Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

Round 15/16 AMA S UPERBIKE there behind me , and I was happy to see nothing o n the board, so we could stand on the podium at least." Mladin was more dominant on Sunday, Ben Bostrom led for five laps, and then it was Mladin to the end. "I peeled Ben's stickers off around the outsid e there on that lap," Mladin said. "I just got a really good run and he sort of didn't get his best run out of there." Bostrom said: "When he came around me in five, I said, 'What the hell is that? That's not a line.' I didn't know if he had a berm or what out there." Duhamel took second from Bostrom on the 14th of 2S laps when Bostrom was slowed in consecut ive corn ers by lappers . "The fi rst guy really hurt us, because he loo ked back, he saw Mat [Mladin], swerved out of Mat's way, and I tho ught he was going to actually let us all by, but he came right back in; then he gassed it," Bostro m said. "I don't know if he wanted to see if he could keep up with Mat for a few corners. I was like, 'What the hell are you do ing? Get out of the way.' By the time we got by him, we came up on another guy, and w hen Igot pushed about off the tra ck, Miguel came by. I said, 'We 're in tro uble.' It was just an accumulation of a lot of different lappers - guys that probably shouldn't be on the grid. "We're hanging on to Mat [Mladin] by about a second, maybe a litt le less, then Jason Curtis took Ben [Bost ro m] out to the moo nshine distillery in the back there and he was do ne , and I was watching all this, and it cost me a little bit of time, and I got ot her lapped riders that didn't help," Duhamel said. By the n, Mladin was 1.6S3 seconds in front and pulling away. The lead peaked at 5. 168 at the wh ite flag. Mladin slowed on ~ AMA Chevrolet Superbike Championship Mladin (1) battled with Ben Bostrom (155) for a while in Sunday's race, b the Honda rider didn't hay;. answer far the Yoshimura Suzuki man. the fi nal lap whe n he encoun tered lapper s in the final turn s seq uence . The margin of victory was 3.953 seconds. "I was pushing hard for especially the first half-dozen laps - that's as hard as I could push," Mladin said. "Fort unately, with a litt le bit of tr affic , we got enough of a lead that we could just hold the gap." Heading to VIR, Mladin leads Zemke, S32-490. His eighth win of the season, and secon d doubleheade r sweep, st retche d his caree r-best ta lly to 32 Superbi ke wins. A day after Duhame l and Mladin's spat, 34 SEPTEMBER 15, 2004 • CYCLE NEWS Duhamel had kind words for the do ublerace winner: "Mat [Mladin] was definitely riding really good today. He rode good yesterday. There 's not much we could do. To be honest , w ith the lapped riders , I was hoping he was go ing to get caught out somewhere, do a little mistake, just give me a little more breathing roo m to latch back on. He didn't do that . He did a grea t race, and t hat's why he wo n." Bostrom felt his machine kept him in the race: "The Honda was real fast, it handled really well. It definitely put us in the race." 40th Anniversary Bostrom wasn't making excuses for losing: "These guys rode better than I did, and they won. Mat was fantastic allweekend, the man to beat. He definitely deserved to win. Miguel was right there all wee kend, pushing hard. He's a great rider. We're third again." Ze mke 's rear tire began to fade afte r the fifth lap. From then on, he was out of the race, unable to lean over without pushing both tires, rr'\ completely devo id of acce lerat io n, drive, or braking .I'

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