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Pro Honda Oils Supersport Damon Buckmaster (6) left Road Atlanta tied with the championship points lead in the Pro Honda Oils Supersport class. The Australian finished second behind Ben Spies and ahead of third· place finisher Aaron Gobert and his younger brother Alex Gobert (23). Round 4: Road Atlanta my Own Race ~® Alex Gobert 4th It was hard to know which was the most fun for the youngest of the racing Goberts, running at the front, racing with his brother Aaron, or finishing fourth. He was one of the few hoping for rain, where he has considerable experience. But it never rained. Instead there was a dry line throughout. "And when it dried out, I thought. 'Well, if I can just get up there off the start and stay there as long as I can, it'd be good.' And I got up there and it seemed I had the pace of the guys pretty good. They were definitely a little bit quicker, but I was holding my own as well." Gobert had come out of tum one in third place and ran second to Yoshimura Suzuki's Ben Spies for a few laps before being passed by Yamaha's Damon Buckmaster, then settling into the dice with his brother. "I just tried to put my head down and chase Ben (Spies), but he got a big lead off the start, and he was riding really good. When (Damon) Buckmaster passed me, I tried going with him. When Aaron passed me, I just tagged onto him." r:B@ Jason DiSalvo zero." 5th Yamaha's Jason DiSalvo spent the end of the race alone after losing touch with the leaders and slightly separating himself from a pack of five just behind. The New Yorker was one of those who benefited from the red fiag, the break giving him time to switch from a rain front to a DOT front for the final 11-lap segment. '" was kind of worried because after about three laps it started sliding. And then by the end of it was chewed up terribly," DiSalvo said of his original tire. "So we came in, and I was really happy we got to switch over to the DOT front." DiSalvo was in among the five rider pack when he worked his way to the front of it, passing Erion Honda's Jake Zemke on the 14th of 15 laps. "I don't know what happened to Jake. He kind of slowed down for three corners, then it looked like he put his head back down. I got Zemke down the back straight, which I was happy for because he's a little ahead of me in points, so that tightened things back up." Co'\(O)oo ~~ Jake Zemke 6th "Before the red flag we were going OK; after that ree! flag we messed ourselves up," Jake Zemke said after finishing sixth. "I was having trouble getting off tum seven a little bit. We tried to soften up the rear to help the drive out of there. It just killed me everywhere else. It was too much. We were pushing the front wide coming off the corner, and the thing wouldn't steer through the esses. We kind of shot ourselves in the foot with that." ~~ Tommy Hayden 7th Kawasaki's Tommy Hayden went with a rain tire when the race first started. 'nstantly, he knew he was in trouble. By the time the red flag came out, he was down in 21 st place. The DOT he put on for the second segment was "ten times better. I'm glad for the red flag. , started 21 st, so I had a long way to go on the restart. I stepped it up about a second there. The track was good. It wasn't 100 percent, but it was pretty dang good." @@ Roger Lee Hayden was five lapped riders peeling into the chicane. , was like 'Where am I going to go?' Luckily, I pulled it out with what I had; it was just enough .. Didn't see him (Alex) after that. Saw plus While the Goberts battled, Buckmaster pulled away as best he could. "I couldn't see," Buckmaster said. "My visor was fogging up fairly dramatically, and 1 was actually holding the visor up going down the main straightaway trying to find some dry lines." On top of which, he'd gone out with a wet setup on a dry track. "I was just concerned about being able to see the dry lines because of my visor and stuff, so I just rode as best I could with a wet setup bike with DOT tires," Buckmaster said. "The combination worked okay. I think if we had been able to be closer to Ben (Spies) at the start of the race, we probably could've challenged for a win. But he gapped me, like I said. The race was done." Buckmaster was by himself for much of the second part of the race, finishing 2.792 seconds behind Spies with almost the same gap to Gobert in third. 9th Erion Honda's Roger Lee Hayden caused the red flag when he crashed in the grass off the turns three-four sequence then dumped his Honda CBR-600RR on the track when he tried to get going. On the restart he was well back but worked his way up to challenge, and eventually pass, a pair of fellow Honda riders. "On the restart I had to get on the last row, and I just put my head down tried to make sure everything was all right the first two laps. I seen Doug (Chandler) and Martin Craggill in front of me. I just put my head down and tried to catch them. The last lap I diced it up with Tony (Meiring), and we got pretty close in the esses. And I was just - I didn't really want to take any more chances after working that hard." Roger Lee was ninth, just behind Meiring and ahead of Chandler and CraggiJi. 1J '0 @ Doug Chandler eN Road Atlanta Braselton, 6eorgia Results: May 18, 2003 [Round 41 PRO HONDA OILS S(JPERSPORT: 1. Ben Spies (Suz); 2. Damon Buckmaster (Yam); 3. Aaron Gobert (Yam); 4. Alex Gobert (Hon); 5. Jason DiSalvo (Yam); 6. Jake Zemke (Hon); 7. Tommy Hllyden (Kaw); 8. Tony Meiring (Kew); 9. Roger Lee Hayden (Hon); 10. Doug Chandler (Hon): 11. Marty Cr899ill (Hon); 12. Ty Howard (Hon): 13. Giovanni Rojas (Yam); 14. Darren Luck (Suz); 15. Jason Curtis (Hon); 16. Thad Halsmer (Yam); 17. Steven Breckenridge (Tri): 18. William Johnson (Suz); 19. Heath Small (Yam); 20. Jason Hobbs (Yam); 21. Jamie Hacking (Yam); 22. Joseph Ford (Yam); 23. David Guy (Suz); 24. Quentin Wilson (Yam); 25. Dirk Sanchez (Kaw); 26. Jeremy H8iduk (Yam): 27. Daffin Mitchell (Suz); 28. Cllesar Gonzales (Kaw); 29. Robert Hilliard (Yam); 30. Matthew Wait (Yam); 31. Jamie Stauffer (Suz). TIme: N/A due red flag. Distance: 15 laps. 38 miles Average speed: N/A due to red flag. Margin of victory: 2.792 sec. PRO HONDA OILS S(JPERSPORT C'SHIP POINT STANDINGS (After 4 of 11 rounds): I. (TIE) Jamie Hacking/Damon Buckmaster (117); 3. Ben Spies (112/1 win); 4. Aaron Gobert (109); 5. Jake Zemke (102); 6. Jason DiSalvo (99); 7. Tommy Hayden (97); 8. Alex Gobert (86); g. Doug Ch.ndler (80); 10. Tony Meiring (76); 11. (TIE) Miguel DuHllmel/Ty Howard (65); 13. Roger Lee Hayden (64); 14. Jason Curtis (52); 15. Thad Halsmer (44); 16. (TIE) Jamie Stauffer/Chris Peris (42); 18. M.rty Croggill (38); Ig. Kurtis Roberts (37/1); 20. Steve Crevier (34). Upcoming Rounds: Round 5 - Fountain, Colorado, June 1 Round 6 - Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin, June Lockhart-Phillips USA Formula Xtreme STORY AND PHOTO BY HENNY RAY ABRAMS nate early exit of his teammate, Damon Buckmaster, Hacking was out front and flying away when the race BRASElTON, GA, MAY 18 Jamie Stauffer DNF Jamie Hacking was stopped by a crash on the 14th I of 15 laps. With scoring reverting n Sunday's first race, Pro Honda Oils Supersport, run in a swampy back to the 12th lap, Hacking was mist on a mostly dry Road Atlanta declared the winner by 2.004 seconds circuit, Yamaha's Jamie Hacking was over Erion Honda's Jake Zemke, the involved in a first-turn maelstrom that new championship points leader, with landed him in the dirt. "We won't talk about that race," he said late in the day. DNF The red flag brought a smile to the face of Yamaha's Jamie Hacking. The rain tire he'd fitted to the rear of his Yamaha R6 was clearly the wrong choice, and the stoppage would give him a chance at a new start. It lasted one comer. "It was kind of a situation where bikes going in the opposite directions. You kind of get in there. I was in the brakes so hard; I didn't want to lose the brakes. You hit the back, and it catapults you over the side of the bike." MAY 28,2003' cue • I!! n e vv s Bruce Transportation Group's Marty Craggill third, less than a second behind Zemke. In the day's final race, Lockhart- "It's good to rebound back like this Phillips USA Formula Xtreme, run in and leave Road Atlanta on a positive slightly better conditions, Hacking, note, that's for sure, rather than leave now on the Graves Motorsports in the dirt and earth," Hacking said Yamaha Rl, found redemption. Taking advantage of the unfortu- 14 standings with 117. Spies moves into third with 1 12. 10th Yoshimura Suzuki's Jamie Stauffer got caught up in the first-tum bottleneck at the beginning of restart and ended up on the ground. "I'm not really sure" what happened, he said. "(Jamie) Hacking stuffed up, or someone took him out. He crashed and just fell straight in front of me. I was sort of on the outside of him. I seen smoke come off his front wheel, and then he sort of crashed it, and I had nowhere to go, and I ran into his bike. That's about it, really. I was going really well. We done a lot of stuff to the bike last night, the time I done, I got stuck behind some people, me fastest time out there was as quick as anyone out there, and I was making time on people." ~ tie atop the championship point Round 3: Road Atlanta '" was kind of disappointed in seeing the red," No Umits Motorsports' Doug Chandler said of the race stoppage. "We were going good. It definitely played out to the Kawasaki guys. Gave them a second chance. The second start went OK. I could run with those guys. If they got a gap on me, I could run them down; I just couldn't do nothing with them on the straight. A combination of me being big for a 600 and our bike just not quite accelerating. It was tough." 1] @71 Buckmaster's second, along with Hacking's misfortune, puts them in a after his first Formula Xtreme win, or podium, of the year.