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/128326
Briefly... A local reporter asked D uhamel and Mladin a bout th eir head-to-head battle lo r most career Superbike w ins. Du hamel began the seas on up 26 to 24, but seven rac es in, Mladin leads 29 to 28, th e two mult itime champions the o nly riders to win in Superbike th is season . "Pe rso nally, I don't really care," Duhamel said. "I'm just try ing to w in the championship, and that's my main locus. There maybe was a time in my career that I'd have been really focused on that, but right now it' s getting the bike around here as fast as I can and getting t he most po ints and moving on to other races right now. When the yea r 's ove r, maybe I'll tally them up. " Mladin's view was that "if Miguel or I win th is championship... il I w in it, I'll have more w ins that him at the end of the year. If he wi ns it , he'll have more wins than me. That' s it. I'm not going home at the end of this year - we're certainly going to be back . It' s going to go on lo r a while, I imagine ." Superbike riders co ntracted to Dunlop had lour tires to choose Iro m, two dua l-compound and two single compound in 16.S inch. Straight away o ne of the dual compounds w as ruled out with mos t everyone agreeing on the race tire . " I th ink they'll all use the same," Dunlo p's Jim Alle n said . There w ere three single compound fron ts. Both Du nlop and Miche lin had tested here in the past several w ee ks. but there was not enough reaction time to prod uce new tires. "We had to lay do wn specs before the test," Allen said . " Fo rt unately, we've been pretty close ." In Superstock there were t he same two dual compound rears in 17 inch. Formula Xtreme riders had th ree viable rears and th ree viable fronts . "Th e y' re no t qu ite as hard o n tires ," Allen said. One of t he favori te s was the med ium to hard, w hich HMC Ducat i Milwaukee 's Do ug Ch andler favored . Kawasak i's Roger Lee Hayden w as irat e w ith wh at he co nside red a silly move by Yamaha's Jaso n DiSalvo in the Supersport race . Entering the tum fo ur ca ro usel, Hayde n said DiSalvo punted him into the haybales . "Th e re was no way he co uld make th e comer. He hit me . I guess he 's got one coming." Roger Lee had his chance to exact revenge in the same cor ner on the fourth lap of the Superstoc k race, but he didn't ta ke it. No t tha t he wasn't th inking about it. "I definitely didn't ta ke it, but w hat he d id today was defin itely a little aggressive, and I'm true to my word. He still has o ne co m ing." Ame rican Honda' s Ben Bostrom wasn't ab le to jo in in his brothe r 's ce lebration immediately, the pain fro m his bac k spasms confi ning him to his tra iler. It was a se t bac k fo r a ride r w ho his brot her had pr ed icted m ight win his first race of t he year. "The lunn y th ing is w he n w e came he re , Eric [Bost ro m] says 'Yo u or Jake [Zemke], o ne of the two of yo u are going to w in th is t hing.' Just Iro m testing times . He didn't eve n co unt himself in." American Honda's Migu el Du h amel was as angry as anyone had eve r seen him at the e nd of the Superbike press conference. The target of his anger was the ride r he knew as "the orange bike - the 18 7." Cory De nto n West got in his way for the second week in a row, Duhamel said, and something needs to be done. "Tod ay. I come in and make a very assertive move on t he inside so he knows who I am on the inside , and he leans on me. There's no e xcuse fo r doing that. That's the stupidest thing you can do . You're a lap down. Know your place and get off the line. I'm racing here - I'm trying to get the championship. I hate to sound this mean, but this is the second t ime the orange bike , the 187, t hat he 's done this. And that's baloney. The blue flags are out there. You're a lap down , move ove r." Duhame l believes the AMA should loo k into it. "The AMA needs to go over there. You saw it, they saw it, they need to address that guy and make sure he understands t hat' s what he needs to do , especially when you're alone. Twice now, all by himse lf and he does it." -------------------------------------- ~m~~m~ o o o Na me Add res s C ity _______ _ _ _ _________ 5 ,.,. Z ip _ _ Pho ne _ _ _ _ _ _ __ _ _ _ _ _ _ Orde r Date _ Send to:~ Inc. I~O . Bo x S08-t COSLl M I.. . 'Sil o o CA 9 2628-5084 YES I Sta rt my subscrip tion im medtetcly 10 Cycle Ne ws . 1 }' l-'.ul 50 issu\~ fu r S45.ftl. 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