Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

358-352, with seven races remaining. Zemke is withi n striking distance at 342. Then Eric Bostrom and Geoff May. Zemke earned $ 34 00 of the $36,000 Chevrolet 5uperbike purse for the win. Duhamel pocketed $28 0 0 and Mladin $2500. From his second pole position of the year, Zemke got the jump and took Hayes, Mladin and Eric Bostrom with him. Hayes led a lap . "Pretty cool, I guess, to lead a lap of the thing," he said, then it was Mladin in front for three laps before Zemke and Duhamel screamed by on the front straight. "He was down on power, and we did take a few stickers off him going down the front straight," Duhamel said. It wouldn't be the las t time. Zemke, D u hame l, and Mladin were up fro nt, Er ic Bo st ro m close behind with Be n Bo stro m edging closer in fifth. My 32 Mat Mladin (I I rade hard an h is Suzuki to stick with the Handa duo, the Australian leading at se vera l paints but unable to stick to the very end when he lo st the Honda draft in traffic, Duhamel took the lead for the first time on lap 10 with a pass going into t he fifth -gear, first turn right-hand kin k. Zemke repassed in the same spo the next lap, then Duhamel again passed, but earlier on the front straight before Mladin took over on lap 13. Mlad in held on until t he 15th lap , when D uh am e l sped by on t he front straight. Now there were five riders at t he OWN RACE Eric Bostrom Ben Bostrom 5th American Honda's Ben Bostrom felt like he was starting his season in Brainerd. Vision problems that have caused problems all year are being resolved, and he 's working with a trainer from the Carmichael Training System, the same outfit that Duhamel and Lance Armstrong work with . His riding was the best it's been all year, but he put himself in a hole from the start. "I think I chose the wrong width rear tire," he said. "I was on a 6-inch rim, and I found out everybody else was on a 6.2S. Maybe I just made a poor mistake. In this case we had a bike that almost steered too good." Once Bostrom caught his brother Eric, he thought he'd cool his tire, "But the longer I was behind them, the harder it was to stay there." Stillthere were promising signs. His entry speed was up, and that would keep him close for the exit . "I see that coming back. Even though I was really angry, I was smiling when I was out there." 41 Josh Hayes 6th Attack Kawasaki's Josh Haye s says the team had nothing special for BIR. but his speed told a different story. Consistently competitive, Hayes managed to lead qualifying and also one lap of the race. " Bike' s rea lly not any differ ent, other than the forks that we used. We were just a little closer right out of the gate. We were pretty close at Elkhart , other than the acceleration you need there for a couple of rea lly lo ng straightaways. Just keep trying little things to pick up what we can . The guys really haven't got much time at the shop to work on it . Just keep trying and hopefully keep getting closer and maybe we'll go to some of these shorter tracks. I don 't know if it's going to hurt us or help us right now. We 're going to work really hard to make it he lp us." fro nt , but not for long. They were already in traffic, and there we re threatening skies overhead. W ithin a few laps Ben Bost ro m wo uld los e to uch with his b ro t her Eric, who was a secure fourth. From t he sta rt , Be n Bost rom realize d he 'd cho- Aaron Yates 7t h "Just struggling, " Yoshimura Suzuki's Aaron Yates said after finishing seventh, nearly eight seconds back of Josh Hayes. "I didn't have a good feeling on the bike . Never really felt hooked up. Never had no grip. Just couldn 't get it go ing." Yates said he felt good dur ing the earlier Supersport race, but the feel on the GSX-R I000 was different. "We had a couple of different setups in the bikes , and we made a combination for the race. Ifwe had 4th Just over a week prior to BIR, Eric Bostrom was at Michelin's test track in France sorting out front tires. The exercise paid off with a new front that he used in Minnesota, but there were still problems that kept him from competing for the lead . "It definitely helped out the balance, but we've still got issues with balance as far as mak ing me comfortable," he said. Then w ith the race Winding down, Bostrom got hung up with lapped riders who "abso lute ly parked in front of me . I had to grab the front brakes in the middle of the corner. I think right there alone I lost three seconds because I don 't know what these guys did, but they just stopped . So then my drive was shot, and I had to follow them down the short chut e through the chicane, and by that time the guys were gone. The last two laps of my race, I was pretty muc h out of it. The rai n didn't really affect me." 155 20 American Honda's Miguel Duhamel increased his win record at BIRwith Saturday's Form ula Xtreme win. Duhame l's won the Superbike race three times (1995, '97, and 2000) ; fIVe times he's won the Supersport race [93, '95, '96 , 200 I, and 2003); with the FX win, that's a total of nine wins. more time, we cou ld've got more dialed in for sure , I think." 21 Pascal Picotte 8th Pascal Picotte was using BIRto get ready for a doubleheader of the Parts Canada Superbike Championship ne xt week in Calgary, Alberta. There were bugs to be worked out, including a slipper clutch that wasn't cons istent. The first few laps were spent beh ind Jason Pridmore, who slowed him down. Free of Pridmore, he lost touch with Yates. "Th en all of a sudden I decided to back off a little bit because there's no way I could gain on him ," he said. "And we were using the slipper clutch , and it wasn't really working properly, and it was locking the rear wheel. It wasn't that good actually. And I was afraid to run out of fuel as well. I kind of backed off the throttle the last few laps to make sure of finishing. We did , and there was two liters left in the gas tank . If I would have kept up with Aaron from the beginning and keep the pace up , probably I would have run out of fuel." 199 Geoff May 10th Prieto Racing's Geoff May was happy to finish 10th. "Everybody did what they could do to get me up to speed and learn the track as quick as possible . We struggled with a setup at the beginning of the weekend; we were just behind. But it all paid off when the race came. We had something for 'em . We ended up running the 17s (17 inch Pirelli tires vs. the 16.S-inch tires he usually runs in the Superbike class); they were great." May was just In front of Millennium Technologies Shawn Higbee until Higbee spun his rear tire on the rim. Then he was alone , finishing unchal lenged and unthreatening. 43 JMon Pridmore DNF Star Motorcycle School's Jason Pridmore had a miserable weekend, start to finish. There was a DNF in Formula Xtreme and an off-track excursion, forced pit stop, and 21st-place finish, in Superstock. The final straw was another DNF, this one in Superbike. Pridmore had run as high as eighth place when he was forced out w ith an engine failure. "I was coming out of tum one, I backshifted to fifth, I was rolling on the throttle in fifth, everything was fine. Right as I got to tum two to do my downshift to fourth, something broke, it just died , so I just coasted to tum four." www.cyclenews.com Duhamel's ex planati o n of safety was unintentionally humorous. "I think that racing, which is what we do , is not like traveling cross country going to like Six Flags or something. Ifit rains or it snows, you just keep going, andyou pee in a cup . You just keep going. You've got to get to Six Flags. For radng, I think, when we establish that you're supposed to stop in the rain, it stops." Jake Zemke's first Superbike win came at Brainerd International Raceway, as had Eric Bostro m's in 1998, and Ben Bostro m's o nly win came here in 1999 - a year afte r Eric's. Conversely, BIR is one o f the few tra cks where Mat Mladin's never won. Pikes Peak Inte rnatio nal Raceway is the other. "The worst schedule yet," is how one crew ch ief described th e sche d ule at BIR It . was yet ano ther new schedule - no two have been th e sam e th is year - wit h a new and unwe lco me , at least for the Superbike class, twist: The only Saturd ay track time was the ir half-hour qu alifyingsessio n, the fast riders out from I I;40- 12: I O. What made the schedule dou bly infuriating was tha t three weeks ago at Road America they were able to accommodate a Supe rbike race on Saturday, as well as sidecars throughout the weekend. Good sense prevailed in the support classes with the Formula Xtreme race moved to Saturday afternoon and the Superstock and Supersport races, both of which ran On Sunday, separated by the lunc h break. Round eight of the AHA C hev ro let Superbike Championship is in two w ee ks' time at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca. But instead o f hea ding hom e , th e team trucks headed east for a first-ev er te st at MidOhio Spo rts Car Course. Th e tes t will be one of the better attended thi s year, with t he fo ur Japanes e companies joined by their sate llite teams, Graves Moto rsports Yamaha and Erion Ho nda, and Ducati Aust in. It's th e first tim e since the January Daytona test t hat t he Dun lop team s will be sharing tr ack time w ith the Michelin-shod Ducat i team. Yamaha's Damon Buckmaster was absent from Brainerd, the Austral ian still recovering from surge ry to his bro ken left scaphoid. Buckmast er originally injured the wrist in a qual ifyingcras h at Barber Motorsports Park. Gr itt ing throu gh t he pain, he rode the Supe rstock race, but he sat out Supersport. A week later, at Pikes Peak International Raceway, he tried to ride but couldn't. Surgery was performed a few days later, and his initial hope was to be rea dy for Brainerd . But on the eve of the event, Yama ha issued a press release putting his return back to Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca two weeks furt her on . "I feel really bad for Yamaha and the fans that I'm missing another race weekend," Buckmaste r said in the statement. "In my four years of racing for Yamaha, I've never missed a race d ue to injury." CYCLE NEWS . JULY 7, 2004 21

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