Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

Haskovec's teammate Geoff May rode hard to finish sixth, the Georgian some four seconds behind the pair of Yamahas ahead of him but another five seconds ahead of the first factory Kawasaki, ridden by Tommy Hayden - the Kentuckian searching for grip the entire race and never really finding it. After picking himself up and dusting himself off from his fall, Rapp finished a second ahead of young Australian Brent George, the Corona Extra Suzuki rider making his AMA pits, his season starting with tears. just when it looked as though Pridmore could make a break, Yates was on him and then ahead of him. But he knew he wasn't going anywhere. "I was trying to decide going into the race what kind of strategy, and I think I Both Jamie Hacking (2) and Jason DiSalvo (40) made mistakes thot took them out of the leading group's draft and cost them a chance ot victory. debut in the race. Tenth place went to Jacob Holden on the Lion Racing Suzuki, with the battered and bruised Roger Lee Hayden limping home in I Ith place. The race itself went somewhat like this: Yates nailed the holeshot with Hacking and DiSalvo right behind him. But Pridmore was obviously in a feisty mood and he quickly moved around both the Yamahas to siot in behind Yates. Not content to sit there, Pridmore led the field as they crossed the stripe for the first time. By this time, Gobert was already in the My 2 thought a little too much about it, honestIy," Yates said. "I got out there and just tried to do the best I could and be easy on my tires. I thought some guys would be coming by, and Jason [Pridmore] did. I figured a few more would. I never really felt comfortable. I never got in the groove. In qualifying, I felt really good out there, pitching the bike around and doing whatever I wanted. But in the race, you want 22 OWN RACE Jamie Hacking 4th Yamaha's jamie Hacking did all he could to stay with the Suzukis at the front of the pack. Eventually, it got to him, and he ran off the track in turn four but didn't lose a spot. From there, he just had to hold off his teammate Jason DiSalvo to finish fourth. But he knows the Suzukis have improved, and he knows there's work to be done. "I just didn't have any grip," Hacking said. "I was no grip by halfway, really bad. It was all I could do to save it and not lose any positions. We had nothing for any of those guys. Second lap, I knew it. Those guys pulled me across the stripe right here so fast... I couldn't believe how fast we went across that start finish line. I'm like, 'I haven't been across here this fast yet.' My head was shaking, my windshield looked like it was going to fly off." 40 Jason DiSalvo 5th Yamaha's jason DiSalvo was putting up a fight against the Suzukis - much like his teammate jamie Hacking. DiSalvo's undoing came on the same lap as Hacking's miscue when he ran wide in turn one while trying to make time on the leading Suzukis_ "I just got in too deep," DiSalvo said. "I made a mistake, or somehow I got back a little bit of the leaders. I thought, 'Well, where has been my strong point all week?' and it was the stripe to tum one. jeff Haney and Iworked on turn one a lot. I've got that tum covered. Isaid, 'Well, if I'm going to make it up any place, it's gong to be there.' Iwent in the air, which was broken from the previous three, four bikes up front. You go in there by yourself in practice and you're going through dead air and that slows you down qUite a bit more. In the draft, it sucks you in there pretty good. The front tire just wasn't having it. I was asking too much of it, and I ran wide. We had the infield dialed. The Yamahas were vasdy superior in the infield, but that was the tail of the race. That was it." it to the end of the race. You start thinking about that. I'm really happy to be up here, finishing second and getting some really good points. It's a long championship and it was really great that Suzuki swept the podium - that's the important thing there. It shows the Suzuki GSXRI000 is the best bike out there. It should be good, should be a lot of fun." Yates and Pridmore would lead the train of five riders at the front until that pesky little Haskovec showed up on lap eight, the Czech rider who now lives in Lake Elsinore, California, shooting past Pridmore to take over second. Then he passed Yates, the Georgian likely wondering, "Where the hell did he come from?" From there on in, it was all Haskovec, with both Yates and Pridmore riding hard to keep him in sight. They did, coming up just short at the finish, but in the closing laps, this one wasn't really in doubt, as it was apparent that Haskovec had the grip the others didn't. "I was doing everything I could to close up on him on the run to the chicane, but I was holding back a lot," Yates said. "I was really struggling with grip on the rear, and I didn't want to throw the thing away. The white flag kind of surprised me when it came Tommy Hayden 7th Kawasaki's Tommy Hayden was never a factor in the Superstock final, and that was surprising. In fact, Hayden was also surprised by his lack of result in the race. "I struggled a linle bit all week on the thing," Hayden said. "I felt pretty good this morning, but the temperature came up and I lost a lot of grip. It didn't look like a lot of people did, but I was fighting it the whole race. I rode a lot harder in that race than I did in the 600 race [a race Hayden won later in the day], and I was in seventh! This moming I did a lot of laps and it was all good, but in the race, from the time, we got into turn one, it didn't seem the same. I guess we missed the setup there a little bit and it wasn't a good result for us, but we got some points and we have something to start with - so we'll be all right." 15 Steve Rapp 8th Uniucky or lucky? Depends how you look at it. Steve Rapp crashed his jordan Motorsports Suzuki late in the race but was fortunate to be able to get it started and continue on, finishing eighth. "I lost the draft for a while, but I caught up to 'em," Rapp said. "Once Igot into the infield, I caught up to them so fast Iwasn't expecting it. I ran up on Oason] DiSalvo and Oamie] Hacking so quick on the right-hander, I almost ran into the back ofthem. Iwas already leaned in and committed to the turn and alii could do was let off the throttle to slow it down, and it just loaded the front_ It stalled and I picked it up and took off again with no major damage. The bike is good, and if you're not at the front, you definitely have an issue. I feel bad about it, but jason [Pridmore] rode awesome, and I felt good and rode well. It was nice to be able to run with the factory bikes." 95 out because I thought we probably had another lap. Vincent rode a great race and congratulations to him. He was probably laughing at us back there. He saw what we had and he knew what he had. He looked good out there, driving off the turns well." Yates was right. Haskovec knew the situation. "I saw that three, four laps from the end, I was going to have some rubber on them," Haskovec said. "I can drive from the corners much better. I saw 'plus one' on the other group. I knew I just had those four guys to deal with." eN DAYTONA INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY DAYTONA BEACH, FLORIDA RESULTS: MARCH 10, 2005 (ROUND 1 OF 11) SUPERSTOCK FINAL: I. Vincent Haskovec (Suz): 2. Aaron Yates (Suz); 3. Jason Pridmore (Suz): 4. Jamie Hacking (Yam): 5. Jason DiSalvo (Yam); 6. Geoff May (Suz); 7. Tommy Hayden (Kaw); 8. Steve Rapp (Suz): 9. Brent George (Suz): '0. Jacob Holden (Suz): II. Roger Lee Hayden (Kaw); 12. Jason Perez (Yam): 13. Lee Acree (Suz): 14. John Haner (Suz); IS. Blake Young (Suz); 16. Eric Wood (Suz); 17. J.J. Roetlin (5u1.); 18. Tony Meiring (Suz); 19. Matt lynn (Suz); 20. Jimmy Moore (Suz); 21. James Kerker (Hon); 22. Eric Haugo (SUI); 2]. Johnny Rock Page (Yam): 24. Davld loikits (SUI); 25. Brian Boyd (SUI). Time: 22 min.. 8.660 sec. Distance: I] laps. ]8.]5 miles Average speed: 10].9 mph Margin of victory: 0.]02 sec. REPSOL LUBRICANTS SUPERSTOCK SERIES POINTS STANDINGS (After I of II rounds): I. Vincent Haskovec (37/1 win); 2. Aaron Yates (34); 3. Jason Pridmore (29); 4. Jamie Hacking (27); 5. Jason DiSalvo (26); 6. Geoff May (25); 7. Tommy Hayden (24); 8. Steve Rapp (23); 9. Brent George (22); 10. Jacob Holden (21): II. Roger Lee Hayden (20); 12. Jason Perez (19); 13. lee Acree (18); 14. John Haner (17); IS. Blake Young (16). UPCOMING ROUNDS: Round 2 . Birminghom, Alobomo, April 22·24 Round 3 . Fontono, Colilornio, April 29-Moy 1 Roger Lee Hayden Kawasaki's Roger Lee Hayden thought things were going along pretty well in the race, but a vibration caused him to slow on the final lap and he ended up II tho "I started rolling there after we hit the halfway, and everyone's tires started going away," Hayden said. "I could still do the same times, and I went from ninth or 10th to sixth and was catching that group. Then I just had a little bit of a problem. It was out of my hands and out of my mechanics' hands. I almost had to pull into the pits, but luckily I saw the white flag and kept going. It was a pretty big problem. It just got a huge vibration and I had to slow down. I just feel bad for me and my mechanics - it wasn't their fault. We just didn't get the result we wanted and were shooting for. We'll keep fighting. and now there's some time to heal Up. I was a little bit nervous to see if I could do the lap times because I hadn't rode in so long, but I think I proved that I've still got it, I guess you could say." 96 Aaron Gobert DNF As far as title defenses go, this one didn't start out very well for the unfortunate Aaron Gobert. The Australian pitted on the opening lap with clutch troubles on his factory RI and his race was over. just like that. "I had two bikes," Gobert explained later. "It's pretty unfortunate for it to happen, but the clutch, we had a wiring problem on the first bike and I thought, I'll be safe and take the 'B' bike. Brand-new bike, it just hasn't been bed-in as good as the race bike, and the clutch slipped. It couldn't handle the start, I guess. It was a waste of time. We did a whole season last year, thousand tests, hundred starts, and never had a problem. First time... it's just one of those things that it happened to me, most important race, most important time, start of the season, Daytona. I've got the number-one plate and don't even finish. What do you do?" CYCLE NEWS • MARCH 23, 2005 41

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