kicking and bucking and I just couldn't do much. I had to slow down a bit, and Nicky just kept going away. And then, you know, the lappers, I just had to cruise around and try to get around them guys safeiy. I was watching what I had on the guy behind me and just tried to keep a comfortable cushion. Yeah, it was a pretty boring race for me." Picotte, meanwhile, wasn't overly impressed with his rear Michelin - at least early on. Once the tire came good, the French Canadian moved forward, passing Mladin and catching Yates before traffic went against him. He had to settle for fourth, his best finish of the season. "The rear tire didn't work from the get-go for some reason," Picotte said. "It was really slippery. It got a lot better on the fifth lap and I started reeling in Mat [Mladin]. He was tough to pass and then 1 started reeling in Aaron [Yates], but I got blocked in traffic. Traffic was really, really bad. I don't remember it being that bad - we must have lapped some guys two or three times. 1 really wanted to get on the box. The team really deserves it because they've been working so hard, but this was still my best race by far. 1 think we can make some improvements in the suspension a little bit and maybe figure out why the tire didn't work from the get-go." Once he'd lost out on his battle with Picotte, Mladin also had a lonely run of it, finishing well clear of Roberts. "I got a good start and led from the line, but there were a few other guys who wanted to push it a lot harder on the first lap than I did," said Mladin. "I caught back up with Aaron [Yates] for a while, but got screwed in the traffic and again later when Pascal [Picotte] got me. 1 was just on the wrong side of the slower riders. I felt that we were going to be a lot better today, but we just didn't get it gOing. We had some suspension problems again where it wasn't lasting throughout the race. For a few laps it was okay, but when it heated up we began to struggle again. I'm still feeling confident that Yates (20) drags his elbow over MidOhio's tall curbing. He put the Yoshimura Suzuki on the podium on Saturday, but crashed out on Sunday while battling with the leaders. Mladln (1) chased him In race one and eventually finished fifth.