Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

AMA/Chevy Trucks U.S. Superbike Championship Round 1 1 : Brainerd International Raceway my Own Race 1J @@ Ben Bostrom BRIEFLY••• 12th Ben Bostrom woke up on Sunday morning and couldn't breathe. He'd pulled a muscle in his back in qualifying on Saturday. No amount of ointments pacified the pain or improved his breathing. Then he fjtted a large, medicated adhesive bandage, and the pain went away ... after a while. "It got so frigging hot this morning, it felt like someone took a blowtorch to my skin. And I could breathe, and I could ride my bike. What a miracle: Off the start Bostrom was careful in his clutch use and took a few laps to' get past some very fast privateer Suzuki GSX-R1000s, "I couldn't pass them on the straightaway. I had to wait two laps to pass those guys: Bostrom didn't mjnd, since his tires didn't really come in until they had 10 laps on them. He hadn't used the shaved Dunlops all weekend but put one in ~s a safety precaution for the race. Just as he was moving forward, after passing brother Eric, the rear chunked going into the very fast second turn. "It was the scariest thing. Coming out of one full stick, right as you throw it down a gear and lean it in. It was like jumping off the ground. I fully started dirt tracking off the comer waiting for that thing to explode. I nearly highsided myself out of two. That was a moment. I don't think I ever had a tire do that before." It came on the 16th lap, and he pitted for a new tire, re-joining the race to finish 12th. Between his AMA and World Endurance commitments and Star Motorcycle schools. Attack Suzuki's Jason Pridmore has been on the road for six weeks, with two trips to Europe. and no end in sight. From Brainerd he was going to drive to Columbus. Ohio, to drop off his motorhome. then fly to Mexico for a much needed 4th of July vacation. Then he's off to Monterey for the eighth round of the AMA/Chevy Trucks U.S. Superbike Championship. followed by a World Endurance round in Austria. then back to the U.S. for Mid-Ohio, after which he flies to Japan for the Suzuka 8-Hour. Corona Extra EBSCO Media Suzuki's Jimmy Moore will be out of action indefinitely after breaking his left humerus and rupturing his spleen in a windinduced front-end washout in the ultrafast first turn at Brainerd International Raceway on Thursday afternoon. "He's going to be out for a while. He's not going to Suzuka," said Corona Extra EBSCO Media Suzuki's Tim Saunders. Moore was scheduled to go to Japan the first weekend in August to race in the Suzuka 8·Hour with teammate Jordan Szoke. He'll also miss at least three rounds of the AMAIChevy Tnucks U.S. Superbike Championship. Following the high-speed get-off. Moore was taken to a local Brainerd hospital before being flown to Minneapolis. The ruptured spleen was removed. and he was scheduled to have surgery today to install a plate in the partially compound fracture of the left humerus. Saunders said Moore told members of the team that a gust of wind had taken the front end out from under him. The team estimated Moore traveled 230 yards before hitting a tree, which broke his humerus. "Part of the tree came back in the truck," Saunders said. A corner 1J @1J Jordan Szoke worker who witnessed the crash said the Suzuki GSX-R750 went at least 35 feel up in the air. On Friday morning, Saunders found a replacement for Moore at the 8-Hour. Australian Paul Young will now team with Jordan Szoke on the team's Super Production Suzuki GSX-Rl000. while Anthony Gobert 8th Jordan Szoke won the Suzuki privateer race. It was waged among himself, Shawn Higbee, Vincent Haskovec and Michael Bames. Szoke passed Higbee on the 19th of 21 lap~, then beat him to the line by .285 of a second. There was new speed in the morning after overnight changes that proved beneficjal. What hurt was losing his knee slider on the second lap, right in front of Haskovec. "You need your right knee so much around here, especially in one and two for more of a confidence thing," Szoke said. "So I was having a real hard time getting around all the right-handers, and then we tried a different tire that we thought might be better, and it chunked all the way down the center with a few laps to go. Not much grip there the whole race, so I tried to just manage it around and not lose any more positions, and we had a great battle going on with all the privateer guys. Another eighth-place finish, another top 10. I remember when I rode the Harley, I struggled to get there, and nqw I'm there all the time." will team with fellow Australian Adam Fergusson on the Extreme Formula Suzuki GSX-R 1000 for the August 3 round of the World Endurance Championship. The Suzuka bikes are currently being built and are completely separate from the team's AMA arsenal. Each team will likely have one race bike. with the team's sharing a spare. The specifications for the classes are similar enough that the machines are nearly identical. Young currently campaigns a private Yamaha in the British Superbike Series. The 8-Hour is a one-off deal, with no replacement yet to be named for the team' s AMA commitments. After Jimmy Moore traveled 230 yards to hit a tree. and the Honda CBR954R R of Annandale Racing's Craig Connell nearly took out a television platform, the subject of track safety. and whether the Superbikes had outgrown Brainerd, arose. "Coming out of the last tum scares the bejesus out of me because you're looking straight at a wall." Kawasaki's Eric Bostrom said of the final corner. "It couldn't be any more threatening." Of more concern was the run-off, or lack of it, in turns one and two, as well as the sur· c:B® Jason Pridmore 6th Sixth for the fifth race in a row wasn't what Pridmore was hoping for. "The Motec (electronics] system on our bike hasn't been working all year. So all weekend I rode without it. This morning we put Josh's [Hayes) on mine, and it was like riding a whole other motorcycle, and it would have been nice to set the bike up around it." Pridmore got a great start and was running with the leaders for the opening laps before they pulled away. Though he was sixth, he was encouraged by the progress of the Attack Suzuki team. "I've been using my 'B' bike all year long, until this morning when I used my 'A' bike. Hopefully it'll be a complete unit now. Being this far into the season and having a bike that's 70 percent is kind of frustrating." ®® Mat Mladin 7th Shawn Higbee 9th Millennium Kaufman Suzuki's Shawn Higbee was in with his fellow privateer Suuzki GSX-RlOOO riders for the duration, holding ninth on the final lap. "It came down to the last lap, and going into turn one I drafted by [Jordan Szoke], held the inside Hne. I thought we had them, but he just held it on and drove around the outside, and as I came in under the low side, I apexed early, so I was running wide at the apex, and he was coming down on me. I was afraid he was going to clip me, and we were side by side, and he was coming down, and I was going up, and I was like, 'Oh, this isn't good.' I had to check out of it, and he rolled by me a little bit going into three. We put a -charge in, but it wasn't good enough. We rode around and finished ninth. Hopefully, we can get a few more parts at Laguna and get into that fifth-to-seventh area." Higbee maintained his spot as the top privateer, seventh in the championship behind Miguel DuHamel. ®® Vincent Haskovec JULY 9,2003' eye I e n e financial problems following the Road America round of the AMA/Chevy TruCks U.S. Superbike Championship. "No money," Pegram said when asked why the dream had turned into a nightmare. "We knew right after Road America." The team. which began to come together last summer, was backed by Kaming Ko. an automotive parts importer. and Devoe Hill. a Los cutting off the money flow, but Hill has been conspicuous by his absence since the start of the season, while Ko was a more regular fixture in the pad~ dock. Pegram still has the team's pair of Ducati 998RSs. After a one-race stint with the No Limits Motorsports Honda team, as a replacement for Doug Chandler. Pegram is hoping to be part of the KTM Supermotard team being assembled by Mitch Hansen. the owner of the former HMC Ducati team. "We've got something brewing with KTM in Wisconsin," Pegram said. Pegram recently tested the machinery at the Briggs & Stratton Motorplex at Road America. There were 22 factory KTMs, six 660s. eight 525s and eight 450s. "KTM is serious about it." Pegram said. To that end, Hansen has hired Pegram's former crew chief Elliott Cho and Chandler's former crew chief Gary Medley. Pegram owns the tractor that pulled the Dream Team Ducati trailer, and Hansen is considering leasing it for the Supermotard team, Pegram said. Doug Chandler has been released from his contract with No Limits Motorsports after telling the team he was no longer interested in racing, according to the team manager. "From what we heard, Doug [Chandlerl isn't interested in racing any more," said Tom Brandon, No Limits Motorsports' team manager, at Brainerd International Raceway. As for the reason, Bran~ don said. "The only thing that I'd understood is that he decided he didn't 10th want to race anymore, so he's not here. They negotiated a release with him. A brief burst of rain showers prior to the 250cc GP race shortened the available time window for the Superstock race, so the decision was made to run it after the Superbikes. That meant Hooters Suzuki's Vincent Haskovec had to conserve himself in Superbike for the more important Superstock, where he's leading the championship. "I'm just going to pace myself and enjoy and watch the track. Look what I got for them at the end. Barney [BarnesJ, be got some problems, probably, so r pass him, and I get close to [Jordan) Szoke, but my pipe fell off. All that noise and my lap timer go loose, and all that stuff completely distract me. I lose his draft and stuff, so he pulled away from me two, three seconds. A few laps after that [Shawn) Higbee got by me, too. So all that distraction, I'm just going to keep going. So I finish like I finish: . 10 Dream Team Ducati turned out to be something of a misnomer for Larry Pegram. who found himself without a ride after the team was beset by Angeles-based restaurateur. Pegram wouldn't say who was responsible for "What can I honestly say about it?" said Mladin. It was his fourth tire failure, having previously suffered the same fate at Daytona and Pikes Peak, where he wore the rubber off the tire, and Road Atlanta, where he had a spectacular rear tire blow-out. "I felt that the tires would not be a problem this weekend because Dunlop have been busy trying to remedy the situation and had brought a new batch of tires to the round for us to use. But that's how it goes. Early in the race I felt comfortable while dicing with Aaron [Yatesl and was starting to sneak a break on him, but then the tire went, and that was that. It's been so frustrating this year knowing that you have been in a strong position on the track and then losing a whole bunch of points because I've had to pit for a tire." 1J 1J c:B face. "The track's really rough, but it's no rougher than it was on Friday. Hopefully, they'll repave the thing. It's worse than last year. They're not doing anything to it.·· Erion Honda's Kurtis Roberts said. Actually. I think they just finalized it Tuesday of this week." Reached in Wisconsin. where he'd recently been testing KTM Supermotard bikes, Chandler said he did want to race but implied that he wanted to be on more competitive machinery. ''I'm not done racing, but I want to race and be competitive· not just a guy out there circulating," he said. 'T m just going to wait and see what comes up." Even before the team dismissed Chandler's crew chief Gary Medley. just prior to the Pikes Peak International Raceway round of the AMA/Chevy Trucks U.S. Superbike Championship. there had been talk that Chandler wasn't getting machinery equal to his teammate Jason Curtis, son of team owner Ben Curtis. Brandon said that wasn't the case. "He didn't say anything to me about equipment or anything to anyone else about equipment." Brandon said. "We provide the best possible stuff we can." Brandon went on to say that the team actually favored Chandler over Jason Curtis. "It's always leaned towards the new stuff being tried on Doug's bikes," Brandon said. "He always got the better eqUipment than Jason [CurtisJ. As a matter of fact, at the last race [Road America], Doug blew an engine, and _ s

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