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Spies (111 put together consistent 2-3 finishes for the two
races. Combined with Mladin's II'oUbIe on Sunday, it moved
him to a '"""' nine points behind MIaclin in the swies title race.
Briefly..•
Continued from page 35
So I'll probably give the lead up in the championship
if that's the case, if it rains tomorrow and the next
day, because we shouldn't be racing on this track in
the rain." Mladin said there were... "just way too
many surfaces with way too many sealer patches
and all that sort of stuff. There's other racetracks
that we don't race at in the rain, and if we don't race
at a couple of the others, then we certainly shouldn't
be racing here." Mladin pointed out that last year's
races were delayed by rain and not run until the
track partly dried. "I would certainly hope the same
would [apply] this year, because nothing's changed,
really," he said.
The track did make changes to two areas, one of
they just filled it up and put a cap on it and
we went back out. The handlebar was bent
right in and stuff like that. The bike was a bit
of a mess, but it was all right, and we did 28s
again right after that."
Yates was in disbelief that he'd crashed in
nearly the same spot, though the circumstances were a bit different.
"It was a lot earlier in the tum," Yates
said of his second crash in the Carousel.
"Yesterday, it was kind of after the apex.
This time we got in there, and Eric
[Bostrom] got a bit wide, and I guess I tried
tuming a little tighter to roll up the inside of
him. I wasn't even really on the brakes or
anything, and it felt like the rear stepped
around. I'm not sure, it just happened fast.
Unfortunately, I guess Mat followed me off
in there, and he had to run off. I hate it, for
him, the way it tumed out. It's just a bad
deal."
A bad deal for the Yosh team, but not a
bad deal for Bostrom. With those two out
of the race, he was able to focus entirely on
the task at hand - winning his third race of
the season.
"It's exhilarating," Bostrom said. "I definitely had a little bit of help - what a crazy
race! There were a lot of strange events,
and that's kind of how this season has gone,
with people dropping out, including me.
The pace was pretty strong, and that's why
Iwas so pumped today. Iwanted to win, but
I was just so happy to be doing 26s that that
was good enough for me. That was my goal
going into the race. I figured if I left the race
doing some 26s for a while, then no matter
what place I finished, I'd be happy with it.
Then the events unfolded. It would have
been a really flOWing race except for the lappers. It just breaks it up. Every time we're in
this press room, which hasn't been too
much for me, we complain about this, and
it's a shame because it does take something
out of the racing. These guys were pushing
hard, and that was everything I had. It's
always an honor to beat Miguel Duhamel
and the other boys. It's great to be back up
here again. A big thanks to my crew for
making it possible."
Bostrom had gone with the same compound Dunlop tires as the day before, but
some setup changes made them perform
better.
"The tires were really amazing to me,"
he said. "We went with the same tires as
yesterday, because we changed some things
this morning. The things were much better
than this moming. I knew that was pretty
much alii had, getting toward the end ofthe
II laps [and the crash], it started spinning a
lot more, but I figured, 'Hey, if I'm spinning,
they're spinning.' I was curious as to what
point Mladin or somebody like that might
come by and set off, but then again it seems
like once the tires do take a dive, it's hard
for anybody to go fast."
Bostrom won the race, with Duhamel
second and Spies third.
"I felt pretty good until you said, 'First
podium in a year,''' Duhamel said after doing
exactily that. "It feels great. We've been
working hard, struggling a bit here and
there, as everybody well knows. The bike
was really good. It was pretty decent yesterday besides the front-end problem we
had a bit. Today we corrected that. We had
a little bit of... the bike was just solid. I really felt I could slowly bring myself up to the
leaders. I got behind Jake [Zemke], and I
think he had a problem, and then Ben
seemed to be struggling, too, but I was
struggling to get by him. Finally I got by him;
he went wide in the Keyhole [and] I got
inside. Just tried to put my head down and
get some good laps, crack down in the 27s
a bit."
Behind Duhamel came Spies - another
podium for the youngster in his rookie season of Superbike racing. Still, he's not completely satisfied, as he continues to struggle
with getting the GSX-R I000 set up the way
he'd like it.
"We were going in a good direction,"
Spies said. "I think we made a couple of
wrong choices for the race. I'm blaming
nobody but myself. It's the whole first-year
thing. The bike is an awesome bike. I know
the potential that it has, and I can feel the
potential that it has. I know what it should
do, but we can't get it to where I'm comfortable yet. It's not a matter of running
someone's setup... we just have to put
some more laps in and do littie bitty changes
and just a couple of clicks here and there,
and it could be right on. I feel bad for my
team. I'm kind of letting them down in the
setup department, but I don't have much
knowledge. As soon as I can get the bike
where I'm comfortable with it, we'll be
fighting at the front."
Hodgson was an ever-improving fourth,
and Erion Honda's Roberts had his best outing of the season in fifth. The Michael Jordan
Motorsports pairing of Rapp and Pridmore
ended up seventh and eighth, respectively.
Uon Racing's Holden finished eighth, with
Yates, fortunate enough to have not suffered
any bike damage in his crash, remounting to
finish ninth. Larry Pegram rode his
Hotbodies Racing Honda to 10th, despite an
off-track excursion early in the race.
Attack Kawasaki's Hayes dropped out
of sixth on the 20th lap with mechanical
problems.
eN
MID-OHIO SPORTS CAR CouRsE
WoNGroN, OHIO
Ibsuus: JULY 23-24, 2005 (ROUNDS 12-13)
SUPERBIKE QUAUFYlNG, I. Mat Mladm (1,26.058);
2. AMoo Vates (1;26.541); 3. Ben sp;es (1;26.603); 4. Jake
Zemke (1;26.717); 5. Miguel Duhamel (1;26.789); 6. Eric
Ilo>trom (I ;26.910); 7. Nell Hodgson (I ,27.759); 8.J"'" Hayes
(1;28.420); 9. jacob Holden (1;28.449); 10. l=y Pegram
(1;28.494); II. Many c:r.gg;1I (1;28.748); 12. Kum. Robens
(1;28.952); 13. Steve Raw (1;29.013); 14. John H..,.,(1;29.102); 15. Jason Pridmo