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/128380
,, T hat was a lot fun." Only Eric Bostrom would describe lapping the tight and tire-abusing Pikes Peak International Raceway for 48 laps on a hot Sunday afternoon as fun. Most riders get dizzy, counting down the laps, dodging lappers, praying their tires will last. Not so for Bostrom. His first win at PPIR came aboard a Honda in 1998. Then aboard a Kawasaki in 2000. In 2002 he began a two-year streak aboard a Kawasaki, and then last year, he took his lone win of the season on a Ducati. That adds up to five wins in seven years on three different brands. This year, with temperatures in the mid-80s, Bostrom was the coolest thing on the track, taking advantage of a miscue by leader Aaron Yates to steal his fourth victory in a row and sixth overall at the facility - this time by .255 of a second in the 24 By HENNY RAy ABRAMS PHOTOS BY BRIAN J. NELSON AND TOM RILES eighth round of the AMA Superbike Championship. "I thought it would be much longer and more demanding," Bostrom said after scoring his first victory since winning here one year ago. "As it turned out, I think just because of the pressure and everything, it ended up going by really qUick." Not so for most of the others. Yates came second, losing out on his first win when his tire spun heading to the horseshoe on the penultimate lap. "It just didn't want to go," he said, adding, "I thought maybe we could do something somewhere else, but there just wasn't any grip left." Third went to Yoshimura Suzuki's Ben Spies, whose dash display went out on the grid. "I don't know what happened. I guess it turned off," he said. "Our shifter was kind of messing around the whole race. It was a long race, and to get on the podium, I'm really happy, because we shouldn't have been up here." He nearly wasn't. The monkey on Mat Mladin's back continues to be PPIR, the only track where he's never won. For the fourth year in a row, he had to pit to change rear tires. This time it came on the 26th lap, a little longer than he should have stayed out, he'd later admit. It meant he lost valuable time on his run through the field, denying him a shot at the podium. Still, he finished fourth. "We got back up to fourth; that's good," he said. "We came here with a 16point lead, we're leaVing with 15. That's a lot better than I've done for the last few years, I can assure you." With eight of 17 rounds run, Mladin leads Spies, 255-240. Yates is third with 239. Mladin wasn't the only rider with tire troubles. Erion Honda's Kurtis Roberts changed tires, as did American Honda's Jake Zemke. All of the top Superbike riders but Roberts used the hardest compound multicompound Dunlop rear. "It's spinning; it comes down to spinning:' Dunlop's race manager Jim Allen said. "In the end when you spin the tire, you wear the rubber off it and you have poor performance, I think. We've cut sections out of the tires at the end of the race, and Eric's [Bostrom] are the best of the tires at the end of the race. Eric's not spinning. If you had a camera on Yates' tire, it was pretty worn. Compared with Eric's, it was wellworn. If you put a camera on Bostrom's rear wheel the left-hand contact patch the whole race long and did the same with Yates or Mladin or Jake Zemke, particularly, you'd see a lot of smoke coming off those other guys. Not as much smoke coming off Eric's." Tires weren't the only problem. American Honda's Miguel Duhamel was docked a stop-and-go penalty for jumping the start, a charge he vigorously denied. Ducati Austin's Neil Hodgson had a hose come loose on his 999 F04, forcing an extended pit stop. He finished 31 st. Attack Kawasaki's Josh Hayes was surprised when Mladin passed him late in the race, thinking he was being lapped. Hayes tied his season-best finish with a fifth. Jordan Motorsports Suzuki's Steve Rapp was less than a second back in sixth, also tying a season best. Seventh went to the North Valley Honda of Mark Ledesma, by far his best finish of the year. Lion Racing's John Haner rode with a damaged rotator cuff to eighth, passing Duhamel a few laps from the end. Haner sustained the injury in a freak accident on Saturday (see Briefly). Corona Extra EBSCO Media Suzuki's Brent George was 10th. Bostrom completed the 48-lap, 63.12mile race in a 44 minutes, 46.800 seconds at an average speed of 84.573 mph, both marks slower than his record run in 2004. The race ended for Duhamel before it started. Ending the first lap, he was shown a meatball flag. He pitted the next lap, all the while fuming under his helmet. "For the AMA they're usually really lethargic, but I tell yo.u, before I even