Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

I Briefly... The postponement of the o riginal VIR weekend com plicated the lives 01 virtually everyone in the paddock. Mat Mladin's Yo shimura Suzuki crew didn't escape. Instead of several relaxing weeks back in Aust ralia with their families, Pe t er Doyl e and Reg O 'Rourk e now ge t two days at home belo re heading to Japan to build th e 200 S Suzuki GSX-R IODDs which have to be ready lor th e team's first test in Malaysia, Novembe r 2-4 . T hey, and Mladin, were sch ed uled to leave Lo s Angeles on Tuesday, October 12, arriving home on Thursday. After two days they're back in the air, headed for Japan, where they'll work unt il the Malaysia test. Th en there will be some more time at hom e to sort out visas for the 200 5 seas on , and back to the United States at ar ound t he start 01the year lor the early January all-teams tire tes t. The visas lor Doyle , O'Rourke and Mlad in expire in mid O ct ob er. Th ey've re cen tly been approved to apply lor visas for next year, a process t hat takes abou t 10 days. II t hey stayed in t he co untry, the approva l w ould work as a visa. But since t hey're going home, they have to rea pp ly, as they do every year. C hasing Aa ron Yates in race one , A m e rican La5t-Lap Miguel American Honda's Miguel Duhamel stole the pole position with his final lap 01Superbike qualifyingVirginiaInternational Racewa y, the veteran coming peri lously close to not making it out of the pits belore go ing to set a new lap record and earn a championship point in the process. "It was high pressure to get out there because when Ilelt there was only 1:30 lelt on the clock:' Duhamel said. " Fro m a stop to my pit lane I did a I:28, there was two seconds left." Time had expired when Duhamel jumped Irom third to first, lapping the 2.2S-m ile track in I :240404, well under Nicky Hayden's two -year-old mark 011 :24.762. It was Duhamel's second pole 01 the year and it came in the final round of the AMA Chevrolet Superbike Championship. " Until I got back to pit lane , I didn't know if I had it," he said . "I knew my lap timer gave me a 2404 I, so I said, eWell , it's going to be c1ose.i" Duhamel's best lap knocked Yoshimura Suzuki's Mat Mladin Irom the top spot and denied him the championship point . Mladin, the champ ionsh ip leader, had dominated much 01 the 2S-minute sessio n but didn't get the be st out of his qualifier. More important was the proper se tup lor Sunday's two Supe rb ike races. With o nly two hall hour sessions prior to qualifying . there was som e guesswork to do lor qualilying, lor the ra ce and in tire choice. " Definite ly not enough time on race tires : ' Mladin said. "II I was chasing a lap time . if I had to wi n a race tomorrow to w in the cham pionsh ip, there probably wouldn't have been enough time . But w e're go ing to put a tire in that 's going to be safe, so there was Bostrom, who believed, as he always does, that he had t he best mo tor cycle on the racet rack . "I blew it a little bit on our last lap," he said. "I just mistimed it and caught a lapper, although the time could have been a little bit better because I thought I had the best bike . It was so good. I tried to go out again. We put another Q , but it was a little harder Q and [Lorenzo] Lanzi crashed in front of me and it took a little fire out of me . I watched a little too much, then I said, 'O h, God , go Ben.' Then I took off, but I was too slow." At the end 01 the Iront row came the second Yoshimura Suzuki 01 Aaron Yates. There were different setups on his two Suzuki GSXR1000's and he was looking to get the best out 01 both, then incorporate them into one . "W e've got some little changes that we're going to incorpo rate off o ne bike that we're trying," he said. "We had both bikes a bit dillerent all day. Work that into it in the morning and see how that goes on the other bike . We 're just trying not to change too much . Just ride the bike like it is. We tested here not long ago and the setup wasn't too bad , I've been struggling a little bit all year long just getting the bike turned around in the middle of the turn. Here it really seems to be showing up bad . We're hoping the little changes we make tonight will get it around there." The fro nt row was covered by less than .9 of a second. Then came Erion Honda's Jake Zemke in fifth, with . 12 01 a second on Attack Kawasaki's sixth-place qualifier Josh Hayes . "I messed up my qualifying lap pretty bad ," Hayes said. "We stayed out a lap too long on our race tire befor e coming in for our Q , so we didn't have enough time to get the last qualifier on . They'd given us three. 50 we only got two 01 them in." The Ducati Austins of Lorenzo Lanzi and Regis Laconi filled out enough time for me this weekend - but . in different circumstance s. the second row. Lanzi had tested here, but it was Laconi's first visit no , probably not. " Mladin came to VIR with a 42-point lea d ove r Erion Honda's Jake Zemke. With 74 points re maining, after Duhamel got t he po le po int, Mladin needed only to finish well , not risk w inning. That could be left to others, such as American Honda's Ben and there was much to learn. Eighth wasn't representative of what he thought he co uld do once all the pieces lell into place . "In 30 minutes, it is not easy to really learn and at the same time try many tires and to be sure lor the race," Laconi said. "We still try some tomorrow morning and we see what's happening: ' ______________ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ www.cyclenews.com _ Ho nda's Miguel Duhame l was inspired by a termi nally illw o man he met t he day befo re the race . "Wh en I was out there behind Aaron there, I was just, 'Man , alright, this is pretty tough:" he said alter the narrow win. "I might have to do the best I can, but I don't want to be stupid either. I thought about Shawn Hose [the woman with terminal breast cancer] and I was going , 'It'd be great il l could put the pole and win : and it inspired me . I really tried to get it out there. I said, 'I got to at least give it my best shot, nothing stupid , but just really give it my best shot.' And that's what I did on that last lap, and it came on good. I'm really pleased it worked out like that. Hopefully she's having a great time." Jake Z emke and Migu el Duhamel will continue in the Fo rm ula Xtreme and Supe r. bike classes lor 2005, now both under the American Honda umbrella. according to tea m manager C huck Miller. Miller said there cou ld possibly be a th ird Superbike, but it hadn't been dec ided . Also lelt undecided is which classes the Erion Honda tea m w illrun. Kevin Erion was absent fro m VIR, spen ding the weekend in Las Vegas with spon sors Parts Unlimited , PJ I and others at the U.S. Open 01Supercross. Miller said the Erion team cou ld con test any 01three classes Superbike, Supersport or Supe rstoc k. Since American Honda is runni ng FX, it's unlikely that Erion would do the same. Where will American Honda's Ben Bostrom end up? There've been rumors that American Honda will run a third Super. bike and others that he may be going to Europe to head Honda's revived World Superbike effort . "I've heard the rumor," he said. "I guess Honda's decid ing what to do w ith me ," Continued on page '7 CYCLE N EWS • OaOBER 20, 2004 15

• Cover