Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

lap s. On th e warm -up lap s C hris Peri s c ra s he d aft er t he o i l plu g o n h is R o u n d 1 0 : Virg in ia In t e r n a t io n a l R a ceway t hen pole sitte r Buc k m ast er ca me b y , t he pair alrea dy in c h ing away fro m Honda CBR-600RR c ame loo se. co at ing his rea r tire. What made ma tt ers w orse is th at t h e Honda cont in ue d to leak o il after it wa s lo ad ed on to t he swee p t rail er , o il i n g up th e tr ac k throu gh t u rn s fou r and five. Fo r near ly fou r hou rs , the efforts of th e trac k an d AMA offici als t o clean th e slick su rfa ce p rove d futil e, and th e ra c ers we re finally set free o n a trac k w he re t he turns four-five area wa s d escribed by a few riders as ab o ut 60-percent AMAIPro H o n d a Oi ls S u p e r s p o r t Series Ben Sp ies in t hird . It took until th e sec ond half of th e race before th ey made a clean br ea k , 1.4 9 5 seconds on Spies o n lap seven, with B u c k m ast er almost a second in front after Ha yden had made a sm all m istake. " I seen fo u r lap s to g o , and 1 knew it w as t ime to st art g etting it on if we we r e going t o t r y t o g et th e wi n, " Ha yden said . "I just wanted to lead , and it would g o down to th ree to go. M y strategy was t o ge t ahead an d t ry to get so m e lappers be tween u s o r try to ge t a ny kin d of gap . 1 wa s j u st c h arg ing t he wh ole w ay . 1 had noth ing to lo se. Had th e best c ha nce 1 had all y ear to wi n in a d ry ra ce, so I was just g oin g for it. " Hayden t oo k t he lea d o n t he 1Oth la p, h ol d i n g it fo r th e 11 t h o Th en Buc k m aste r made hi s m o v e, th e pair n e arl y t ou chin g i n t u rn o ne. Bu ck- raceworthy . "T h e m o re th ey wo rk it. the m o re oil comes up," sai d Bu c kmast er , who su rveyed th e dama g e. "T here wa s so mu c h oi l- dr i arou nd th e pl ace, it was lik e dust, so it's rea ll y slick ." Nea r I OO-perce nt humidity m ad e it hard to d ry th e trac k , and t he t ra ck isn 't eq u ip pe d with a j et -d ry er. " A l o t o f d an g er a t thi s p oin t ," Damon Buckmaster (6) leads a pack that includes Tommy Ha,.den (22), Ben Spies (11) and Jason DiSalvo (40). Buckmaster went on to record the first Supersport victor,- of his career. Bu ckm ast er sai d . "T hey need to seri o usly e va l u a te it be fo re th e y se nd a nybody out , eve n o n a warm -up maste r w ent u p t he i n si d e , b u t too h ot , so H a y d en was a b le to s ne ak bac k under on th e exit fo r t he run up to turn two. T h r ou g h th e do d gy sec tio n t h e y w er e e v e n, th en th ey c a me t o the lap ." With more rain t h re a t e ni n g and m or e ra c es to run , the r a c e was sho rte ne d fr om 17 la ps to 12. T omm y Ha yd en led th e fir st lap, m u ph ill sec ti on p ast th e esse s , a nd Own Race ®® B y H EN N Y R A Y A B RA M S PH OT O S BY B RIA N J. N ELSO N A LTON, VA, AUG. 3! W it h th e Pro Honda Oi ls Superspo rt Championsh ip sli pping aw ay , Yamaha's Da mon Buckmaster r esp ond ed with th e ra c e of h is l ife, n arro wl y beati n g K aw asaki' s T o m m y Ha yden to win his fir st Pro Hond a Oils Supersport ra c e, late o n a dark and cloudy afterno on at Vir ginia In terna ti ona Rac ew a y . B a ttlin g w ith H a y d e n ba ck and forth for t he du r a t i on o f t h e muc hdelayed a nd sh o rtene d 12-la p r a ce (dow n from 17), B uc k m aster passed Hayden twice o n th e fi nal lap , the first ti me abo rtively, th e second ti me success fu lly, th en he ld him off at the lin e by a sca nt .0 3 3 o f a second . " I don' t even really rem ember the la st lap , t o b e h one st : Bu ckm aster s a id w hile ho l di ng his in fant s o n A id an in h i s arms afte r the ra c e. " I just h ad m y h e a d d own th e w hole way, and 1 d idn ' t even want t o lo o k Sidew ays ." Fo r hi s pa rt , Hay d en sai d, "I drafted th er e and j ust pu ll ed o ut th er e at th e line an d just got u p barel y b esid e h im , but it just w asn 't quite enoug h." K a w a s a ki ' s To ny M ei r ing w a s th ird . In addition to it be ing h is fi rst win, th e race w as important for Bu ckmas t er 's p oints tally . Co m ing into VIR , he tr a il e d t e ammat e Jam ie Ha c k in g , e i g h t h t oda y , b y 30 point s i n th e c h a m pio n sh i p . Bu ckmaste r sc ored maxi mum po ints: a p oint for the p ol e pos i ti on , o n e f o r leading t he most laps, and 36 for wi n nin g t he ra ce . At t he end o f t he d ay , Bu ckmaster had n arrowed th e gap to 15 , 3 08 -29 3 , in Ha c king ' s fa v o r , w it h o nly th e f in al round at Barb er M otor sp o rts Par k rem a in in g . " I'm just going after tha t firs t 600 vi ctory for myself, and w he re we end up in the champ ionship is just wh er e we end up," Buckmaster sa id . " I just rea lly want to win, and it's as si m p le as th at. Yamaha are n ow g ua ranteed one and tw o in t he c ha m pions hi p; w e know that. It's good for th em , b u t I j us t need so m e v icto ries for m ys elf befor e th e season end s." Bu c km a st e r se t a n e w ave rage spee d reco rd of 91.125 m ph , but t ha t was for a 12 -l ap ra ce . The reco rd for a 17 -la p rac e rema ins 91 .038 mph , set b y Anthon y Gob ert in 2001 . Th e ra c e b eg an j u st after 4 p .m . fo ll ow in g a n early a four-h our d el ay . O ri gi n all y sc he du led to sta rt at noon , th e r ace w a s in iti all y p o stp on ed b y r ain . Th en r id er s were give n a 10 minute prac tice se ssion , after w h ic h Aaron Gobert 4th Yamaha's Aaron Gobert battled with Kawasaki' s Tony Meiring early in th e race and then again at the end. It wasn't Meirin g who decided his fate. but a lapped rider. The pair got down into tum one on the final lap, and Gobert had to sit up to get around one of the lappers, and he ended up banging into him and pushing him out of the way. while Meiring had to back out of the throttle because Gobert was sort of push ing him off the track. "Then we got down there to the double left. and I got inside the slow guy, but then there was another one up ahead in apex, and I thought I'd gas it and shoot up there, but I didn't mak e it, so I had to stop , and Meiring come flying through with a bunch of mom entum and pulled up next to the two of us, and we were three wide, and that was it. We started banging on the brakes, and he had right of way on the inside of the turn, so that was the story ." 1] 1J Ben Spie s 5th Yoshimura Suzuki's Ben Spies ran second on the opening lap, then thi rd until m idway when Yamaha's Jason DiSalvo came past. Follow ing the warm -up session, Spies voiced his concern about the oiled sectio n to AMA officials. The race we nt on , and everyone s lowed dow n in tha t secti on but sped up everywhere else. After he nearly crashed in a right-hander. he decided to back down the pace. Then he started losing ground and realized he had to make a run at the leaders in lapped traffic . "Then Jason [DiSalvo, who was in sixth on the penulti mate lap] tried to pass a guy on the inside. I knew he was going to run wide. He was in way too hot. I went past him . And then I just tri ed to stay on everybody else, and we got away with fifth . He's really the only guy we needed to beat because he's behind me, and we're real close in points. We beat him after I thought I was going to go out there and run around in 12th." c:B@ Jason DiSalvo 6th "I was trying to get around Ben [Spies] and make it stick : DiSalvo said. "Obviously, we had a really big power advantage on th e Suzuki down the straights. I could motor up next to him any time I wanted. It put me in a perfect spot to brake, but carrying less speed, you don't have to scrub off as much speed into the tum . He could always ju mp me a little bit. It was fru strating for sure because Ben' s reall y good on the brakes." On the last lap th ey caught a lapped rider in the slick tum four-five area. "I got out wide, and I couldn't tum it because I knew that stuff was slippery where nobody had been running before. And I figured even though sixth isn't a third, it' s better than a crash, so I took the sixth." 1.1 {] Miguel Duhamel 7th Qualifying ninth fastest didn't help Ame rican Honda's Miguel Duhamel, not on a track where passing opportu nities are sparse, and not against the domin ant Yamahas. Duhamel finished the first lap in ninth then was in the mix of a group fighting just behind the leaders, but at a pace he'd never equaled. "I went faster than I ever went around here period: Duhamel said. "I'm a little disappointed because I got two lapp ed riders in the esses before the back straight . and if that wouldn't have happened, I probably would've been top five. I was reeling those guys in pretty quick. " t hey pi tted , then had two warm -up c ue I e n e _ S • S EPTEM BER 10 , 2 0 0 3 15

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