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
The Last Pole To Mladin n o o n i n A lab a m a . Th e sig h t o f th e H o n d a s o f K urtis R o b e rts , B en B o st ro m and Migu el Duh a m el ah ea d of hi m w a s li k e a s h i ny l u r e t o a Aa ron Yates (201 leads Mat Mladin (6 6), K urtis Rob e rts (80), Ben Bostrom (15 5 1 a nd Giovanni Busse i. These fi ve w e re togeth e r for the be tter part of both days' races. sta rving fi sh , but Ml ad in m a inta in e d th e u rg e. A n d it' s a go o d t h ing he d id . With ju st three laps rem a in in g in Su nd a y ' s se r i es fi na le , B o st r om c r a s h ed in turn four , t a ki n g tw o la pp ed riders a n d h i s t e am m at e Duham e l w ith h i m . F o rtuna te l y for Mladin, h e was o ut of harm 's way , hi s ea sy fi ft h - p la c e f i n ish turning i n to a third-place fin ish and a trip to th e ros trum to celebra te an achievement that no o n e befo re him h ad be en able t o a chi ev e - a fou rth AMA Supe rbik e t itle. T h ree others before h im ha d been stuc k o n t h ree t itl e s : Reg Pr idm ore , Fred M erk el an d D oug Ch andler. Roberts w en t o n to score th e vi ctory in Sunday 's f ina le, hi s sec o n d o f the season , o ve r Du c ati 's G iovanni B us sei, the Ita lian ma king up some wh at f or hi s blund e r from V i rgi n ia In t ernati ona l Rac ew ay w he re h e m isread th e flag s, c o st ing him a p o dium fin ish . Then c a me M lad in , ce leb rati ng h i s t i t l e , wit h hi s t e amm at e a nd c ham p io n sh ip riva l Aa ron Yates bat t li n g a fau lt y f ue l pu m p t o fini sh t h at Ya t es e xc e l l e d , h old i n g off Ro berts t o wi n h is th ird ra c e o f t h e se ason an d th e eight h o f his ca re er. Th ird and fourth o n Sa turda y w en t to Bo strom an d Mlad in , with Bu sse i po sting a fift h - p lace finish o n th e lo n e Ducati. The battle of t op p ri va t eer over th e co u rse o f th e w eek end goes to M ill en nium Motorsport s' Shawn Higbee, th e W isconsinite wrappi ng up sixt h in th e c h a m pio ns hi p wi t h h i s s ixth -pl a c e finish o n Saturd ay . On Sund ay , Hi g b ee w a s b ested by Valvol in e EMGO Su zuki 's Steve Rapp f or fi fth pl ac e , but it didn ' t matter much , as Higbee sti ll go es to the off-seaso n as th e topran k ed privat eer in t he ser ies. Duh am e l cras hed o n Sa t urd ay w h i l e i n the l e ad gro u p , but th e Fr e n ch C a n a d i an r e m ou nt ed a n d fo ught t hrough to a seve nt h - p lace fi n i s h , o n e s p o t b ett er th an C o r o n a Extra ' s J ord an Szoke. That wou ld be Szoke 's h igh light , h ow ever, as a fri ed fourth . If Yates w as d isa p po inted by Su nd ay 's result, at least h e h as Saturd ay to lo o k ba ck o n over th e off-seaso n. It was in th e fir st -ever AMA Su pe rb ike r ac e hel d at th e n ew Ba rb e r c i r c u it Bussel (1 15 ) ended up finish ing second on Sunday with Mladin taking th ird. The two were gifted t heir pos itions when Ben Bos trom and Miguel Duhamel crashed out of the race togethe r. Since he's been the most dominant qualifier in AMA Superbike history, it came as littl e surprise to anyone that when faced with the oppo rtunity to add a point to his champi onship tally. Mat MJadin would go out and do exactly that. Because it seemed unlikely that he would get to race at m aximum effort because of his large championship points lead, it was fitting that Mladin could make a statemen t during qualifying at the Barber Motorsports Park . And he did just that, proving that as is the case at most races thi s year, Mladin and his Yoshimu ra Suzuki are the dom inant pairing in AMA Superbike racing . Mla d in lapp ed at 1:25. 176 on Saturday morn ing. besting his team m ate and lone championship rival Aaron Yates, the Georgian having set the pace on Friday. Yates, too , went quicker on Saturday, lapp ing at 1:25.6 12 as the Suzuki pair ing were the only riders to crack the 1:25 range at the beautifu l new racing facility . "Today was qualify ing, and we had to try and get a point because with the way th ings have gone this year, it' s not over until it' s over: Mladin said. "One poi nt could be what it's all about tomorrow. Honestly , you just never know, so it was nice to get that point and see how this afternoon goes. I think we found a tire yesterday. There're a few to choose from , but I think there are only a couple that are any good. I ju st need to go out there and be conservative and see what happens. It definitely helped today when some of those guys were off the racetrack . Yesterday, we had 53 guys on the racetrack. I thi nk that' s crazy. As the priva teers say, it' s their right to be out there." What front ti re to choose had Yates a bit baffled, and he would work on his decision all the way up until race time - or at least the final warm -up session just prior to the race. "We kind of ran out of time: Yates said. "We conc entrated on rerunning thro ugh the rear tires just to make sure we were makin g the right decision on what to run in the race. We have a pretty good selectio n this weekend, and I'm still a littl e undecided on the front. I usually run the harder tire at all the other track s, and I've tried some of the harder ones here, and I fell yesterday, and thi s morning I actually slid the thin g straight up and down on the brak es. I came in and to ld them to change that · it was a littl e too hard. It looks like it will be nice and warm this afternoon, and I think we'll try something again in the warm up session." Am eric an Honda's Miguel Duhamel ended up third , the French Canadian just missing out on a 1:25 when he click ed off a 1:26. 100 on Saturday morning. "We did a 1:26.1 earlier, and that wasn't doing anything special , so I was pretty exci t· ed about that," Duham el said. "Then we went back out after the red flag with a new tire, and that tire wasn't workin g so well , but I was still able to do some pretty fast 1:26s,.With about three minutes left, I came in, and we put another tir e on, and I went out behind [Aaron) Yates. He was going good, and I was right there with him and try ing to figure out how I was going to m ake him work to my advantage , but I think I started too close to him . Yates cam e around a backmarker, and the same guy didn 't mo ve out of m y way, so I got held up, and it messed up my exit of the chicane. I put m y head down for the last little section and caught up to Yates but still ended up with a 1:26. 1. I really wanted to be part of the elite 1:25 group, but I'm hap py to be on the front row." Ducati Austin's Giovanni Bussei was the final front-row qualifier, the Italian putting the Ducati on the outside of row one with his 1:26 .437 . He was fighting a chatte r problem but was hopeful of getting it sorted out by race tim e. "It wasn't so bad; I'm happy with that: Bussei said, "I'm happy because this will probably be the last race with this bik e in AMA . So everybody is quite happy. It looks like the bike is starting to be old, but it 's not workin g so bad. We are having a litt le chatt ering probl em, but I am happy with everything. I still have chatter with race tires, especially. Hopefully in the race it is not going to be too big of a problem ." Row two would consist of Am erican Honda' s Ben Bostrom, Erion Hond a's Kurtis Roberts, Valvoline EMGO Suzuki' s Steve Rapp and Mill enium Motorsports' Shawn Higbee, thoug h Rapp would opt not to take part in the race. cl ut c h k e pt h im fr o m fi ni sh ing Sund ay ' s rac e. His lac k of a p o int -sc o ring it w as n 't g oing to come d own to th e last ra c e, bu t t hat's t he wa y it w o rked r i d e on S unda y kn o ck ed h i m fro m ni nth t o 10th i n th e o ve ra ll p oints o ut . I' m happy to ge t it , an d I' ve had sta ndi ng s. K aw as ak i -mounted T o m Ki p p , w ho spent t h e seaso n racin g in Ca na d a, exc it ing , b ut I ce rt ain ly di d n 't ex pe ct a ny t h i ng d i ff er en t t his w eek end . W e' re ha p py ." a l o t o f t i me t o t h i n k about it. It' s m a d e his return t o AMA Sup e r b i k e r a cin g a s u cces sf ul o n e w it h a 9 - 7 tall y o ve r th e weeken d. N ext best o ver the cou rse o f th e tw o d ays of rac in g w a s V in c ent H a sk ovec , t h e Ho oters' Suzuki rid er end in g up with a 10th o n RACE ONE Fitt in gl y, t he fi rst-ev er N at ion al at t he p r i st i n e B a r b e r M ot ors p or ts Pa r k tu rn ed o ut to be a ra ce t o rem em be r. It st a rte d o ut good , and fo r th e m o st Sa turd ay a nd a n e ig hth o n Sun d a y . T h e t w o re su l t s bump ed h i m u p t o ninth in th e serie s point s sta nd ings. Mla d in eas ily h ead ed th o se po ints p art it stayed th at w ay . D uh am el sh ot fro m hi s spo t o n th e fr o n t row t o le a d ' t h e p a c k into the st a nd ing s, t he Au st ralian wi nn ing 10 o f t h e 18 r ac es e n ro ute t o t h e t itl e fo llowe d by team m ate s B o strom and R o b e r t s . T h e n c a m e Su zuki m en and amassing a record 550 po int s. In t h e e n d , t h a t w a s 31 p o in ts b et t e r th an Ya tes. Th ird p la ce in th e fin al st a nd in g s Yates and Ml ad in . le ft - ha n d t urn o ne fo r t h e first t i me , T h e y st a y e d th a t w a y f o r a l a p . T hen , in t h e tu rn fo u r -flv e - six are a , th e lead cha n ge d tw ice, w ith Robe rt s goes to Roberts , th e Califo rn ian wi n ni n g t w o o f the fin al t h ree r a c es to garner 474 p o in ts, 12 m o re th an B en B o st rom, w ho se ta ll y su ffe red with h is shoot ing p ast D uh am el o n ly t o have fina l-race c rash . Du ha m e l roun d s o ut th e t o p f iv e i n th e se r i e s sta nd in g s w it h 4 17 p o in ts . " O f c o u rse it is n ic e," M lad in sa id Th e t o p s ix - R obe rts , D uh am e l , Bo st ro m , Ya tes , M lad in and Bussei we re tog eth er , sepa ra ted by just o ve r th e Fre nc h Can ad ian pass hi m rig ht ba ck . Robe rts th en fi n is hed hi m o ff to lead th e p ack at t he end o f tw o lap s. a seco nd fro m top to botto m . Ro be r ts co nti n ue d t o l e ad t h e of t it le n u m b e r four. " It ' s som eth in g we w ork t o w a r d s all y ea r , a n d it ' s group for th e next e ig ht laps wi th out in cid ent , th ou gh Mladin was th e b een a lo ng season. I w as h op in g t ha t cue I e n e _ S • O C TOBER 1, 2003 9