Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

Briefly•.. Hat Hladln again dominated qualifying for the AHA Superbike race at Uiguna, even though it's a track that doesn't rank among his favorites. The pole position earned him a championship point, running times early on, with Yates taking control of the spot on the run to the Corkscrew on the I I th of 28 laps. Spies continued to hound the Georgian for the duration but could never find his way past. He would cross the line a few seconds behind after slowing on the final lap. Fifth place went to American Honda's jake Zemke - again after a battle between teammates that saw him get the better of Miguel Duhamel, the French Canadian dropping off the pace after an off-track excursion while giving chase. Seventh place went to Kurtis Roberts, the Erion Honda rider seemingly coming from nowhere as he charged through a pack to pass Michael jordan Motorsports' Steve Rapp on the final lap. Rapp held on for eighth, with Lion Kawasaki's josh Hayes; the two were involved in a frightening crash on the opening lap. Entering the Corkscrew for the first time, Hodgson was minding his own business when he was collected from behind by the out-ofcontrol Hayes, sending both to the dirt on the outside of the corner - and knocking both out of the race. Mladin's championship lead managed to grow at Laguna, despite the defeat. He came in 25 points ahead of Spies and left with a 3 I-point Racing's Jacob Holden, Jordan's Jason Pridmore and Mladin Motorsports' Marty Craggill cross- his pre-race total to 326 points. The pole position also kept Mladin's perfect pole streak of 2005 alive, his seventh pole of the season bringing his career totai to 44. Mladin set the time on a Dunlop qualifying tire, the first time all year that the soft "05" were used at an AMA 5uperbike National. "It wasn't too bad," Mladin said of his session. "I did two laps. The first one, Neil [Hodgson] rode out of the pits and decided that he must have been the only one on the racetrack, so that ruined that lap. I backed off and went for another one pap] and put another one [lap] in. It wasn't too bad. This is the first time we've had the new G5X-RI 000 here at Uiguna, because we didn't come test up here early in the year • so these were our first laps. An hour and 20 [minutes of track time). or whatever it is so far, certainty isn't enough. The fact that we went quicker than last year is pretty amazing and says a whole lot about the new motorcycle. I'm pretty comfortable with the race setup, as usual. The bike feels pretty good. I'm sure there's a lot more time out thef"e, but we don't have the time to really get the most out of the bike." ing the line in rapid succession. The most notable of the nonfinishers were Ducati Austin's Neil Hodgson and Attack with 268 points. Bostrom earned those points by putting his Dunlop gave the top men qualifying tires in order for them to show their best in front of the wide audience. Mladin wasn'tthrilled with it. "It's a total distraction," Mladin said of using the Qs. '~ hour and 20 and you've got to qualify on a Q because everybody's got 'em... it's silly really. But that's the way it goes. They offer more grip, so if you're going to be good on Qs. you have to leave your brain in the pits when you go out, dose your eyes, open the throttle, and hope the thing sticks. That's pretty hard to do that this afternoon, when you haven't used lead, 358-327. Yates is third in the series standings with 294 points. Bostrom made some headway in the standings and now sits fourth ..-------------------------------"'1 flnt:1 them in a while. There's not enough time of setup time, the bike doesn't work, so you're just gritting your teeth and hanging on to it. I'm sure no one has a clean setup (or the race, so I guess in that sense it will be interesting." Third quickest in qualifying went to Mladin's Yoshimura Suzuki teammate Aaron Yates, the Georgian lapping at I:25.491. "My crew chief was saying to probably just do one lap," Vates explained. "I usually try to squeeze out a second lap, but Iwent out and the tire felt hard, especially straight up and down, and in the comers it had no grip. It stepped out pretty good, and I actually almost had a nice little highside coming out of five over there. I managed to keep it up, and the tire felt like it was getting a little better at the end of that lap, and I said, 'Well, I'm going to go another lap.' And that's what I did, and it hung in there pretty good. I had a pretty clean lap, and it was a little better than I thought it was going to be. We put another one [qualifying tire] on and tried to go out with a couple of dicker changes, and I just couldn't get stopped for the final tum and pretty much blew that. I'm pretty happy with it." Although the top Grand Prix riders weren't overly impressed with Laguna Seca's racetrack, the AHA riders were pleased with the changes. After all, they're used to much worse conditions than the ones they face at Laguna. "There's certainly a bit more run·off:' Mat Mladin said. "I think most of the curbs are the same; maybe some of the inside ones are different. There's a bit more run-off out there. Again, it's not one of my favorite places. They've got no braking markers out there. They've got lines painted on the dirt, but it took a while to get the eye to get in, for sure. They've certainly improved the track a litde, but from whatI'm hearing, it's not enough. Those guys need to come to some of our other tracks." on the bike to really get what you need." Ducati Austin's Eric Bostrom continued [Z the laW IfayM and Nell HocIgIOfI cruh out [ij w 'p.etIlC_ In CorIuCrww when HayH lOt In teo hat a: an coIIecfM Hadpon. Neither rider _ Injured. a: a: w a. I ~ ii' I "> m ~ a. his late-season improvement and put the factory Ducati second on the front row for the National. He did this in spite of the nonnaltrouble with lapped rid"",. "I think that the lap times for the superbikes are pretty slow compared to where they should be," Bostrom said, "but there's just not enough track time and too much traffic. I put on my first Q and went out and hit traffic. I tried to give myself a space, but there was traffic. On the second lap, I tried to give myself space and there was more traffic; then I ran into this guy in green leathers - who you almost always run in to. We put on the second tire and I just managed to get a clean lap. It was one of those deals where it just came together, so we got kind of lucky. The fact is that the setup, I think, for everyone isn't wha.t it needs to be to really get good lap times. It's one of those deals where it's half dangerous to put on a stkky tire and basically just roll around, and that's exactly what it's like here. You're basiGllIy tossing a coin on whether you can get a clean lap, and with the lack Jason Pridmore was back in action at Laguna Seta, the Michael Jordan Motorsports rider returning from the broken foot he suffened last month at Road America. "I'm good," Pridmore said. "I'm just trying to have some fun, and I'm having a mellow weekend. I'm really just trying to enjoy myself and get a good setup on the bike. We've definitely made the bike better, and we've got something to buikl on. I'm just working on getting my confidence back. I tested at Pahrump last week, and that helped me. I just got beat down a bit, and I'm just getting back to enjoying it. I'm working on the stUff I teach at the schools - just going back to the basics and having fun, going slow and building on that." The AHA 5uperbikes were racing in front of the biggest crowd of the year thus far, but it's the chance to race in front of the top MotoGP teams that Eric Bostrom said was a cool deal for the AMA riders. "It's great for the young rid"", coming up, because they can be seen," Bostrom said. "Being in America is like being on a different planet almost, so the riders trying to Continued on page 35 CYCLE NEWS • JULY 20, 2005 33

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