Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

m it was going to be wet this morning," Own Race - Race I m @1] 1] Jordan Szoke 7th the track dried out. The morning ses- was still set up for the wet. I learned a sion was held on a wet track, and big lesson. It was just too soft, and it everybody believed the race would was bottoming everywhere on the also be wet. Not so, said Mother front. I had to drop back because of Nature, and it was back to scram- it, and when the fuel load got lighter I bling with tires and chassis changes. started coming forward. I thought I When things got under way, it was was going to get Kurtis [Roberts] at Gobert again with the quick start. 10th Larry Pegram 6th Ben Bostrom 5th American Honda's Ben Bostrom had a long race. Although he ended up fifth, it was somewhat agonizing in that he knew on the first lap that he'd chosen the wrong tire. He would also find out that his gamble on setup was wrong as well. Early in the race. he passed his teammate Miguel DuHamel under a waving yellow flag, but slowed to allow him back past once he knew the error of his ways. "The lap before (I passed Miguel], I passed [Anthony] Gobert, and that put me on Miguel," Bostrom explained. "When I came over that hill, I was drafting by Miguel. We were coming over the hill, and right about there is where we hit the brakes, and I was already committed to go by, and I didn't see the waving yellow. I couldn't stop so I had to go by, that's why on the front I let him back by. I made it look like I didn't cheat too bad. I just picked the wrong tire. I picked a strange Japanese tire. The first lap I knew it. I couldn't flick it into the cor· ner. Unbelievable. I thought, 'What the hell? I'm totally out of this race.' I took a couple of laps on it in practice, and that tire was fine. I put this one on, and it was crap. I gambled on the bike a little bit, too. I made it a little bit too nervous. Usually we'll gamble to make it steer better, but I couldn't hang on to the thing. Plus, that rear tire was exceptionally bad. I messed up. I knew we were out of the race. It's heartbreaking. And [it felt like] the race was a 100 lapper. I didn't want to start the race in the first place like that. It just wouldn't end. I swear to god, when he threw the cross flags, I thought, 'Is that the checkers? Because I've been out here a long time!" eyes. to get our ass kicked again," Roberts "I didn't know what was going on," said. "I'm with Eric [Bostrom] on the Bostrom said. "Right when we got new section. I hate it. I'm losing so much time through there, it's sick. It's there is when we had gone through our first lapper, and I didn't know if he'd [Mladin] got collected with traffic hurting my arm with my shoulder that I hurt a few weeks ago, and it just or what. I was a bit surprised with the wrecks the racetrack. It had a nice whole thing. I didn't think it was Mat, flow and everything before. If we can even though I was pretty sure it was just figure out how to get through him - I was like, 'There's no way it's there without losing a second, I think him.' Then I saw his bike sitting on we'll be right there with the guys. I'm the track, so sure enough. I had no really struggling with whatever it may idea [that Mladin had a tire problem]. be. May arm is not as strong as it The tire we raced on, we've raced on was, so it gets tired out there. I'd say I'm about 80 or 90 percent right now. before, so I didn't figure there would be a problem. Our tire was consistent and good." Roberts held on for third place, his I'm fine on the rest of the racetrack; it's just a struggle throwing that thing around on the new section." race somewhat lonely as he raced Gobert crossed the line in fourth, alone with the exception of the some- his race a strange one as he started what hectic opening lap. Though he strong, faded then finished strong. As was on the podium, Roberts also it turns out, it was a setup snafu that caused his problems. knew there was work to be done if he was going to get closer to the front. "If we run like today, we're going one point, but I got held up by a cou- And again he would end up fading, ple of lappers, and I lost my momen- this time more so than the day tum. I just settled down and made Shawn Higbee Dream Team Ducati's Larry Pegram finished sixth in the first race on Saturday, matching his best effort of the young season. "We are just kind of at the tail end of these guys," Pegram said. "We can run with them for seven or eight laps, and then we start sliding around a little bit, and we lose them. Falling off this morning and banging myself up didn't help any because I'm pretty sore, but that's no excuse. I can run with them for seven or eight laps, and then we lose them. We were right there with Anthony [Gobert] and Ben [Bostrom). We just need to get a little bit better." m @@ 1] race was going to be held in soaking wet conditions, the rain stopped, and have told them to put it back. So it Millennium Technologies/Coffman Trailers·backed Shawn Higbee crashed hard during Friday's qualifying session, banging up both knees and his left elbow. Come Saturday, he fought through the pain to finish 10th. "I got onto a rhythm and saw that I got down into mid- and low 27s, so I was quite happy with that because it was better than we ran in practice and qualifying," Higbee said. "The bike is starting to come together. We've been struggling with rear suspension, but we've got a handle on it now. Our second bike actually has a little better motor in it, so we're hoping to try that bike tomorrow. If we can get a little better speed with the same chassis control, I think we'll have a better race tomorrow." mLl~ Just when it looked like Sunday's the guys to put it back. I kinda learned a lesson because I should Corona Extra Suzuki's Jordan Szoke continues to tum in solid results in the Superbike class, and his seventh in the first of the two Superbike Nationals at Road Atlanta was his best yet. "I got a decent start, and then I broke too early for tum one, and everybody went by me," Szoke said. "When I got into clear traffic, I put my head down and started to get into the 26s. I figured if I could continue that, some guys would fall to me near the end. Just as I started to think that, I got into a tankslapper and almost cTllshed on the backstraight wide open. I looked down, and the steering damper had broken off. It was flapping around on the throttle cables, but I thought, 'I'm fmishing this race no matter what.' I had to slow it down a little. Every time I hit the brakes and it still turned in and the throttle didn't stick, I was happy. We were lucky that nothing happened, and this was my best finish ever, The team worked really hard, and I think if it didn't break we could have caught [Larry) Pegram at the end there." (J] 1] 1] 6J RACE TWO Gobert explained. "I sort of expected before, as he never really got going sure I got fourth. I was happy just to again, and he ended up eighth. do that and have a good race.' m The first to pass was Yates, the Own Race - Race 2 mc:D® Jason Pridmore mLl~ Larry Pegram m~@ Aaron Yates m1] Ll Miguel DuHamel 6th Attack Suzuki's Jason Pridmore hasn't had the best of luck so far this year. On Saturday a fried clutch cost him, but on Sunday he rode well to finish sixth, giving him something to smile about. "We got results this weekend, so that's good," Pridmore said. "This year has been so lost, and we can go back now, and we know some things we did to the bike to make it better. Now we can go to Pikes Peak with a little bit of confidence. I'm happy with both my races. Yesterday, we had a clutch go out at the start. I came back out and did pretty good times, and today I did some 6s (1:26s). This year sixth is the best. I was sixth at Sears, but of course we ran out of gas, so... I'm happy. Larry [pegram] was in front of me, and then once I got in front of him, I just stayed there. Once I got by him, I just kept it at plus three. Then I ran off the track, and it went down to plus one, but then it went right back to plus two. I'm happy with the team because they've been working hard." 7th Dream Team Ducati's Larry Pegram ended up a spot worse on Sunday than he did on Saturday. The reason: a broken shock. "I had a broken shock from the beginning," Pegram said. "The seal broke, and it was just leaking oil, so it just kept getting worse, hopping and chattering and moving all over the place. I just tried to limp home. Jason [Pridmore] kept making mistakes, and I'd catch back up to him. And I was like, 'Jason, I don't want to ride this thing that hard. Get away from me.' I thought the first couple laps I had a tire out of balance, and it got worse and worse. I came in, and there was oil draining all over the shock." 4th Yoshimura Suzuki's Aaron Yates didn't have the package he needed to match his result from Saturday. It was a matter of not having the right tire, he said. He was also another victim of limited vision. "I chose to go with the 587 front, and it didn't hang in there for me," Yates said. "I thought the way the weather was, it might be all right. That tire just starts moving around, a little too mushy for me. It started feeling like that within four or five laps. I was pretty cautious about it after that. And then it was misting in a couple of areas in five, six and seven. My shield was pretty messed up. That was the left side. It [the tire] was pretty chewed up. I was spinning it up everywhere. I was losing on the entry and midtum, and I was trying to make it up on the drive. We had a different swingarrn on that bike, and it didn't feel as good as yesterday. It was moving around too much." 9th It seems strange to even note that a ninth-place finish for Miguel DuHamel was an improvement, but it was. The injured French Canadian did what he could, though he was hampered by a fogged faceshield - as were many of the top men. "I got a good start, and my shield fogged up on my Shoei," DuHamel said. "A Jot of guys are saying the same thing. We've got to come up with a mist guard. I just couldn't see out of one eye. But we had a new tire on the rear. Even when the track was pretty dry, I was sliding quite a bit. I didn't know if we went too soft, so I took it easy until half-race, and then I tried to step it up a little bit. And I saw Anthony [Gobert) coming back to me. And I'm pretty sure I would have got him. Any problem he had was quite a bit bigger than what I had. I would've gotten eighth maybe. My pinkie is still numb; the left side of my hand is numb from this morning. I don't know why. The race was okay. Our goal was just to make this weekend and get out of here safe and sound and with points on top of it. Everything's cool." (J) 1] 00 Ben Bostrom 5th While he was fifth on both days, Sunday's fifth was a lot more impressive for Ben Bostrom. In fact, he was part of a group that battled ferociously over second place until lapped traffic worked against him. "We had a good bike, a good tire; it was my own fault," Bostrom said. "I went to open vents on my helmet. I had a bunch of water inside. The first half of the race, I couldn't see real well. So I was pretty tentative racing with those guys. So I thought, 'I better flip this thing open.' So I opened it, and the second half of the race I just had the wind, and it kind of distorts your vision, and it's hard to get in there. I had a few clean passes, and I couldn't even stick them. Traffic ... it really did screw us at one point. You catch somebody in the infield, and then you go to the new part of the track, and you're just stuck. I saw Aaron's [Yates) tire starting to come apart on the left side. I was like, 'Well, a lot of guys are going to be going backwards pretty quick.' Then the red flag came out. Fourth or fifth I don't care, but fourth would have been better. It was my own fault. I'll talk to the guys about it and tell them to put a vent on top of the helmet." "What happened was that I set the bike up for the wet because I thought cue I e n e vv s MAY 28, 2003 11

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