Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/128394
Briefly... Crop 9 Most found it rather baffling that Mat Mladin elected not to change his clutch for the third and final restart of Saturday's Superbike National. But Mladin said that his problem with the bike isn't clutch-related. "It wasn't a clutch problem," Mladin said. He went on to explain that the bike's problem had him worried throughout, especially on the starts. ':.\fter the first one [start], I was worried because I was in the middle of the front row and if I had a problem, you just don't know," Mladin said. "For the third start, I was fourth, so I got to go on the inside. I said to Steve Rapp on the start line as I pulled up, 'Be careful, because I've got a couple of issues.' I just pointed my bike toward the grass and hoped for a good start. I actually got a decent start and the bike was fine, and then 50 meters down the track, things didn't go so well, and everyone came back past again. It's not mentally tough, but it pisses me off. We've had the problem all year, and this race... I can't believe what's just happened." As for a possible solution to the problem for Sunday's race, Mladin joked: "I'm going to take Ben's [Spies] bike, take one of the number ones off and put it under my tent." Jasan DiSalvo (40) kept his championship hopes alive with a third-place finish, ahead of teammate Damon Buckmaster (6). My 6 OWN RACE Damon Buckmaster 4th Graves Motorsports Yamaha's Damon Buckmaster came clean on why his results have been off his standard this season. "I've had some serious carpal tunnel syndrome going on, and it's been like that all year," Buckmaster said. "I just haven't said anything. I don't want to seem like the guy that's whining about it." The ailment reared up early in the Superstock race while he was a close fourth, behind teammate Jason DiSalvo. "I think about lap five or something like that Igot a bit numb in my left hand. I went. into turn three and tried to downshift. My foot pulled the downshift, but my left hand didn't pull the clutch in properly, so I got a false neutral and ran wide. I managed to keep it on the race rack. Then I just had to just slow it down enough to keep the distance on the people behind me. It was a good race. I just need to get this thing taken care of at the end of the season." 43 Jason Pridmore 7th Michael Jordan Motorsports Suzuki's Jason Pridmore was rammed from behind by Uon Racing's Jake Holden on the 14th lap of the Superstock race. The incident brought out the red flag and sent Holden to the local hospital. Pridmore escaped unhurt and without falling. "I'm going off into one, and the next thing you know, I felt something, like, nudge me," Pridmore said. "I thought I blew a tire. The next thing I know, this thing [his exhaust canister] was all bent out to here, and I felt it hit my foot. Then I was like, 'What the hell?' Then my bike stood up on its own, and I thought, 'I'm attached to somebody.' I got into a huge tank-slapper right before I went on the grass. I turned my bike, Miguel Duhamel had a few close calls en route to winning the Formula Xtreme final and it must have got us unlocked. His front tire came up in there, sucked it up in there [under his seat cowling]. I looked back over my left shoulder and saw him going. I'm so bummed for Jake right now. He's had a good year, and he's ridden well. I don't know what happened." 99 Geoff May 5th "Everything was working good," Team M4 EMGO Suzuki's Geoff May said. "I got held up a little bit in the beginning. As soon as I broke free, my lap times dropped quite a bit. Unfortunately, I used up most of my tire trying to get by Rapp and Haner, because they were riding so good and it's so hard to pass here. Once I got by, I put my head down, and the lap times started dropping, but at that time it was too late. I thought maybe I could get Buckmaster by the end, but I was having fun." 1 Aaron Gobert 6th Defending class champion Aaron Gobert had a few rough early laps that killed any hope of a strong finish. "It's pretty hard, because I've got the bike working really good, and I've got race distance going all right, and then those first few laps, I just can't get the package to work to do the same lap times at the start," Gobert said. "I've got guys that are more or less slower than me passing me in the first few laps and holding me up. I was coming through, I got up to fifth before the red flag came out, and they put me back to sixth. I'm definitely putting 100 percent into going as quick as I can, and that's all I can do. With used tires, sliding around a lot more, I can ride the bike better when it's loose. When it's in control, it's a little bit too unpredictable, and I don't really like it that way. - one with a lapper, and the other with a crashing lapper's seat almost hitting him. "Oh, my God, I almost got hit in the head by a seat of a guy that crashed coming out of the last corner," Duhamel said. "I was like, for a while just deflect that off, and I'm going, 'Whoa, I'm going pretty fast; that thing's a weapon. That's going to hurt if I hit tnat.' And another guy was trying to be a buddy, trying to help me, and he had arms waving and he was going wide and then coming back in, and I know he wanted to help me, but oh my God, it was the worst thing ever. If he just rode normal, I would have got him on the outside or the inside. But when he started waving and trying to help, I was like, 'What are you doing?' But you can't blame the guy; he was trying to help me. But, man, just those two couple of instances there, that's why it's exciting." Duhamel also gave kudos to Robert Jensen for a strong ride in Xtreme that netted him a third-place finish and a trip to the podium. "He's been around for a while, and where he's smoking fast is Brainerd," Duhamel said. "I always thought he would be able to get up here, and to see him up here, it's great for the sport, and I just want to congratulate him." Winning the Xtreme title at Road Atlanta will be tough for Duhamel, with Jake Zemke holding down a five-point lead. But the veteran will give it his best, as always. "I don't have that many options right now," Duhamel said. "I've got to do what I've got to do. I've got to go out there and win everything I can, lead every lap, and a little bit in the - I wouldn't call it panic, but [it's] definitely the time to do Continued on page 24 CYCLE NEWS. SEPTEMBER 7, 2005 23 , ,.