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/128315
IBriefly... Erion Honda's Kevin Erion confirmed the inevitable on Wednesday at the Speedway: Anthony Gobert wou ld not be making his Repsol Superstock debut at Dayto na due to visa problems. Erion got the call from Gobert's mother, Sue, his manager, telling him the work visa he nee ds to race in the Unit- ed States had not yet been approved. From previous conversations Erion's had with various gove rnmen t agencies, he 's been told it should take four to six weeks and that he won't know it's approved until Gobert gets the call. Gobert will not be replaced on the Erion Honda CBR-I OOORR, Kevin Erion said, because he didn't believe there was a rider available who could win. Former Erion Honda rider Kurtis Roberts was contacted, but he has to leave Thursday to test the Proton KR in Spain. Gobert's younger brother, Alex, ended up being the lone rider on the Erion Honda CBRIOooRRSuperstock machine. "I do n't know anyone who's w on or come close to win- of t he 200-miler w ith Zemke edging t he four-t ime winner of the eve nt by just .0 14 of a se co nd . Th e AMA is consis te nt in its thinking t hat its rules are designed to t ry to keep t he privateers competitive. Not sure if t he res ults from t he 200 are what it had in mind, but here goes: Fourth place in t he Daytona 200 we nt to Jack Pfeifer, a perennial midpacker (his best finish fro m last year was 13th , a feat he did twice) o n a Pirell i-sh od privat e e r Suzu ki GSXR I000 - two laps be hind the lead trio. And his strong finish wasn't an abe rration, as more privateers follo wed, the top 10 filled by them, the have-nots. Emp ire Racing's Lee Acree ended up fifth , with Sun Racing's Ricky Orlando sixth, three laps behind Mladin, with Picotte Yamaha DXS's Pasca l Picotte , Empire Racing's Opie Cay lor, JQ Moto Racing's Scott Jensen and Hooters Suzuki's Eric Wood round ing out the top-10 finishers. T he other factory men? Let's not fo rget there were on ly six of them to beg in w ith, and three d id n't have the good fortune of be ing around at t he finish. T he first to go was American Honda's Ben Bost ro m , t he Califo rnian lead ing I I of th e first 21 laps before it all went wrong in his first pit stop. Ri h t afte r his g st o p, Bostro m was back in t he pits, t he crew wo rking o n the rea r wh eel and throwing anot her o ne in t he C BRIOOORR. O n t he 25th lap, Bost ro m was back in t he pits, o nly to stop again two laps lat er. He would stop and go again but would eventually call it qu its w ith w hat he ca lled a clutch problem (see My Own Race). Bost rom's brot he r, Eric, didn't fare much better. T he polesitter had the Ducati faithful excited at the prospect of seeing their de luge of Daytona misery e nd , but in the e nd the Ducati Daytona Desolation o nly co ntinued . But not fro m a lack of effort on Eric's part. As the o nly Michelin man at the po inty e nd of the field, Eric Bostrom - like Mladin - was go ing with a t hree-sto p strategy. And he also showed that he had t he speed and consistency to ge t the jo b do ne , loo king to be t he ma n who was going to give Mlad in the hardest time in the late stages of the race. Unfortunately, Bost rom didn't get t hat far. On t he 3 1st lap, he and Mladin pitted togethe r, with Mladin leaving Pit Lane first . When they completed the 32nd lap, Mladin was 3.1 seconds ah ead of Bost ro m, though the pair was act ually running fourth and fifth on the racetrack as the others ahead of them (Aaron Yates, Duhamel and Zemke ) circulated on t heir second set of t ires . Bostrom was able to run Mlad in down , and the pa ir was together at the front after 37 of the 57 laps. On the ' 39th lap, Bostrom led Mladin, w ith the latter saying late r t hat he saw a few puffs of smoke ex iting from th e Duc at i's ex haust . On the 43d lap, the Ducati was don e , a roc k having pu nctu red its o il co o ler (see My Own Race). With both Bostroms out, the last of the factory riders to e xit the race was Yoshimura Suzuki's Yates, the Geo rgian crashing ou t of second place afte r a run- in with lapped rider Anthony Fania Jr. w ith just eight laps to go. What followed was hideous, Yates los ing his cool and kicking www.cyclenews.com ning the Daytona 200," Erion said, "and that's what it 's going to take." Because any replacement wou ld be aboard the Erion Honda for just one race, not taking part in the Repsol Superstock Championship, it was imperative he have a rider who could win. "Daytona is Daytona. To say we don't wan t to win Daytona is to say w e don't want to go racing." Gobert's absence dealt a blow to Honda's hopes in both the Daytona race, the most important of the year, especiallyfor a new model, and the championship, which he's expected to join in the next round at California Speedway in early April.When told that Gobert's securing the proper visa for Fontana shouldn't be a problem, Erion laughed and agreed that it "shouldn't" be a problem . Doing a I:48 at Daytona International Speedway is no small task. Doing a 1:48 when you can barely walk is impressive indeed. And that's what Yamaha'sJami e Hacking did in qualifying third for the Repsol Superstock ope ner. Hackingsuffered a severely bruised and battered rear end and lower back when he crashed his R6 in the International Horseshoe early in Wednesday morning's Supersport practice, but he came back to record his 1:48.643 - in what was his only lap of Supersto ck qualifying. "I couldn't walk yesterday," Hackingsaid on Thursday. "I was actuallystuck in the bathroom , and I told Rachel [his wife] I couldn't ride. They [team members] came in and got me, and they had to dress me and get me out there. I sat there until everyone got up to speed, and Iwent and did an out lap and the n a fast lap and then went back to my motorhome." One nying lap - and a fro nt-row starting pos ition for this afternoon's race. Impressive stuff. H acking said he'd been helped a bit on his good (and only) lap by his teammat e Jason DiSalvo. the Yamaha rider who ended up qualifyi ng second behind YoshimuraSuzuki's Ben Spies. "I followed Jason, and he just killed me in the infield, but I ran it in hard to the chicane," Hackingexplained. "But I got in there, and I couldn't do anything. Jason had I I bikelengths on me comingout, but I caught him and got my time. He helped me out, for sure." Hackingended up finishing second in the race, pipped at the line by his teammate Aaron Gobert. CYCLE NEWS • MARCH 17,2004 17