Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

me point after the checkered flag was thrown, a red flag was displayed. Should scoring revert to the previous lap? Not according to the rule book , which says that the race is over when the winner sees the checkered flag. But it's not that simple, and with red flags waving at every corner, scoring would be a craps hoot. "Number 78 [23rd-place finisher David Bell] was the first rider to take the checkered flag, and from him back, including him, the order didn't change from lap 20 to 21," AMA road race manager Ron Barrick said. "Whether we reverted back a lap for all those that took the red or not, they were all in the same position." Arrack Kawasaki's josh Hayes had the resurgent ZX-IOR at the front for a lap before the pace took its toll. He finished a secure sixth. After several near misses, jake Zemke breaks through at Brainerd By HENNY RAy ABRAMS PHOTOS BY BRIAN J. NELSON he AMA Chevrolet Superbike race at Brainerd International Raceway will be long remembered as much for the controversial finish as for jake Zemke's breakthrough first win. The end of the 2 1-lap, 63-mile race was marked by rain followed by crashing, T chaos, and a corner worker running onto a live track . The consensus of the riders was that the race went on a lap too long, that the track was unsafe. "Seco nd [to] last lap it was already getting a bit, and then the last lap the track was wet. So poor officiating again by the AMA," Yoshimura Suzuki's Mat Mladin said after finishing third. Zemke won over American Honda 's Miguel Duhamel in a wild finish. The Erion Honda rider took the lead from Duhamel in turn two on the final lap and held it through the bus stop turn nine. Spinning up his rear tire for the short run to the final corner, Zemke gave Duhamel a chance to pull even , or ahead , according to Duhamel. Then they were on turn 10, 20 JULY 7, 2004 • CYCLE NEWS and there was a comer worker on the track, her eyes the size of saucers when she saw Zemke and Duhamel coming. -..,... . Zemke said. She was running onto the track because two riders had just crashed in the wet final corner, Duhamel's friend and fellow Las Vegan, jack Pfeifer, and Minnesotan Greg Fa~er,rJI!:lh!!ie~axllllilllllllili• • • . ing yellows and possibly other flags . But mostly confusion. And through it all Duhamel followed at 1.195 seconds with Zemke scooted by, and Duhamel nearly Mladin just behind, his Suzuki GSX-R I000 crashed. unable to match the Hondas on accelera'" was going one mph, and I almost tion down the long front straight. highsided," Duhamel said. "We were competitive from entering So it was Zemke celebrating with his turn one to just exiting the bus stop, and first victory on the same track where he'd the rest of the track we weren't competwon his first Formula Xtreme race and his itive," Mladin said. first 600cc Supersport race . Fourth went to Eric Bostrom, the "I think I might need to quit racing pro Ducati Austin rider still search ing for the and come here and race club races ," perfect balance on the F04. Zemke said with a laugh. "Have a perfect Brother Ben was an encouraging fifth, win streak maybe." having run w ith the leaders despite Ze mke set a new race record average choosing too narrow a rear rim, until trafspeed of I I 1.1 mph . bettering the mark fic three laps from the end dropped him of I I0.894 Aaron Yates set last year. off the back. 40th Anniversary Seventh went to Yoshimura Suzuki's Aaron Yates, who never felt comfortable on his GSX-RI000. Picotte Yamaha's Pascal Picotte was eighth on his RI set up for the horsepower-restricted Parts Canada Superbike Championship. just behind came Uon Racing's jacob Holden and hisSuzuki. He'd raced with Star Motorcycle School's jason Pridmore until the 12th lap when Pridmore retired with what he thought was a broken cam chain. Prieto Racing's Geoff May the top pri, vateer in the championship, finished 10th. Mladin lost a few more champ ionship points and now leads Duhamel by six,

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