Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

· '. Briefly... Continued from page 25 The lone bright spot in Eric Bostrom's dismal 2004 season was his victory at PPIR, the fifth time he's won here. But it didn't come easily. Bostrom said he was on eggshells the whole way. "We're much better off this year," he said. "Last year, our setup was kind of like that the whole season, and it really kind of took the fun out of it. And that's why for the last three or four races, I've been a lot happier and been having a lot more fun racing. It's just because the bike has a lot more feel. I go around here, and it's a good time. I mean, I know that it's not everyone's favorite track, but come here, it's pretty cool actually, the whole part of actually being able to feel the bike and have a good time and get the fun back in riding - it's good:' Michael Jordan Motorsports Suzuki's Jason Pridmore said he felt well enough to ride at PPIR but would delay his return until Road America in two weeks. Pridmore has been out of action since a horrific crash at Barber Motorsports Park four weeks ago. The crash sent him to the hospital, where his spleen was removed. Pridmore was to be back at the controls teaching his Star Motorcycle School at Second Creek Raceway, just a mile from Denver International Airport, May 2324. With Road America two weeks off, Pridmore has more time for his stomach muscles to heal. The avid golfer felt well enough to return to the links and shoot a 65. The Sunder-par round was bogey-free, with 13 pars and five birdies. A water-seepage problem in the final corner of the 1.315-mile road course was solved by a very ingenious, low-tech solution: tampons. Between every Saturday session, an AMA official carried a bucket out to the corner, where they'd plug tampons into cracks in the macadam. The problem seems to crop up every year when the temperature rises, and this year was no different. How many were used? About a hundred, according to the AMA. The silliest of seasons was in full bloom at PPIR. No one was immune. Mat Mladin was going to MotoGI' Aaron Yates was being shopped to Michael Jordan Motorsports. Neil Hodgson was switching brands. There was no doubt some truth, but it was much more speculation. It was come to honestly. Virtually every Superbike rider is off contract at the end of this season. Only Yoshimura Suzuki's Ben Spies is signed up for 2006. And with Yamaha and Kawasaki likely to join the premier class next year, even more rides are open. Mladin has been the source of the most speculation. He said last week that he was hoping Suzuki would step up. Given his nonpareil status in the sport - five championships and counting he'll be able to name his own number. But some believe he wants his own two-rider team with Suzuki backing. American Honda's Jake Zemke and Miguel Duhamel are both free at the end of the year. Some were surprised when Duhamel inked a twoyear deal at the end of 2003, but he's proven the money was well spent, winning the 2004 Formula Xtreme title and coming second in the Superbike Championship. This year, he leads Zemke in the championship. Kurtis Roberts has a one-year deal with Erion Honda that neither side is likely to want to renew. Ducati Austin's pairing, Eric Bostrom and Neil Hodgson, are free agents in 2006. Hodgson has retained Cliff Nobles to research the possibilities in the United States, while his manager, Roger Burnett, continues to look overseas. Ducati Corse is in the second year of a two-year commitment to AMA racing. Whether the factory will continue to support AMA or farm it off is unknown. What is known is that the Vtwin is long in the tooth and less competitive every year. Kawasaki has Tommy Hayden signed for next year, but younger brother Roger isn't. With the AMA likely to consolidate 1000cc classes for 2006, Kawasaki could easily keep both while signing a second higher-profile rider to join Tommy in Superbike if it feels Roger Lee needs another year of seasoning. Graves Motorsports Yamaha's Jason DiSalvo had the distinction of turning the thirdfastest lap in ail of qualifying aboard his Yamaha RI. The lap of 54.613 that earned him the pole in Repsol Lubricants Superstock would have put him third on the Superbike grid. Teammate Jamie Hacking would have been fourth, and Kawasaki's Tommy Hayden would have been fifth. As before, qualifying tires are the reason. With no competition in Superbike, Dunlop has no incentive to compete against itself. Not so in Superstock, where Pirelli, Michelin and Bridgestone all field riders. This could all change in 2006 if the AMA moves to a single big-bore class. Should that happen, look for Dunlop to grudgingly return the one-lap wonders. DiSalvo was also the king of 600cc qualifying, but he couldn't come close to the pole time of American Honda's Jake Zemke in Formula Xtreme. Zemke's best was a 55.036, with DiSalvo topping Supersport at 55.609. Shawn Higbee was back at PPIR but only as a team owner. Injuries suffered in the Daytona F-USA Thunderbike race have not only kept him off the motorcycle but also kept him away from his job at Buell until just recently. "I've only been back for three weeks," Higbee said, adding that pain medication had made him feel "like crap. I didn't have any energy." Higbee had been looking forward to racing the Buell in the Daytona 200. A misunderstanding about the fiveminute board sent him to the back of the grid. The crash came early on the fitst lap of the race when he was cutting through the field. Exiting turn two, Higbee came up on a group of much slower riders who were braking far too early for the International Horseshoe. "I piled into the back of somebody," Higbee said. The force of the accident knocked him to the ground with his hand getting caught under the Buell. "It literally ground the bone and knuckle off [the ring finger of his left hand]," he said. He also lost the top of the left pinkie. The first operation restored skin to the finger; a second one is fixing the bone. Higbee still wears an external fixator on the finger. Once the fixator is removed, he won't be able to bend the finger. Higbee said it was supposed to be off this weekend. "It might come off right before Road America [where he might return to racingJ," he said, but more likely he'll return at Mid-Ohio seven weeks later. (Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca isn't having an FX round). So for the time being he's a fulltime owner. A joint effort by Bartel's Harley-Davidson and New Castle HarleyDavidson/Buell is backing the team. Higbee said he gets support from friends at Buell after-hours, and some parts, but it's not a factory effort. Until Higbee's healthy enough to ride, he has fellow Wisconsinite Dave Ebben on the Buell XB9R. Ebben made his debut with the team at a recent FUSA round at Road America. "He never raced a Buell before that," Higbee said. PPIR was his first AMA race. Regardless of how this season turns out, Higbee sees this as a long-term project. "I'd like to bring some younger riders into the series and get a Buell program going," he said. With tire temperatures approaching Daytona levels, teams and tire companies iooked for unusual solutions. Mladin's crew chose a different linkage to try to get the tire temperature down. "It's not ideal for traction," crew chief Peter Doyle said of the setup, but it was necessary to find the critical balance. "If we can do 48 laps without a pit stop, it will be a vast improvement," Doyle said. Dunlop senior engineer Dave Watkins said the tire temperatures were higher than they'd ever seen at PPIR. Most to the change was down to the improvement in the motorcycles, he said. The dual-compound Dunlop tires were the same ones used at the first two GPs of the year, in Jerez, Spain, and Estoril, Portugal. American Honda's Jake Zemke said there were three tire choices for the Superbike. "There was a single compound and two multis to choose from, and the single, it was hard as a brick and it wasn't going to make it because the temperatures were getting too high on it. There was a softer multi and a harder multi, and everyone rode the harder multi." Well, not everyone. Erion Honda's Kurtis Roberts went with the single-compound hard tire. Roberts had to pit for a change and finished 27th. Aaron Yates was planning ahead. The Yoshimura Suzuki rider, thinking he might have to pit for a tire change, asked about the penalty for speeding down pit lane, "because I got to thinking, if I need a tire, hell, just blast down here, and if it's just a $100 fine, so what:' Yates said a few AMA officials thought it was just a fine. "I put [team coordinator] Rich Doan on it, and he found out that yeah, it's a stop-and-go penalty:' But Yates never thought about pitting. "Nah, I never considered it all during a race. My tire was really consistent. Turn one over there, you know this is a long race and try not to burn it too hard through there. Make the thing last." Scott Greenwood was back under the Corona Extra EBSCO Media Suzuki tent for the first time this year. Greenwood, who rode for the team part-time last year, was filling in for the absent Tony M·eiring. Meiring was arrested at Infineon Raceway last week and has been suspended from the team pending the resolution of the matter. Team principle Tim Saunders said there was no news on Meiring's legal status. As for Greenwood, Saunders said, "He was available, he's been there before, and he's a good fill-in." Saunders added that it was a one-race deal at the moment, depending on Meiring resolving his legal issues. Michael Barnes was unimpressed by the lack of safety equipment along the wall on the back straight. "I'll tell you one thing: Staring at that wall on the back straightaway makes me want to never come back here ever, ever, ever, ever again," he began, "and make sure you print that many 'evers: I love the fans. All of a sudden, we're starting to get a crowd here. Since '98, I ran F-USA here also, they refused to put anything on that wall, and I guess they'll have to wait until somebody gets critically injured or fatally injured before they do something, and I'm sick of it. Last week was another case of that. Something happens, then they put something up." Vincent Haskovec may be recovering at a hospital in San Jose, California, but his presence was everywhere. Podium finishers dedicated their race to the rider who was paralyzed in a single-bike accident at Infineon Raceway last week. "Czecher" T-shirts were everywhere and a numbel"'of items were collected for a future auction. Ducati Austin's Eric Bostrom paid tribute to Haskovec after his Superbike win. "I guess the biggest thing is to say that we just want to wish Vincent well and do as much as we can for him and definitely want to try to put together as much as we can for an auction. Bostrom said he was donating his $8000 first-place purse to the Haskovec fund. "Just try to do the right thing. It's a tough position to be in, and we just wish him the best and want to make sure that we can do as much as we can for him." II Lion Racing's John Haner was injured in a freak accident on Saturday morning. The Texan had just gotten off his Suzuki GSXRI000 and was still in full racing gear, holding onto the team's canopy on pit lane when a strong wind came up. The gust lifted the canopy in the air, a water-filled bucket hitting him on the helmet. Haner's right arm got tangled up in the moorings and he was flung 10 feet through the air. "Just flipped me. It jerked me out," Haner said. "I just had this burning sensation like somebody hit me in the arm with a sledge hammer. It really, really hurt. I didn't know what had happened." X-rays of the arm were negative, but he plans to visit his personal physician on Tuesday. "I think it might be a slight tear in the rotator cuff, because I can't really get my arm up," he said. "It hurts pretty bad to lift it. In the riding pOSition, it's not too bad. On the brakes, it's tender. CYCLE NEWS • JUNE 1,2005 27

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