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D iSalvo cont inued to run se co nd for the
d uration.
" It was kind of a lon ely ra ce, " D iSalvo
said . " I was just tryi ng to rid e around o ut
there an d no t make too many m istakes.
and the n right a t the end there I saw t he
ga p [to thi rd] was up to like three and a half,
fou r seco nds, an d it started getti ng smaller,
so I tried to pick t he pace up a little bit. I
had trouble with t he lappers out t here . It
was like Pikes Pea k. This race d raws so
many riders, and the y were going tooth and
nail all the way ba ck to last posit ion. I
w o rk ed my way through , th ough, and I saw
th e gap kept comi ng down. I thought,
'W o w, Ben really pic ked th e pace up.' Uttle
My
308
did I know Tommy was back
there. If I had, I probably would
have got nervo us. I ke pt my head
down an d kept goi ng ."
Indeed, H ayd e n was able to
deal w ith his proble ms an d m ake
a pass o n Spies into t um two to
take over third on la p 12. He was
3.217 seconds behi nd D iSalvo by
the finish.
The seat came loose in t he
first tu m ," Tom m y Hayden said .
';A.t first I didn't kn ow what it was,
if it was th e who le seat. O ur seat
is kind o f a two -p iece, so I didn't know
what it was, the subframe or what . Once I
OWN RACE
Ben A t t a rd
5th
"I got a good start, and then Tommy 's seat fell off, and I
didn't t hink he'd be going quic k enough with his seat off,"
Attard said. " I went past him , and then it started skipping.
and I had to le t o ff the brakes and then get back on them. I
ran wide, o ff into the dirt, at the Corkscrew. I was aggressive, and that 's the way you've got to be in the 600 class. I
was just riding the wheels o ff that bike . I tore my tires up at
the start, and I knew I had to conserve them. I was just
hanging wit h Rapp and Meiring until fo ur laps to go . Th e n I put my head down and passed
Me iring and caught up to Rapp. He didn't have much midcorner speed, and that's w here I
could make up ground. I got a good run on him somewhere and passed him under brakes
and kept it. It was good. I think I'm doi ng a good job with what I've got, and this was my
first time at Laguna . We haven't tested here, and we've had very minimal track time . To get
fifth is a good resut."
5
Steve Ra p p
6th
But for a missed sh ift, Valvoline Emgo Suzuki's Steve Rapp
might have had fifth place in the bag. "I missed the shift o n
the sec o nd-to-last lap, going into tum three, and that's
where he [Attard) passed me," Rapp said. "Othe r than that it
was pretty good. They passed me under the brakes a few
times, but they would outbrake themselves, and I was able
to pass them again. I didn 't really see anybody unt il I missed
the shift, then Ben passed me. I thi nk there were three guys with me, but I don 't know.
With t he short schedule, we were kind of off a little bit, tires and stuff. Considering I qualified 10th and was running fifth fo r most of the race, co nsidering the circumstances, that's
not bad . It was a decent weekend."
56 Tony Me ir ing
7t h
Despite the problems he had in qualifying (see Briefly) Attack
Kawasak i's Tony Meiring turned out to be as racy as he has
been all season, finishing seventh after a close contest with
Steve Rapp and Be n Attard. "I had a good start on the first
start, and I was right where I wanted to be," Meiring said. "I
was really pumped, and then I went into turn two, and somebody bum ped into so mebody, bu t I was where I wanted to
be . Th e n the red nag came out, and on the restart I didn't get
as good of a start. I got kind o f held up a little bit. I was trying to get by Rapp, but he kept
weaving quite a bit. I couldn't q uite get by him . I was pretty good on t he brakes into two and
into II , and I co uld close the gap , but I just cou ldn't quite get him off the corner. I was happy
to get some time in. The bike was pretty good considering we didn't have a whole lot of
setup. Things were good. my guys did good , and I just want to tell them thanks. "
6
Damon Buck m ast e r I I t h
No surprises that Team Yamaha's Damon Buckmaster could
hardly muster the enthusiasm to talk about his finish. Still
recovering from a broken left wrist, the Australian basically
soldiered around Laguna. running laps in the I:30 range and
netting 10th place for his trouble. " My laps times the whole
race were consistent - con sistently slow," Buckmaster said.
" I had a lot of pressure on my arm, especially in the left
turns, and I couldn't brake any harder than I already was. I'm just hoping another couple
weeks and then we get to Ohio. where it' s all right turns. I really couldn't attack anybody
here. I think probably my only purpose for the remainder of the year is go ing to be to try
and help o ut anybody [teammates) that I can ."
Briefly...
figured out that it was actually just the part
th at I sit o n, I tri ed to get rid of it because it
was sliding around , and it was worse like
t hat. It got wedged o n the side of the bike,
but once I got everything kind of situ a ted, I
was able to ru n some good times. It was
probably the most focused race of the year
fo r nne."
Tommy Hayden's finish put him in a
good position as he seeks his first career
AMA National road race title. He now
lead s Roger Lee, 266-244 in the standings,
with D iSalvo th ird on 207, but To m m y said
he isn't about to start counting on it yet.
"Until I have it sewn up, I'm never going
to feel that good," Hayden said . " It' s nice to
have a little bit of a cushion, but we have
seen with Jamie [Hacking] what can happen
in three races. I'm not going to get super
e xcited by any means. There's a lot racing
to be done. I'm just going to try to keep my
head down. There's a long way to go, and
I'm just going to try to finish up strong."
Sp ies w ent on to finish fourth , some 13
seconds behind the winning Hayden and
three seco nds behind t he third-placed
H ayden. Another 1.017 seconds behind
him came a good battle for the fifth spot
among Valvoline Emgo Suzuki's Steve Rapp ,
Corona Suzuki's Ben Attard and Attack
Kawasaki's Tony Me iring. Attard wound up
w ith the spot, follow ed by Rapp and
Meiring. Michael Barnes, Chris Pe ris and
Jason Perez round ed out the to p 10. eN
MAmA RAawAY LAGUNA 5ECA
MotmRfY, CAuFoRNIA
RlSum : JULY 11 , 2004 (ROUND 8)
PRO HONDA OI LS SlSPY: I. Iloger Lee H.yden
(l<.w); 2. ja>on D;S,No (Y>m); 3. lOnwny f1arden (Kaw); 4.
Ben Sp;es (Son) ; S. Ben Atw-d (S