Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/128234
like Ben said , were fun , man . Exc ept for when me and him about t o ok ea ch othe r o ut. He went to the in sid e of m e, and I'd already co m m itted on the la st c o rne r , and I co u l d n ' t j us t slam the door o n th e guy. Bu t it was fun . I think we ha d a goo d ra ce setup . M y tire sta rted v ib rat i ng j ust a littl e bit , so I had to ea se o ff it a litt le bit jus t t ha t h alf a se c on d, pr ob abl y . A a r o n [Y ates I wa s g et t ing throu gh tra ffi c good . He' s really good o ut of t ha t hai rp i n an d th e f a st ch i can e, co m pared to m e. I just k ind of settled for seco nd th e re , o nc e he got that second on us . I'm a bit sore today , so I'm happy to ta ke what we got, real - Iy." For Yates it was sm ooth sailing th e rest of th e way , the Ge orgia n k eeping his sli ght title hopes alive. "T he race was a lot of fu n for m e, " Yat es said . "St art s on the Suzuki s for u s a re, obv iously , t h ey 'r e ki nd of to ugh. I wen t ar ound tu rn one and got arou nd a co upl e of guys, o utsid e a fe w g uys t hrou g h two , and th en th e th ree Ho ndas were o ut there in fro nt. I w as wonder in g how good it was go ing to get. It t urn ed o u t to be a r ea lly good race . I kind of go t stuck behind Migu el [Duh a m el] for a w h i le a n d couldn' t really ge t in a rh ythm and t ry to make a m ov e on him. Once I got by Ben [B ostrom]. then M at [Mladin ] ca m e b y me, and, I m ean , it wa s lik e B en had h ook ed a ch ai n t o h im o r som eth ing . H e was r i ght on h im , going t o o . M igu el , actu ally , I th ink k ind of made it ea sy for us . He lost it t here in turn t wo and wen t down and gave m e a cl ear t rack. I could chase the se gu ys back down. It wa s j ust a really good race. " RACE TWO Thi s o ne t o o k aw hil e, the AMA ' S u p e r b i k e seaso n appare nt ly not wa nti ng to co me t o a close. Th e fi rst at te mpt onl y la st ed f or th ree l a p s before a r e d f l ag was t hrown w he n Scott Jens en c r ashe d his Suzu ki, the bike and debris scat te ri ng all ov er t he t rack bet ween turns 1 3 and 14. T h e sec ond att empt wasn 't much better , th e pa ck ci rc u la ti ng five ti mes before a light r ain forced t he AMA to stop t h e e ve n t again . D u r in g t h e break , M lad in's c re w t ook the ti me to r ep l a c e th e Austra lia n's clutch. Di tt o for Yat es' GSX -R and Robe rts' RCS1 . W hen t he ra c e fi nall y got started agai n, it loo k ed li k e Dayton a all over again as the three Ho n d a s battl ed fe roci ously at t he fro nt of the pa ck . B ost ro m and Robe rts did all of th e l ead in g , but D uh am e l was always th ere, stalking t h e two from behind . N o m att er t h e w in ner, it looked ce rtain tha t Honda wo uld end the season the way they had started it - with a o ne-two -th re e fi n is h . Certa inly not , apparently. On th e 21 st of t he sched uled 24 laps , Ro b er t s l ed into t u rn four - a 18 0 -d egree left -hander w he re m ost of th e passing had ta k en pl ac e. Behind him ca me D uh am el , Bos tr om an d a host of lapped riders , incl ud ing John J ac o b i a n d D e an Mizd a l. Duham e l was o n th e in s i de , the lapp ers betw een him and Bost ro m , who was headed fo r th e inside. Suddenly, t he re w asn ' t mu ch ro o m wh er e Bostrom wa s h e ad ed , a n d h e p l owe d in t o Ja c ob i , ca us i ng a c h a i n - r e a c t i o n cras h th at took out a II fo ur of t he m . Duham e l a p pe a red injure d at fi rst , bu t he soo n go t to hi s feet - livid at ha vin g h it th e de ck for t he second ra c e in a row . At t he tim e he d idn ' t know i t w as a t least partiall y Bostr om 's f aul t, but in t ime he would. " I p re t ty mu ch tore u p t he ri g h t side of m y tire for th e last 10 laps," Bostrom exp l aine d. " I w as taking it easy th er e, but I was push in g hard in the lefts . Wh en Migu el ca m e by , I sa id , 'O k ay, I' m j ust go ing to follow h i m b e caus e I kn o w h ow b ad h e wa nts Kurti s, an d I w an t a pi ec e of him, too.' So when we c ame up ov er the hill , there was thi s clu ster of peo p le . I saw M ig uel brak e on the out side , so I figured I'd better brake on t he insid e and fall in beh ind Miguel. So t hat g uy saw Migue l go by and le aned in and said , 'I'm go ing to fol low him.' So he leaned in righ t behin d M iguel but d id n ' t realiz e I was rig ht her e, so he leaned into my fro nt ti re , and I ju st hammer ed him . I kn ocked Miguel do wn and g ave Ku rti s a big le ad . And the n th e rac e suc ke d fro m th er e . It was a grea t r a c e ru in ed . Before that it was one gu y her e, o ne guy th ere , but i t w asn' t t oo bad . It wa sn 't ju st the pa c k - it 's guys th at a r e j u st f as t enough tha t th e y c a n lean i n o n you and c ut ac ross you r fro nt wh eel. The fi rst gu y s you hi t are de ad slow . Yo u don 't k now how fast they 're going to go ." Du h am el' s fine ride was over ju st like t h at , t he wi nd getting knock ed o ut of h im o n impact. " I saw him [B ost ro m ] look ov er his back tire: Duhamel said . "I thought m ayb e B en was maybe think ing of slacking ba ck o ff; he was think ing 'I'm going t o hav e to fig ure a way to wi n t his thing .' I got up cl ose t o him in t urn tw o and p assed him on th e inside. Wh en I saw him sho ot to th e inside , I kn ew this was a po tential Aar on Ya t e s , b ut I did n ' t t h i nk i t wo uld happ en with Ben . I tho ught Be n wo uld be abl e t o save it. I d id th e ca rdi nal sin : I went t o the outs ide of all th es e lapp ed riders b e caus e I thought Ben was going to g o in th er e and pu sh a few guys, and I was going to get another good drive o ut of there a nd be done and g o g e t Kurtis [Roberts]. Kurtis was pretty st rong on th e b r a k es going into t ha t c o rn e r. Th at was m y p lan t o be gr andiose, t o pass hi m into that co rn er. T here were a ton of pl aces, and no ma tter what they did, I co uld pull them ba ck in a c o up le of p laces. When I passed Ben , he was t ry ing to get through that corn e r as f a s t h e co u ld, and I j u s t motored by him . T h e th ing n ev e r move d; the bike n ev er moved . It's rea lly d i sapp o intin g fo r m y se lf and Hond a becau se we wo ul d have had o ne-two- t hree easy . I b el i e v e we my Own Race - Race 2 ~@ A aro n Yates § 1] Steve Rapp 4th Yoshimura Suzuki's Aaron Yates was hoping to sweep the doubleheader at Barber Motorsports Park. A faulty fuel pump , however, prevented him from having that opportunity. "It started over there in the dip ," Yates said . "I' d pick up the throttle, and it would just go whaaaa, whaaaap. I went around and tried to do something different with the throttle, and it didn't make any difference. Then I decided on the front straight to kinda sit up and shut it off and tum it back on. Then it ran good for another four or five laps, and that's when I started chasing the guys back down. I got back up there, and it started doing it again. I was wondering if' Mat's bike had some kind of scrambler on it that was ki lling my fuel injection. Everytime I got around him, it would start quilling. It was really frustrating. We had a good package, and I wanted to go win." 5th Val voline EMGO Suzuki's Stev e Rapp had his best Superbike finish of the season in the final race of the season, the Californian riding an unfamiliar setup to fifth place. "We didn't ride that bike a lot this week. concentrating on the Superstock bike," Rapp said. "I was really happy with the bik e, so they made a whole bunch of changes to it before the race that I hadn't even tried. Then they put a new tire on it that I hadn't even used the whole weekend. I was like, 'C'mon, this isn't going to be fun.' I went out there, and it was really good. The bike. worked really good. I was in seventh basically, but we ended up fifth because of Ben [Bostrom ] and Miguel [Duham el] . I was behind [Michael] Bames initiall y, so 1 passed Barnes, [Tom ] Kipp and [Shawn ] Higbee. I knew j ust by ridi ng behind them that I was faster. I j ust had to find a good spot to pass. It was good, the bike was good. The tires were actually really good - I was surpised." 'il @lJ Jordan Szoke DNF A clutch problem forced Szoke to the sidelines after the first restart in Sunday's race, ending a streak of four top -notch finishes in the last four races. "I was looking to do the same sort of thing as Saturday," Szoke said. "We started on a clutch yesterday, ran all the race, all the practic es and started on the same clutch today. We didn't have a spare clutch to put in it, and it just couldn't take it. The clutch broke in the second restart today," would have won , but I didn ' t , Kurtis did. I we nt in th er e a littl e bi t slo wer t h an u sua l, just in case th at w oul d happen . Wh en t hat gu y fe ll , I picked it up and ki nd of clipped his arm, but his m om entum go t u ndernea t h my bike an d wedged m e up, and I hit t he grass. I fe lt bad beca use I rod e ov er him a bit , and I fell on hi m , and the bike fe ll o n him . I got up rea l q ui ck to l o o k at th e bik e, th en I rea li zed I co uldn 't breath e. My elbow came in to my rib s, so I just lay back down try ing to c at ch m y breath . I'm j ust surp ris ed they didn ' t th row a red fl ag . When I got up and caugh t my breath , I got ene rgized and st art ed ye lli ng. I don 't like do ing that , of co urse ," The b ig crash allowed Ro berts to run unm olested to victory . " T he race wa s pret t y t ou g h wi th my tea mmates p ushi ng q u it e hard, " Roberts said . " We all k new it was th e last race of th e y ear. Ben [Bostrom] wa s riding really hard, and you co uld tell he wa nted to stay in th e front and pa ce . He was lea d ing a pretty f ast pa ce , so I did n't m ind fo ll owing him. I got by him a litt le ea rlier t ha n I wanted t o , and he we n t ba ck b y m e in some lappe rs . I dec ided w hen we got to the la p pe rs there towa rd t he end tha t I need ed to ge t pas t him and go be cause I seemed to be a li ttl e bit better than th em t hro ug h t he lappers. Ben was doing qu it e good t od ay. I got l by B e n , a n d I c a me b y th e fr ont st raig ht t he followi ng lap , and I saw ' Plus 8.' I said, ' Plus 8 - no way .' T he cue I e whole t ime I w as th inking that there was no wa y . I was trying to loo k ove r m y shou lde r bu t not bec au se I d idn't want to lose the race because it wa s p lus .08 o r something , y o u kn ow. I came ba ck by aga in , and it was plus eight , so I loo k ed over m y sho ulde r, and there was n o o ne th ere . I s aw Mig ue l 's [Du ham el] bike bein g pi cked u p , bu t I th o u ght may be he j u st t ucked the front. There was n' t a ny ma rks from any big havo c . I th ink it was just M igu el ly ing the re . F or tw o laps, I couldn 't k ind of believe it. It was lik e , ' W h y didn 't I g et o n e of these earlier in t he y ear?' T he b ik e was gr eat. I had a little bit of a fron t push. We used a little bit of a softer front than we wanted to be cause we didn 't get to test t he ha rder ones. We knew after yes t erday that I p ushed it quite hard and today was go ing to be eve n worse . Sure eno ugh , I was lo sing th e fro nt toward t he midd le of th e rac e, and I didn 't know if I was go ing to be able to win today or no t. I' v e got to take my hat o ff to t he c re w . T hey did an aw esome j ob and nev er gave up all year. T hey wanted t o win their first o ne, and I' m glad w e gave them m o r e than one . It ' s b e en a t ough yea r , es pecially ra c in g t he Yoshi m ura guys o n that Suzuk i." M ladin, m eanwhile, had been pl aying "s ho ul d I sta y or should I go" w ith h imse lf, c o n fused b y Yat es a nd hi s fa u lty f ue l pump . At tim e s Yat e s wo uld be fa st, th en h e would slow , looki ng yo-yo-Iike in his forwa rd and n e vv S • O CTO BER 1 , 2 003 11