Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

Repsol Superstock RED o urs after the comp let ion of the red-flagshortened Repsol Superstock race , AMA Pro Racing issued the following statement: "During the Repsol Superstock race , a red flag was mistaken ly shown. O n lap 13, race control was made aware of the situation and displayed the official red fl ag to end the race. " Though the race was less than 80-perce nt co mplete, the AMA has the discreti on to call the race if it' s more than 50-percent complete. The cause of the red flag was an exp loding rear tire on the 12th lap. Graves MotorsportS Yamaha'sJamie Hacking had his rear Dunlop come apart on the lone long stra ightaway past the turn-five kink. The corner marshal at the spot threw the flago n his own . No other red flags were shown at the time. It would take some time for the AMA to make a decision to call the race . When the confusion cleared, the race winner was Hacking's teammate Jason DiSalvo, the New Yorker finishing just in front of Yoshimura Suzuki's Ben Spies, with Kawasaki's Roger Lee Hayden a close third . "I didn't feel like it was a good call, because the race was only 60-percent," Roger Lee said. "Their excuse is their discretion. Everything in the rule book is at their discretion. So it's kind of sad we 've got a Pro series and they can just make up the rules as they go . It shou ld be set, and they should H 24 AUGUST 4,2004 • CYCLE NEWS 40th Anniversa ry run by them. " The champion ship contenders didn't figure in the outcome. Hacking's catastrophic tire failure caused a top-of-fif thgear crash . Still recovering from a recently broken right collarbone, Hacking thought he might have bent the newly installed plate. The one piece of good news is that he was credited w ith II th place and was able to maintain his championship lead. "I was riding the pace I could ride that was all I could do," Hacking said. Dunlop's Jim Allen said: "We don't know what happened. Obviously there , was a tire failure." Allen said the tire was a standard 640 rear, the same tire Hacking used at Brainerd Internat ional Raceway. Dunlop engineer Mark Sears was taking it as hand luggage back to the company 's headquarters in Birmingham, England, o n Monday evening. An analysis would be made as quickly as possible, and Dunlop wou ld rep ort to Yamaha and the other teams . With two ro unds remaining, Hacking has three points (263-260) on teammate Aaron Gobert, who was fourth today afte r the initial confusion of the first red flag. When it was thrown, Gobert sat up and slowed down , soon to be passed . When the next flagstatio n wasn't showing red , he sped up, but he was off his rhythm and about to lose another position. With sco ring reverting, he was put back in fourth , wher e he felt he belonged. "The flag marshal pulled every flag out he had," Gobert said. "He put the debris , the yellow, and the red . So I saw the red flag; it means you stop. So I stopped." Gobert took championship third from Tommy Hayden, who was IOth with a balky transmission. O nly one point sepa rates him from Gobert. DiSalvo moved to within str iking distance , at 248. DiSalvo was third off the start , with Spies in front of Aaron Gobert. By lap three, it was DiSalvo chasing Spies, who defe nded his position until the seventh lap, when DiS alvo went up the inside in the right at the end of the back straight. The order didn't change until lap 13. Then Hayden made his way into second and went after DiSalvo. The re was time to make a move when the race was red flagged as they were about to end lap 14, Hacking having crashed on lap 12. DiSalvo said he saw the flagger in turn five holding numerous flags. "He wasn't quite sure what to throw," DiSalvo said. "He had a debris flag, a yellow flag, a blue flag. He had a checkered flag. And then the red flag, too." Later, he added: "He probably had the Canadian flag out there." Having seen what had happened to Hacking. DiSalvo wanted to be in front if

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