Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

Res pol S uperst oc k Se ries in," Roger Lee said . By t hen it was the 10th lap, and t he gap fro m Hacking to the Hayd ens was fluct uating, wit h Tommy close to Roger Lee . The pair hit traffic o n th e 15th lap , Roge r Lee sti ll in fron t of Tommy, but not fo r long. Tommy made his way by w ith a lap a nd a half to go . "Toward t he e nd of the race , I got in a big slide coming up over the top o f that hill, a nd it scared me a bou t half to death ," Roge r Lee said . " I cho ked he r down a litt le bit . When he came by me, I saw it was a gree n bike, so I gave him a litt le bit of room. And the n we bot h go t in t here, and I got it up o n t he big part of the tire and got a dr ive o n him ." To mm y's momentum ca rried him to second , where he'd finish. " I felt like I had a little mo re tire left t han Rog be cause I could te ll he w as pus hing the front pretty bad ," To mmy sa id . "I had a rea lly to ugh time getting by Rog . Our strong poi nts were pre tty much in the same areas, so it was to ugh to pass. I was n't able to get by him for three or fo ur laps. I kinda passed o ne time , and he pass ed me back. Toward th e end, he made a littl e mistake, an d I was ab le to ge t back by, but then the re was o nly two to go. I just t ried to ho ld o n to se cond o n the last lap." Roger Lee sa id he 'd struggled all weekend to get co mfort able o n the 1000. Sticking w ith Tommy became more difficult toward t he e nd of t he race w hen he started making mistakes. "I got real sloppy t he last fo ur laps and (jarnie) Hacking start ed pu lling away," Roge r Lee said . "I regrou ped whe n Tom came by, and I tried to stay wi th him, but all in all it was a good race, an d I th ink we're go ing in the right direction with t he 1000, a nd I'm pre tty happy to ge t t hird ." Graves Motorsports Yamaha's Aaron Gobe rt w as five seconds back in fourth, the spot he 'd moved into on th e eighth lap . It had taken Gob e rt a w hile to ge t t he re, and t hat's where his race was lost . Ninth at the end of t he first lap, he claw ed his way forward but ran out o f time by the e nd . " I got the worst start I co uld ev e r get. It was terri ble," he said . '" was try ing to se t guys up w hen the tires were co ld, t hinking th e y would be real easy on 'em. I was setting up, an d t hen Rog [Hayde n] st uffed me, Josh Hayes stuck it to me , Ste ve Rapp stuck it to me. I'd gone from like fifth to nint h or eighth o r something. I was like , 'Shit.' I was in a really good spot, and then I was at the back o f the train." Gobert sa id the frustration o f his own inconsiste ncy was getting to him. "There's a lot of st uff that I've learned th at I don 't apply, an d it 's really starting to 26 My OWN 6 Continued from page 25 motorblke, you'll be pretty fast up there," Mladin said. "We've got Brainerd as wel l. I think after tomorrow [Sunday], the next lot of races are going to be toug h. That's w hy we need to have a cham pions hip points lead going in there." RACE Damo n Buckmaster 9th Damon Buckmaster's day began badly and ended early. A crash in morni ng practice se nt him to the med ical cente r, whe re op inions differed on the severity of his injuries. The upsho t was that the re was talk the track medical staff wou ldn't clear him to race . They did, and he did what he cou ld to score points in the Superstock race. It wasn't easy. He had a dee p puncture in his right eibow and damage to his shoulder, wrist and feet. Still, he was right up at the front at the start and even led for a lap before slowly fading to ninth. "I've got to tell you, I had my teeth gritted the whole way," he said. "I don' t think I even took a breath. It was really, really hurting me. To be quite honest, I couldn't believe I was dicing for the lead. It's amazing what you can do with a little bit of adrenaline. I knew I co uldn't sustain that pain for that long. I came away with some good points, so I can't be that unhappy." 11 Ben Spies DNF Yoshimura Suzuki's Ben Spies said he felt like he got hit by an 18-wheeler after crashing into a gravel trap on the 13th lap of the Superstock race while in seventh . "Just we nt into the corner and lost the front on the brakes," he said. "Had to let off the brakes to get it back. Stood it up. Bythe time I cou ld get back on the brakes, I was in the gravel trap , and I was doing abo ut 100 mph. Basicallythe crash was identical to Colin (Edwards') when his bike blew up. I jumped off the side of it and had to land in a gravel trap ." 5 Steve Rapp 6th Valvoline EMGO Suzuki's Steve Rapp said his bike was n't as good as he wanted it to be. "I needed more setup time ," he said. Early in the race, he was on the tail end of the pack fighting over third, chasing Attack Suzuki's Josh Hayes. On ly in the last five laps was Hayes able to get away. "The tires, we weren't sure if they we re going to be the right one s. We didn't get to do a lot of long runs on the m. So it was pretty good. The bike was running fast. The only pro blem I really had was just a litt le side grip on the rear. I think everybody was havingthe trou ble, but I just don't know if m ine was worse than th e others'. " 40 Jason DiSalvo 7th Graves Motorsport5 Y amaha's Jason DiSalvo was running third when he began to have brake fade issues. The handlebar adjuster was finicky, which made adjustments problematic. Eventually he ran off into the dirt , then had to fight his way back. "It was like eight secon ds right there," he said. "I kind of got back going, and I was catching the group ahead of me. I saw (Ben) Spies go dow n. My tires were getting pretty bad. I had a big gap back to the next guy, so I just backed it off a little bit." 43 Jason Pridmore 12th "This morning we found some stuff, and we got a good start, and a coup le of the boys got togethe r and created a bit of a gap," Star Racing Suzuki's Jason Pridmore said. "I put my head dow n and started catching back up. Bythe tenth lap I just couldn't hold on with my shoulder. So I ran off the track a couple of times, and then it was just like circulating because I couldn't quite hold on. It was probably the best weekend we had. Even though the resu lt wasn't so good , we got some headway with our bike, and that's what we've been trying to do allyear. We'll just go on from here. " annoy me. I'm lo o king to w in a champ ion ship t his year because I've been wo rking really, reall y hard . I thi nk yo u' d be surpr ised at how m uc h work I do just to be eN he re ." BARBER MOTORSPORTS PARK BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA RESULTS: MAY 16, 200 4 (ROUND 4) REPSOL S/STOCK: I. Jamie Hacking (Yam) ; 2. Tom my Hayden (Kaw); 3. Roger Lee Hayde n (Kaw); 4. Aaron Go bert (Yam); 5. Josh Hayes (Kaw); 6. Steve Rapp (Suz); 1. Jason DiSalvo (Yam); 8. Alex Gobert (Hon) ; 9. Damon Buckmaster (Y ; 10. Eric Wood (Suz); II . Jacob am) Holden (Suz); 12, Jason Pridmore (Suz); 13. Geoff May (Suz); 14. J.J. Roettin (Suz); 15. David We ber (Suz); 16. Marco Martinez (Suz); 17. Jason Curt is (Suz); 18. William Joh nson (Suz); 19. Brian Hall (Suz); 20. Michael Hanley MAY 26, 2004 • C Y C LE NEWS Briefly... (Sua); 2 1. Robert DeU (suz ); 22. John Harer (Suz); 23. Ben y Spies (Suz); H . James Kerker (Hon) ; 25. Christian Pisto ni (Suz); 26. Montez Stewart (Yam). Ti m e : 24 min., 56.940 sec . Dis tance : 17 laps, 39, I miles Ave ra ge speed: 94 mph Margin of victo ry: 2.350 sec . REPSOL SUPERST O C K C'SH IP POINTS STANDINGS (After 4 of II ro un ds): l . Jamie Hacking ( 1] 5/2 wins); 2. Aaron Gobe rt ( 118/ 1); ] . Damon Buckmaster ( 115); 4. Tommy Hayden (112); 5. Jason DiSalvo ( 102); 6. Roger Lee Hayden ( 100 ); 7. Ben Spies (96); 8. Steve Rapp (94); 9. Josh Hayes (74) ; 10. Jacob Holden (70); I I. (TIE) Alex Gobert/John Haner (68); 13. (T IE) Eric Wood/Geoff May (66); 15. Jason Pridmor e (58); 16. Shawn Higbee (56); 17. Lee Acree (SO); 18 . Vincent Haskovec (48); 19. Corey Eaton (36); 20. J.J. Roet lin (35). UPCOMING ROUN DS: Round 5 - founloin, Colorodo, Moy23 R 6-E ound lkhort lcke, Wisconsin, June 7 40th Anniversary Jake Zemke made co ntact with lapped rider De an Mizd al on the 2 1st lap of the 28-lap first Superb ike race on Saturday, but neither rider went do w n. "T hat was Dean Mizdal, and I'll have to find him and apologize for that ," Zem ke said. "I wasn't going to lose the race because I got held up in traffic, that's for sure . Turn two was sketchy because that' s where everyone was cras hing. I could fee l myself losing the front there a litt le bit. It was a sketchy corner. I didn't want to put it in there that hard that I actuallygot up beside him going in the re. I felt if Igot in there that hard, I might just lose the front and take us both out . We made a little contact , but I was de finitely happy the next lap when I came aro und and saw that he wasn't out in the gravel trap. I don't wan t to be taking anybody out for sure." Zemke has definitely arrived as a legitimate threat in AMA Superbike racing in what is his roo kie season in the top-ru ng class. The Paso Robles, California, reside nt had finished second three times , third twice and fourth once heading into Sunday's race at Barbe r. But he was most impress ive in his battle with Mladin on Saturday. "Mat rode a great race ," Ze mke said. "It was fun to be in a dice with him. It seems like we 've bee n a bit behind him at the first few races . At Sears [Infineon Raceway], Miguel [Duhamel] obviously won, but I also know that Mat had a bit of a bike prob lem there as well. To race him heads up where his bike was work ing and to get up there and dice with him and to hang t he pace with him, I'm happy with the progress we 're making for sure . But we definitely need to start beating him if we wan t to win a cham pionship. That' s the bottom line - we can't win a cham pionship getting seco nd place. Especially when he's winning." Duhamel raved about the CBR I OOORR at the postrace press co nferenc e after race two, and he truly believes tha t the best is yetta come. If that's the case, the opposition may be in trou ble. "It's a very new bike, and that's why we've bee n do ing a lot of testing," Duhamel said. "I've bee n excited since day one. And I think I speak for Ben [Bostrom] and Jake [Zemke] also in that we had pretty big smiles, and we know that once we get the window a little bit more narrow of where the bike likes to run, for each one of us... I think if the compe titio n is getti ng agitated and ne rvo us about it, I would too . We're just sta rting to tap into the IOOORR's ability right now." Even though Eric Bostrom is headed to Pikes Peak, a track on wh ich he has been do minant, his confidence appears basically shot . The Ducati Austin team tested at Pikes prior to coming to Barber, but things didn't go that well. "Testing was difficult for us the re, and unless things turn arou nd for us, the race is going to be d ifficult too ," he said. '" wish I knew the solution."

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