Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

would come down to the final lap. "I tried get him in one, can't do it; got a run on him coming out of two, out he was in for a long afternoon when he tried to pass Mladin near the start of the race. like I did with Jamie [Hacking], and we were side by side, and J braked pretty deep, and he went deeper," DuHamel said. "He went a little wide, and I was trying to keep it in tight. I figured he was going to go a little wide. I tried to squeeze in underneath him. I thought I left him enough room." Roberts felt he hadn't and let DuHamel know it after the race. "He didn't want any part of me. I "I thought 'Mladin's not going that fast,' and I tried to run with him into three, and, dude, I mean the bike was like trying to step out, and the thing was hitting the bumps, and I blew the turn, and [Aaron] Yates went by, and pretty soon I was back here because I was just so slow," he said. "Every time I'd go into the turns, the back end would try to pass the front end. There was no reward for the effort; the harder I tried, the slower I went. My best laps in the race were actually when I chilled out and didn't try." Ben Bostrom came past, and Eric saw the rear end behaving oddly. "He was going like pretty good through one, and it would just like snap out on him. This was right after he passed me," Eric said. Two laps later, Ben's rear tire came apart, and Eric had a secure fourth. Alone in fifth was Busse!. The Italian said it took him a few laps to get comfortable with the heavily banked turns, after which he made his move. "At the beginning I was trying to don't want to do that to anybody, especially Kurtis; we get along pretty well," DuHamel said. "We were fighting for second. I really thought I had a clean pass; I thought I left him enough room. That was the big bummer for me this race ... kind of sours it a little bit." "It's racing," Roberts said. "One thing about racing is that there's a race in a couple of weeks, and you know who your teammates are. Not saying anything bad about Miguel. We're in this championship. We're going to have to depend on ourselves only." Kawasaki's Eric Bostrom found Mat Mladin earned his fourth pole position of the year with a lap time that was marginally slower than his two-year-old qualifying record. In 2001, aboard his Yoshimura Suzuki GSX-R750 on qualifying tires, Mladin lapped the three-mile Brainerd International Raceway in 1:35.320, a time he came close to but couldn't match today. His best on Saturday afternoon turned out to be a 1:35.622, that done on a Suzuki GSX-Rl 000 without qualifiers. "We made a few changes, both front and rear end changes, and it seemed to work," Mladin said. He'd also been on the provisional pole and fastest in the practice sessions but realized on Friday that matching his old time would be a struggle. In addition to not having qualifiers, Mladin, and several others, said the track had deteriorated in the past two years, especially last year. "The racetrack's definitely deteriorated; I have no doubt about that," - Mlactin said. "If we do [a 35.3J, it just goes to show how much better our bike is, but qualifying tires are not something we use either." American Honda's Miguel DuHamel was second-fastest with the same opinion of the track. With all the "sealant on the track, you just wouldn't want to hit that one little puddle with sealant with water on it," he said. DuHamel had the benefit of a tow from Kawasaki's Eric Bostrom. Bostrom's oversized ZX-7R was the top speed leader among Superbi.kes at 187 mph, with the American Honda RC-51 of his brother Ben matching it on Saturday. "It just so happened Eric [BostromJ had his head down, and he didn't mind me tagging along," DuHamel said. "He must have got a really good setup at the end because he was going really good. I did everything all right. I think we could have had pole, especially with Eric helping. When you have a good lap going, you tense up a bit. You want to make sure you don't mess it up, and that sometimes messes it up a bit." Dunlop had brought several new tires to the race, but the ones that worked on the Suzukis and Kawasaki upset the handling of the Hondas because of their stiffness. push to try to I saw this in front Ben and Eric [Bostrom]," he said. "I think maybe I can catch them, but I saw that Ben was riding really fast, and so I just didn't want to do any mistakes. I had chosen a tire for the rear that was not real big with a lot of grip, but it was sure to end the race. I could choose maybe a tire with more performance but was not sure it would finish the race. With Vic [Fasola] we choose a safety tire, so for sure it would end. This is good because we see some riders have to stop." Behind Bussei came Attack Suzuki's Pridmore, all by himself, then Mladin, stuck in seventh after re-joining the race in 18th after his unscheduled pit stop. The privateer battle was next with Jordan Szoke beating Higbee, Haskovec and Michael Barnes. eN "We've got to get rid of some rigidity," DuHamel said of his suspension work. "It feels like the front end's going down a little bit. staying down too much and hitting on the bottom, In turn four that thing's so rough I can't even throw it in there with any kind of speed - trying to get that to work as far as that's concerned. Make it a little plusher, plum ride." Bostrom did his fast lap towing DuHamel, the time coming late in the session. It put him on the front row, in third place, but there was work to be done. ·Overall, we're just not as fast as we want to be," Bostrom said. "We'll keep trying." Bostrom agreed with DuHamel about how some of the tires worked over the sealant patches and other imperfections. "Probably one of the best tires doesn't work well over the bumps," Bostrom said. "It's unfortunate because the track could be a lot more fun if we could actually race the thing. Instead like right where you want to set the bike into the tum, there's just these huge rips in the pavement. So you can't really set it in carefully. And then you're going through the comer, and your feet are jiggling off the pegs. It kind of takes the fun out of it a little bit." , Of greater concem was a handling qUirk in the front end. "My bike kind of wants to finish the tums right at the beginning, and right here on this track, you can't because of all the bumps," he said. "They're right where you want to set the bike into the tums, so you can't set it in properly. That's my only good spot is to finish the tum properly. It's got to go from straight up to full lean; otherwise it won't make the tum." EliiPn Honda's Kurtis Roberts was at the end of the front row with the fourth-fastest time. Roberts had a frightening moment in the moming practice session when he was trying one of the new tires. "I tried one this morning, and the instability about pulled my shoulder out of the socket, so my arm's pretty sore," he said. "That was that tire. When we put that tire, on made it so unstable, we couldn't ride it." Roberts said there was work to be done by the moming. "We're making a little headway every session; that's for sure," Roberts said. "Just not as much as you'd like to. I think we'll have a little better setup tomorrow. Hopefully, a lot better one." cue I e Brainerd Intemational I18ceway Brainerd, Minnesota Results: June 29, 20U [Round 11) QUALIFYING: I. Mat Mladin (1 :35.622): 2. Miguel DuHamel (1 :35.804); 3. Eric Bostrom (1,36.228): 4. Kurtis Roberts (I :36.348): 5. Aaron Yates (1 :36.412); 6. Giovanni Bussei (1 :36.572); 7. Ben Bostrom (1:36.901); 8. Steve Rapp (1:37.557); 9. Jason Pridmore (1:37.750); 10. Jordan Szoke (1:38.706): II. Mike Ciccotto (1:39.349): 12. Shawn Hi9bee (139.360): 13. Josh Hayes (1:39A94): 14. Vincent Haskovec (1 :39.940); 15. Michael Barnes (I :39.943): 16. Robert Jensen (1,40.252): 17. Adam Fergusson (1 :40.605): 18. Opie Caylor (1 :40.698); 19. John Dugan (1 :40.719); 20. Brian Stokes (1:4U30): 21. Chris Ulrich (1041.295): 22. Wesley Good (1042.128): 23. Dean Mizdal (1:42.133): 24. Tom Wertman (1:42.161); 25. Chris Voelker (I :42.208): 26. Robert Christman (1 :42.361); 27. Scott Jensen (1 :42.478); 28. J.J. Roetlin (I :42.529); 29. Jacob Holden (1 :42.549): 30. David Duprey (I :42.671): 31. Matthew Furtek (1,42.902): 32. Jeff Bostrom (I :43.164); 33. Roger Hendricks (1 :43.319); 34. Monte Nichols (I :43.809); 35. Brian Boyd (1,44AI8): 36. Kevin Hanson (1:44.633): 37. Kevin Lehman (1:44.793); 38. Jeff Purk (1:44.869); 39. Paul Heinen (1:44.931): 40. Jason Knupp (I :45.055): 41. Eric Dooyema (1,45.643): AMA/CHEVY TRUCKS U.S. SUPERBIKE: 1. Aaron Yates (Suz); 2. Miguel DuHamel (Hon); 3. Kurtis Roberts (Hon): 4. Eric Bostrom (Kew); 5. Giovanni Busse: (Due); 6. Jason Pridmore (Suz): 7. Mat Mladin (Suz); 8. Jordan Slake (SUl); 9. Shawn Higbee (SUl): 10. Vincent Haskovec (SUl); 11. Michael Barnes (SUI); 12. Ben Bostrom (Han); 13. Brian Stokes (SUI); 14. Dean Mildal (SUl): 15. Robert Christman (SUl); 16. Wesley Good (Suz); 17. Scott Jensen (Suz); 18. Tom Wertman (SUl); 19. J.J. RoetJin (SUl); 20. Chris Voelker (Due); 21. Jacob Holden (SUI); 22. Jeff Bostrom (SUI); 23. Monte Nichols (SUI): 24. Paul Heinen (Yam); 25. KeVin Lehman (Yam): 26. Roger Hendricks (Suz): 27. Jason Knupp (Suz); 28. David Duprey (SUI); 29. Kevin Hanson (SUI); 30. Jeffrey Purk (SUl); 31. Brian Boyd (SUl): 32. Mike Ciccotto (Suz): 33. Eric Dooyema (Suz); 34. John Dugan (Suz). Time;; 34 min.. 5.190 sec. Distance: 21 laps, 63 miles Average speed: 110.9 mph Margin of victory: 2,714 sec. AMA/CHEVY TRUCKS U.S. SUPERBIKE C'SHIP POINT STANDINGS (After 11 of 18 rounds): [. Eric Bostrom (321/2 wins): 2. Mat Miadin (318/6): 3. Aaron Vales (313/2): 4. Kurtis Roberts (30 I): 5. Ben Bostrom (293): 6. Mi9uel DuHamel (278/1): 7. Shawn Higbee (229): 8. Jason Pridmore (225): 9. Lany Pegrom (211): 10. Vincent Haskovec (180): II. Jordan Szoke (162): 12. Michael Barnes (161); 13. Geoff May (133): 14. Anthony Gobert (131): 15. Scott Jensen (124): 16. Mike Ciccono (115): 17. Dean Mizdal (95): 18. Jeremy Toye (87): 19. (TIE) Andrew Deatherage/John Dugan (82). Upcoming Rounds: Round 12 - Monterey, California, July 12 Round 13 - Lexington, Ohio, July 27 n e _ S • JULY 9,2003 9

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