Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

My 32 OWN RACE Eric Bostrom 5th/4th Ducati Austin's Eric Bostrom made giant sendes at California Speedway, the Californian getting up to speed at a track that he likes and " one that favors his motorcycle. On Saturday, ~ he finished fifth. On Sunday, he did one better and finished fourth. "I didn't get quite as good . ,~ ~ of a start as I wanted, so had to pull a kind of '. ' - - " ' shenanigan in the first tum, which worked out good," Bostrom said of Sunday's effort. "I went from fifth to third. But it was unfortunate that [Aaron] Yates was going good, but he hung me up a little bit at the beginning. There was no way I could get by. Those things [the Suzukis] just punch out of the comers so fast. I could never really be in a zone to make a pass. That was frustrating, and [Ben] Spies made a good pass on me. I should have protected the line a little more so he couldn't get by, but he probably would've went by me on the front straight anyway. I made a couple of big mistakes, ran off the track in three and lost some ground, and I was able to make it back up, which was encouraging, and then missed a back shift. Actually, I got back in there and got in a point where I could start to think about making a pass again, and then I got really hosed in traffic, and I was just riding too hard or something. It was disappointing, I thought. I really thought when we were following him I could definitely beat him [Yates]." , :---.. 16 Marty Craggill 9th/8th Mladin Motorsports' Marty Craggill continues to improve race to race as he gets his new GSX-R I000 more to his liking, and at Fontana, he had his best race weekend of the year. On Saturday, Craggill just lost out on eighth place to Michael jordan Motorsports' Steve Rapp. On Sunday, he was eighth. "I had a good race," Craggill said. "Steve [Rapp] beat me by half a bike. The bike worked good. It's getting a lot better. I felt pretty good at the end of the race. I was consistent. Last week, I couldn't keep up with Steve and josh [Hayes], and this week I was a lot closer to 'em, and I felt a lot more comfortable on the bike. But I've got to lose some weight. I'm just too heavy right now." Craggill said he currently weighs 190 pounds. 41 Josh Hayes 7th/DNF "I got hugely lucky," Hayes said of his adventures on day one. "I ran off and the bike just felt a little funny to me. It was a new engine. I was trying to pass [Marty] Craggill in the back and when I looked over my shoulder to pull back onto the track and gave it gas, I could see these big plumes of smoke. I said, 'You've got to be kidding me.' I went ahead and came back in [to the pits]. The guys figured out a breather hose or something like that. Then the red flag came out and it was a complete restart. I kind of got lucky on that deal. The first start went okay, and then on the restart we did decent laps - about what I did in practice and qualifying. We'll try and sit down and look at some data and make some improvements for tomorrow. If we can pick up half a second, we'll be a lot closer." On Sunday, Hayes crashed out of IOth place. 15 Steve Rapp 8th/7th Steve Rapp had a great battle with Marty Craggill in race one, even though he wasn't even sure who - if anyone - was behind him. Focused only on what was a head, Rapp managed to hold Craggill off at the finish - barely. " "I didn't see him [Craggill] the whole race," Rapp said. "I kept seeing plus zero, plus one [on his lap board]. I was just like, 'C'mon, is that right?' You know how sometimes they leave it low just to make you try harder. I was like, 'Are they just leaving it like that to make me try harder or is there really somebody back there?' Because I don't look back. They kept it the whole race. It was just plus one, plus one, plus one. This isn't my best track, and I think he [Craggill] went pretty good here when he test- '.' -. ed. He might have a good setup, and I'm sure Mat [Mladin] is helping him a little bit. We're kind of maxed out right now. I can't think of anything else unless we come across something crazy tomorrow morning. I can't see us gaining much more time. I'll just eat some extra pasta tonight, and hopefully I can ride a little harder tomorrow." On Sunday, Rapp improved one spot to finish seventh. He had Craggill behind him, but this time he had some II seconds on his race rival from the day before. 98 Jake Zemke 6th/6th American Honda's jake Zemke finished well back of Ducati Austin's Eric Bostrom on Saturday and he was behind Neil Hodgson on Sunday, but at least he finished two races, and that's more than can be said of the last race at Barber Motorsports Park. "The bike finished," Zemke said on Saturday. "I almost didn't. After the first restart, I was in front of Neil [Hodgson], and Neil just passed me back. Coming through the chicane - the modified chicane, going to the signal area - I got into a huge tankslapper. That one wasn't fun. I actually, for a second, lost the handlebars it was so violent. I had actually injured my shoulder back at Easter time, and it just kind of re-aggravated that really bad. So, after the restart, it made it really hard to get through the fast chicane there on the entrance to turn one. And even on the little bike [Formula Xtreme]I was having problems getting through there. Actually the first two starts were good. The last start was horrible, which is kind of weird because they put a brand-new clutch in the bike before the start. Something wasn't happy in there. It looked like Daytona last year. I think the thing jumped on me like three or four times trying to leave the line. It's still an issue we're trying to get a handle on. The boys are trying to figure that out, too." On Sunday, things went a bit better, but there's still work to be done to get the bike better. "We're still a long ways off for sure," Zemke said. "We've got a lot of work to do. I definitely wasn't 100 percent today. My shoulder was still sore after yesterday's deal. Yesterday, it got knocked loose a little bit and took a couple steps back on that. But especially with a bike that's not working properly, it's so physically demanding. It's physically demanding anyways, but when you're bike's not working, it's that much worse. It was a little bit of a struggle to get around the racetrack for sure, but we definitely have more work to do on the bike. It's just a little bit everywhere. It doesn't take much, a little bit in each comer and then all of a sudden we're right where we need to be. A little bit comes from turning, getting the bike to turn through the corners, cut a little bit sharper arc; part of it comes from traction, getting the power down to the ground. Part of it's feeling, just to try and describe it best - it's kind of tough to describe for the average guy what that feel is you're looking for. But it's basically a contact feeling so you can feel exactly what the wheels are doing on the ground, so that you can have the confidence to push the bike harder than it really wants to go. And that's the point that Mat's [Mladin] at right now. He's at the point where he feels every little bump and nook and cranny in the track, and he knows exactly what his bike's doing when he hits those, and it gives him the confidence to go as fast as he does." 80 Kurtis Roberts 12th/DNF Simply put, Kurtis Roberts is miserable. The Erion Honda rider can't get his CBRI OOORR to work the way he wants it to, and frustration is setting in. On Saturday, he finished 12th and on Sunday he pulled out of the race on the 2Sth of 28 laps. "It's either going to get better real fast or I'm going to be watching it," Roberts said after Saturday's race. "It's just a joke. It's almost so out of control with the thing that it's dangerous. I spend 90 percent of the time recovering from what the thing's doing. It tank-slaps its brains out, it doesn't work through the corners, it wants to pick up, slide - it doesn't know what it wants to do. It just doesn't do what a race bike should. We've got to get it better. It doesn't handle at all. It is the worst complete package I've ever ridden, and I've ridden a lot of them. Right now, it handles worse than the Proton did. We need to make something a lot better. You don't go from winning here two years ago to struggling like this. I'm riding with the guys and I can see how much faster I can go, but I can't make the bike... I think I put more effort into getting 12th than I did when I won here." Briefly... p g lucky to get on the podium both races. Here, just the way things worked out, it was a weird win, but I really wish I could have got off the line and Mat [Mladin] wouldn't have had any problems and I wouldn't. After the first two starts, I held my distance with him. I couldn't make any [ground], but I wish we could have raced." The factory men and their crews were under the gun during the final red flag in race one on Saturday, with nearly all of them opting for clutch changes. Yates' crew appeared to be the last ones to finish the job, and it was a bit stressful on pit lane. "We were getting a bit stressed about that for a bit," Yates said. "I almost told them not to even fool with it. The way I do my starts, I try not to burn the thing so hard. In testing, I did a bunch of starts, and the clutch didn't look so bad. They managed to get it in there and good for them. I didn't have any problems, and that's maybe what happened to Mat [Mladin]. My crew did a great job, and we'll go look at some stuff and try and find some grip [for Sunday's race]." When asked if this is how he thought his first season of AMA Superbike racing would pan out, Neil Hodgson said it was just how he thought it would be. "It's exactly how I thought it would be, to be honest," Hodgson said. "It's very competitive, and Mat Mladin has an advantage at the moment for whatever reasons. Hopefully, us three guys [Hodgson, Spies and Yates] can chase him down and make it a bit better show for everybody else. Nobody wants to see him clear off, especially us three. We're hating it. I believe these circuits are pretty favored for Mat, and he goes well on them. Hopefully, the ones that we're coming up to he might not like the same and it will give us a bit of a chance." One reporter asked Hodgson the difference between World Superbike racing and AHA Superbike racing. "They don't stop the races at World Superbike," Hodgson said after Saturday's race was stopped twice for red flags. "Only if it's something really, really strange. That's very different. And the circuits... we don't race in and out of cones. There are only proper race circuits [in World Superbike]. That's a lot different as well. It's pretty weird racing in and out of cones. There are circuits like that In Britain, but they are substandard ones at airfields. It's pretty different. It's weird coming to places like this for me. Even though we tested here, it's another thing racing. I feel a bit like in Barber... hopefully, I'll be better tomorrow. You need to get a race under your belt. It's weird coming in and out of these cones." If he had his way, Hodgson would schedule both Superbike races on the same day, a la World Superbike. "Definitely two races in a day is fantastiC," Hodgson said. "You have no time to be nervous or worry about anything - you just get on it with. Now, unfortunately, we go back to our hotels, take a shower and sit and think and wait until 3 o'clock tomorrow to race again. It kind of drags the weekend out for me, but that's just a personal thing." Continued on poge 31 CYCLE NEWS • MAY 11, 2005 29

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