Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

AMAIC hevy Truc ks U .S . Superbike Seri e s Fi n a l R o u n d : B arbe r M ot:o r s p o r t s Park was d efini te ly a privil eg e t o be o ut decid ed not to press th e issue, though ther e racing with t he guys aga in . It Yate s wo uld h av e b een diffi cult to fe lt good." b e at n o m atte r wha t. Ro berts wa s Th e ba ttl e for t he l ead w as sud - also a b it so re, hav in g fa llen on his d en l y b etw een Ya tes an d Rob e rt s. still - inj ured sh oul der in the m ornin g Wi th nin e laps to go, Yates took th e prac tice . l e a d f rom Rob e rts a nd was n e v er "Yeah , that rac e was defin ite ly too headed aga in . Rob erts said th at he'd exci t i ng, " Roberts sa id. " I ' d rath er f elt a v ib rat i o n in hi s rear t ire a nd have had it easy . Th e first 15 laps, my Own Race - Race I 1] 1] § Ku rtis Roberts (center) won the second Superbike National of his career on Sunday, topping Giov an ni Bussei (left) and the new champion, Mat M ladin (right). f as te st rid er on t he t rac k a n d was slo wly st arti ng to loo k serio us. O n the 10th l ap , Duh am el m ade th ings a little eas ier fo r those beh in d him w he n h e l o s t t he f ro nt a nd cra sh ed in turn t w o . B y th at p o int, M l adi n w a s up to seco nd and was sta rt in g t o t ak e shots at Robe rts in front of him. Th in gs got interesting in the fi nal co rner on th e 10th la p when Ro berts and Bostrom ca me together, t he co llisi o n co st ing Bo stro m more tha n Rob erts, as th e former lost a few spo ts in the pr oc ess. Everyone m ade it throu gh th e co rner un scath ed, and the o rder at the end of 10 lap s read : Rob erts , Ml ad in, Yates , Bostrom , Bu ssei. Further back c ame the best of th e pr iva teers in the form of Higbee, th e Millenn ium Racing rider a lonely sixth . M ladin t ook th e lead fo r th e first tim e heading into turn one to start the 11 th lap, w ith B o strom going w ith hi m and also pa ssing Rob ert s. A lap lat er a nd B o st r o m took th e l e ad headin g into turn on e. T h e l ea d didn 't l as t , a s M l adin qu ick ly took it back , lead ing lap 12. But Bo str om wasn 't do ne , as he went un der Ml adin again , o nly to dr ift wi de a nd a llo w t h e Aus tra lia n b a c k throug h. Just as qu ic kl y , it was Yates m ovi ng in t o seco nd p la c e and th en taki ng th e lea d w ith an insid e move on hi s tea m ma te and cha mpions h ip rival in tu rn 13 . A la p later, Rob erts m oved past Ml adi n as th e pack start ed to hi t traffic fo r the first tim e. Th e pac e at the front ma y not have been rec o rd setti ng , but t he a c tion was heated and a lot of fu n to watch . A t th at po int , h ow ev e r , Ml a din sta rt ed to thin k th e be tter of havin g " f u n " with t he battli ng bulls in the c hina sho p , a nd h e sett l ed in t o a pace th at would ke ep him safe, drop ping to fo urt h on the 14th la p . Fourth wo u l d beco me f i ft h w h e n h e was p a s s e d b y B u sse i , b u t it wo uld become fou rt h aga in on th e 21 st lap wh en the Ital ian ran off in turn four and ba rely saved a c rash as he rod e thro ug h th e gravel t ra p - eventuall y getting the Du ca ti st opped and turne d befor e the guardrail. 10 O C TO BER 1 , 2003' cue I Th at gave M l adin th e brea t hing ro o m he needed to rid e comfortably to f ou rth and a n ic e, ch unky po ints lead for the follow ing day - no matte r wh at happ ened in fro nt of him. " K ur tis [Ro be rts ] was comi ng up th e ins ide of m e, and he's not the guy you really wa nt up th e insi de of yo u : Mladin said later. "It was a go od ride, a nd Aaron [Yat es] wa s going hard , a n d Kurtis and A a ron w er e th er e t og eth er fo r a wh ile, and I d id n't reall y w an t a ny p a rt of t ha t. So halfw ay through th e rac e I j ust shu t it down and d ec id ed enoug h was en o ug h . I think we need to fi nis h 22nd, so we sho uld be able to do th at. It was ac tu ally go od fu n ba ng ing into Kurtis and this and th at. I was having a ball. Th e pac e was slow; I was havin g a ba ll. I was la ughing so m e of the tim es. Th e first tim e I passed Kurt is, he fli ck ed th e thing o ut the re, and both wh eels went away fro m him. I was just la ugh ing. I got past him th ere, and then he st uffed m e so m ew h ere else up t he in si d e , a nd I l o oked acro s s , and I seen Kurtis, and I m ov ed it out a littl e bit back and let him go . Then I got bac k p ast him agai n so m ew h ere . I w asn't su r p ris ed I wa s in th e l ea d be cau se I t ri ed t o g et in th e le ad . I th ought I'd m ix it up a bit. Th en if the boys weren't going to play the bang ing, t hen maybe I wo uld have kept going - but th ey decided the y want ed to get rou gh, and March next yea r I'll get roug h, not Septem ber. " Up fr ont , t h i ngs s t a y ed h e ct i c , though Bostrom wou ld st art to lose touc h wi t h th e lead duo . St i ll, h e'd lo oked to be hi s o ld aggressiv e self, and it m ay hav e been his best ride of the year. " The odd t hi ng i s, I kn ew w h er e you c ould pass, and then, during the ra c e , I got p assed in a f ew spo ts I didn 't t hi nk yo u s ho u ld pass, " Bostro m said lat er. " So I st arted using them . Th at was rea lly fun . That was th e funn est race I've had all year. It e ne 'UVs Giovanni Bussei 5 th Fast all weekend , Giovanni Bus se! was with the lead pack for almos t the duration on Sat urday . He held down fourth ahead of Mat Mladin until running off the track in turn four on the 21s t lap . After a good save, he re-jo ined the race in fifth - well ahead of Shawn Higbee but out of touch from Mlad in. "I' m very happ y ," Bu ssei said later. "I had not a good start. I had a little prob lem with the starting lights . I just made a li tt le mistake and didn't lose m uch time, and then I just ended th e race th inking I'd keep my engine for tomorrow. I want to have a good race to morro w. " 1] 1] ~ Shawn Higbee 6th M il lenn ium Raci ng 's Shawn Higbee was a happy man aft er the fir st Su p er bike Na t ional ever held at Bar ber Mot orsports Park . A fter all, he'd fulfill ed his goa l of end ing the season as th e t op-ranked privateer, his sixt h pl ace finish on Saturday ensuring him of sixth overall in the champ ions hip . Hig bee's race was a lonel y one, th e Wisconsinite running alone for the entire race. "We ran the smallest sproc ket on the front and the bigg est on the rear, try ing to use all the rpm that we hav e," Higbee said. "It seeme d to work pr etty good . I wish we co uld go m ore, but we don't have any bigg er rear sp roc kets. T here are a co uple of co rners where the gearing is a little bit too tall, and it sacrifices a bit off the corner. We'r e pulling off th e cor ner like eight or nin e grand, and I wi sh we co uld pull off at 10 or 11. Overall , the bike wor ked really goo d. We went out on a new tripl e-compound tire thi s m orn ing, and we had very li ttle time on it , and it worked out reall y good. It was kind of a str ange race. Luckil y , I had really good focu s, and I had my own racetrack. I didn't see anyo ne in fro nt of me , and I looked back once or twi ce and never saw any body behind me . I saw [Miguel ] Duhamel went off earl y in the race so I figured he wo uld be charging back, but I didn 't know how l clos e he was gett ing to m e. In the end, I just backe d off a little bit and made sure we wrapp ed up the sixth place in th e championship. It' s a good week end so far. " 1] 7J Miguel Duhamel 7th American Ho nd a's Mig uel Duh am el was in th e hunt wh en he crashed out of the race in turn two on the lO th lap. "I j ust lost th e front ," he said. "Go ing in I st arted pu shing it, and I hit one of those tar pat ch es. With th e heat bei ng th e way it is, the y weren 't an issue, but with the tr ack being at its hottest , it didn' t help. It was so smooth , I was lean ed ove r, an d it j ust tipped . It wa s unfo rtunate for sure. It was m y fault. The bike was feeling a littl e bit off. We changed it a little bit before th e race. I think tom orr ow will be better. Th at was my fault goi ng in there the way I did . It's ju st unfortunate the way that happened, for sure." 1] @1] Jordan Szoke 8th Desp it e having a tot al lack of practic e and qualifyin g ti me , Canadian Jord an Szoke still m an ag ed t o finish eighth on his Corona Extra Suzu ki. " We didn't qu alify very well ," Szoke said. "We mi ssed all of Fr iday 's pra c ti ce and qualifying due to a m ech ani cal issue that caused m e to fall . We didn 't qualify well , and we didn 't have a goo d setup. Th en we did some changes, and for the race it was a lot bette r, and we went thr ee-qu arte rs of a second qu icker in th e race than we did in qu al ify ing . We were chasing do wn IShawn] Higbee, and 1 had the fron t end push on m e sever al tim es, so I backed it down a little. Miguel [Duhame l] got m e there at the end, and we fi nished eighth. " §§ Tom Kipp 9th To m Kip p returned to AMA Superb ike racing after a season spent in Canada co ntesti ng it s National Cham pi onship . A rmed with a Kawasak i, Kipp ended up ninth in the fi rst Sup erbik e National , his front Pirelli ti re totall y destroyed at the end of th e race. "We were reall y hoping for fifth ," a some what dis appointed Kipp sai d. "Inside the to p five. It mi ght have been a little unrealistic, but that was our goal co m ing in. I th ink the bike in general is very good . Chassiswi se, it' s very goo d, and I'm happ y with it. Generally, I'm pretty co mfortable on it because we can get it to hook up well and co rner well. Th e problem that we had this weekend is j ust tir es, qu ite frankly . We are down on po wer becau se it is a 750, but on this track it isn't a huge issue. It' s part of it, but we've been strugg li ng wi th overall tract ion. We tri ed a lot of tires to get to where we're at right now . I don 't know if we have more options. I hav en't seen a ti re like t haI in a long time... it was just traction in gener al. Fortunately , we had the rest of th e bike wor k ing well. It's j ust a traction issue."

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