Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

AMA Superblke National Championship Yates' (20) pair of podium finishes got him 13 paints closer to Eric Bostrom in the baHle for third in championship paints. laps led. If we couldn't win the race, maybe one point would help in the end. He came by, and I made a few big mistakes trying to run with him. Isettled back and looked at my gap and tried to hold off jake [Zemke], and it turned out that Aaron [Yates] got jake." Indeed he did, the pair coming together in a mix-up with a lapped rider in the closing stages. "I was closing up on jake pretty good there towards the end," Yates said. "I had a real good run going in the second segment there, after the first red flag, and thought we had a chance of winning the thing. We changed the clutch on the last restart, and the clutch was a bit soft off the line, and it didn't respond like it usually does. Ben [Spies] kind of took my line around the outside of everybody, and I did the best I could to try and follow him through there. I ended up behind Eric [Bostrom] for a while, and it really took a bit to get by him. By that time, Ben had pulled out there, and Mat [Mladin] was going so strong, and he came by me and I thought maybe I could go with him. Before I knew it, he was up there, and he kept on going. I was closing up on jake, and he ran up on a lapper, and that helped me out a little. He went a little wide down there at the bottom, and I shot up the 18 inside. The line wasn't going tQ be there for me and I dropped back a bit, and the lapper went out, and jake saw me on the inside and grabbed a big handful of throttle. He about highsided, and I was looking at him, like, 'Man.''' Then came Duhamel, Bostrom and Hayes, and a big gap to the top privateer, with Craggill coming out on top of a duel with Toye and Acree. Sunday's race got under way under bright sunshine, and it was decidedly different from the day prior. For starters, Mladin was near the front. And he was in a hurry to get to the lead. He did so on the fifth lap. And then he was gone. In just two laps, he was over a second ahead. Then it went to 2.6, 3.2, 4.0... you get the picture. Half a second a lap was the goal, and that's what he did. "No real issues," Mladin said later. "Everything went well. Obviously, the lap times were quite a bit slower than yesterday; the track was fairly greasy. I just tried to keep pushing on my own pace and see what sort of lap times it was taking to pull away half a second a lap - and just sort of sat there. I got into some traffic with a few laps to go and really took my time with them and brought it home." He brought it home with his IOth win of the season, a mark that matches a record he shares with Fred Merkel for most in a season. Behind him things also spread out fairly qUickly. Yates ended the first lap in fourth but didn't waste much time getting around Bostrom. It took him longer to SEPTEMBER 7, 2005 • CYCLE NEWS work on Zemke, but he made the move on the ninth lap. Two laps later, he was past Spies and into second. From there, it was clear sailing for the Georgian. "The race went pretty well for me, coming out in second place," Yates said. "I didn't have much of a battle. I got off the line a little slow and ran behind jake [Zemke] and Ben [Spies] for a while. They started slOWing down a little bit, and I was keeping my pace a little bit easier, I guess. Ben made it easy for me, because he got into turn one a little hot. I was actually there with him, and I was wondering if I was going to get it turned. I got it turned and went under him." Zemke was also entertaining thoughts of taking on Spies, but that didn't last long, as his Honda failed him on the 16th lap and he was forced to pit and call it a day. That left Spies well clear of Duhamel, though the gritty Honda rider still tried to make it interesting late in the race. "We got off to a good start, and everything was going relatively good, I guess," Spies said. "We started going backwards. We usually, all the way through the year, have been concentrating on being strong at the end of the race. On the riding level right now, we're not where Mat [Mladin] is - even if the bike is set up. The bike not being where I need it is hurting a lot. It's 90 percent my fault, too, so we're just going to keep chipping away and hopefully get a setup on the thing and be strong at the end of the race again. If it's a bad weekend and we got third, we'll take it and move to Atlanta." Hodgson, meanwhile, was mostly alone, keeping an eye on Hayes, but comfortable in finishing fifth after a trying day. Hayes ended up sixth, besting Bostrom. Then came Pridmore, Rapp and West, Neil Hodgson (100) had an up-andout weekend, with a crash during Saturday's race and a fifth on Sunday. none threatening the other in what was mostly a dull race. eN VIRGINIA INTERNAnONAL RACEWAY AlTON, VIRGINIA RESULTS: AUGUST 27-2B, 2005 (ROUNDS 14-15) SUPERBIKE QUAliFYING: I. Mat Mladin (I :23.986); 2. Ben Spies (I :24.783); 3. Aaron Yates (1,25.239); 4. Jake Zemke (1,25.lJ5); 5. Eric 8o

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