Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
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AMA Chevrolet SuperbIke Champio nship Se r ies Eric Bostrom (3 2) left Borber with more q uestions about his Ducati 999 than a nswers. Meanwhile , Duhamel (17) has kept his, cha":,pionsh:, ~s very a hve with ana e r Win , The margin: .0 I I of a second. "The front tires weren't pretty, and they definitely had a lot of wear, but it was a good race," Mladin said. "Jake rode good, and we just did everything we could to win. It's not that time of me year to settle for second, so we tried to win, and we got it." Mladin came away impressed w ith t he spee d of me Ho ndas, the C BRIOOORRs seemingly getting better with eac h and every race . "Igot him [Zemke) once, and I thought I got a good drive out of me comer and thought I had it stuck, and me next minute he was driving straight by," Mladin said. "I may have got him once more and made it stick - they just have some acceleration, you know. When the front tires are worn out and someone has a lot more acceleration than you have, there's only one spot to make it up - and that's going into the comer. And when you've got worn out front tires, it makes it pretty hairy.We done a good job today, and we couldn't get any more out of what we had today, so we're pretty happy." Mladin knew tum four was me only place he could pass. At least safely. "The only place I could have done it other than there was in the long right-hander, but it would have been a hairy pass and a stupid pass, and I'm not into making those types of passes in the middle of a cham pionship,' Mladin said. "It would have been very, very hard to make a pass anywhe re else." Zemke, beaten on me last lap for a secand straight race, was his normal, jovial self, eve n in defeat. "We had a good race ," Zemke said. "I didn't get the grea test of starts, and men l wa tched Eric [Bostrom] run off on me grass, then I watched Aaron [Yates) crash and Ithought, 'Man, this is weird.' Mat actually almost ran off into me grass, and I passed him, then it was a lap or [WO later when Ben crashed. Then I was like, 'Jeeso Pete, what's going on?' Ben was actually setting a pretty good pace at me front . I was a little bit worried about chasing Ben down mat ear1y because of me tires . It was a ques tion mark for everybody - tires. Nobody knew what was going to happen when we got into the race . I was pretty content to run a slower pace man what he [Ben 22 Bostrom) was running." Zemke knew where Mladin 's move would come, and he thought he was ready for it. "It's where he'd passed me every time he passed me ," Zemke said. "I knew I had to get a good drive coming up me hill from three to four. When I hit that dip in three, I lost the rear, and it never came back. The thing just started setting down, setting down on the shock. By the time I crested the hill, the thing was about bottomed out on the shock , and me fron t wheel came off the ground. I thought, 'O h, oh , this is not the place you want that to happen.' I had to get out of the throttle quite a bit to get me front end back on the ground, and mat was enough to let Mat [Mladin) get back up in there, for sure. I know where I made my mistake ." Behind those [WO came a very lonely Duhamel , the French Canad ian stuck in what he called "no -man's land." "Eric [Bostrom) was highly motivated to get up there and get some lV time , and good on him," Duhamel said. "He got on the grass . It was quite an experience. I don't know if some bug got him. He got in front and , yeah, I had some troubles getting past Eric. That's racing, and it's my job to get by him. He 's been struggling, and I don't mink he 'll give anyth ing to anybody. So finally when I got by him, I noticed me [WO leaders were pulling away. I couldn't make up my mind if I wanted to put my head down and try to get back to them or keep that gap and maybe see if they would slow each other up or start thinking about saving the ir tires . I just tried to keep that gap, and they were just pulling away from two-tenths to half a second a lap. I was a little concerned with my tires, probably too focused on my tires . At me beginning of me race , Aaron [Yates) lost the fro nt and then Ben [Bostrom) lost me front, and that made me a little cautious for sure. It's stilla little early in me season to take big risks. I'm not very happy with me resu lt and getti ng that far back, but at the ve ry end there Eric [Bostr om) was actually catching back up. I put my head back down and pulled it back out to four." Eric Bostrom ended me race fourth, some six seconds behind Duhamel and roughly 19 seconds in front of Hayes. Haner, May, Je re myToye, Eric Wood and Shawn Higbee rounded out me top 1 0. RACElWO The second of [WO races at Barber didn't last long. With Ben Bostrom bursting into me lead at the start, mings were just starting to settle down when the red flag carne out. Scott Jensen had crashed, his bike lying in the middle of me track and leaking fluids. Comer workers were able to deal with the MAY 26, 2004 • CYCLE N EWS 40th Anniversary