Continued from page 33
get into GP... it's definitely good having the
event here. It will definitely open some
doors. But, on the flip side, you really can't
showcase your talent with the short time
that we have."
Mladin just enjoyed the fact that they were
racing in front of a sell-out crowd. "It's a
good spect3c1e for the fans, and I think
that's all that matters," Mladin said. "We're
racing in front of 55,000 people or whatever it is, and I think it's all good."
Miguel Duhamel is pleased with the
improvements to the CBR I000RR, though
clutch problems at the start hampered his
performance. "It's really unfortunate,
because the CBR I000RR, if it wouldn't be
for that clutch that we have, I think we
would have been for sure racing for the
podium," he said. "Our pace was there.
We just can't afford to start from 16th or
whatever I was in the first comer and let
those guys go. I think it was a little bit bet-
be good for America to see those riders.
And there's no sound like the 2505 and the
125s. We don't have any SOOs anymore. To
hear those !tarts going around here really
brings back memories for me!'
Former AMA Superbike Champion and
Grand Prix contender Doug Chandler
was among the legends taking part in the
Superstars of Superkarts kart race at laguna Seca. Chandler commented that the
forces being exerted on the drivers' bodies
in the 140-mph karts is awesome. "Four
laps, and my neck muscles are gone,"
Chandler said. "They said we're pulling 2
1/2 G's out of tum nine." Chandler expected that he and the rest of the field would
likely be chasing four-time former 500cc
World Champion Eddie Lawson, who regularly competes in the Superkarts. "I think
if it was a three-lap race, I might have a
chance," Chandler said. ':A.fter that, I'm
doing good just to keep my head up
straight."
ter; we were much more competitive right
out of the box. We've been doing a lot of
testing. Nobody's going to wait for us.
You've got to understand that. When we
say we're making progress. we are. It's just
that nobody else - it's not like the other
teams are sitting and waiting for us to catch
up. They're making progress, too. Instead
of being three, four seconds off, almost
where we were at the beginning, now
we're three-. four-, six-tenths off. We
exceeded what we had from last year,
which is a compliment to us, to the team,
to hard work. We finally slightly surpassed
what we did last year, I think, in the average pace, even. Now we've just got to
keep going forward and maybe catch up by
the end of the year. The bike was better
and the clutch really cost us a lot."
Yoshimura Suzuki's Ben Spies is fairly convinced that the blue-flag system isn't working. "The AMA probably needs to not even
doing the blue-flag thing," Spies said.
"Nobody pays attention. It's nobody's fault,
but nobody pays attention, so I think they
can ban that."
and I was losing time. I had to mellow out and
ease up on things and just be a little more
smoother. I got to going better and was able to
eN
get back by him."
MAzDA RACEWAY LAGUNA SECA
MONTEREY, CAUFORNIA
RESULTS: JULY
9, 2005
(ROUND
11
OF
17)
AMA SUPERBIKE QUAlIFYING: I. Mat Mladin (1:24.886); 2.
Eric Bostrom (I :25.366); 3. Aaron Yales (1:25.'490); 4. Neil Hodgson
(1;25.7n); 5. Ben Spies (1;25.879); 6. Miguel Duhamel ("16.383); 7.
jake Zemke ("16.439); 8. )o>h Hay", (1;26.991); 9. 5t... Rapp
(U7.2n); 10. Geoff May ("17.387); II.M""Y~II(I;27.406);12.
JoM Haner (1;27.868); 13. Jacob Holden (1;27.966); 14. J""'"
PritImom (1;28.203); 18. )..-emyToye (1;28.790);
19. Brent ~ ("18.808); 20. Jimn)' t1oo<"e ("18.878); 21. Tony
Merng (1;29.481); 22. Eric Wood (1;29.590); 23. Clint McBa;n
(I ;29.683); 24. Lee kree (I ;29.783); 25. Kevin Ulcombe (1;30.140);
26. Marl< I..edet (1;30.848); 29. Jell T _ (1;30.901); 30. Xoo jensen
(1;30.983); 3 I. Cor(CaJI (I ;31.032); 32. AlO", Tam;uuii (1;3 1.117); 33.
Daoo Bell (1;32.115); 34.)am.. Kerlt... (1;32.148); 35. Shane T"'l'in
(1;32.1%); 36. Nicky MOtrom (Due); 2. Mat Mladin (Suz);
3. Aaron Yat'" (Suz); 4. Ben Spi<5 (Suz); 5. jake Zemke (Hen); 6.
Miguel Duhamel (Hen); 7. Kuru. Robern (Hen); 8. 5""", Rapp (Suz);
9. jacob Holden (Suz); 10. J=n Pridmore (Suz); II. Many C~H
(Suz); 12. Uny I'egr;>m (Hen); 13. John Haner (Suz); 14. jeremy 10ye
(Hen); 15. Tony Me;ring (Suz); 16. Jimmy t1oo<"e (Suz); 17. Lee kree
(Suz); 18. Cor( Denten W"" (Suz); 19. Oint McBa;n (Suz); 20. xoo
)"""'" (Suz); 21. Brent ~ (5uz); ll. Kevin lacombe (Suz); 23.
Eric Wood (Suz); 24. AlO", Tam",";i (Suz); 25. J.J. Reed" (Suz); 26.
Cory Cal (Kaw); 27. Shane T.."in (Suz); 28. Jam.. Kerl<... (Hen); 29.
OMtrom (268/2 w;ns); 5. Ne;I
Hod&"," (249/1 win); 6. Miguel DciwreJ (229); 7. jake Zemke (212);
8. Many ~II (206); 9. Leekree (192); 10.5""", Rapp (188); II.
(TlE)o>h Hayem (178); 13. Eric Wood (156); 14. Jimmy
t1oo<"e(150); 15. xoo)"""'" (141).
UPCOMING ROUNDS
Roonds 12·13 . lexington, Ohio, Ju~ 23-24
Roonds 1415· Axlon, Virginio, August 27·28
Former 2S0cc U.s. Grand Prix winner and
AMA 250cc Grand Prix National Champion
Jimmy Filice said that he was excited to
be on hand to witness the retum of Grand
Prix radng to laguna. "It's really good for
our sport in America," Filice said.•~ you
can see. the crowd is huge. It draws the
people here. There's nothing like laguna
and its fans. This is a good thing for motorsports in general." Filice - who won the
250cc U.S. GP as a wild-card rider in 1988,
finished second in 1989, and had several
top AMA finishes at laguna during his
career - said that he would like to have
seen the 250cc and I25cc Grand Prix classes make the trip to laguna as well. "I'm a
little disappointed that they didn't bring
those guys over," Filice said. "Maybe next
time for AMA we could onty run the
Superbikes and 600s. I think they need the
whole [MotoGP] package, the whole show.
They have all these heroes, like Rossi and
5ete [Gibemau], but those other kids are
developing into our next heroes. I think
that for the World Championship, it would
Doug Chandler also said that the best
part of his U.S. GP experience was getting
the chance to say hello to some of the vari-
ous European-based crew members that
he worked with during his GP days. "I
came around on Thursday when it was
low-key, and I got to see some of them,"
Chandler said. "I hadn't seen some of them
in I I years."
Although rumors continued to swirl
regarding Yamaha's plans to contest the
2006 Daytona 200, Yamaha Race Team
manager Keith McCarty said that Yamaha
was not ready to make such an announcement yet. "We need to get our team
secured," McCarty said. "Jamie [Hacking],
Aaron [Gobert] and Damon [Buckmaster]
are coming to the end of their contracts.
We haven't sat down with them yet. Jason
DiSaNo has a contract with us [beyond
2005]. We need to get that all figured out
and then go from there."
Keith McCarty also expressed "happiness
and disappointment" at the return of the
U.S. GP. "It's an awesome event, but when
you're used to being able to go anywhere
you want to go in the paddock and see
everything, that's what you're looking forward to," McCarty said. "But then to have
a door slammed in your face, that's more
disheartening than anything. You want to
get close, but you can't get close. From the
track side, it's probably really awesome,
but from the inside thing, we obviously get
to see Yamaha's stuff, but we'd like to be
able to see everybody's stuff, and that's just
not possible. But that's just the racing fan in
me talking."
Yamaha's Jason DiSalvo collected his fifth
Repsol Superstock position in a row, posting an AMA track record time of one
minute, 26.294 seconds, dUring the Saturday moming qualifying session. The lap
earned him a bonus point, pulling him to
within fIVe points of Yoshimura Suzuki's
Aaron Yates in the series title race, but DiSalvo was the first to admit that bonus
points alone aren't going to get the job
done. "That championship point means a
Continued on page 37
CYCLE NEWS • JULY 20,2005
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