Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
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On Sunday, Mladin won again, the Australian celebrating win number eight. Briefly..• MATMLADIN CLOSES IN ON A FIFTHAMA SUPERBIKE TITLE By HENNY RAy ABRAMS PHOTOS BY BRIAN J. NELSON AND TOM RILES at Mlad in shatte red the Road Atlanta lap rec o rd in qualif ying. This was not a good thin g for hi s few remaini ng title rivals. The Yoshim ura Suzuki GSX-R I000 had always handled well, and it had pow er to match . It was , in his words , the best 1000 he 'd eve r ridde n. O n display in both races, the bike and ride r sho ne . Mladin w on bo th races and e dged closer to an unp recede nted fifth Sup e rb ike AMA C hevro let C hampio nship. With o nly t he twin race s remaining at Virginia Inte rnationa l Raceway two weeks from now, Mladin has a comfortable lead on Jake Zemke , the Erion Hon da rider wh o struggled w ith M grip to a pair of fourt hs this weeke nd. "We've got 42 points no w," Mladin said of his cham pionshi p lead . "I'd be surprised now if I raced as hard as I've bee n racing th is weeke nd." Th e to p four spots w e re t he same in both races : Mladin, American Hon da's Miguel Duham el and Ben Bost rom, t he n Ze mk e . The margins differed, as did the quality of the races, but the order was co nsistant . As was Mladin. The majo r difference w as power. Since being outpowered by the new Honda CBR IOOORRs in both races at Road America in June, Suzuki, bot h here and in Japan, has worked hard to up the pow er. It paid off. Th ough Roa d Atlanta isn't a high-horsepower track, it does have two long straights and a few slow e r co rn ers where acce lerati on is paramount. Mladin had a few favorite passing zon es . O ne was on the exit of turn five, the to p of the hill The first race came down to Mdt Mladin (1) vs. Mi\luel Duhamel. In the end, It was Mladin taking the win • hi. seventh win of the year. out of the esses. The other was in the lean -in turn-nine back-strai ght kink. The second race was t he faster o f the two, w ith new re cords set for average speed and time of race. The first race was re d-flagged on the seventh of 25 laps and ru n in two parts. O nly the final 19 laps counted, though the first six dete rmined the grid for the final. With three laps to go , Mladin had near ly two sec o nds on Duh amel, t hen 1.5 th e next lap and 1.21 7 as t he y swept past the whit e flag. In the final se t of corners, Mladin ran into a trio of lapp e rs and forced his wa y t hrough to gra b the win. Duhamel came up a few lappers short, the margin .400 of a second. "I made sure [Duham el] was going to have to come around the o utside if he was going to have to go anywhere, and it's a long wa y to go ," Mladin said . '~nd when you 've got a bunch of lappers out there, it makes it pretty har d." On the cool-down lap, there was an exchange of gestures between the two leaders. The con frontati o n continued into the winner's circle (see Briefly...). "It was a tough race, that's all I can say," Mladin said. '/\gain, Suzuki has been working hard and my guys have been working hard, and they gave me a motorcycle today t hat made it po ssible to w in. A few mo nths ago, I don 't kno w if t his would've been possi ble to win, because t he bike 's a lot better now." Mladin had gotten throug h traffic bette r all race , most impo rt antly at the e nd. "Lapped traffic was a littl e bit not going my way," Du ham el said. "Mat did it. He got those guys. At the en d, again I had another outside chance co ming int o th e chicane . I went w ide , hopi ng t hat maybe the y' d see the blue flag and they'd go in tight , because he was going in t ight. That didn't work out. Didn't wa nt to do nothing to o crazy by passing him dow n t he hill, because it was to o tight anyway." Bostrom took third fro m Zemke three laps from the end and the n held him off by 1.3 seconds. There was so me quest ion about whether Ho nda w ou ld as k Bostrom to pull over an d let Zemke take third , and the two ext ra champi onship points . It didn't happen. "Jake was struggling," Bostrom said. 'About halfway through, I noticed he really started sliding around . It looked pretty cool following him, actually. But he wasn't going anywhere, so I fe lt a bit bad for him. He kept pushing and he was just right www.cyclenEWs .com American Honda's Chuck Miller scotched the rumor that Honda would pull out of the Formula Xtreme class in 2005, while also statingthat the team would take part in the Daytona 200, regardless of which class "Mr. France" decided to run. "We've never given that indication," Miller said of drop ping out of the FX class. "We've got our plan. Ifhe (Miguel Duhamel] gets that number-one plate [which he did on Saturday afternoon], we'll be in Formula Xtreme with Miguel." Miller said the team probably wouldn't announce which classes it would contest in 200S untilafter the end of the season, but he did stress that Superbike and Formula Xtreme gave American Honda the best opportunities to showcase the tech nical stre ngths of the machines and the crew. The current plan, subject to change, is to remain in the classes in which they 're participatingthis year, Superbike and Formula Xtreme. Rider choices haven't been made, pending budgetary decisions and rider availability. "Our goal - we' d like to keep It at the same level," he said. There Isalso the possibility that American Honda may support teams in the Superspo rt and Superstock classes. What he' d like to see is for all the major factories to participate in the premier Superbike class. "We have to have everybody in Superbike to grow the sport ," he said. "This is about strengthening our series, our sport." Miller said that, regardless of the class, Honda would be on the grid for the Daytona 200. "We' ll be at the Daytona 200. IfMr. France changes to the Daytona 200, we'll run Supersport, Superbike, Formula Xtreme ," he said. "Whatever we need to do." Miller challenged the assertion that Honda had a one-year head start by contesting this year's FX series. "This engine is not going to make the Daytona 200," Miller said, adding that it would have to be detuned. He also said that the chassis hadn't changed much over the course of the year. Another rumor he wanted to squash was that the team had gotten extensive help from Honda Racing Corporation inJapan. "This thing has been built in the U.S. by our mechanics," he said, naming Duhamel's longtime crew chief AI Ludington, and mechanics Jason Lubben [chassis] and Trevor Weiler [engine]. Following his tltle- clinchingwin, Duhamel said, "AI [LUdington] was, like, highly motivated to win t hat. He too k it 100-percent serious. He got in there . We started testing early. It's great to see it payoff." Erion Honda's Jake Zemke wouldn't commit to coming back to the Formula Xtreme class, for the simple reason that he doesn't know where he'll be racing. But his answers suggested he was less than enthusiasticabout the smaller bikes. "It's possible," he said of returning. "Iguess I've got to figureout who I'm ridingfor first. If the opportunity presented itself it's a possibili, ty. I definitelywouldn't rule it out. Uke Miguel [Duhamel] was saying. ifyou're the only factory guy in the class, I don't think it would be very valid. But at least if you got two guys in there and you have to race; like Continued on page 35 CYCLE NEWS • SEPTEMBER 15,2004 33