Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

~---------------I AMA SUPERBIKE ! _ down the road in iffy conditions ." Eric Bo stro m kne w go ing into the race that it wouldn't be easy to match Mladin. The Ducati Austin rider had struggled for most o f practice, and even though he 'd worked out most of his handling woes, he never would get his gearbox to the point where he needed it. What he ended up w ith was a compromise . Still, Bo st ro m was alone in second for most of th e race, challenged at one point by his brother Be n, but on ly until Big Bro crashed out on the 12t h lap - his second nonfinish in as many races (see My Own Race). My OWN RACE RACE 2 714 Round. 3 -4 Apr, 3 -4, 2004 " Mat [Mladin] has pretty much been setting the pace all weekend, and ev eryone else has been doing the best they can to try and catch up to his pace, and it's been real fast ," Eric Bostrom said . " He' s doing a good job out there. Yesterday we were way out the re , and today we managed to go a second quicker, but obviously it's not enough. Mat can mai ntain that pace for 28 laps... we have our work cut out for us, but all the same it's obviously just - we just have a lot of work to do. "We made some changes to th e chassis , and it responded really good," - Steve Crevier 6th DXS Diablo Suzuki's Steve Crevie r wa nted to beat Geo ff May in the second of two Superbike races, and he was able to - barely. '" don't like that kid [May]very much," Crevier said. "The kid has a future, ~_ _. and I don't. I'm jealous. He's smooth, and I have a better bike , and that 's how I beat him . He's imp ressive. We're using Elka shocks out of Montreal ; they are popular with ATVs and want to break into road racing. Rightoff the bat, they 're not that bad. I had a little chatter on deceleration, but I'm impressed, and my tires also held up really well. I just want ed it rea lly bad today, but if I didn't get a break in traffic, the kid [May)wou ld have gotten me. We also had the fastest trap speeds both days, and I'm impressed with that." 199 Geoff May 7th Geoff May and his Team Prieto RacingSuzuki continued to impress, again battling with Steve Crevier to the very end, this time losing out to the Canadian veteran by almost three seconds. "H e wore me out ," May said of Crevier. " I started to make a run for it and about highsided. I had to take it out to the edge of the track , and he got by me. I was working to catch him, and it's hard . The only way I could pass him was if he made a mistake. His bike is really fast, and mine is tota llystock ." May came to Fontana with just one bike after wrecking his other bike at a recent club race . He plans on purchasing another Suzuki and will build one as a Supe rbike to make himself more competitive. 41 Josh Haye s 29th Josh Hayes turned 29 on Sunday, but he didn't have much to celebrate. For the second straight day, Hayes and his Attack Kawasaki had chain pro blems. "It stretched a chain until it jumped off the sprocket and sheared the teeth off it," Hayes said. "I came in, but they didn't have a sprocket. so we missed a couple of laps in the middle there." Hayes went back out with the problem fixed and ended up 29th. 155 Ben Bostrom 5th You hate to say that Ben Bostrom doesn't have much of a chance to win the AMASuperbike Champ ionship after just three rounds, but those are the facts. Sunday's second race was Bostrom 's first finish of the year, and he was fifth. "I had a terrible race today," Bostro m said. "W e w ere a second slower than we were yesterday. We had a co mpletely different bike. I don't know if that's it; it was quite a bit different. We're looking for someth ing. It seemed pretty good this morning. I was out the re riding mostly over my head to run 26s for that first part of the race. The re was no grip, so that's kind of strange. I'm excite d to go to th e next one . I don't think anyone was going to beat Mat [Mladin) here. And I'm not here to race for sec- 18 A PRIL 14 , 2 004 • AMA Chevrolet Superblke Cha mpionship CYCLE N EWS Bostrom added. " But , obviously, we have a ways to go yet. We're kind of quick on a few points o f the track and really slow on some others. If we could balance that out, we'd be a lot better off, bu t I'm not quite sure how to accom plish that at the moment. We're just sort of backed into a corner w ith the gearbox on the thi ng. We just can't find a gear choice that will work well everywhere. We're limited , and we're giving up a lot in a few spots. Hopefully, we can make some changes." Behind Eric Bostrom came the only battle near the fro nt , a fight between ond . I had no grip, and I thought he [Miguel Duhamel] was a couple of seconds back. I didn't have the grip to pass lappers off the cor ners, which is pretty bad. I thought the re's no need to run one of these guys off the track . I'lljust pass on the back straight . But when I we nt to pullout and pass, Miguel was fullstick coming by, too which wasn't real sensible because if I didn't know he was co ming, if I didn't feel his air, I would have pushed him right off into the grass and spun him into the wall. He should've known better and let off. But it doesn't make a difference. Where he cares about fourth, I don't. It's one point. If you're not on the podium , what's the point?" 17 Miguel Duhamel 4th For Miguel Duhamel, the race was over at the start. Afte r botch ing his take off badly, Duhamel instantly lost touch with the leaders . He fought through , howeve r, and in typical Duhamel fashion he never gave up. In fact, he passed teammate Ben Bostrom on the final lap to earn fourth . "I messed up the start, and the whole race for me was the start," Duhamel said. "My lap times for about five or six laps, midrace , I was the fastest guy on the racetrack. It's just that in the span of the start and the first two , three laps, I lost like four or five seconds. I was gone . I was back there fightingwith guys and trying to get past them and be safe. The Dunlop tires today were terrific. Yesterday, there was a little question with them , but today they were terrific . We made some adjustments to the bike, and it was working really good , really pred ictable, but it can be better, and it will be better. I'm pretty excited about that . I was reel ing in Jake and Ben a little bit. Jake was probably a SO thing where he wanted to /50 finishthird but not do anything like make a mistake. The last four or five laps, for a while I thought, 'Man, if we can just get some rea lly bad traffic, we can make things exciting here.' But I was able to reel in Ben. I think Ben got a little bit snookered through the chicane, and I did the same move to him that I did to Jake yesterday. I went by Ben and got fourth right at the end of the race . The bike was working terrific, and I was hoping for more laps." 134 Marty Craggill DNF Corona Extra Suzuki's Marty Craggill crashed out of Sunday's race on the fourth lap. "I haven't been on a bike for six months, but I felt SO percent better than yesterday," Craggill said. "But I just lowsided in the do uble left." The Australian banged his left hand but was icingit "just to be cautious ." 14 Shawn Hibgee DNF Millenium Technologies Shawn Higbee had a horrible weekend, crashing out of both races . His first crash came on the opening lap of Saturday 's race, lowsiding the GSX-RI000 but damaging it enough that he couldn't continue. On Sunday, he highsided the Suzuki. "We we re having a good race ," said Higbee, who ran as high as ninth before being shuffled back. "The rear tire started sliding a little bit, which was okay. But the rear shock seemed like it started losing dampening, started kicking me out of the seat quite a bit. Igot by [Larry] Pegram, then thought I could get the guys ahead of him. I started ree ling them in, and the rear end just caught me off-guard pitched me over the highside." Higbee rece ived stitches in his right elbow at the infield medical center following the accide nt. 40th Anniversary Duhamel and Zemke . Eve nt ually, it went to the elde r statesman over the virt ual class rookie. " Fo r a split sec o nd I was a hero o n the start, but I messed it up an d w e nt from first to like ninth," Duhamel e xplained . "I never recu pe ra ted from that. I was in pan ic mod e in t he beginning, trying to do too m uch and riding like an idiot . It showed. I was the last of the factory guys . So finally when I settled down, calmed down and go t my racing lines togethe r, I cam e back up . Ben [Bost rom] fell down , unfortunately, and I hope he 's okay, bu t I caught up to Jake [Zemke] at the e nd . We were fighting a good little battle. conside ring the rain was t here; it was like who was going to beat w ho fo r th is third position , knowing that what cou ld be at stake is a champi o nsh ip. You can 't w in t he ch am pionsh ip th is weekend , but you can definitely lose it . It was t e nse , and I'm hap py it's over, an d I'm hap py to get third ." Be hind the facto ry men came a noteworthy privateer scrap w ith May, Crevier, Pegram and Craggill go ing at it for most of the ra ce, t hough Craggil l fe ll back off the pace in the clos ing stages , not happy w ith the w e t condit ions. May ended up finishing fifth, a career best, by getting the be tter of Crevier by 1.4 seconds. Pegram was an other three seconds ad rift in se ve nt h. C raggill w as e ighth w ith Han e r nint h, th e last ride r o n t he lea d lap. Caylo r, wh o actually crashed o n the final lap , finished 10th .. a lap behind Mladin. RACE TWO Bright sunshi ne fo r Sund ay 's ra ce meant t hat Mladin o pt ed for ha rd e r-co mpou nd Dunlops. The others , meanwhi le , for th e mos t part ke pt w hat they had fro m t he day be fore . None of it made much o f a difference , as the result was the same. Mladin o ut front. Ail day lo ng. T his t ime a ro und , Eric Bostrom seemed intent to kee p Mladin a bit more honest , t he hotter track te mp e ratu res he lping his Michelin s. Bostrom st ill had his gearing problems from the day befo re , and they would rear th e ir ugly head w hen t he pair hit traffic. With Mladin jumping out to a n immed iate .8 of a second lea d on the opening lap over Ze mke , Eric Bostrom so on to o k over seco nd . But t he lead still manage d to gro w : 1.4 seconds after two laps; 1.9 aft e r three ; 2 .S after eight . The n the lead started to come down, wi th Bostro m getting to 1.6 seconds behind after 13 co mple te laps. But just as q uickly, t he lead ope ned again as the pair sta rted to hit heavy traffic. Just a lap later and Mlad in led by 3.1 seconds. Then it went to 4. 8, just a lap lat e r. With two laps to go, the lead was 10.6 seconds, an d then he slow ed , finally winning by 9.9 secon ds. The win was no t on ly Mladin's 27th, but it was also Suz uki's 61 st. "Today was a good rac e ," Mladin said . "Of course, it's good to get w in nu mber

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