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/128325
Track officials at Barber Motorsports Park announced a total weekend attendance of 47,000, with Friday drawi ng 7000 , Saturday 19,000 and Sunday bringing in 2 1,000 spectators. Yamaha's Damon Buckmas te r rode through pain to finish ninth in the Super stock race but sat o ut the Supersport race after a heavy crash in morning practice. The Australian was coming over the rise between turns I I and 12 when he ran wide and slid the back tire onto the grass. "At that point it tr ied to highside me , and I hung on," he said. He was hanging off the right side of the bike, and his bod y weight put the bike into another slide. He couldn't slide, instea d tumbling all the way do wn the hill, his hands and feet slapping the ground. "I just didn't get a chance to roll. It knocked the shit out of me. " Buckmaster had what he desc ribed as a mediocre X-ray at the track . One of the three doctors who examined him thought he had a cracked right scaphoid . The others disagreed. Then one of the dissenters came to hismotorhome and said he thought it might be cracked. One of the doctors was going to put a halt to his riding, and they told the AMA. Buckmaster spoke to team manager Keith McCarty and crew chief Tom Halverson, and they had an AHA official visit him in his motorhome. He was bru ised and beaten and had a deep puncture wound in his right elbow but was otherwise okay. The AHA official noted that he hadn't hit his head and that he was wise enough to make the right decision, so they allowed him to race , which he dtd - in Superstock. But the pain was too much for the late r Supersport. "Y ou've got to look at things rea listically," Buckmaster said. "O ur 600 hopes are probably dashed. They probably were after Fontana. We're out of the points in the 600, so to put myself through heaps more pain to come home IOth or 11th on a 600 wasn't worth it. Hopefully, I'm going to be okay for Pikes." Buckmaster said he was going to drive his motorhome to Colorado , where he 'd seek medical help. "My wrist is a big problem . I'll get up there and go and see k some medicalattention." Y oshimura Suzuki's Ben Spies decided the smalle r, lighte r, more nimble Suzuki GSX· R750 wou ld be the right weapon for the tortuous 2,3-mile Barbe r Motorsports Park. "The 1000, we're having a litt le bit of issues with that , and we got the pole with the lit· tle bike," he said. "Hopefully, the race will be easier with that beca use I know how hard I had to ride to get that ." Spies said he did the time after a couple of sessions on the 7S0. He equaled the time on his first flying lap on the 1000. "I know I could have qualified faster on it and could have gone faster for two laps. But we're having some issues, some front issue s: After three laps the front tire kind of goes to crap . We kind of knew we had to race the 750 for the race. We knew it might not be strong In qualifying, but in the race it wou ld be goo d. We're just kind of loo king at the championship right now, and to get the pole right now is rea llysurprising. And I think it shocked some peo ple and hopefully scared some people. We knew we were going to Continued on age 23