Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

BRI EF L Y••• Race promoters at the Barbe r M otorspo rts Park announced a three-day atte ndance figure of 48,000 for the inaugural AMA Superbike National at the new facility. According to Barber, 8000 atte nded on Friday with 17,000 and 23 .000 on Saturday and Sunday, respect ively. Just when he was preparing to go out for 600cc Supersport qualifying on Saturday, Ro ge r Lee Hayd en discovered his leathers had been stolen. Da mon Buckmaster had seen the thief making his getaway and alerted Hayden, who then chased dow n the teenage thief , catching him on his scooter j ust outside the paddock area at Barb er , The po lice we re calle d, and Hayden got his leathers back , taking to the track shortly thereafter. S haw n H igbee is hoping to build on his sixth-place finish in the AMA Superbike Championship for 2004 , " I feel like I achieved my expectation ," Higbee said. "I want ed to be top privatee r, and we achieved that. The team w orked rea lly hard all year , and we haven't had any mechanicals or DNFs from crashes or anything. It' s been a really safe and good year, so I couldn't ask for more . We did really good with the equipment we had, and I think if we can acquire a few more sponsors hip dollars next year, we can come back with better equipment. At some tracks, we're right on the edge of running with the factory guys in the beginning at least. There's defin itely incentive to push harder and come up wit h a little bit better equipment. I feel confident we can run wit h the factory guys, We just need a little more track time, testing time, and some bett er equipment. I'm anxious for next year already . " There was plenty of talk about whether or not a MotoGP could be held at the Barber facility, "We're only just running a threespeed," Mat Ml adin said, "It could be a two-speed. I can't imagine riding a 240 horsepower motorcyd e around here . that's for sure. But those guys are good . so you never know . " The biggest complaint about the racetrack is that It is a litt le on the short side - at 2.3 miles · and there 's no place on the track where the bikes can really let loose, One pit wag said that the track was perfec t. except fo r the fact that the cop ier was set on 75 percent when the copies of the origi nal track plans were made , The other problem is that the track is extremely hard on front tires because the bikes are consta ntly turning on the abrasive pavement that st ill doesn't have a lot of rubber on it. "It' s still rough on front tires, " M ladin said. "I think most of us are using harder fron t tires than what we used at the test. I know I'm using something that's a couple of steps harder than what we used at the test. Aga in, it's just one of those things whe re we don't want the front tire to totally go away, and we need tires there at the end, and that's what we' re going to have today , Just something to make sure we get through and don't have too many problems hopefully. W e haven't changed one click since we got here. I did a 1:25 flat at the test and did 25 , 1 here, and the temperatur e is pretty similar, so..." Prior to Saturday 's first Superbike race, severa l of the top men thought p assing would be d ifficult at the new track. N ot so come race time, how ever . Prior to the race, Aaron Ya tes was one of the guy s saying that passing wo uld be hard. "It' s defini te ly going to be hard to pass out there," Yates said after Saturday's qualifying session, "I got hung up behind Michael Barnes in that session the re, and his bike was running really good , I couldn' t really get around him anywhere except for over the hill in the last turn, He [Barnes] was going good . Whe n we're out there pushing hard and trying to go fast , it's [passing] going to be pretty to ugh," After the first race, Yates changed his tune, "So much for what I was saying about it being tough to pass out there, because I think there wa s passing going on just about in every tum, " Yates said post-race, "This place is just a blast to ride, The track is nice and wide and pretty smooth, and you can just about go anyw here , There're so many lines. My first impre ssion w hen I came here was like , you go off in there (the last turn], and you can't decide if you want to turn nght or left , The layout is a lot of fun," Ben Bostrom also came away impressed after the first race . "Well. you can hang it out on this track, " he said. "That' s what' s so exceptional about this racetrack , It' s great. You go out there and change point-tw o in the rear spring, and you feel it , So it's prett y cool. The whole track is like a pool table, You can hang it out really far. I don 't think we've slid the front end or the rear end this much all year - except for Dayt ona. But this is one of the bet ter racetracks we have, and that' s why, I think, everyon e's hanging It out. You can definitely hang it out. and if you make a mistake, you have enough track to hopefully save you." to help bear the costs, in Erion's case , diesel for its hauler and awaiting final word on the technical rules before co mmitting to lodging. Erion was awaiting the go-ahead from AMA Pro Racing chairman Sco tt Hollingswo rth. Since the AMA is looking for big bike feedback , Erion will bnng Jake Zemke and his Honda CBR · 954RR, "W e're tryi ng to bring fast bikes , Formula Xtreme and Super blkes. " Barri ck said. The final corner of th e F-l co urse 2004 , "We really can 't make too many decisions until we get rules." he said Eric Bostrom and Tony M eiring are under contrac t for 2004 , with Tommy Hayden in negotiations, Currently , they cornpete in three classes, Superbike, Supersport and Super, causes the most concern. "We believe the final turn on the road course configuration is something that needs to be addressed," Preston also said Kawasaki wo uld like to field a satellite team, The sooner the rules are estab lished, the better, The AMA issued Superbike rules wee ks ago, though there's some belief that t he Barrick said, adding that the track architect was knowledgeable on the dynamics of motorcycles , The AMA and IMS have had a con tinuing dialogue about the viability of bringing Superbikes to the track. M ost recently, the discussions centered around having I'm hearing some other manufacturers and manageme nt are cry- ing the blues that t hey couldn't get what they wanted and are threatening [to pull out of road racing, in Suzuki's easel. " As for mula On e race . There were talks in that direction this year, but a financial snag developed, Now it' s on again, possibly as a support race for F-1 that is moving its date to June . G iven the magnitude of events at IMS , the Brickyard 400 , the Indianapolis 500 , t he U ,S, GP , It' S unlikely it would host a stand-alone AMA race, " It's possible it could be added to next year' s calendar, " Barrick said. Kev in Hu n t is ab out to ma rke t an ex t end ed afte rma rket swingarm kit for t he Suzuki GSX -R1000 . Hunt said the billetmachined part wou ld be a knock-off of the kit part with two inches of added adjustment and added bracing and wo uld sell for around S 1000 , The part w ould be mad e o n an as-needed basis, with KWS Motorsports building and retumi ng the swingarm withi n tw o we eks, Hunt first tried the part on Shawn Higbee' s GSX-R1000 at V IR to cure a persistent wheelying problem, They' d earlier tried addi ng 20 po und s to the fr o nt end , The we ig ht stopped th e wheelying but made it hard to change direction, It also meant the machine weighed well over the 370-pound class limit. W hen Higbee first tried it at V IR, he said it didn't whee lie at all, and t he slides we re more predictab le, with plen ty of warn ing be fore a hlqhside. The only drawback is that. depending on how it' s set up, there 's a slight chance of front -end tuck, The part will be available in D ecember at www.kwsmotorsports.com . Steve Rapp will be back with Valvoli ne EMGO Suzuki in 2004 , racing a Suzuki GSX-R600 and one ot her class , yet to be determined , Rapp said he came to an agreement with the team midsummer, the rule s, w hich Suz uki is vehe me ntly against. Preston says , "We 'll move on and accept it. " He said it was important to "look at the big picture, not I, I, I. " Preston said he couldn' t "ask Japan to make parts and support something until it' s a done deal. " Two months ago , during a three-day test at Barber, Dunlop discovered that front tires we re iasting only 12-14 laps, regardless of the motorcycle. So w hen it arrived for the race , it had four new fronts and six new rear s, a mixture of both Japanese and British product. "The problem we had when we tested wa s front abrasian, " Dunlop' s Jim Allen said. "We have four front compounds , all on the hard side," The baseline for many riders was the 701, the hardest of the standard fronts, During the test. afte r 13-14 laps, they were prett y well worn , The rears are multicompou nd, with the same compound on the left and right and a harder one in the center. Allen said that new tracks are espe cially ab rasive , leading to tearing. " It starts with a narrow band, and it spreads out; it seems to tear it," Dunlop's Ma rk S ears, over from compa- ny headquarters in Birmingham, England , said , The fro nts had been used in M otoGP and Wo rld Super bike , but never in the USA. Allen preferred to chara cterize th em as mo re durable, stronger, " not hard," he said, a term that spoo ks riders, Young Aus tralian Alex Gobert is fairly certai n that he'll be back for another year wit h Erion Honda in 2004 , "I hope to get a contract soon," the youngest Gobert said at Barber, Rumors of Ben Bostrom's demise are great ly exaggerated , The word wafting about the paddoc k was that American Honda was trying to buy Bostrom out of the seco nd year of his contract. presumably for lack of perfo rmance, " No , definitely not. " American Honda team manager Chuck Mille r said. "Abso lutely not. No The AM A opte d to seal Mat Mladin's GSX-R1000 motor on Saturday afte r qualifying, "Their mentality stuck out this morning after I got the pole," Mladin said, "The AMA said, I don't know who it was , the AMA said to my guys - 'He's a second quicker way . Ou r goal is, Ben's going to win the championship next year , Mil ler said part of the decision would be based on budget and part based on the response to the new models at the recent Las Vegas dealer show, Three riders, Mi guel Duhamel, Ben Bostrom and Kurtis Rob erts rode Sup erbike this yea r, with D uhamel they believe that we 're cheating. Can you figure that out? They believed that they're going to catch us on infringements - that's how stupid they are, This weekend of all things, I'm going to run up the championship, and we're going to deliberat ely do some thing to the bike, I think they think we 're running an Xtreme bike like [Ben] Spies ' with all the cams and stuff , I don't know what they think , It' s ridiculous, What a stupid thing to say. That 's their mentality shining through right there," adding Supersport dutie s. "Aft er the dealer show , we w on't be ge tting smalle r, " Mill e r sa id. Erion Hond a' s Jak e Z e mke and" Bostrom are both contracted to ride Superb ike next year, with the other three , but as always he was qu ick to compliment his and that' s his goal too ." Miller said the makeup of the team wo uld be decided in the co ming we eks. "The Japanese are here next week , and we 'll have some meetings on w hat we want to do." Duhamel's and Robert s' futures undecided, Robert s hinted on a few TV shows that he'd be heading to Europe in 2004 , though he hasn't been more specific. "A lot of it w ill come dow n to neq otia no ns. " M iller said. "If we can't come to an agreement, it will have an effect on the size of our tea m." Miller reiterated earlier com- ments that they may race the Honda RC-5 1, now the Nicky Hayden Replica. "Sin ce we do have an RC-5 1, the N icky Hayden Replica, and we have a new 1000 , it' s possible we' ll race both , I know we 'll be racing the new inline , for sure . " With Michelin hoping to make a big push into AMA racing next year, one of its targ ets is expected to be Honda, which it equips on a world -level basis, and Ducati, which may come to the United States with a more determ ined fact ory effort , Miller said he didn 't envision Honda making the switch. "I don't think Mi chelin is prepared to come to the U .S . with the same level of commitment of D unlo p, " M iller said, "We ' re happy with Dunlop 's eff ort t his year," Miller admitt ed that Honda had had trouble With Dunlops in 200 3, notably at Brainerd, where Ben Bostrom's rear tire disintegrated , and again at VIR, when Kurtis Roberts was knocked out of the lead by a duff rear, Roberts compiained about vibration in Sat urday's race at Barber , That said, M iller said the probl ems weren't the result of lack of effo rt , " Dunlop gets an A-plus for effort ," he said. At the same time , Miller welcome s M ichelin into the series, " I hope they do co me in because the competitio n will be a benefit for both the com petition and the riders, " he said , American Honda may join Yoshimura Suzuki at the Oct ober 13 Dun lop tire test at Daytona International Speedway, depending on the health of its riders, The test came out of a less-thansuccessful August test where tire tempera tures were ' higher than Yates' victory on Saturday was t he ei ght h Superbike w in of his career, And it may have been his best. " Yeah, this was probably one of the best, especially being the first race here, for this track," Yate s said, " It' s really clo se to hom e, I've got a lot of friends and family and fans, That always seems to help me out. It makes me wan t to go o ut there and put on a goo d show for having w rist surgery to correct the numbing in his hands that' s everybody, Too bad they can' t come to all the races: maybe I could go this good there, Yeah, It' s really good," injured early in the season in a motocross accident. And M iguel for motorcycle racing? That' s the questi on the AMA hopes to answer wit h a one-day test at the famed facility on Octo ber 1. "It's a preliminary test to see if this is going to be a facility that' s suitable fo r mot orcycle competition," AMA road race manage r Ron Barrick said, The teams most likely to test are Ducati Austin and Erion Honda, bu t neith er is 100-per cen t co mmitt ed, The overwhe lmingly negative reaction may cause a change . Preston wants someth ing set. soone r rather than later, "The problem is, Superbikes only as a support class fo r the annual September For- expecte d, Dunlop rented the Spe edway in mid-October as a prelude to the annuai December all-teams test. Yosh is expect ed to bring Aaron Yat es and Ben Spi es , wit h newl y cro w ned AMA Superbike Champion Mat Mladin at home in Australia awaiting the birth of his first child, All thre e Honda Superbike riders are scheduled to have surgery soon after the Barber race, Ben Bostrom is Is the road course at Indianap olis Motor Spe edway suitable stoc k, and are intrigued by the revamped Formula Xtreme class. plagued him all year, Kurtis Robert s needs to fix the shoulder he Duhamel needs to have the rod taken out of the collarbone he broke at Road Atlanta. The rod is popping out of the skin, and there's a risk of infection, Mil ler said, "We 'll get it out. get the wound healed and go from there, " Miller said. The recuperation could be as short as 10 days, he added, making him the only viable Honda candidate for the test. than anyone, so we' re going to sea l his motor. ' So , obviously, Mladin didn't really say if this c ha m p ionship meant more than team - led by Peter Doyle and Reg O 'Rourke, "We've had our problems in the other championships, as well, a lot that a lot of people don 't actually know about." Mladin said , " Obviously, this year people saw what our problems we re, and it was pretty hard to hide' em . But we had our prob lems In the other three and especially in the first couple. We had qurte a few proble ms, For what this tea m has done , it' s amazing . You can be a good rider, you can have a good bike, yo u can be the best rider and have the best bike, but without a good team you're not going to win anything. I've got to give all four of these wins to my team because if I wa s on any other team , it wouldn't have happened, And that' s for sure." So how would Mladin celebrate his fo urth tit le? " I head back home LAustralia] on Thursday," Mladin said, "W e'll go out tonight with the boys and celebrate a litt le bit. go back home and start work ing on next year, That [the podium champagne] was the first drink I've had in tw o years, Last year I didn't get to drink because I didn't win anything. I don't drink, but I save it for one occas ion, and that' s if we win a championship, We didn't get to do that last year , so I've got two year s' worth to catch up on tonight. I proba- bly won't be feeling too good tomorrow." Before the crash in Sunday' s race that took him and Ben Bostrom out of the race, M iguel Duhamel liked his chances of winning t he Sup erbike National. I to ld AI [Ludi ngt on, his tunerl bef ore going out , I'm going to go easy , I'm going to let some guys by, I'm going to ride around : with 10 laps to go I'm going 10 get back up there, All these red flags, we fine-tuned the bike, That' s why I was able to run those fast laps and get back up there, And I never panicked , even with the lapped riders - those guys did some good move s. I was pretty strong in a couple of areas and made up some time, I Finished third on the 600 , and I figured this would be a bookend year - I'm going to get third in the 600 and win the Superbike again, I went out there, and the bike was great , and we were running one-tw a-three - Honda and I we re really happy with that. But I really wanted to win the last race of the year - I don't have a con tract yet. At least I proved to every body that I've got the speed , The bike was great. " Kawasaki's Eric Bost r o m was on hand to wat ch the proceed- ings at Barber , the injured Californian still healing from his W orld Superbik e shoulder inju ry , " I just can't wo rk on my range of motion yet , but the strength is getting bette r, and I've been doing physical the rapy for abo ut t hree wee ks , " Bost rom said . " The strength is actually not too bad. I'm surprised how good it is. I'm issues for Ducati Austin are machinery and riders. D ucati could that they wo n't be raci ng the next Kawa saki ZX-10 Sup erbike ask for the team's bikes to be returned to Italy prior to the test. They' d also have to bring Giovanni Bussei back from Italy, or find next year but insisted they weren 't true, He also took a poke at just gett ing to the point that I can do some push-ups, I'm strong enough to do that. Anot her few we ek s and I can work on my range of motion, and afte r that I can ride, I've just been riding my Suzuki for the lett er vice president Mel Harris wrote to the A MA threa tening to pull out of Superbike racing, though he said he hadn't seen il and had only heard of it second hand, Kawasaki is I don't know what their deal is, They' ve got the brake s on big time. I think we' ll ride before the tire tes t. " a replacement. Kevin Erion was walting on a financial commit- ment from the AMA, Because it' s an AMA test. it' s been asked Kawasaki team manager M i k e P rest on had heard the rumors bicycle and stationary trainer. Va lencia - it looks grim at this point. cu e. e n e vv s OCTOBER t 2003 13

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