Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

Erion Honda's Kurtis Roberts sat out S"nday's Superbike race after hitting his head in a heavy crash in morning warmup. Team owner Kevin Erion said Roberts highsided in the Carousel, hitting his head on landing. Roberts conferred with Tuan Nguyen, a trainer for Dr. Arthur Ting, who then called Ting. Ting suggested Roberts come to his clinic for an MR!. Yoshimura Suzuki's Ben Spies broke his tailbone during a test at Barber Motorsports Pari< 5 1/2 weeks ago but kept it secret until this weekend. "It really hurts," Spies said after Friday morning practice. "It's not fun at all. Honestly, I don't think it affects me lap-timewise." Spies said the tailbone was broken when he was flicked out of the saddie and landed badly on the corner of the seat. He immediately knew it was a problem, but told very few people. He was able to get through the Barber race, but a couple of days after, it began to hurt. "I think it healed a little wrong," he said. "It's swollen with blood right now." The tailbone will have little chance to heal with Spies rac- that Mat's [Mladin] bike felt perfect. Mine felt like a blind man had set it up. We're literally changing it so much for the afternoon, and now we've gone back and we're pretty much like we were yesterday morning, which is just typical me." After setting his fast lap, Hodgson said, "I tried some things early on in the session and it just didn't wor.k. I tried completely different gearing - just too confusing, trying different gears in different comers. So I wasted a bit of time there, realized I was running out of time and put a softer tire on that didn't work, and then just went back out with a race tire and put my head down." Hodgson's initial impressions from an earlier test at Infineon Raceway hadn't changed. "I think this track, you've just got to get your head down and try to get flowing. It's a great Iittie circuit. You need to get the rhythm right." Next week's visit to Pikes Peak International Raceway will be the first time he'll be on a circuit where he hasn't previously tested. "Obviously, in AMA, there's not a lot of track time, so it's going to be difficult," he said. ing on consecutive weekends at Infineon Raceway and Bostrom (32) was clearly outpaced by his Ducati Austin teammate Hodgson on both days. Bostrom was I Dth on Saturday and seventh on Sunday. Here, he battles with the Hondas of Miguel Duhamel (17) and Zemke (98) early in Saturday's race. Pikes Pealk International Raceway, both demanding circuits. Though it doesn't affect his lap times, Spies said he's made aware of the injury over every bump. "It's just kind of a painful deal," he said. Mladin finished the weekend at least $8000 richer, twice taking the $4000 top prize. Next up in the money sweepstakes was teammate Aaron Yates, who collected a pair of $3000 second prizes. Corona Extra EBSCO Media Suzuki's Tony Meiring was handcuffed and taken away from the racetrack in his leathers by members of the Sonoma County Sheriffs Department on Saturday morning. The Sonoma County Sheriffs Department was executing a misdemeanor warrant issued by the police department in Tracy, California, Meiring's hometown, according to Richard Yor.k, deputy sheriff of the Sonoma County Sheriffs Department. Yor.k said he didn't know what the charges were. He said Meiring understood the charges and was a "perfect gentleman." Meiring was taken to the SCPO headquarters in Santa Rosa, about half an hour away, where he was processed and released on $10,000 bond. Meiring returned to the track and left without comment. Team principal Tim Saunders said that, pending the resolution of the situation, Meiring is suspended from the team. "Until the situation is clearly resolved, he's suspended," Saunders said. Saunders said that he didn't tell him what the charges were, "something personal," Saunders said, but that it was unrelated to the team. Saunders was also told that Meiring wasn't charged. "We have no desire to be involved," Saunders said. ''I'm sure it'll be reconciled, and I'm sure it'll be reconciled publicly." Michael Jordan Motorsports Suzuki's Jason Pridmore showed up at Infineon Raceway while recovering faster than he expected from serious injuries suffered at Barber Motorsports Park three weeks ago. He'd been back to the gym and spent some time on the golf course working on his short game, "just to get fresh air again." Pridmore said that it was "weird being at the races not having crutches or sling or not being able to ride. I just actually sat on my bike. My stomach doesn't bother me at all. It's like I'm normal sitting on the thing." Pridmore had his spleen removed after a single bike accident in qualifying. He originally planned his return for Road America, June 45, but was accelerating his prediction. "I know I said Road America, but I almost want to try riding just to see what next Friday [at Pikes Pealk International Raceway] would be like maybe. What's the point? Even if I just got to go out there and run around and see how it is. None of my team knows that, and they probably wouldn't be happy to know that. I think a lot of them want me to wait until Road America. I'll probably be better off waiting at this point. Ifeel pretty good. I just want to gain some of my weight back, a little bit of my strength. I lost a lot of that." What's a qualifier worth? Enough to put a Superstock bike next to the pole position in the Superbike class. Yamaha's Jason DiSalvo's lap of I:36.912 in Repsol Lubricants Superstock qualifying was second only to Mat Mladin's pole time of 1:36.019 and it was faster than Mladin's 2004 lap record. The reason is qualifying tires. When Michelin pulled out of the Superbike class, Dunlop cut out qualifiers. With Pirelli and Michelin in Superstock, Dunlop has to supply qualifiers to stay competitive. Pirellis were on the wheels of the second-placed Superstock rider, Lion Racing's Jake Holden. Michael Jordan Motorsports Suzuki's Steve Rapp was third, with Yamaha's Jamie Hacking fourth, both on Dunlops. Yoshimura Suzuki's Mat Mladin didn't bother trying to beat his provisional pole time on Saturday. "We didn't think that anybody was going to go 36-flat today, so we just concentrated on race stuff as much as possible and found something that we liked a lot and are looking forward to the race this afternoon," Mladin said after retaining the pole. He'd earned the pole by lowering his own lap record to 1:36.019 in FridaySuperbike qualifying, taking nearly a second off his previous best. Larry Pegram (72) had a strong weekend at Infineon Raceway on his Hotbodies Racing Honda CBR I OOORR, scoring an eighth and 10th. Steve Rapp (IS) only competed in Saturday's Superbike event but put in a strong sixth-place ride on his Jordan Suzuki. Mladin was right about the time. Ducati Austin's Neil Hodgson carne closest with a flyer on the final lap of Saturday's session. It was a far cry from where he'd been on Friday morning when nothing went right. "I'm jealous American Honda made progress on the CBR IDOORR during a test at California Speedway follOWing the Fontana race. But not everything was accomplished, and more wor.k was to be done at the track. "That's the thing for us, too: For us, it's not just a race weekend, it's a race weekend/test weekend," Miguel Duhamel said. "We're making a iot of progress, but unfortunately progress comes at a price. and that's time, and sometimes we don't have too much sometimes." Duhamel said that "the tunnel is longer than I thought. There's a light at the end. Hopefully I'll be able to be the first Honda in North America to be on the podium. But I think we're on the right track to do it." Yamaha's Jason DiSalvo knocked down Kawasaki's Roger Lee Hayden in the final right-hand hairpin during Sunday morning's wamnup. Neither was hurt, but Hayden wasn't happy. "I didn't get hurt, it didn't bother me," he said. "It's just a pain for my mechanics to have to do all that work for someone else's mistake," Mat Mladin to Europe? Not so fast, according to Mladin. The rumors were twofold: One had him going to World Superbike, the other to MotoGP. Not so, Mladin said. "It's that time of the year," he said. "I can't comment on the moment with what's going on. I'm happy with where I am, and I hope Suzuki can do what needs to be done in order to keep things running over here in the States, but we'll see." CYCLE NEWS • MAY 25, 2005 23

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