Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

AMAIChevy Trucks U.S. Superbike Series Round 13/14: Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course Ben Boab_1115511eM1s his Honda teammate, Miguel DuHamel 1171. The pair split third-place finishes, with DuHamel landing the spot In race _ , while Bostrom Inhertted It In race two 8fter Roberts cIroppecI out. Mladin's respect with his effort. back on the brakes. I just screwed up "The race was good," Roberts said. after I passed him back. I went in "Mat and I just pulled away. Mat is so there to protect the line a little bit, but strong - always. I had a little bit left, I still went in there with corner speed - and bottomed the front and tucked we got the red flag. After the red flag, the front. Me and Mat were riding ... I the transmission was just... every lap t; but I was saving it for the end - then think I did a 26.6 in the race. We I was missing a gear, except for the were on it, and you can't take any- lap I drafted him - I don't know how I thing away from the guy. Me and Mat got it to go through. Even in the second place and the best Superbike finish of his career when Roberts departed. He'd been fast in the first in racing. You've got to fight for every position; it might turn out to be a podium position. Like we all said portion of the race and fast in the second. "It was great: Pridmore said. "I before, you never want to get a position by somebody else crashing, especially one of my teammates like knew we had a chance, going into the race, to get on the podium. At the start there, we missed the pace-car lap. I really wanted to get a good scrub in on the tire that I chose Kurtis, but I felt that AI [Ludington] gave me a better bike for the restart. We talked about it; we looked at the data. I was all over Ben trying to get by. We're a team, but we're racing for because, for some reason, for me personally, it doesn't come in as quick as some of the other stuff I've been on. I missed that, and I wanted position. I felt I had a strong enough bike to be on the podium, and it just happened the way it happened, unfortunately. But I'm pretty pumped about tomorrow, for sure." Following DuHamel, Bostrom and to be first out on the warm-up lap and get a good warm-up lap and try to get as much heat in the tire as I was Bussei, the Italian learning more and more about the tricky Mid-Ohio track with each go-around. Roberts was fortunate that the engine in his RC51 didn't stop running in the crash. He was able to run to the bike, remount and clutch it out I was able to do that and get into third before the red flag." DuHamel managed to fight his way of the gravel to finish seventh - just ahead of Higbee. May and Ciccotto going to screw each other up with our my Own Race - Race I 1] [§j[§j Ben Bostrom 4th Ben Bostrom got fired up for the restart, and it showed right away. From the second row, he went into turn one in third place. Though he would eventually give way to Jason Pridmore and Miguel DuHamel, he was a close fourth at the finish. "It's fun racing Miguel," Bostrom said. "But it's more fun racing for the win, and this obviously wasn't Daytona today. In the first race, nothing was keeping us from the front but myself. I was just getting faster as the race was going, but I started off really slow. In the second race, I was pretty fired up, and I got a great start, but I was spinning the thing all the way around the track. It tried to spit me off a few times on the first lap. I thought maybe the tire was on the warmer too long or I was too amped up and hard on the throttle, I don't know. I'm really looking forward to tomorrow, really looking forward to tomorrow to try and redeem ourselves." ~@ Aaron Yates 5th Yoshimura Suzuki's Aaron Yates looked to be getting stronger as the race progressed as he battled with Jason Pridmore for third place. Then the red flag came out, and instead of getting a second chance to run with the leaders, Yates was hosed from the beginning. "The electronic shifter quit on the warm-up lap," Yates said. "In a couple of turns it fooled me. I stopped over there, shut everything off and it reset everything, but it didn't make any difference. On the start, I was messing with the connector. When I launched it, I got a pretty good jump, and it killed. That killed me right there. It just messed up the whole rhythm there. It would kill in the middle of the comers. About three laps in, I bounced off the curb coming out of the Keyhole, and it started working. And it worked from then on." Yates persevered to finish fifth. Yates across the line at a distance could. I basically ... the second lap around, I was behind Miguel [DuHamel] going into the Keyhole, and my bike jumped out of gear as I started tipping it in. I had to let Aaron [Yates] by. And then I just tried chasing Aaron and Miguel back down, and think we both know that we're'not lap, and he got me, and I got him again the next day excited him. "It lhis battle with Ben Bostrom] was for fourth until Kurtis fell," DuHamel said. "But you never know the press conferences and stuff, but I three or four times. It did on the last gian having badly botched the restart with an electric shifter that was going awry. Pridmore's solid third turned into can say whatever the hell we want in Thunder Valley over here it did it rounded out the top 10 finishers. Roberts had done well - and he around Bostrom for third, with . Bostrom holding off Yates for fourth. knew it. He was racing for victory when he made a mistake, but those are easy to make at Mid-Ohio. If he DuHamel had made some improvements in his setup after the red flag, and the prospect of being able to race hadn't earned it before, he'd earned DuI........ D· I 11 ...... Dullllmel c:rMIIed w101Md1ir while runnlng _ the front ~ In .... two. The Canadian ••caped without aeliou. Injury· more than can b. aid for his factory RC51. 22 AUGUST 6, 2003' cue I e n eVIl's 1] 1] [§j Giovanni Bussei 1] 1] cB Shawn Higbee 6th Ducati Austin's Giovanni Bussei was faced with a difficult racetrack to learn when he came to Mid·Ohio. But learn he did, though he was still learning when it came time to race. One of the things he noticed was that his gearing was a bit off - good in the corners but lacking on the straights. The other was traffic. He witnessed Jordan Szoke's crash, an incident that occurred because of a slower rider, according to Bussei. "The racetrack is not so bad, but it is very difficult," Bussei said. "You have to get used to the bumps and find the line where the bike is the best. The patches are very difficult, and there are walls all over, but it's okay. We only had the free practice, so it was a short time to learn. I had to use that to leam the track, then start setting the bike. It's not easy. This moming we tried different thing, and it was looking better, and then we tried a different tire in the short warm-up, and it was better. We tried with different tire for race, and lap time was good. only one second from the best. I was racing with 10 I [Jordan Szoke I. and he crashed. The problem was slow riders. He crashed because of that. I think the traffic here is bad, and I don't know why the riders don't say nothing. It is so dangerous, and it is so easy to do it. He fell, and the rider went on top of his bike and fell also." 8th Shawn Higbee was the top-finishing privateer... if you don't count Jason Pridmore as a pure privateer. It was the start of a good weekend for the Wisconsinite. "On the second restart, I got a really good start and was up in fifth for a lap or two with some of the factory guys. so that kind of made my day," Higbee said. "Overall, we learned a lot this weekend. We're struggling keeping the front end down here with all the elevation changes; we're wheelieing everywhere. Looking at some of the other guys' swingarms, it looks like they're running a lot longer swingarms. I think that will help us." 1] @@ Geoff May 9th Team Embry's Geoff May is still recovering from mononucleosis, a virus that kept him out of the Brainerd round of the series. Although he got tired during the race, he still had one of his better outings, finishing ninth on his GSX-RI 000. "It went pretty good," May said. "I'm a little disappointed because I had [Shawn] Higbee beat all weekend, but he found something today. It was very good for me with points. I learned a lot out there because- I was by myself. I could pick different lines and think about what the chassis was doing. I was getting major chatter in the fast corners, and I think we have it figured out for tomorrow. It should shave at least a second off. I got really tired. I have mono, and I was praying for the white flag, and alii got was the halfway flags." May said he went to a softer-compound Pirelli for the restart. The tire was also smaller. "It was good for the rest of the race, but tomorrow we'll use the qigger tire with suspension changes." -

• Cover