Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

AMA Chevrolet Superbike Championship Jake Zemke wan his first-ever AMA Superbike National at BIR, the same place he'd won his first Formula Xtreme and 600cc Supersport races. Zemke Eiet§ It! It was never going to be easy to match Mat Mladin's three-year-old BIR track record . The track surface continues to degrade . Unpredictable winds in the fast comers and turns one and two, caused anxiety. And there simplywasn't enough time. Final qualifying was a 3D-minute session on Saturday, the only time the Superbike riders we re on track all day. Bike setup had to be perfect going in because the re was little you could do about it. There w as time to make a final decision on a race tire, but endurance sen the wrong rim size, 6 inch instead of 6.2S. Steering was better, but there was no acceleration grip. "I cou ld put it anywhere, but I cou ldn't get off any co rners," Ben Bostro m said. "It was hard to get off t urn two, and the last corner I was just getting pulled real bad ." Eric was having his own pr o blems w ith both tires and lappers. The fro nt was fine : He 'd chosen it during a recent two-day test at Michelin HQ in France. But t he balance still was n't right . "The bike, right now, we've got a rearentry grip issue really bad e ntering t he turns," he said. "T he thing just always t he back is trying to pass the fro nt . And it just seems like we just have n't nailed it." Two laps from the finish Mlad in dropped a second back, o ut of the draft, out of touch. "I got stuck in that traffic with a couple to go and fe ll back a sec ond and a half," he said . "O nce I los t the little bit of wind that I was getting o n the straight . I couldn't do it after that ." Then it was betwee n t he Hondas. Zemke's first thrust was on the ou tside of turn one. Duhamel held him off but was trying so hard in turn two that he ran off the edge of the track. "Turn two I just carried a little too much speed and went a little wide, a bit w ider than I thought, " Duham e l said. "Just sliding a bit and Jake jumped on the chance and passed ." 22 JULY 7, 2004 • CYCLE NEWS Duhame l fell in be hind and made his next move coming out of turn nine, the bus stop. By then the rain was steady, and the track was wet. Zemke spun up his tire, and Duhamel said he pulled just in fro nt of Zemke. " I got in front of Jake , and going through the corner, I just ro lled off, and he w e nt for it," Du hamel said of the final corner. By now there were bikes skittling off the track and a corner worker running o nto the track t o save them and wav ing flags in var io us co lors . "T hat was real ly scary," Zemke said. "It's bad e nough when we're racing and it starts raining like that and you're d o ing all you can just to keep it o n two wheels. And the n you see someone ru nning across the racetrack w ho looks back at you . I'm not sure if it was a guy o r a girl - I th ink it was a girl. Both of her eyeballs were bigger than her head. What are you go ing to do in that situation? O t her than that, I'm just happy to be sitting right here." If Zemke had passed under waving yellow flags, Duham el, as his teammate, wasn't going to mention it, and no one e lse did. "Jake rode a great race, and so did Mat," he said. "We just rode really hard everybod y. For me it sure was a heartbreaker to lose the race, but to lose it to Jake, I don't know that there's a guy that's more deserving in the paddock because he 's come close eN in a lot of heartbreakers." couldn't be tested. And the rest of the time would be devoted to qualifying tires. Erion Honda's Jake Zemke had less time than most. Earlyin the session he came together with Larry Pegram in the final corner. It was a low-speed incident, and there were no injuries. But the bike was too damaged to continue, and precious time was lost. "Igot up and went over, and he was okay and I was okay, and that was the main thing, and that was good," Zemke said. "But it kind of ruined the whole session for me." Backin the pits he threw on a qualifierand we nt straight out. The first one got his mind up to speed . The second one got him the pole. "I think the second lap wou ld've been better if the 'Q' could've held on a few more extra corners," he said. "I got an awesome run through one on that last lap, and got through the infield, but I could already start to feel, by turn three, I could already start to feel the rear starting to go on me a litt le bit. So I was kind of in doubt t hat the tire would make it all the way to the finish." It did, with just over 30 seconds left in the session, and his time was I:35.655, off the 1:35.320 Mladin turned in 2001 on SuzukiGSX·R750. On his qualifying run, Mladin had backmarker problems , which he expressed repeatedly and colorfullywhen he returned to his pits. "I don't comp lainabout them that often, but I'm getting tired of some of these guys that have been around a long time that refuse to look over their shoulder to give the fast guys on qualifiersa chance to get a lap in," he said after clockinghis 1:35.67 1. There were overnight changes that improved the YoshimuraSuzuki GSX-RI000 and a fresh engine that helped with top speed . "The Honda's running about 193 [mph)," he said. "This morning we were running about 189. So it's about a four mile an hour difference." Unlike Road America, which has three sixth-gear straights, there's only one at BIR, so Mladin felt he'd be in the race . "This racetrack's a bit different. We can keep it flowinghere, and we 're in the race." American Honda's Miguel Duhamel held the overnight provisional pole, but he had little chance of keeping it. A dying alternator meant he could only match his race tire times on a qualifier . "Igot low 36s out of the race tire ," he said. "But even when I went out , the bike felt flat, and I tho ught maybe they changed something in it. At the end it was a dead giveaway when I hit the starter to start the bike and it didn't start ." There were pro blems with the front end , which he hoped to cure in Sunday morning's warm -up. " W e still got some tuning and dialing to do on the bike , and we 've got one more sess ion tomorrow to get it to the point where I'd be really happy," Duhamel said. "It's going to be a tough race fo r sure ." The lone consolation at missing out on the qualifying point was that Mladin didn't get it either. " If Mat [Mladin) would've got it, that would've hurt more : ' he said. At the end of the front row was American Honda's Ben Bostrom . Bostrom recently began working with the Carmichael TrainingSystems, the same group that works with Duhamel, that has worked with Mladin, and also works with Tour de France winner lance Armstrong. Bostrom's focus seems more acute , and his confidence is on the rise. Whether it will trans late to a race win remains to be seen , but his qualifying posture was optimistic. "We did a qualifying tire , and the time came pretty easy, and I couldn't wait to put on the next one : ' he said. ';.\nd when I came in, I didn't have enough time to go back out, but it's the first time in a few years that I can honestly say, 'Wow, we should actually be on pole.' Before it was just a gamble. I didn't know. And I told Merlyn [Plumlee, his crew chief], I came in kind of apologetically, we would've been on pole if I wouldn't have wasted one of my laps just cruising aro und. It's coming together." It's come toget her for Attack Kawasaki's Josh Hayes. Hayes' ZX IORR was near the top of qualifying allweekend long, culminating in a fifth-Iastest starting position, one spot better than he'd been in the three previous races . Then came Ducati Austin's Eric Bostrom, just back from a two -day test at Michelin's track in Clermont -Ferrand , France. There was a breakthrough in front -tire adhesion that didn't quite translate to lap times at BIR. "I though t I'd go faster: ' Eric Bostrom said. "I think it's just something in the way the chassis and I are working together or working against each other, I shou ld say. Every time I try to add speed into the bike, I end up kind of going backwards. I need to get that sorted out ." 40th Anniversary

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