Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/128377
AMA Superbike Series pretty close in traffic and I got a clear track and got away. It was back and forth the whole time. It was a pretty uneventful race for me, really. Those two guys here were going for it, and I was trying to keep it up for third and get Suzukis in the top three and that's what we managed to do." Behind Bostrom came Hodgson, bravely riding when many others would have ditched the idea. "That was the longest race of my life," (Bottom left) Miguel Duhamel (17) was fourth on Saturday, but crashed out af Sunday's race. Eric Bostrom (32) ended up fifth and fourth over the two days. (Below) Aaron Yates (20) was on the podium in both races. ferent - different fork, different length of the bike, so on and so forth, different gearing. I think I got caught off a little bit. Yesterday, I was really good on the brakes. I was able to brake really deep and make some time on some people, on Neil [Hodgson], and the bike didn't turn so good. Today, the bike seemed to turn pretty good, but it didn't stop as well and those two laps I didn't have enough time to reset my head - I didn't have one of those close calls where I could say, 'Okay, I need to pay attention to this.' I was really aggressive. I got by Neil and somebody else, and I was right up there with those guys and didn't want to let Eric [Bostrom] and all those guys go, and [I] just got in too hot, braking as hard as I could, and eN tucked the front." CALIFORNIA SPEEDWAY FONTANA, CALIFORNIA RESULTS: APRIL 30·MAY 1,2005 (ROUND 4·5 OF eighth and ninth. Haskovec was a rather lonely 10th. Sunday marked the return of Mladin, and he quickly reminded everyone as to who is boss. The defending series champion led every single lap of the 28 lapper, pulling away immediately to lead the first lap by .8 of a second. From there, his margin of victory would grow to 2 seconds. And it would stay there as he and Spies traded jabs, the two circulating within tenths of each other. On lap six, Mladin led by 2.1 seconds. Lap six -2.1 seconds. Lap 7 - 2.1 seconds. It would stay at 2.1 seconds until lap 12, when Spies cut into the lead, bringing it down to I. 9 seconds. Then it dipped to I.S, 1.2, before going back up to 2.2 with Spies stuck a bit in traffic. It was status quo until the 20th lap. At that point, Mladin made the race his, pulling a gap on his young teammate, pulling out to four seconds on lap 21 and up to almost five seconds on lap 24. He would win by S.069 seconds for his fourth win in five starts and the 36th of his career. "This was very important," Mladin said. "Unfortunately, we're five races into it [the championship] and we're all squared up again. That's the way it goes. That's racing. We've had a good run over the years, and you're going to get some every now and then. We'll cop that one, and hopefully we won't have any more this year and we'll move on. The race was really good. Obviously, when you're at the front, you have to set the pace, and I 28 decided on a pace that I was going to set just by seeing what was happening behind me. I tried to run pretty consistently and just stretched it out a little bit there. I got to traffic and had 2 1/2 seconds and then stretched that out a little bit more and made it comfortable for the last five laps." Spies, the new championship leader, was obviously pleased with his weekend, though he wasn't overly animated about it. "The race was good," Spies said. "It was kind of uneventful. We got in behind Mat and were turning about the same lap times. At some point I was maybe taking a little bit out of it. It was just going to be really hard to catch him. I just wish we would have gotten a little bit better start and been with him when we went through the lappers." Yates finished third, some nine seconds behind the lead duo and seven seconds ahead of Bostrom. "My race went pretty good," Yates said. "I got a really good start and went off in turn one with Mat. He was strong through there, and I just settled in behind. I wasn't real comfortable the first few laps. It took a bit for my tires to come around - they were kind of greasy. I really wanted to go harder than I could. I just had my mind on my tires too much. Ben came by, and I tried hanging with him for a while. We did what we could and got into traffic, and they kind of got a gap on me. I held it there for a while pretty steady. Traffic put me back in there, and I knew someone was back there close. Eric was MAY 11, 2005 • CYCLE NEWS Hodgson said while lying on his back in the medical center. "It was just a case of me trying to finish. I knew they weren't improving, but I just wanted to race. I was sick and had diarrhea all night, so I didn't sleep at all. I maybe had two hours. At 8 o'clock in the morning, I had to try and get up and go to breakfast, feeling unbelievably bad, and I couldn't walk. I walked and sat down in the lift [elevator]. My dad was there and I told him I couldn't race, I was so ill. I went to breakfast and couldn't eat anything. I drove straight here to the medical center and I've been here all day. They've been fantastic. I was really dehydrated and they gave me 4 liters of water. Normally, they give you 2 liters. It's all about the championship. It's not been the best weekend, championshipwise, but it's not been negative. I don't like this track at all, so that's out of the way now." He finished comfortably ahead of Zemke, with Rapp, Craggill, Suzuki Canada's Clint McBain and Hotbodies Racing's Larry Pegram rounding out the top 10. Duhamel would end up 18th after crashing out on the second lap. "It started off pretty good for a lap," Duhamel said. "There's many things that goes into it. We're still developing the bike, and it just feels weird to say this, but the bike was better, but it was completely different. The first day we couldn't run the bike any more. There were issues where we just could not run any more. So we went with something completely dif- 16,17) SUPERBIKE QUALIFYING: I. Mat Mladin (1:23.612); 2. Aaron Yates (1:2'1.327); 3. Ben Spies (1:24.386); 4. Neil Hodgson (1:24.432); S. Eric Bostrom (1:24.938): 6. M;gue1 Duhamel (1:2S.624): 7. J.ke Zemke (I :26.(02); 8. Vincent Haskovec (I :26.262): 9. Marty Craggil1 (I :26.337); 10. John Haner (1:26.452); II. Josh Hayes (I :26.523); 12. Steve Rapp (I :26.763): 13. Geoff May (I :26.913): 14. Kurtis Roberts (I :26.981); IS. Jacob Holden (1:27.022): 16. L",y Peg",m (1:27.022): 17. Jeff T;gert (I :27.663); 18. Clint McBain (1:27.846); 19. Eric Wood (1:27.902); 20. Cory West (1:28.020); 21. Man Lynn (I :28.270); 22. Jeremy Toye (I :28.379); 23. Scott jensen (I :28.534); H. Brent George (I :28.677); 25. Tony Meiring (1 :28.8675); 26. Chris Ulrich (I :28.909); 27. Jimmy Moore (1:28.910): 28. Lee Au.. (1:28.9JJ): 29. Heath Smol (1:28.963): 30. Joson Curt;, (1:29.SI6): 31. J.J. Rood;" (1:29.757); 32. Mark Ledesma (1:30.037); 33. David Sanders (I :30.836); 34. Mike Sullivan (1:31.253); 35. Dean M;zd~ (1:31.353); 36. D.v;d Bell (1:3I.S08); 37. C.R Gittere (I :31.532); 38. Peter HolZinger (I :31.857). SUPERBIKE RACE I: I. Ben Spies (Suz); 2. Aaron Yates (Suz); 3. Neil Hodgson (Duc); 4. Miguel Duhamel (Hon); 5. Eric Bostrom (Duc); 6. Jake Zemke (Hon); 7. josh Hayes (Kaw); 8. Steve Rapp (Suz); 9. Marty Craggill (5uz); 10. Vincent Haskovec (5uz); II. jacob Holden (Suz); 12. Kurtis Roberts (Hon); 13. Geoff May (5uz); 14. Lee Acree (Suz); 15. Eric Wood (5uz); 16. Scon jensen (Suz); 17. Jimmy Moore (Suz); 18. Clint McBain (Suz); 19. Tony Meiring (5uz): 20. Brent George (5uz); 21. J.J. Roedin (Suz); 22. Mark Ledesma (Hon); 23. Matt Lynn (Suz); H. c.R. Gittere (Suz); 25. David Bell (5uz); 26. David Saunders (5uz); 27. Mike Sullivan (Yam); 28. Peter Holzinger (Suz); 29. John Haner (Suz); 30. Cory West (Suz). Time: I hour. 28.+40 sec. Distance: 28 laps, &4.4 miles Average speed: n/a due to red flags Margin of victory: 0.665 sec. SUPERBIKE RACE 1: I. Mat Mladin (Suz); 2. Ben Spies (Suz); 3. Aaron Yates (Suz); 4. Eric Bostrom (Duc); 5. Neil Hodgson (Duc); 6. Jake Zemke (Han); 7. 5teve Rapp (Suz); 8. Marty CraggiU (5uz); 9. Clint McBain (5uz); 10. Larry Pegram (Hon); 1I. Jacob Holden (5uz); 12. Lee Acree (Suz); 13. Eric Wood (Suz); 14. John Haner (5uz); 15. Cory West (5uz); 16. 5conJensen (5uz); 17. Jeff Tigert (Han); 18. Miguel Duhamel (Han); 19. Jimmy Moore (5uz); 20. Brent George (5uz); 21. Mark Ledesma (Hon); 22. J.J. Roedin (5uz); 23. Heath Small (Yam); 24. Matt Lynn (SU%); 25. Jeremy Toye (Han); 26. David Sanders (Suz); 27. David Bell (Suz); 28. Dean Mizdal (Suz); 29. Mike Sullivan (Yam); 30. C.R. Ginere (502); 31. Peter Holzinger (Suz). Time: 39 min., 50.HO sec. Distance: 28 laps, 64.4 miles Average speed: 97.0 mph Margin of victory: 5.069 sec. AMA SUPERBIKE NATIONAL C'SHIP POINTS STANDINGS (After 5 of 17 rounds): I. Ben 5pies (155/1 Win); 2. Mat Mladin (152/4 wins); 3. Neil Hodgson (146); 4. Aaron Yates (143); 5. Eric Bostrom (122); 6. M;gue1 Duhamel (118); 7. Mmy Crnggill (105); 8. Steve Rapp (92): 9. L.. Au.. (89); 10. Eric Wood (81): II. Joke Zemke (76); 12. lArry Pegram en); 13. Vincent Haskovec (67); 14. Brent George (65); 15. Jimmy Moore (61). UPCOMING ROUNDS Rounds 6-7: Sonoma, Colifornio, May 14·15 Round 8: Fountain, Colorado, May 22