Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

fZUD&J@Dm [J[)m7]@C!!J@DD&J@D@9 hopes to be a new winning streak the hunt and in a battle for second place that nearly went the distance. when he won the red-flag-shortened race. The win on Saturday, however, went to Yates, the Georgian holding off Eric Bostrom to win his first Superbike National since Mid-Ohio in 2000 and the sixth of his career. On Sunday, with the championship points lead now in his grasp, Yates could only muster up a fourth-place finish, watching from behind as Mladin quickly swiped 10 points out Lapped riders in bad spots ended up wrecking that battle, and Ben Bostrom and Yates got the worst of it. All they could do was watch as Eric Bostrom and Roberts got away. Austin Ducati's Anthony Gobert showed a bit of promise this weekend, the Australian finishing fourth and eighth in the two races. He missed on the setup in both races, and that cost him, especially on Sun- of a lead that stood at 12 points on day when both Attack Suzuki's Jason Saturday night. Kawasaki's Eric Bostrom should leave Road Atlanta with his head held high, but he probably won't. Bostrom badly wants to win, and nobody rides harder than the Californian in an effort to do just that. The Kawasaki/ Bostrom package was just a tad overmatched here, and he was disappointed not to win a race. He did, Pridmore and Dream Team Ducat;'s Larry Pegram were able to beat him. Pegram had finished sixth on Saturday and seventh on Sunday to match his best weekend of the season thus far. American Honda's Miguel DuHamel had a tough weekend, though it was amazing that he was even riding, considering he'd broken his collarbone just two weeks earlier at Infi- however, finish second both times, closing the gap to his rival Mladin in the championship. Erion Honda's Kurtis Roberts, meanwhile, was another rider who had a solid weekend. Still recovering from a shoulder injury that had him at what he estimated to be 80-90-percent healthy, Roberts put the RC51 on th: podium with third-place finishes in both races - improving his stead in the title chase as well. American Honda's Ben Bostrom finished fifth in both races, the second one much more impressive than the first. In race two, Bostrom was in neon Raceway. DuHamel had tire problems on Saturday that forced him all the way down to lIth. On Sunday, things went a bit better, and he ended up ninth. Not bad considering that 13 days earlier he was undergoing surgery. The top privateer over the course of the two days was Prieto Racing's Michael Barnes, the Floridian finishing eighth on Saturday and II th on Sunday. Shawn Higbee and his Millennium Technologies/Coffman Trailers-backed Suzuki GSX-R 1000 ended the weekend with a pair of 10ths. If Mat Mladin's qualifying laps weren't enough to instill fear into his competitors, the 1:22.861 lap he tumed in the final practice session prior to Saturday's first race sure should have. After all, the best anyone else had done was Eric Bostrom's 1:23.944 - over a full second slower than Mladin's practice lap. Although that one didn't count because official qualifying was already complete, Mladin had already done enough to earn pole position. On a sunny Friday aftemoon in Georgia, Mladin lapped at 1:23.520 to capture provisional pole position. When nobody bettered that time on Saturday, it turned into pole position and a championship point for the then-championship points leader. Since the track had undergone some changes with the addition of a left-right chicane in the turn three-four area, Mladin's best lap was a new track record. Saturday moming's final qualifying session was a far cry from Friday's session. Instead of bright sunshine and warm temperatures, Saturday's early qualifier was held in fog and with a racetrack that was far from perfect. That meant that not all were able to improve on their best from Friday, and Mladin was foremost among those non-improvers. Still, he was the only one who didn't have to improve. "It was obviously a little bit damp out there, but we were pretty sure nobody was going to go 3.5 (1:23.5), so we didn't worry too much !,bout it," Mladin said. "We just rode around and tried to figure out a few things. At the start there really wasn't worth doing anything silly because. there were some damp spots, and the mist got heavy halfway through the session. There wasn't much point in going out there and riding a second off the pace. Even at the end there were some damp spots, but the race line was pretty much dry. It was just a matter if you wanted to trust the white lines and stuff too much. It was pretty dry." ' Eric Bostrom ended up second best with his best lap coming on Saturday moming. He'd started the session in a bad way but picked things up as the session went along, and he ended it looking as though he and his Kawasaki would be a factor in the two races. "As the session went, it was kinda drizzly out there," Bostrom said_ "We were juggling around with some different things, and we had a couple of different bikes that we were playing with. When it came down to the end, it was like, 'Man, I'm really slow.' The guys put on a softer race tire, and we got into the 24s, finally. I came in, and I didn't know how much time we had when I came in, but I lucked out, and I was able to get that one lap on a new tire, and it paid off. The tire was great. and I actually didn't use it to its potential. I could have gone quicker, but I'm sure everyone thinks thal The track didn't seem so special, but with about 15 or 20 minutes left, it came good_ The lap itself wasn't special, so that tells me that my bike is working better. The biggest change we made is raising the whole bike up. We went back to the bike we ran yesterday, and it's a taller bike, and it seemed to help me get through the comers faster, through the esses better, and that's probably where we improved our splits." Austin Ducati's Anthony Gobert posted the third-quickest time, the Australian doiog his 1:24.306 during Friday's session. He attributed the sudden change in form to going back to his old Ohlins fork, the one he'd last used at Daytona. Yoshimura Suzuki's Aaron Yates would fill the front row, the Georgian changing his riding style in an effort to be more Mladin-Iike in riding the GSX-R1000. "The track is actually good right now," Yates said on Saturday moming. "It's nice and cool. The misting seemed to quit about 10 or 15 minutes before the end of that session, but it wasn't really an issue on the track. Even the paint stripes seemed to be okay. I thought they might be a little slick, but really I guess it hasn't rained at all - it was just a little foggy. We made a bunch of changes to the front of the bike yesterday, just in the fork settings and with a different front tire. I'm a lot more confident now on the brakes, to run the bike in, hold the gas on longer, brake really hard for the tums. It's a little different than how I was riding yesterday. I feel kinda slow in the midturn because I'm trying to stay on the gas as long as J can and brake really hard and get in there and tum the bike and drive out. I'm trying to imitate, I guess, the way Mat [Mladin] rides the bike a bit. It seems to work pretty good, I feel like I could have gone a good bit quicker, but we just had a standard 950 tire on the rear at the end. The drive grip was not so good, but we definitely have some better tires for the race. I think it could have been good for maybe half a second in that session. Jt Erion Honda's Kurtis Roberts would lead the second row. He was joined there by American Honda's Ben Bostrom, teammate Miguel DuHamel and Attack Suzuki's Josh Hayes (who wouldn't end up starting the race). The biggest winners of the weekend might have been those wishing for a closer AMA Superbike Championship. Just when it looked like Mladin was ready to run away with the title, everything was turned upside down at Road Atlanta. With seven races in the can, Yates leads Mladin by two points, 214-212, and the rest aren't far behind. Eric Bostrom sits third with 202 points, eight points ahead of his brother, Ben. Roberts is just five points behind in fifth place with 189 points - and just 25 points separate the top five. RACE ONE Overcast skies greeted the start of the first of two Superbike Nationals on a dreary Saturday - but at least it wasn't raining. The holeshot went to Gobert, but Eric pushed him back up the hill. Then passing his fellow Bostrom quickly a spot on the run Mladin followed, Aussie going into cue I e turn six. Yates, too, would pass Gobert before they ended the first lap. The race for the lead would last another lap. Mladin passed Eric Bostrom going into turn six on the second lap, but Bostrom fought back and passed him right back on the brakes in turn 10. On the exit, Mladin was back in front, and that appeared to be it. End of battle. End of race, at least for the lead. Or so it appeared. Behind Mladin, Eric Bostrom continued to fight, doing everything he could to keep Yates at bay. On the sixth lap, Yates dove under Eric Bostrom entering turn one, but Bostrom regained the spot on the exit, as Yates was forced wide. Two laps later, after trying to pass once more in turn 10, Yates made the pass stick, and almost immediately he was able to pull a slight gap to the Kawasaki rider. Behind them, there was a gap to n e _ S • MAY 28, 2003 9

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