Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

:Briefly.•• was guaranteed that Kawasakis would finish one-two in the class. The question leaving Atlanta was, 'W hich Hayden?' Aaro n Gobert (96) finished second in the race and now leads the series standings over Tommy Hayden (22) by five points w ith o ne race left. My 95 OWN RACE Roger Lee Hayden 4th Jason DiSalvo 5th Graves Motorsports Yamaha's jason DiSalvoled four laps in the middle of the race but then dropped back to fifth w ithin two laps. On the next-to -the-last lap, DiSalvo passed Roger Lee Hayden, only to lose the spot w hen he overshot the turn -I 0 left-hander at the end of the trac k's longest straight and clipped the rear tire of third-placed Tommy Hayden . "I mean, I think I did the right thing by trying to get it slowed down as best I could and even tually just stand ing it up and running up," he said. "But you know, my apologies to Tommy [Hayden]. It was one of those things." DiSalvo said he was "pretty upset about that . I'd put that charge on and gotten so close again, just to make another mistake and kind of end up fifth. That's just how it goes sometimes." 1 Josh Hayes I Ith Attack Kawasaki's josh Hayes was still suffering from his highside in Saturday's Superbike race when the Superstock race was called . As if that wasn't enough, the team tried to find an advantage that didn't come. "We made some changes this morning and they seemed to go a little better, and we went more in the same direction, and I think we went a little backwards ," Hayes said. "O n top of that , I just wasn't feeling too good . I think it go t me worse than I thought. Yesterday I felt okay. This morning I was hurt ing pretty bad. Now the hurt's kind of gone , but I'm really struggling with strength. My shoulders are real tight. I was having a hard time moving the bike and wor king the th rottle smooth. Bad day." 5 Steve Rapp 10t h Road Atlanta isn't a tra ck where a displacement deficit can be hidden . That's what Valvoline EMGO Suzuki's Steve Rapp found out on Sunday. Ridinghis Suzuki GSX-R750 against the 1000s, Rapp was at a disadvantage . But size wasn't his biggest problem. "We tried a new setup , because we need lots of seconds against the 1000s." he said. "This is not a good 750cc trac k. We tried some we ird stu ff that didn't he lp all through the practice. We we nt into the race with the setup we knew, and it worked pretty good, but my handleb ar was loose, so I rode the whole race with a loose right-hand handlebar. I do n't think I wou ld have do ne much better than ninth, but I know me and Vincent [Haskovec] would at least have been dicing more. I was riding basicallywith one arm . We didn't learn a lot. We knew that it wasn't going to be a good track ." 2 Jam ie Hacking The level of animosity between Mat Mladln and Miguel Duhamel reached a peak at Road Atlanta. Mladin made an obscene gesture on th e cool-off lap, and by the time they reached victory lane, the pair was seething. No soone r did the y com e to a stop tha n they began hurling obscenities at ea ch ot he r, according to pho tograph ers who were in the w inners' circle. One pho- Kawasaki's Roger Lee Hayden had a front -ro w seat when jason DiSalvo ran into his brother Tommy on the last lap. "Whe n I came down the hill, I didn't think he would even stop for the co rne r," said Roger Lee, who was in fifth at the time. "I thought he wo uld go str aight . At first I thought he was going to kind of T-bone him there, because he was in pretty good . And I thought, 'Well, I might get a pod ium out of this after all.' He did stand it up at the last second and ran off the track ." And Roger Lee gained a spot to finish fourth 40 Which Haydens will be w ith the team next year is another question . Roger Lee Is signe d, but Tommy's co ntract is up for re newal. Preston said he can't tell him which classes he'd be racing, because Kawasaki hasn't decided . "Right now, there' s no plan or anything for us to race Formu la Xtreme at Daytona ," Preston said. "If you asked me tod ay, we 're going to be racing Supersport and Supers tock next year. I hope to have a decision in a we ek or so." 6th Graves Motorsports Yamaha's jamie Hacking fell from the top spot in the championship standings with his sixth-place finish. There was a problem with the shifter on his RI and he still isn't 100 pe rcent physically "The tire wasn't the grea test thing, but I'm not going to . make a lot of exc uses like a lot of these guys do about thei r tires going off," he said. "My shoulder definitely was sore. I had a shifter problem, an electrical shifter [went] bad right off the bat and I had to man uallyshift it. It was getting so bad a head shake on the back, I couldn't hold on to it. It was just a mess . My arms pumped up real bad. It didn't end soon enough ." togra pher said the only reason they didn't come to blows was that there was no one to support t heir motorcycles. Mladin addressed the postrace press conference first, while Duhame l was belatediy celebrating his Formula X t reme win in the wi nners' circle. (The ceremony for the race that had run before the Superbike race had been postp oned until afte r the Superbike race). Asked later about the post race gestu ring, Mladin said, "I just don 't like sore losers . When somebody wins a race , you congratulate them. It doesn't matter who it is. It doesn't matter w hat you think of the guy. It doe sn't matter ifyou're friends or if you're not, you congra tulate the guy, and Miguel's taken a leaf out of the sore-loser book. I just wanted to re mind him who won the race ." Duhamel came in after Mladin had left the pressroo m. His take on the matter: "We were just congratulating each other on a hard race and sportsmanli ke conduct. Stuff like that. I think that was not much nothing out of the ordi nary, I guess." Sunday's press conference was more civil; Mladinwas sitting next to Duhamel and Ben Bostrom. If there was any lingering animosity, it didn't show, and Duhamel was complime ntary of Mladin's double win. He was more himself, showing the humor tha t's been his hallmark ove r the years but was absent on Saturday. Address ing Bostrom's difficulty with traffic, Duhamel said, "We're hanging on to Mat by about a second, maybe a little less; then jason Curt is too k Ben out to the moonsh ine distillery in the back there..." HAS /Shogun Racing's Heath Small made a less-than-successful Superbike debut in the Chevrolet Super bike class at Road Atlanta. "Since Mid-Ohio, we tested the RI at No Problem Raceway in Louisiana, and we got the suspens ion pretty we llsorted out , a good base line for Road Atlanta," said Small. "I love the bike; it handles just like the R6, it just has more power. We're gonna foc us on FX and Superbike this weekend. Th ree www.cydenews.com classes is too many, plus my crew chief, Dave Sanders , broke his leg doing so me dirt track, so he 's not gonna make it this weekend . I want to try to move up in the FX points stand ings. I'm only six points behind jason Pridmore. We 'll see w hat happens." Six laps in, the Yamaha RI began to over heat and lose power. He pitted in the interest of safety and wasn't able to make necessary repairs in time for Sunday's second race . Small plans to be have the RI ready for the season finale at VIR,September 1819. Michael Jorda n is backing Star Motor cycle School's jaso n Pridmore for the final two races . "He [jordan] knew my situatio n, as far as Mid·Ohio being my last race of the year," Pridmore said. The subject came up during a golf game jo rdan had w ith Pridmo re prior to Mid-Ohio . "He knew my situation and offered to help out to get through the last two races ." Pridmore 's Suzukis sported the logo of jumpman23 .com , the company that's backing Montez Stewart. "He 's a great guy," Pridmor e said of jordan. "He 's gotten to be a really good rider. He has a passion for the sport, just like I do for golf. We have a lot of the same interests: He like s to ride motorcycles, and I like to piay golf." Pridmore had heard the speculation that jordan was going to have a Superbike team next year - he's bee n linked to both Ducati and Suzuki with Pridmore in the premier class and Stewart continuing in the support classes. "Everyone' s speculating because he helped me for the last two races, but nothing has been discussed, " he said. Pridmore's passion for golf took him to Southern Highlands, the Robert Trent jo nes-design ed golf cou rse in LasVegas for a qualifying round of the U.S. Amate ur Championship. "I played really well," Pridmore said of the two rounds he played in one day. But it was I 10 deg rees, and Pridmore had to walk 36 holes on a bum leg. He shot 75-74 and missed the cut by four shots. Only three of the 78 golfers qualified for the tournament. "I'm debating going to tour school [during the off season]," he said. "Right now I'm a plus-one golfer. That's better than scratch." In Sunday's Repso l Superstock final, Pridmore ran a high as seventh before a misfire developed on his Star Motorcycle's Sc hool Suzuki GSX-RlooO, causing him to be thrown out of the seat violently e nough to break his windscreen. Pridmore continued for two mo re laps, but the problem persisted and he wisely pitted for safety's sake . Mat Mladin won $7S00 of the $86000 Superbike purse by sweepi ng the two Superbike races. Miguel Duhamel pocketed $6 700 and another $1700 for winning the Formula Xtreme, along with a $ 15,000 Lockhart -Phillips USA Form ula Xtreme Championship bon us. Ben Bostrom won $S3OO worth of Superbike purse for his pair of thirds. Continued on page 41 CYCLE NEWS • SEPTEMBER 15, 2004 39

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