Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
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because there were a few guys who got up there and were riding as hard as they could because it was such a big weekend, and that made me a bit nervous. Once I got around them, I carried on. I sort of 99 screwed up the last turn a little bit. I was happy to follow jason. I knew he was fast. As long as a Yamaha wins, there's no need to screw each other up and wreck our weekend." eN M4 EMGO Suzuki's May got a terrible start to the Supersport race. "But I was able to see where everybody was going, and I just went around as many guys as I could and put my head down to try and stay with the lead pack," May said. "Them Yamaha guys came through, and there was just no way to stay with them. They were on a rail. I knew Tommy was hurting. I could see it in the way that he was riding, so I just put my head down and got him. After that, I just tried to ride smart through the lappers, and it ended up paying off." MAzDA RACEWAY LAGUNA SECA 1 MONTEREY, CAUFORNIA RESULTS: JULY 10, 200S (ROUND 7 OF 10) PRO HONDA OILS SUPER5PORT: I. Jason DiSalvo (Yam); 2. Roger Lee Hayden (Kaw): 3. Aaron Gobert (Yam); 4. Ben Spies (Suz): 5. Geoff May (Suz); 6. Tommy Hayden (Kaw); 7. Damon Buckmaster (Yam); 8. Chris Pens (Yam); 9. Nicky Moore (Yam); 10. Blake Young (Suz); t I. Chris Siglin (Suz); t 2. Robert Jensen (Yam); 13. Barrett Long (Yam); 14. Danny Eslick (Suz); 15. Eli Edwards (Suz): 16. Jim Wood (Kaw): 17. Taylor Knapp (Yam): 18. Shea Fouchek (Suz); 19. Grant Riggs (Yam); 20. Heath Small (Yam); 21. Ricky Orlando (Kaw); 22. Nathan Hester (Yam); 23. Armando Ferrer (Yam); H. Tim Knutson (Yam): 25. Chad Lewin (Suz); 26. Berta Wooldridge (Suz); 27. Dirk Sanchez (Kaw); 28. Chris Siebenhaar (Hon); 29. Justin Filice (Hon); 30. Chad Rolland (Yam); ) I. Vietor Chirinos (Yam); 32. Jeffrey Purl< (Yam); 33. Martin Sims (Yam); 34. jeffrey Haiduk (Yam); 35. jeffrey Tigert (Hon); 36. Jeremiah johnson (5uz); 37. Ben Attard (Kaw). Time: 25 min., 30.440 sec. Distance: 17 laps. 38.046 miles Average speed: 89.5 mph. Margin of victory: .243 sec. AMA PRO HONDA OILS SUPERSPORT CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES POINTS STANDINGS (After 7 of 10 rounds): I. Tommy Hayden (237/3 wins); 2. Roger lee Hayden (196/1 win); 3. Jason DiSalvo (182/1 win); 4. Ben Spies (176); 5. Aaron Gobert (175); 6.Jamie Hacking (165n wins); 7. Geoff May (161); 8. Chris Pens (157); 9. Robert Jensen (147); 10. Damon Buckmaster (139); r I. Danny Eslick (t 18); 12. Ben Attard (116); 13. Blake Young (105); 14. Nicky Moore (99); IS. Barren Long (87); 16. Nathan Hester (85); 17. Taylor Knapp (57); 18. Chris Siglin (55); 19. Jim Wood (44); 20. Justin Filice (42). Briefly••• MY OWN RACE Continued from page 35 Geoff May 5th Tommy Hayden Chris Peris 69 Danny Eslick best to stay focused. "For sure, there's a little bit of pressure with all the GP guys here and the heads of every factory in the world," DiSalvo said on Saturday. "But if I go out there tomorrow and win both my races by 10 seconds, that's not going to land me a MotoGP ride, knows that. But if I go out here and keep a cool head, get the points that I need and ultimately win this [Repsol Superstock] championship, that possibly could have more of an effect on getting me where I want to go." After Saturday's AMA qualifying sessions, Roger Lee Hayden was breathing a little easier. Hayden said that he was having a tough time getting dialed into the Laguna circuit. '" feel pretty good 14th Still showing flashes of brilliance - aibeit brief ones - Eslick was in the hunt early aboard his MPTRacing.com Suzuki, running as high as fifth before a miscue sent him skidding into the turn-two gravel trap. Eslick recovered well enough to keep going, but he lost several spots in the process. "In turn two, I caught a false neutral and just kind of got a little out of control," Eslick said. "I had to jam it into gear, and I went off the track. That wasn't too bad, now," Hayden said. "I definitely struggled. I fought the bike a little bit, and then we put on a qualifier, and with the softer tire. the bike felt better, and I kind of relaxed a little bit. We quali- but we had some tire issues with the front. I don't know what it was, the tire itself or sus- pension issues. It was really hairball to ride it, because it was sliding allover the place, so I just had to suck it up and bring it home without tearing any equipment up." To The Wire Yates Gets His Third T the Laguna round had him feeling a bit more pressure than usual, although he was doing his Buckmaster, so I was just cruising around for most of the race." T-.my Hayden (22) took control 01 the Superstock race just after the halfway point, only 10 throw it clown the road on lap 15. PHOTOS BY GoLD e Repsol Lubricants Superstock event kicked off Sunday's racing at Mazda Raceway laguna Seca in front of the largest crowd that has ever passed through the gates of the famous track just outside of Monterey, California. The race proved to be a bamburner from the drop of the green flag and continuing right down to the checkered. In the final corner on the final lap, Yoshimura Suzuki's Aaron Yates had to fend off Yamaha's Jason DiSalvo to take his Jason DiSalvo makes no bones about the fact that he wouid like to be in MotoGP someday, which is obviously what Iwant, and everybody 8th Topline Yamaha's Peris seems to be stuck around the eighth-place mark. That usually means he is one of the top privateers behind the factory boys. That was the case again at Laguna. "It went pretty good," Peris said. "I had a pretty decent start and just tried to hang with the pack. It was pretty uneventful. I was behind [Damon] Buckmaster, and he kind of got a little bit of a gap on me. I just kind of ran a few consistent laps. I wasn't gaining on fied seventh [in Superstock], and a couple tenths would have put us on the front row, so not bad. We kind of turned it around. If you would have interviewed me last night at 5:30, I would have Repsol Lubricants Superstock Series STORY BY BLAKE CONNER by getting pole-position points all year long," DiSalvo said. "Really, we're going to have to do the business on Sunday." and he admitted that the arcus atmosphere of 6th Although he was on the pole for the race, Team Kawasaki's Hayden was hardly a factor in it. Nursing injuries from his crash earlier in the day, the series points leader soldiered around, trying to keep as many riders behind him as possible. "I wasn't even sure I was going to ride, really," Hayden said. "I just got out there and got some adrenaline going. I got up there and ran pretty good for a while, but it was just too tough. I was in a lot of pain, and I just tried not to get greedy. It was tough. I was running around two seconds slower than I was all weekend. I'll try to get straightened out for Ohio." 8 lot, but I'm not going to win this championship & GOOSE third Superstock victory of the season after Tommy Hayden crashed spectacularly out of the lead with a little over two laps to go. "This is pretty big for us," Yates said. "'t's good getting a little points cushion going into some of the tracks I really like. We really want to win the Superstock championship for Suzuki on the new GSX-RIOOO. The guys on the yellow bikes [Yamahas] really wanted to win, and it feels good to spoil their party." The race got under way under blue skies and with perfect racing conditions. Yates grabbed the holeshot as the pack crested tum one, with Roger Lee Hayden, Tommy Hayden, pole sitter DiSalvo, and Aaron Gobert in close formation behind. Roger Lee wasted little time in trying to get around Yates and made a move going into turn five on the first lap, only to be passed back on the exit of the comer. At the end of the first lap, it was Yates, Tommy, Roger Lee, DiSalvo and Gobert, with Uon Racing's jacob Holden jumping into the mix as well. Jordan Suzuki's Steve Rapp and john Haner; on the second Uon Radng Suzuki GSX-RI 000, were in pursuit but a bit back from the leading group of five. Yates was in the lead, but three laps into the race he had Tommy putting a ton of pressure on him, while Roger Lee made a mistake and slipped back to fifth. The top five consisting of Yates, Tommy, Roger Lee (now back in third), DiSalvo and Holden - had estllblished a good chunk of real estate over the second group of riders. Tommy made his move on Yates under braking for tum I I at the end of the third lap, but Yates wasn't about to let the oldest Hayden brother ruin his day and stayed right on the tail section of Tommy's Kawasaki. Things were getting heated between the top two as Yates put a move on Tommy entering the Corkscrew on lap fIVe. Yates crossed the stripe in front again at the end of the fifth lap and then really put his head down and charged away from Tommy and Roger Lee, DiSalvo, Holden, Haner (who been really concerned. It's easy to blame the bike. but Ithink it was SO-percent bike and 50percent rider. Now it's only 20-percent bike and SO-percent rider, and I have to step up to the plate. Ithink that 1can podium on the 1000. On the 600, it's hard to tell, because we've only been out there for 30 minutes, and that was at 8 a.m., so it was more a case of just keeping it on two wheels." Roger Lee Hayden also commented on the U.S. GP spectacle: "Yesterday [Friday], I never saw Nicky one time. I just now saw him, but he was walking by. It's kind of two different worlds. I'm just kind of blown away by all the people. It's a zoo out there, but it's awesome for the sport." Although he took part in the unveiling ceremony, injured Team Yamaha rider Jamie Hacking did not get to experience the thrill of racing in the yellow-and-black livery, and he didn't hide his disappointment over it. "I've been waiting to be part of something special like this ever since I started riding," said Hacking, who is still recovering from injuries to both of his elbows after suffering a bicycle accident while training. "I just love the yellow. I think it is awesome. This is just terrible." Jamie Hacking also said that he had no real prediction as to when he might be back in action. "The goal is not to say when I'm going to come back:' Hacking said. "The goal is to be 100 percent, and when I'm 100 percent,l will come back, whether that's the last race of the year or not." Hacking underwent major surgery to repair both elbows. "It was pretty bad," he said. "I had major ligament damage, and , cracked the Ulna on both arms. I can go hard on a race bike and not get hurt, and then I get on a bicycle and get hurt so bad it destroys my year." CYCLE NEWS • JULY 20, 2005 37