AMA/Chevy Trucks U.S. Superbike Championship
Rounds 15/16: Virginia International Raceway
By HENNY RAY ABRAMS
PHOTOS BY BRIAN J. NELSON
ALTON, VA, AUG 10·11
ne by one they fell by the way·
side, done in by crashes or
mechanical problems or tires. First
Aaron Yates, then Eric Bostrom, then
Mat Mladin. All three ended up by the
side of Virginia International Raceway
in Saturday's race, the first of the
AMA/Chevy Trucks U.S. Superbike
doubleheader. All of a sudden, Nicky
Hayden was in the lead with nothing
between him and his first Superbike
crown but bad luck and a loss of con·
centration. The bad luck never hit,
but the lack of concentration did.
"The biggest thing was just staying
focused,' American Honda's Hayden,
who took over the lead on the 13th of
28 laps, said. "Your mind wants to
start thinking about a lot of other
things, I mean, dumb stuff about what
I need to do for tomorrow's race, but,
you know, I'm kind of just thinking,
'All right, relax, just keep hitting my
marks,' and just lap by lap it went by.
It kind of seemed like a long time, but
it was fun, too, just to be out front
and just do it."
Hayden did it, surviving a race of
attrition to become, at 21 years, 10
days, the youngest AMA Superbike
champion ever. (Fred Merkel, 22
when he won in 1984, held the previ·
ous mark.) HMC Ducati's Doug
Chandler was second, American
Honda's Miguel DuHamel third.
"I'm just so happy to win this title,"
Hayden said. "People don't realize the
kind of work that goes into winning
this championship. I knew I didn't
necessarily have to win today, but all
the others had their problems. I'll
take it, that's for sure. It's a good way
to win the title."
Because last year's race was
93.45 miles, Hayden set new race
records, averaging 92.682 mph for
the 28·lap, 62.3·mile race, which he
completed in 40 minutes, 57.941
seconds. His margin of victory was
8.029 seconds.
Sunday's race was a mess, but a
mess worth watching to the end.
Three red flags and two burning
Honda RC·51s later, Kawasaki's
Bostrom used the power edge of his
ZX·7 to muscle past Blimpie/
Yoshimura Suzuki's Mat Mladin by a
wheel length, officially .004 of a sec·
ond, at the line, sending Mladin home
to Australia without a Superbike win
for the first time since 1996, his inau·
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AUGUST 21
,2002'
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