Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

game, I knew that with the advantage we had would come through at the end," Kurtis said, DuHamel knew he wouldn't be the first across the line. "My bike, when I got in the draft, it hit the rev limiter a little bit. That's not good," DuHamel said. Kurtis said he knew right away when they were running as a pack, they (DuHamel, Zemke, and Ben) were geared wrong. "I knew right when the race started, the gearing they had, there was no way," Kurtis said. DuHamel said, "The pace was well within what I'd call reasonable." A sentiment echoed by Hacking: "The pace, like Miguel (DuHamel) said, was really slow actually," he said. "I could run easy by myself low 53s if I had to. But I knew there was no point in remotely trying to go out there and do it, because I'd probably just waste my time, and my tires and those guys would run me right back down." Kurtis joked that the race was too long, that it should only be five laps since only the last two matter. So it was today. On the final lap, Zemke led across the stripe, with Hacking out front as they left turn six. Part of the finish order was decided then and there. Hacking, leading Zemke and Kurtis out of turn six, encountered a lapped rider. Hacking was through cleanly, Zemke got underneath, then Kurtis "grabbed a whole bunch of throttle and stood it up and drifted off line," Kurtis said. "He wasn't going anywhere. So I knew I had to get by him. That actually gave Jamie (Hacking) a big enough run that I knew now I could get by Jamie and probably win, unless one of these guys was rolling out of the throttle. Because I knew I had the top speed advantage on everybody." Hacking said he accelerated so hard out of turn six he got the thing "just broad sideways. I knew that was the only chance I had. That was the only thing I had left was to maybe pull away." Hacking saw a lapper ahead who he hoped would peel Kurtis off his tail. "I ran him down way too soon; we come up on him way too soon - I caught him right at the exit," Hacking said. "He didn't do nothing for me." Kurtis ran down Zemke on the back straight, pulling up on Hacking. The run would be textbook, and Hacking knew that the rider in front isn't the one with the happy ending. "The thing was wound up, and 1 had everything tucked in," Hacking said. "I was praying to everybody. And it just didn't work. I was coming out of NASCAR Four, and 1 still didn't feel no tug, and I didn't want to look around. I didn't want anything touching nothing." Hacking said he was looking for someone to come, "And here he comes. Old Mr. Trouble. Either that one (Kurtis) or this one (DuHamel). Either one. And there he went, run on the outside of me. He just had one hell of a run on me. It was just unbelievable. I stood up on the bike and barely got into a little bit of a draft and just held on to second. It was the best thing I could do." "I was hoping the more guys in front of me, the better, because that would help me try to get a draft," DuHamel said. "I had to time it where I'd pull out and the bike keeps pulling." Though he finished third, he leaves Daytona second in the actual points since Kurtis isn't contesting the whole series. "I was so happy just to see how good my bike is and how the rest of the year's going to," DuHamel said. "We're definitely in there the whole rest of the season, and Kurtis (Roberts), I don't think, he's going to be there at all." Zemke finished a close fourth to DuHamel but wasn't sure how it happened. "I'm going to have to watch the video to see what happened there," Zemke said of his run out of the chicane. The first problem he acknowledged was the gearing. "We kind of had to roll the dice on the gearing because it seemed like to gear it for the front straightaway we were losing out not the infield, but we put the gearing on that we thought was going to win the race for us," he said. "Kurtis (Roberts) got out of the chicane good, and him and Jamie (Hacking), they caught a lapped rider, and they were close enough to where that lapped rider sucked them away from me, and I was just sitting back there, and 1didn't have any help from the draft, and I just ended up a sitting duck for everyone else behind me," Zemke said. Next across was Yamaha's Jason DiSalvo, the 19-year-old New Yorker wide-eyed from the experience. "I'm going to have an adrenaline rush from this until Fontana," DiSalvo said. "It was great." _ lJaylDna International Speedway lJaylDna "ach, Florida Results: March 9, 2003 [Round 1 at 11) PRO HONDA OILS S(JPERSPORT; I. Kurtis Roberts (Hon); 2. Jamie Hacking (Yllm); 3. Miguel DuHamel (Yllm); 4. Jake Zemke (Hon): 5. Jason DiSlIlvo (Yam); 6. Damon Buckmaster (Yllm); 7. Jamie Stlluffer (Yam): 8. Aaron Gobert (Yam); 9. Ben Spies (Suz): 10. Ben Bostrom (Hon); 11. Roger Lee Hayden (Hon): 12. Matt Wait (Yam): 13. Tommy Hayden (Kew); 14. AllTon Yates (Suz); 15. Alex Gobert (Hon); 16. Tony Meiring (Kaw); 17. Lee Acree (Suz); 18. Andrew Nelson (Hon); 19. Doug Chandler (Hon); 20. Jason Curtis (Hon); 21. Jonathan Gomez (Yam); 22. Chris Peris (Hon); 23. Thad Halsmer (Vam); 24. Ty Howard (Hon); 25. Greg Moore (Suz); 26. Joseph Ford (Yam); 27. Chris Siglin (Suz): 28. Dirk Sllnchez (Kaw); 29. Antonio Piccioni (Yam); 30. Tim Knutson (Yam); 31. James Mann (Yam); 32. Jason Hobbs (Suz); 33. Michael McAllister (Yam); 34. James Kerker (Han); 35. David Guy (Suz); 36. Larry Roberts (Vam); 37. Chris Lowe (5uz); 38. Chad Simons (Yam); 39. Oliver Jervis (Kaw); 40. Dllrrin Mitchell (Suz); 41. Crllig Connell (Han); 42. Owen Weichel (Kaw); 43. Hector Romero (Yam); 44. Heath Small (Vam). HONDA OILS S(JPERSPORT C'SHIP POINT STANDINGS (After 1 of 11 rounds): 1. Kurtis Roberts (37); 2. Jamie Hacking (32); 3. Miguel DuHamel (30); 4. Jllke Zemke (27); 5. Jllson DiSalvo (26); 6. Damon Buckmaster (25); 7. Jamie StauHer (24); 8. Aaron Gobert (23); 9. Ben Spies (22); 10. Ben Bostrom (21); 11. Roger Lee Hayden (20); 12. Matt Wait (19); 13. Tommy Hayden (18); 14, AlIron Yeltes (17); 15. Alex Gobert (16); 16. Tony Meiring (15); 17. Lee Acree (14); 18. Andrew Nelson (13); 19. DOU9 Chandler (12); 20. Jason Curtis (11). Upcoming Rounds: Round 2 - Fontana, Califomia, April 5 Round 3 - Sonoma, Califomia, May 4 At the stripe it was Roberts (80) executing a perfect chicane-to-flnish strategy to draft past Hacking at the line, winning by a scant .118 of a second. my Own Race Tommy Hayden, Team Chevy Trucks Kawasaki, 13th place. Tommy Hayden found out the hard way that the new ZX-6 wasn't up to the demands of the high banks and long straights of Daytona International Speedway. "'It didn't go real good actually,"' he said. "'Got in there and just I knew it was going to be tough. I've been riding with those guys all week. Just didn't have the power to keep up. A little bit of both, acceleration and top speed. That was my plan, but I couldn't even do that. I was right there with them for the most part; when you're that far back, one guy makes a mistake, a couple more mistakes and you're out of it. I could stay with maybe two or three people, but as I was getting balked, it kind of split up. Kind of a tough day." Ben Bostrom, American Honda, 10th place. The return of American Honda's Ben Bostrom to Supersport racing didn't go as planned. "The bike was fantastic," he said. "The only mistake I made on the bike was, I geared it a little short, and I was on the limiter for probably a good five seconds going across the stripe. That wasn't the only problem. On the third lap, I don't know from the high vibration or whatever, I couldn't feel my hands. It started happening on the second lap, and by the third lap I couldn't feel my hands any more. So I was just shaking off the left one, but I couldn't let go of the throttle hand. So believe it or not, I couldn't grab the front brakes. I could feel the throttle opening but not so smooth, and I couldn't feel the brakes at all. Every time I was getting ready to pass somebody, but I just had to let them go back by. That's how everybody kept passing me. I tried to get back by them somewhere; they just kept passing me on the brakes. Nothing more frustrating." Aaron Gobert, Team Yamaha, Eighth place. Aaron Gobert ran into a problem he'd never had before on a road racer: arm pump. "I could run those same lap times those leaders with drafts on my own,"' he said. "And then for the race I had some front brake problems, and then my arm pumped up within three laps. So for the first three laps I was right at the front. After that I couldn't even brake down the back straight without worrying about running into the back of the guys in front of me. So I had to sit back. And then the guys behind you grab on, and you start going backwards and backwards and backwards. I ended up probably as far back as 10th at one point. I wasn't really happy with the whole outcome of it because I think I had the pace to run at the front all race. I never get road pump on a road bike. Road bikes aren't like dirt bikes to hold onto. And because whatever it was went on, the lever was really hard to reach for, so therefore I was straining hard to get to it, which fatigUed the muscle, and then I arm pumped straight off." Jason DiSalvo, Team Yamaha, Fifth place ef/t~I::~-'~ ~~ Jason DiSalvo said that watching last year's race dozens of times still didn't prepare him for the cut and thrust. "I watched the race from last year dozens of times, and it's just so much different being there than watching," he said. "Because you watch it, and they all pretty much look like they know where they're going to go, like it's planned out almost. But when ~ ~ you're out on the track. you have no clue what anybody else is going to do, and that makes the adrenaline run so high. It's like other tracks are more physically demanding, but this track I would say is more mentally draining all the way around. The straightaways, everything, such high speeds. I've never been in a race with that many people going back and forth and up and back. Like you go into tum one, and you think, 'Who's going to brake deeper?' And it's the only time I've ever gotten off the gas and go, 'Well that guy just went by me.' And I'd get on the gas, then get off again just to stay there. And everything is just such a weird sensation being out there." ~ '.' Damon Buckmaster, Team Yamaha, Sixth place The enthusiasm and inexperience of his teammate caused a few problems for the veteran Australian. "I was in it; I was in it for the win," he said. "And it was looking really good there for most of the race. Jason (DiSalvo) is a little young and would kind of get in front and would balk me because he wants to win as much as I do. He just needs to settle down a little bit, and he'll be right there. He kind of screwed me up a couple of times, and that's the end of the race." Jamie Stauffer, Libasci Racing, Seventh Place The most impressive run of the race was tumed in by Australian Jamie Stauffer who finished seventh on a very standard Yamaha R-6 backed by Libasci Racing. Stauffer thought he had a deal with an Australian Yamaha team for this season, but that team didn't receive the backing from Yamaha they expected. That left Stauffer to look in the U.S. where he hooked up with Libasci Racing. The Libasci team received no support from Yamaha and had to buy tires from Dunlop. Undaunted by his first trip to Daytona, and mixing it up with the best, Stauffer was in the lead group from the start, jumping from 10th to seventh on the penultimate lap and keeping it to the end. His final lap was the fastest of the race, a lap of 1;52.275. cue' e n e vv s MARCH 19, 2003 33

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