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/128382
on Sunday. In brilliant sunshine on Sunday, Mladin took his seventh win of the season. The race was stopped on the second lap when Uon Racing's John Haner highsided out of the Bend. On the restart, Mladin took to the point and eased away. Zemke was close for the first fIVe laps. It took until the sixth before the lead went over a second, then it began to grow. By the end of the 16-lap, 64-mile race, it increased to 6.377 seconds. Mladin completed the race in record time of 36 minutes, 4.420 seconds at an average speed of 107.646 mph. The previous mark, Duhamel's from 2004, was 107.084 mph. The victory was Mladin's class-best 39th, and he's now seven clear of Duhamel. "I think we're in a good position," Mladin said. "Obviously, we gave up a few points at Fontana. So, just trying to build that lead back up again. This weekend's been pretty good for us. Today was nice for us to get the win. More importantly yesterday it was important to get a good finish in those conditions. We managed to do that. Overall, we only lost five points out of a maximum haul this weekend and can't complain about that with the conditions we had to run in yesterday." With seven races remaining, Mladin leads Spies, 32S-3oo. Aaron Yates is third with 26S. Mladin was cryptic about a problem with the Suzuki. "We've been struggling with a couple of things, really all year, something the bike's doing really funny," he said. "We're trying to get it sorted out, and it's certainly got us pretty hard this weekend. In the race, we had a few problems. Just having to ride the bike a little bit different than I'd like to at the Briefly... "It's a start." That was the response of Kawasaki team boss Mike Preston to the announcement by AMA Pro Racing that the Superbike class would continue to be for 10000c rnotorcydes through 2008. But it posed as many questions as it answered, he said, and until AMA Pro Racing announces the dass structure for 2006, he won't be making any decisions on which dasses Kawasaki will contest. lion Racing's John Haner broke the fifth metatarsal in his left foot in a Saturday Superstock practice session. Haner said he was going into tum eight when the rear came around, sending him up into the air. In the Superbike main, Haner highsided exiting the new chicane, fortunate not to re-injure the foot, ending up with bruising and a headache. "Well, I tried," Haner said of the crash that brought out a red flag. "Gridded that far back, because of my injuries, it put me in a situation where I was trying to catch a bunch of guys that I'm faster than. Maybe Igot on the gas too hard, but I don't think that was the case. I had an issue with the chassis, where the tire just went out from underneath me, for the second time this weekend. Both times I tried to ride it out and ended up on my head. At least I'm walking around still." Ben Spies (11) was a bit banged up ~ a crash in the Satu"y Superbike race, but hI scored a fine second on Sunday. H_, he leads Eric Bostrom (32) and Hodgson. moment." Asked to clarify, he said, "It's just some small hiccups that don't let me do a few things that I'd like to do." Unlike Saturday's final lap, when both crashed, on Sunday Spies took second from Zemke on the last lap. The end of Zemke's reign in second came in Canada Comer, more than halfway through the lap. The pair came up on a lapped rider that Zemke dubbed "the green frog." "The guy sits up, looks back at us, and then he just puts his head down and pins it and goes down in there and just drops 'er on the racing line," Zemke said. "I know guys are out there in their own races, but he wasn't racing anybody. He was kind of all by himself. It's just the way it goes. Sometimes it goes your way, sometimes it doesn't. Maybe Ben [Bostrom] would have passed me anyway going to the line." The podium was the first for Honda this year, which Zemke was thankful for. "You know, it's just really nice for the whole crew," Zemke said. "Those guys have been working so hard all year long just to get us to this point to where we can actually finish on the box. You know, I want to be racing with Mat [Mladin] for a win, not racing for third place. But you know that's the way it goes, and we got to take it one step at a time, and that's kind of what we've been doing all year." The race marked the debut of new engine parts that moved the Honda closer to the Suzukis, but every race has been a struggle, and this one was no different. "It's tough because we still don't have a baseline setting where we can just come to the track and start to tune off that," Zemke said. "We show up at the track, and we throw everything in the book at it and try and hopefully not run out of time before the weekend's over before we can find something that's halfway decent. ''A lot of times we roll the dice," he added, "but at least now we've got some direction to go in. We're kind of narrowing our path. We don't have so many options anymore. It's getting to where we can actually get the bike around the racetrack a little bit." Spies was in front of a pack behind Mladin and Zemke, and he could see Zemke up ahead. Zemke had 2.S seconds with four laps to go, and it was less than a second two laps later. The pair caught the lapper in the middle of the track with Zemke on the preferred outside line. "It was just a weird deal, and he finally Mike Hale returned to racing after a nearly two-year absence, and he's in it for the long haul. Or at least this season. The Texan, who recently graduated from the University of Texas with a bachelor's degree in finance, will contest the remainder of the Lockhart-Phillips USA Formula Xtrerne Championship on an ex-Erion Honda CBR600RR with backing from Rockwall Honda, a suburban Dallas dealership. "I don't know how it came up," Hale said. "Somehow things came together [in a span of only fIVe weeks]." The suggestion came from Mike Worrell, the owner of Rockwall Honda and a racer and racing enthusiast himself. Hale rode Worrell's Hondas in a few rounds of last year's AMA Superrnoto Championship. The last time he road raced was in a Formula USA event at Virginia International Raceway in 2003. Before that, it was aboard the Erion Honda in 2002. Hale said the team came together so quickly that any spare parts they need come off a CBR600RR that they took off the showroom floor. "That's our spares kit, the one with the mirrors," Hale said, pointing at the red CBR6ooRR. On his first lap out, Hale said he had a "huge smile on my face. It's so nice to be back. I always liked this track." Hale's goal for the weekend was to be in the top 10. "Uke any good competitor, you want to do good. The goal coming here is I'd be happy to be in the top IO. You always hope to do better, but that's our goal." Hale qualified ninth. When he's not racing, Hale is doing commercial real estate development. "Yesterday my phone was ringing and we were getting final inspection [on some light industrial buildings he's developing in north Fort Worth]." Hale's boss in the real estate business is Dick Ford, who also works on the race team and helps a few dirt trackers, including johnny Murphree. "Mike's [Hale] doing construction, leasing, management. He's doing the job one of somebody with 10 years' experience," Ford said. CYCLE NEWS • Continued on page 27 JUNE 15,2005 25