Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

:Briefly... : , 3.503 seconds with Zemke another nine back. "When you're leading , you don't want to push too hand, and then maybe have a tire problem," Duhamel said . "Yo u never know. It was on my m ind because when I took off, the tire was reacting quite a bit diffe rent than it's been doing all weekend. I was aggressive but trying to be smooth because I didn't know what to expect when the race w o und down. But, yeah, I was definitely watching my pit board . Plus one was a lot more refreshing to see than plus zero." Zemke overshot tum five on the I I th lap when his brakes failed. That gave Mladin a gift second. "[Duhamel] got away from me there a little bit, and in doing so, the only time I was re ally making on him was on the brakes going in, and eventually they just couldn't handle it any more," Zemke said . "I just missed tum five there a little bit and had to tum around and pass Eric [Bostrom] and Ben [Bostrom] back, and that was about it." Mladin knew coming in that this year's emasculated Yoshimura Suzuki GSXR I()()() wouldn't have the acceleration or top speed of the newer Hondas. It works well , but the bike needs comers. Road America has 12 of them, but they're connected by three very long straightaways. "M y time you don't have "speed" or acceleration, you 've got to make it up somewhere, so that's getting on the gas earlier or hander or working the front tire and or brakes harder," Mladin said. "There's nothing I can do. That's it. That's all I could do. That's where we finished . I was using the curbing; I was using every bit of the racetrack. I remember once I was sideways on the curbing. I got out of it, straightened it up, and I got back on it, and I was sideways aga in. That's it. Nothing you can do. When you're racing a streetbike , you 're racing a streetbike." Sunday's ra ce unfolded differently, Zemke in fron t and running away from Eric Bostrom and Ben Bostrom. The race was stopped on the fifth lap whe n Empi re Racing's Lee Acree blew an engine, taking three others out with him. From the beginning of the restart, Zemke knew th is wouldn't be his first win . There was a problem Straight away from the restart that rattled him . Asked what it prevented him from doing, he said , ''A lot of things , concentrating on what I'm supposed to be doing, wh ich is rid ing." He said he thought about pulling in front the second lap on . "Th e bike was not right." Zemke wouldn't say what the problem was, but others said he was having trouble w ith his rear tire . A rear tire vibration would certainly be sufficie nt cause to pull in. "Th e red flag hurt us quite badly, no t just in the time difference , but after we came back in afte r that res tart, w e had a pre tty serious problem w ith ou r bike, an d it keptit progressively kept getting w o rse and worse as the race wore on," Zemke said. "I'm actually happy to just be sitting here, to te llyou the truth. I was aetua11y scared to be o ut there. I thought about pulling in many times. I stayed out there and luckily came home and got some points, and we'll move on to Brainerd." Even with his problems, he led every lap Eric Bostrom leads Mat Mladin, Ben Bostrom and Miguel Duhamel during one of the two Superbike races. , On Tuesday, Scott Greenwood was d riving home fro m a successful Form ula USA race weekend at Summit Point, West Virginia, when he go t word that Corona Extra EBSCO Med ia Suzuki was loo king for a rider. Gr ee nwood made the call to Tim Saunde rs, who returned it a day later. By Wednesday night they had a deal, and at 6 a.m. on Th ursday morning Gree nwood flew out of Manchester, New Ham psh ire , heading for Milwaukee. He anrived in time for part of Thursday's pro mo ter practice. When he ro lled the Co ro na Extra Suzuki GSX-RI000 o ut o nto the four-mile Road America circuit for Repsol Superstock prac tice, it was the first time he'd raced a 1000 or ridden a Superbike . There were adjustments to be made, most notably in corner speed - less in the midd le, more o n the exit. But overall, Greenwood was happy to be here, and Co ro na was happy to have him. The seat . as teammate to Australian Ben Attard, became available when the team had co ntractual pro blems wit h Christ ian Piston i. Pisto ni's management had agreed to certain financial obligations over various areas of expe nditure which hadn't bee n met , acco rding to Saunders. "They we re given a deadline th is past week, and they haven't done it," he said, ad ding, "but they have n't said they 're not going to do it." Saunders said that if Pistoni's resu lts had been bener, they might have reco nsidered . "If he was runn ing up front and dicing fo r top fIVe, top-1 0 finishes, it would've been different ." he said. As it was, Piston i finished 25th at Bar be r Motorsports Park . Word got out early in the week that th e team was looki ng for a rider, and that wo rd made its way to Greenwood, now driving north afte r winning Form ula Sportbike and ta king thir d in Sportbike at Summit Point. There we re a few conflicts to be resolved in the Greenwood/Corona deal - Gr eenwood wears Vanson leathers; Corona's deal is with Joe Rocket , and Gree nwood has a Penske shock; Coro na uses Ohlins - but Vanso n and Penske agreed to allow Greenwood to use th e rival products for w hat is esse ntially a one-race dea l as the next AMA round con flicts w ith F-USA's meeting at Virginia International Raceway. Greenwood has a deal for the followi ng round, at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca . There he' s gening help fro m Hotbodiesracing,com , th e co mpany w hose bod ywork he uses . Hotbodiesracing.co m is backing 10 privatee rs who use its product at Laguna Seca . "It's definitely a lot different ," Gr ee nwood said of the 1000. "It' s an eye-open ing experi ence: ' Having co mpe ted in the F-USA meet here in April, Greenwood knew wh at to expect on a 600 o r 7S0, 2:26s and 2:25s. He en ded the first official practice sess ion w ith a time of 2;20.6 74, much faster than he'd ever been around Road America. "O n the big-bore bike, the rear tire wants to skip." Greenwood said. "O n a 600, you're fast midcorne r; On the 1000, going fast midcorner upsets the chassis. Y u have to o slow yourse lf dow n and drive off har d." Ther e were adjustments being made almost every time out. with Greenwood saying that , mo re than anyth ing, he needed Continued on page 15 www.cyclenews.com CYCLE NEWS • JUNE 16,2004 13

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