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Pro Honda Oils Supersport Round 8: Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca ~acking ~ides Jamie Hacking gets his fourth at Laguna STORY AND PHOTOS BY HENNY RAY ABRAMS MONTEREY, CA, JULY 11 J amie James gave Yamaha its last 600cc Supersport Championship in 1994. Nine years on, it's a virtual certainty a Yamaha rider will win this year's Pro Honda Oils Supers port Championship - which one has yet to be decided, but the recent tide has been turning toward Jamie Hacking and away from Damon Buckmaster. On a sun-baked breezy late Friday afternoon at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, Hacking was peerless, as he was here last year. In 2002, he won the 17-lap, 37.4-mile race by 8.960 seconds - an eternity in the cut-andthrust closeness of Supersport racing. Today, he was slightly less dominant, winning by 7.377 seconds after slowing on the final two laps. Erion Honda's Jake Zemke was second, with Yoshimura Suzuki's Ben Spies celebrating his 19th birthday by coming home a close third. Buckmaster, who'd gotten a bad rear tire in the previous race at Brainerd International Raceway, had fronttire trouble for much of the race and a fuel shortage at the end, getting passed by Spies on the final lap. Hacking had started from the pole and led the most laps, each worth a championship point. Those two points, along with the 36 for winning the race, gave him the maximum bounty, and he leaves for the ninth round of the championship at the MidOhio Sports Car Course leading Buckmaster by 26 points, 262 to 226. "Wins is what we're looking for, but consistency and finishing out the rest of the year is definitely what we're shooting for," Hacking said. Zemke got the jump on the first attempt at starting the race, but it ended in carnage on the front straight after only one lap. Exiting the final turn II, Shaun Summers appeared to slow dramatically, causing a chainreaction crash that took out, among others, Matt Hartlieb. Both were taken to local hospitals, Summers complaining of spinal pain and Hartlieb to be treated for a fractured leg, according to the AMA. The second start was cleaner, Zemke getting the jump again, as he had in the first one, with Buckmaster, Hacking, Kawasaki's Tommy Hayden and his younger brother, Roger Lee of the Erion Honda team, in pursuit. Zemke's lead was short-lived. Buckmaster came by on the second lap, leading for one more before Hacking made his move on the fourth 20 JULY 23,2003' cue I e with a pass in the sweeping downhill left Rainey Corner. "Those guys, it seemed like, couldn't get their bikes turned in there," Hacking said. "They had to swing it a little wide." When Hacking took the lead, Buckmaster was second in front of Zemke, Yamaha's Jason DiSalvo and Erion Honda's Kurtis Roberts - the Daytona Supers port winner drafted onto the team in a one-shot deal. Entering turn five on the fifth lap, Roberts ground his Honda CBR600RR on its cases, lifting the front wheel and sending him careening into the unsuspecting DiSalvo. The bikes went down in a tangle, DiSalvo quickly up and demonstrably angry at Roberts. Their exit created a chasm back to fourth, now Ben Spies in front of Tommy and Roger Lee Hayden. By the seventh of 17 laps, it was clear Hacking's pace was unmatchable, and he separated himself from Buckmaster and Zemke. The lead kept increasing until the final two laps, when he backed it down. "I'd run low [1 :29sJ pretty much the whole race and threw a 28 in there and got the job done," Hacking said. "There wasn't no point in pushing it any harder and making any silly mistake." Buckmaster was fighting a frontend push from the fourth or fifth lap. "I just couldn't push the front," Buckmaster said. "When the thing was brand new, I could push the front really hard, but four, five laps into the race, I could feel the thing getting really hot and mushy." He knew Zemke would come at him: It was only a matter of time. The attack came on the 13th lap. "I just came up the inside of him on the brakes," going into the Corkscrew, Zemke said. "I got a good drive coming out of turn six driving up the hill and kind of pulled up, not alongside of him, but 1 definitely had a little bit more momentum than he did going in there, so I just used that to my advantage." With about 2 1/2 laps to go, Buckmaster's day got longer. Under hard braking, he noticed a hesitation coming off the turns - the first warning signs of fuel starvation. When Spies came at him entering turn lOon the final lap, Buckmaster had no recourse. "I knew I was in hot, then I saw him come up the inside, and I just went ahead and let off the brakes and gave him a couple feet on the inside, if he was coming in there to hit me," Spies said. n e _ s Jamie Hacking won his fourth AMA Supersport race of the year at Mazda Raceway at Laguna Seca. He now has 26 points in-hand over teammate Damon Buckmaster. Spies had been with the Haydens until the 10th lap, when he let them go and started hunting down Buckmaster and Zemke. Tommy Hayden was out on the 12th lap with an engine problem. "Coming into [turn] II, it made a weird noise," Tommy Hayden said. "I came through the front and thought I could cruise around." That left Roger Lee alone in fifth with American Honda's Ben Bostrom, another Supersport visitor, taking sixth after a late charge. eN Mazda llilceway Laguna Se.. Montsrey, California Results: July 11, 2003 (Round 8J PRO HONDA OILS SUPERSPORT: 1. Jomie Hacking (Yam); 2. Jake Zemke (Hon); 3. Ben Spies (Suz); 4. Dllmon Buckmaster (Suz); 5. Roger Lee Hllyden (Hon); 6. Ben Bostrom (Hon); 7. Miguel DuHamel (Hon); 8. Tony Meiring (Kaw); 9. Jamie Stauffer (Suz); 10. Alex Gobert (Hon); 11. Aaron Gobert (Yam); 12. Vincent Haskovec (Suz); 13. Jason Perez (Suz): 14. Chris Peris (Hon); 15. Jason Curtis (Hon); 16. Marty Craggill (Hon); 17. Dirk Sanchez (Kaw): 18. Giovanni Rojas (Yam); 19. Matt Zurbuchen (Suz); 20. Chris Siglin (Suz); 21. Shane Turpin (SUl); 22. Brien Whitlock (Suz); 23. Lance Williams (Yam); 24. James Mann (Yam); 25. Martin Sims (Suz): 26. Aaron Risinger (Suz); 27. David Guy (Suz); 28. Mark Degross (Hon); 29. Tim Mitchell (Yam); 30. Tim Knutson (Yam); 31. Brian Bartlow (Hon); 32. Tommy Hayden (Kow); 33. Charlie Hewett (Kaw); 34. Chris Siebenhaar (Han); 35. Christopher Rankin (Hon); 36. Oliver Jervis (Kaw); 37. Jason DiSalvo (Yam): 38. Kurtis Roberts (Han); 39. Shaun Summers (Suz): 40. Matthew Hartlieb (Suz). Time: 25 min .. 28.64 sec. Distance: 27 laps, 37.4 miles Average speed: 89.6 mph Margin of victory: 7.377 sec. PRO HONDA OILS SUPERSPORT C'SHIP POINTS STANDINGS (After 8 of 11 rounds): I. JamIe Hacking (252/4 wins); 2. Damon Buckmaster (226); 3. Alex Gobert (178); 4. Ben Spies (175); 5. (TIE) Roger Lee Hayden/Tony Meiring (165); 7. Aaron Gobert (162): 8. Joke Zemke (161): 9. Tommy Hayden (160); 10. Jason DiSalvo (155); 11. Miguel DuHamel (129/1); 12. Jamie Stauffer (125); 13. Jason Curtis (124); 14. Doug Chandler (110); 15. Chris Peris (75); 16. Morty Craggill (68); 17. (TIE) Giovanni Rojas/Ty Howard (65); 19. (TIE) Ben Bostrom/Craig Connell/Dirk Sanchez (46). Upcoming Rounds: Round 9 - Lexington, Ohio, July 26 Round 10 - Alton, Virginia. August 31 Jake Zemke (98), Buckmaster (6) and Ben Spies (behind them) battled over second, with Zemke getting the nod over Spies and Buckmaster.