Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

my Own Race - Race 2 ~@ Aaron Yates 4th Normally one of the best at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, Yates ended up fourth on the second day - one spot better than day one. Still, he wasn't real pleased as he fought an illhandling motorcycle all day. "The bike just doesn't seem to turn," Yates said. "I've got no confidence running it into the turn and turning it. Like through the esses, when you try to flip it in, the front doesn't dig, and you've just got to wait for it to come over and go back down. Then you're wide for the next tum. I was getting wider every turn. It wasn't so bad yesterday because the race was stopped and I think it was cooler yesterday, and we had less time on the tires. It was really bad toward the end. I just have no confidence running it into the turns, so I'm trying to finish the turn on the exit, driving out. It just spins worse and doesn't drive. We've kind of had this problem all along, but it hasn't been so much of an issue until we got here. This place seems to have more of those turns where the front just has to dig and you have to go somewhere in the least amount of time. II's just not working here. We were addressing other issues up until the race this morning, and we didn't concentrate so much on that because I didn't think it was so much of a problem after yesterday. Today, we made it a little stiffer on the rear spring with a little more ride height to try and get it to turn a little sharper in the middle of the turn, but it didn't make any difference at all." 1] @1] Jordan Szoke 5th Canadian Jordan Szoke finished a career-best fifth in the second Superbike National, a day after crashing out of the first race. "That was a little better than yesterday," Szoke said. "When I crashed, the lapped rider ran over my bike and wrecked my good pipe. Today it was a lot slower through the midrange. I've won a lot of races in Canada, so I know it's not how much you win by • just that you win. Once we lost contact with the others, I just tried to keep him [Giovanni Bussei) at bay and beat him to the line. I just worked it. I thought maybe he'd try a dive bomb at the end of the straight because he tried it once there earlier. I just put it in there deep, and we held him off for my best Superbike finish ever.' 1] 1] (§3 Giovanni Bussei 6th Gearing changes that he thought would help him on Sunday didn't really work for Giovanni Bussei and the Ducati Austin mount. He spent he majority of the race battling with Jordan Szoke but coming out on the short end of the stick. "It was not really better today," Bussei said. "The solution we tried was not the right solution. For something it was better, but not on the total. It was gearing. It was better in straight line, but for the comers it was not fast. It was more difficult. It was not the right rpm in the comers. I fight with the Suzuki [Jordan Szoke). and I could ride like one second faster than him because when I lost something, I could catch up like one second in one lap. But I couldn't pass him because there was too much difference on the straight. I could catch him, but I could not pass him.' 1] 1] cB Shawn Higbee 7th Shawn Higbee and his Millennium Motorsports Suzuki team concluded a good weekend with a seventh-place finish in the second of two Superbike Nationals, putting him above his privateer rivals for the second straight day. "It wasn't too bad," Higbee said. "It was kind of a lonely second race. I got out there and settled into a pace, and there was nobody in front of me and nobody in back of me. It was pretty physical out there with the hot weather and the Windy conditions. I just tried to settle into an easy pace and conserve my energy and made sure I kept the bike upright. Overall, my Millennium Technology bike was working really good.' 1] (] Miguel DuHamel DNF Miguel DuHamel looked hungry on the opening lap of the race. He got a good start and was right on Kurtis Roberts' back wheel when he crashed at speed in the final corner on the first lap. 'When the bike was working good and I was really pumped and feeling great," DuHamel said. 'Yesterday was my big day, mean· ing I had the most workload. Today, I was really looking forward to it. It's really embarrassing for me to hit the ground twice· in 600 and Superbike. The Superbike crash • that really surprised me again. I don't know what happened there. I got on the throt· tle. The bike was working good • it's not like it's the first left·hander. It's the third left-hander, I believe. The tire had heat in it, and it was gripping great. AI [Ludington - his crew chief] said he thinks I hit the seam. The thing was hooking up; I was on the throttle, and that thing just snapped sideways completely, and I just got thrown off the bike. I think it's kind of BS that that happens on a racetrack - why do we have seams on the racetracks? Why do we have cement patches everywhere? Shouldn't it just be one surface? It's not Supermotard. I've got to believe if it's one surface I would have been flOe. I got on the gas, and I was riding hard, and I'm willing to accept that. You're the rider and do what you have to do and accept responsibility for that. For sure we had a podium motorcycle. It's just too bad we were on the ground.• BRIEFLY••• Things didn't look good for Eric Bostrom coming into the Mid-Ohio round. and the lingering effects of injuries sustained in the first World Superbike race at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca forced the Kawasaki to withdraw from the races. On Friday, Bostrom elected not to ride. -Today we're not [riding)." Bostrom said, at the time leaving open the possibility of riding and racing on Saturday. "We haven't really called it quits yet. I'd like to at least wake up tomorrow morning and see how I feel. That will give us a chance. There's no point going out there and riding around in qualifying and going slow. so maybe we'lI wake up tomorrow and see how we feel." Things didn't get any better, however, and on Saturday, Bostrom made it official. "We came into Mid-Ohio knOWing that it was going to be a longshot." Bostrom said... Some of the most aggressive doc+ tors in the the country had told us after Laguna that we needed immediate surgery. but-I didn't feel like we could do that without giving it our best shot. Unfortunately. they were right. I got on the bike. and my body just wasn't able to do it. We weren't as quick as we needed to be. I wasn't physically able to manhandle the bike or even do a good job of safely controlling it. I was basically out for a Sunday ride. and that's not my idea of racing." Bostrom was scheduled to undergo surgery on Monday. July 28, to repair the labrum in his shoulder. a surgery that could put him out of action for up to 12 weeks. With Bostrom's surgery very likely to end his 2003 AMA campaign. team manager Mike Preston was asked if there was a chance that Tommy Hayden would take over the team' s Superbike for the rest of the series .• Not with him fighting for the championship in Superstock," Preston said, before joking, • Maybe we could get Bubba [Stewartl to come ride it." This year's two AMA Superbike Nationals were the 24th and 25th at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course as AMA Racing celebrated its 20th anniversary at the facility. The first AMA Superbike National at Mid-Ohio was won by Honda's Steve Wise in 1983 with Mike Baldwin winning the Formuia One National that same weekend. This weekend also marked the 1O~year anniversary of Dale Quarterley's popular win here in 1993. Quarterley won the race on his privateer Kawasaki for the only AMA Superbike National win of his career. Mat Mladin couldn't get close to the lap record he set in 2001 because of what is a rapidly deteriorating track surface at Mid-Ohio. "If they repave the track. we can catch it [the lap record] for sure." Mladin said... Unfortunately. the pavement on this racetrack is just getting worse and worse every year, and it's absolutely miserable racing here, which is a shame because it's a great little racetrack. If they moved a few walls and made it safer and repaved it. it would be one of the best circuits in the country. Unfortunately, those lap records are pretty hard to come by at this point." With his closest competition - Eric Bostrom - now out of the championship. Mat Mladin was asked if he was still racing to win or was he racing to protect his championship lead. "What have I got 10 points - with six races to go." Mladin said.• Eric [Bostrom) is out of it now so at the moment we're racing Aaron [Yates). but I don't think the Honda guys are too far behind either. There's a long way to go in this championship." Jason Pridmore was exaggerating slightly when he said that some of the backmarkers in Superbike qualifying were 15 and 16 seconds off the pace, but his statements were otherwise well thought out. 'There are some guys out there who are 15 and 16 seconds a lap off the pace," Pridmore said. "We really need to do something about that because someone is going to get hurt. I just could not get a clear lap at all today. I know it's the same for all of us. It was kind of nice when I saw Aaron [Yates) and then Kurtis [Robertsl and Mat [Mladinl and Miguel [DuHamell all up there because I thought. 'Wow, there's not going to be any traffic for maybe two or three laps.' I just can't understand it. I know they [the privateer backmarkersl fill the field, and I appreCiate their effort. and they're trying. I've been in their shoes as far as privateering it. The thing is. I wouldn't want to be out there. knowing I was 10 seconds off the pace. I would think that I'm putting myself at risk. They want to come back and blame guys for nunning into them, but the closing speeds are so great... there are people trying to make a living at this. and those guys have to go to work on Monday. I would definitely try to find a class that's suitable for me to run that I didn't think I was going to get nun over in. It's really frustrating. especially if you have a good lap going." The final qualifier making the cut was Anthony Fania, who was 9.7 seconds off Mat Mladin's pole time. In the first of two Superbike Nationals, race leaders Mladin and Roberts hit traffic for the first time on the 10th lap. Pridmore continues to speak highly of his Attack Suzuki crew. as the team has totally turned its season around since getting a key part at Laguna Seca. At Mid-Ohio. Pridmore put the team's GSX-Rl000 on the front row of the grid - his first such qualifying effort of the year. "I haven't really gotten to ride with the guys, but I know my bike is working really well everywhere." Pridmore said. "I think that we're not giving up anything anyvvhere. It's funny because all year long the only time I've seen these guys is when they go by me. and now I can kind of keep them in sight for a little bit. It will be fun racing with them. It just shows how hard my guys work. I've said for the past three years that Richard Stamboli is probably the smartest guy in the whole pad· dock." No limit Motorsports' Lance Issacs crashed early in the Superstock final with Greg Moore. and both suffered injury. Issacs was transported to the Mansfield Medical Center with a broken_ leg. and Moore suffered a broken arm, according to track personnel. Hooter's Suzuki's Vincent Haskovec didn't make it very far in Saturday's Superbike National when the brake pads fell out of one side of his front brak'" caliper. The bike was pulled off the grid after the warm-up lap. and a disappointed and angry Haskovec walked away. Mat Mladin was particularly happy after coming out on top in his battle with Kurtis Roberts in the first race. ·Yeah. I'm excited: Mladin admitted. 'I've been riding good this year. and I've been working hard, and we're getting out of it what we're putting into it. People are complaining about our bike. Personally, I don't think it's any better than most of the other Superbikes out there. I think we're now on competitive machinery. I know that, and I'm working hard, and we're getting results. and I'm proud of that." CONTINUED ON PAGE 24 head games - we just give everyone DuHamel was right on Roberts' tail at something to talk about. Mentally, the end of the opening lap when he shaken off Yates, the Georgian now later, however, and it was again he's stronger than anybody out here, was highsided from his Re51 in the being tailed closely by Ben Bostrom. Mladin with the lead - the Aussie not I feel. And I feel I am, too. My hat is final corner. It was a scary-looking Behind them came a gap to the battle happy with the off to the guy because he rode well, crash that left DuHamel favoring his between Szoke and Bussei, another Roberts was setting and worried that and hopefully we have something for already injured left arm. Fortunately, holdover fight from the day before. whoever was behind could get in the him tomorrow." he did no further damage. away from Pridmore, who in turn had leading on the 10th lap. Two laps slow pace that mix. As the race settled in, it again DuHamel's off put Mladin right on RACE TWO became clear that it was a two-man By the halfway mark, lap 13, Roberts' tail, and he stayed there for fight - though Pridmore was much Mladin had pulled a gap to Roberts, This one looked a lot like the one four laps before diving up the inside closer than the day before. Roberts and it was easy to believe that he before it, with one notable difference: of his rival from a day earlier in turn had led early, Mladin then took over, might start pulling away. But just as Miguel DuHamel. With a good start, one. Then those two started to inch with Roberts getting another shot at quickly, Roberts was back on him. cue I e n e _ s • AUGUST 6, 2003 23

• Cover