Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

AMAIChevy Trucks U.S. Superbike Championship Rounds 15/16: Virginia International Raceway Chandler inherited second when MJadin went out on the 20th lap. It was his best finish ofthe year. DuHamel was third, well in front of Erion Honda's Kurtis Roberts - fourth with a vibration in his rear tire - with Austin Bleu/Bayou Ducati's Pascal Picotte fifth, also feeling a buzz - his coming from the engine. The Suzuki GSX-R750-mounted privateers lined up next: HSA of Stanford's Brian Livengood was sixth, SGl's Vincent Haskovec seventh, Team Embry's Geoff May eighth, Woody's Service's Woody Deatherage ninth, and White Tip Racing's Brian Parriott 10th. Sunday's race was stopped the first time by Hayden's front-end slip on the seventh lap, with Bostrom in the lead. The second segment went until the 12th lap, when Roberts also lost the front, his sliding motorcycle taking out Yates before bursting into flames. Mladin was in the lead at that point. Privateer Michael Fitzpatrick caused the third red flag on the 21 st lap, Mladin again in front. The final stint was eight laps, Mladin leading right up to the stripe, when Bostrom whizzed by. Still, it was MJadin's best finish of the year, not that he was consoled. He skipped the podium ceremony after his number-one Suzuki had already been wheeled into the winner's circle, and, after a brief discussion with his crew, retired to his motorhome. He later returned and explained that he had nothing good to say on the podium, so he skipped it. He was also frustrated at how hard his team had worked all year, but without the full support of everyone else involved. Even so, the move was viewed as hugely disrespectful, a slap in the face to Suzuki, and he was seen having an animated discussion with Suzuki's Pat Alexander well after the race ended. Teammate Yates was third, then Chandler, then the privateer horde led by Disalvo, ahead of Butler Machine's Robert Jensen and White Tip Racing's Brian Parriott, who finished the season as the top privateer - sixth overall. The final points tables list Hayden at the top with 488, Bostrom second with 451, and DuHamel third with 381. Parriott came sixth in the final standings, ahead of Mat Mladin, Doug Chandler, Jamie Hacking, and Anthony Gobert. "We went over it last night and this morning," Parriott said of where he needed to finish to protect his place. "We knew exactly where we needed to be, and we were five spots ahead of where we needed to be." front of the resurgent Mladin, Hayden, and Hacking. Four laps in, there was a threerider break: Bostrom, Yates, and Mladin, then Hayden and Hacking, followed by the rest of the factory bikes and a wealth of privateers. The first significant change came on the eighth lap, when Yates fell in the esses. Something on the rear of the motorcycle clipped the curbing, and he was down and sliding, tearing up a new set of leathers. "I was trying to give it throttle, and I banged it and just knocked the thing on the ground," he said. It appeared, on television, that the rear tire hit the curbing, but Yates disagreed. "The rear tire wouldn't have hit it if the front tire didn't hit it. Something up here near the pipe hit it." Bostrom had a little breathing room, but his luck was soon to run out. Starting the ninth lap, his engine began to fail - he suspected a bearing failure· and, before long, he was done, as were his championship hopes. "I went off in [tum one], and I got into second gear, and the thing just totally came around on me," Bostrom said. "I was like, man, what's the deal? I totally missed the turn. Laid on the throttle, and it was soft and then I went off into two and I'm like, 'Damn it, I've got to get back into this thing. I don't care how, I'm winning this race.' And then I went off into (Right) Bye, bye title: Bostrom's championship hopes wound up In a heap after his engine locked up on Saturday. (Below) Doug Chandler (10) enjoyed his best finish of the season aboard his HMC Ducat! on Saturday, the former champion winding up second. RACE ONE Hayden was on the pole, but it was Bostrom to the point and holding the spot, Yates was a close second, in 10 AUGUST 21,2002' e y e I e n __ s four and went to backshift and the thing totally locked up on me, and I couldn't stop it and I ran off the track. I ran wide everywhere because the thing was just so strange-feeling." As for having his title hopes dashed, Bostrom said, "It would've been nice to put the pressure on. Hey, you've got to finish another race. Might as well make him nervous one more night." Hayden wasn't nervous, just increasingly fortunate. Mladin had taken over the lead when Bostrom fell, but not for long. Early on, his rear shock went, and it was pogoing everywhere. Entering turn one, Mladin ran wide and off the track, handing Hayden the lead. "The thing was just wobbling that bad, and I tried to get underneath a lapper, and it just wasn't steady," Mladin said. "I overcooked it and made a mistake." The mishap dropped him from first to third, behind teammate Hacking, with HMC Ducati's Doug Chandler right on him. Hacking was the next to go out, with a broken valve • the same problem the team had in spades at Brainerd - on the 17th lap, though he was able to ride it in. At that point, Hayden had 11.184 seconds on Mladin and Chandler. Mladin starting to inch away from Chandler, only to get knocked back again. With 13 laps remaining in the 28-lap race, Mladin's rear tire began to vibrate. With nine laps to go, it blew apart, spitting off a piece of rubber. Hayden then had 13.1 seconds on Chandler. His lap times dropped, his lead held steady at 10 seconds, and he rode to victory. "] got the lead, and the next time I looked up at my pitboard, I had a pretty good lead," Hayden said. "I was being pretty cautious with some lappers. The biggest thing was just staying focused. I was trying to relax and hit my marks. The last few laps seemed to take forever." Chandler held off DuHamel but knew that Hayden was unreachable. "He [Hayden] had a pretty good lead, and my main concern was who was behind me," Chandler said after his

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