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AMA Chevrolet U.S. Superbike Series
Zemke Again!
Jake Zemke is starting to get the hang of this
qualifyingthing.
Fitting a qualifyingtire and doing one flying
lap is something that takes some getting used
to. That's why guys like Mat Mladin regularly
end up on pole position . But Zemke is apparently getting comfortable with it: The Erion
Honcia rider earned his third pole position in
the last fove races , this one coming at the MidOhio Sports Car Course.
And after suffering through a miserable
round at Laguna Seca, Zemke needed every
championship point he could find - so he went
out and earned the point the AHA gives for
pole position. In the process, he broke
Mladin's 3-year-old lap record, his 1:26.376
coming late in the Saturday morning session
prior to Saturday's first of two Superbike
Nationals. The point was his 373rd of the
year, and heading into Saturday's race he was
18 behind Mladin and eight behind Miguel
Duhamel. Hey, any little bit helps.
Zemke hadn't been overly impressive in provisional qualifyingon Friday, but some changes
to the bike put him in a completely different frame of mind on Saturday.
"Cred it goes to the tearn , really, because the bike is a lot better than it was yesterday, even
on race tires ," Zemke said. "I mean , 27.1 [I :27. 1] on race tires is pretty good, considering I
qualified 26.9 on a Q [qualifyingtire] yesterday. The bike is definitely doing what I need it to do
now. We stuck a Q on there and everything went well. There weren't a whole lot of guys out
there, so that wasn't an issue. We just got a nice, clean lap. The thing is just better overall. It's
turning better, which was a big issue yesterday. I just couldn't get it to tum and get it to go
where I needed to go . Today, it's definitely improved in that area. I think we 'll be really good in
the race ."
Although he couldn't go quicker than he did on Friday, provisional pole sitter Duhamel still
ended up second on the front row by virtue of the 1:26.516 he recorded on Friday.
"We're stilltrying stuff to try and make the bike a little bit better," a subdued Duhamel said.
"It' s a pretty short session . At the end there, when I did 26.6, I was still reeling from the last
setup we tried . It wasn't as comfortable, and I was just being a little bit cautious . I'm happy that
Jake got pole and not Mat [Mladin]. The bike is pretty good, and it' s just getting a good start and
going out and racing. Hopefully, lapped traffk woo't mess up the race too badly. Everyboclywill
face the same thing, and that doesn't make it right, but hopefully it willwork out for me ."
Yoshimura Suzuki's Mladin, meanwhile, posted a I:26.556 on Saturday to earn the third quickest time .
"We' re pretty confident with this afternoon," Mladin said. "Things went pretty good for us
th is morning , so we're looking forward to getting out there for 28 laps and seeing what happens . The bike is okay."
Mladin, though , was balked by traffic - one of the balkers being Duhamel (see Briefly...), the
other was one of usual suspects: a privateer.
"We tried a few fronts in that session ," Mladin said. "I just went back to a front that I
knew was a bit more grippy - or I felt was a bit more grippy. I just proceeded to get
held up in qualifying Again, I don 't want to complain about Iappers and such. They are
.
riding around on their race tires , they do Superstock, they do Superbike, and with
five minutes to go they can't get off the racetrack for the guys who have Qs . 1
don't know what they are thinking - that they are going to improve their time
that much more in those last couple of laps on a race tire with 20 laps on it.
I'm not sure. I just think it would be good etiquette to get off the racetrack
just to give the factory guys who are racing for the championship a chance at
doing something."
American Honda's Ben Bostrom was fourth with his I:26.660, and he also
complained about getting held up, though not as vehemently as Mladin.
"We didn't get anygood luck," Bostrom said. "We got stuck in traffic, so I missed the
Q lapand I just carne in. The last Q we had left was just a hard Q, and I think I was just too
damn slow on the first stint because I didn't know if we had enough grip. We got a little confident and started flying through the last part, and we set a really fast split through the middle
split, but I caught a lapper in the second-to-last corner. The race setup is awesome. The bike
really should have been fighting for pole pos ition, but Iwas just too slow in the first split and
caught that guy in the last split. I came in and Iwas smiling. We 're on the front row, and our race
setup is so good. "
Five riders were able to circulate in the I:26-range head ing into the first of two AHA Superbike Nationals , the fifth being Yoshimura Suzuki's Aaron Yates, the Georgian lapping at
I:26.965. The first of the non -I :26 runners was Attac k Kawasaki'sJosh Hayes , with his
1:27.247.
Ducati Austin's Eric Bostrom crashed late in the finalsession in the Keyhole corner, and the
Californian ended up seventh. He and Larry Pegram would complete the second row.
22
AUGUST 4, 2004 • CYCLE NEWS
on th e ground. It was
just really unfortunate
that happened. It didn't give me any signs ,
so that's why I'm kind
of still on the fence. I
don't know what really happened. We've
got four races to go,
and we'll go tackle
those like we've got
nothing to lose."
As it turned out,
Duhamel was correct: The bike had
suffered a mechanical
failure, according to the team (see Briefly...)
With Duhamel out, Mladin could play it safe ,
knowing that the two Hondas had "kicked
his butt" on this day.
"First and a third, so we got more points
than anybody else over the weekend, so
that's nice," Mladin said . "Third place isn't
what we wanted, but third place is all we
had today. Things just didn't feel right, right
from the start. I couldn't get into a groove.
I'm not too sure what was going on. But
even if things went the same as yesterday, I
think Jake's pace was going to be too much
for us. I wasn't keeping up with Jake today.
He took off. I tried hard to keep up with
Ben . When I seen Miguel was in a bit of d ifficulty, Ben was stretching me by a couple of
tenths a lap . I decided that that was enough.
I wasn't feeling comfortable. I Seen Migue l
was in some difficulty. I see he was back
about m inus four for a long time, and I
thought, 'Something's going on.' Thing's
not happening for him , so I decided that
instead of pushing hard to stay close and
maybe corne in second, which probably
wouldn't have happened today anyway. I
just let third place come my way today.
These guys just had too much today. I had
nothing for them."
Nobiodly had anything for Zemke, the
Erion rider taking the second AMA
Superbike win of his career.
"It worked out pretty good,"
Zemke understated. " I got a
really good start today, and
that was definitely an
improvement over yesterday, and the bike
40th Arlr'lV
,.. . ,e>;. ...
was
working
really, really well today. Yesterday, I chose
the wrong front tire, and the thing just
shredded to pieces. We had no hope but to
just bring the thing home. The guys actually
gave me a better bike today than I had than
yesterday. Hats off to my crew; they've
been working hard. All weekend long, even
though I did get on pole, I haven't been real
happy with the setup. Kind of been struggling to get around the racetrack. It would
be okay for a couple of laps, but the long
d istance wasn't possible. Today the bike was
really good all the way through - so hats off
to the guys."
Zemke was so dominant, Ben Bostrom
was barely noticed in second place, the factory Honda rider circulating alone, unable to
match Zemke on the day.
"Jake was flying, and he gapped us out,"
Ben said. " I knew Mat was trailing me there.
I didn't know where Miguel was, but I knew
Mat was smart and was going to play it safe
for the championship. So I just continued
my pace to haul down Jake, but he was
going too fast. My bike was awesome all day
long . I thought we could go quicker, and I
kept pushing; we couldn't go any quicker. So
then I had to settle for that lap time and
keep going. The lappers weren't so bad
today; yesterday they were awful. So we
just cruised around. We ended up second.
It's nice to be on the podium again. "
Ben coasted across the finish line, making
certain that his teammate Duhamel wasn't
behind him . When he saw Mladin's big # I
coming around the final comer, he crossed
the line with second place.
Yates was fourth, right on his teammate's
tailpipes, playing Jose Azevedo to his team's
Lance Armstrong.
The best of the rest over the course
of the weekend was Attack Kawaski's
Josh Hayes with h is 6-5 tally (see My
Own Race).
Zemke's Sunday
Superbike win was
the secand this sea'
son and the second
of his career. He
now sits 21 points
behind Mladin, who
leads the standings,
257·236.
sar
eN
MJo-OHIO 5PORTS CAR COURSI
UxINGTON, OHIo
REsws: JUlY 24-25, 2004
(ROUND 13·14)
SUPERBIKf QUAUFYlNG, I. jake Zem