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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PREVIEW - 2000 AMA/Chevy Trucks Superbike National Championship BY PAUL CARRUTHERS PHOTOS BY HENNY RAY ABRAMS "" s Yogi Berra once said, ~ "It's tough to make predictions, especially about the future." Smart man, that Yogi. I remember actually looking forward to the task of making my predictions for the AMA Superbike Championship. It was my big chance to show everyone how smart I was, how I knew more about the AMA Superbike Championship than anyone else. Instead, I've proven the exact opposite. With Anthony Gobert failing me again last year, my streak of being wrong has hit six in a row. Impressive stuff. This is how I had things figured out for last year. with the actual finishes listed. As always, my excuse for being wrong is in the parenthesis. I will take credit, however, for my top three actually finishing in the top three - I just had the order a bit wrong. 1. Anthony Gobert (third - I'll still argue he was the fastest guy on the racetrack, even when he was the fattest guy on the racetrack. I can no longer, however, defend the most unpredictable man in motorcycle racing). 2. Mat Mladin (first - I said that if Gobert slipped, even a little bit, Mladin would win. Mladin did just that.) 3. Ben Bostrom (second Bostrom is good, but I already knew that.) 4. Eric Bostrom (seventh the youngest Bostrom failed to build on a promising 1998. Perhaps it was the sophomore jinx.) 5. Doug Chandler (fourth never question Doug. He will be near the top every year.) 6. Miguel DuHamel (16th injury ruined his season.) 7. Aaron Yates (eighth - hey, I was close.) 8. Scott Russell (20th Ouch!) 9. Rich Oliver (13th - I'll blame the broken arm.) 10.Jason Pridmore (sixth he was more consistent than I thought he would be.) Okay, the past is the past. This is the year the streak gets snapped. Trust me and Yogi. 18 MARCH 1. 2000· cue 1. D~~~·Ch~~dk;:·#·io·· Age: 34 Hometown: Salinas, Califomia Team: Kawasaki Best re-sult in 1999: First (Loudon, Mid-Ohio, Pikes Peak) Ranking in 1999: Fourth in AMA Superbike Championship. itself: 1987 (5th), 1988 (3rd). 1989 (5th), 1990 (1st), 1995 (15th, with the VRI000). 1996 (1st). 1997 (1st), 1998 (2nd), 1999 (4th). In his nine seasons of AMA Superbike racing, Chandler has averaged a fourth-place finish in the final championship standings - and that includes his aberration of a season in 1995 when he struggled miserably on the Harley-Davidson VRI 000. 2. ·i-;~~·B~~i;~~·:·#88··... Age: 30 Hometown: Taree, Australia Team: Vance f, Hines Ducati Ranking in 1999: \Won the British Superbike Championship ith apologies to Doug Chandler, I believe he will emerg'; from a tight-knit group to win the AMA/Chevy Trucks Superbike Championship in a battle that will go down to the very last lap of the final race in Colorado. \Why? Because when push comes to shove, in 2000, Chandler's vast experience will win out. He may not win the most races (although he won three last year, despite a slow start to his season), but he'll be at or near the top in every single one of them. He knows exactly what it takes to win this championship, and he'll win his fourth AMA Superbike title this year because of that - and also because he starts the season Bostrom and Anthony Gobert had a few niggling problems last season. Still, the bike gets more reliable every year and this may be the- year that the team goes an entire season without a hic- cup. If they do, Bayliss could easily challenge for the crown. 3. M~t·Mi~d·i~·"#j········ Age: 28 Hometown: Camden, Australia Team: Yoshimura Suzuki Best result in 1999: First (Sears Point) Ranking in 1999: AMA Superbike National Champion the more determined becomes. Like Chandler and Bayliss, Mladin will be in the hunt for the title for the duration. 4. Mi~~~ijj~H~~~i·#·i7· Age: 31 Hometown: Montreal, Canada Team: American Honda Best result in 1999: First (Daytona 200) Ranking in 1999: 16th in AMA Superbike Championship W with -more resources at his dis- posal than at any other time in his career. \With Kawasaki taking its team away from Rob Muzzy and bringing it in-house, Chandler is the perfect racer to help them make that transition a smooth one. He knows the motorcycle like the back of his hand, and he knows how to make it work at each and every track on the schedule. He also gets his old crew chief back, with Gary Medley returning to Kawasaki after a season with Vance Eo- Hines Ducati. The two work well together, and that will prove to be key in a season when mistakes will prove costly. And I'll argue with anyone who says getting fresh motorcycles from the factory in Japan is a bad thing. Pundits point out that Chandler is 34 years old, but he is probabiy the youngest 34-yearold in motorcycle racing. And there really is one reason for that: He doesn't crash (you can almost count his career crashes on one hand). Chandler's record speaks for • .. ne""s M ustralian Troy Bayliss will make his AMA Superbike racing debut at Daytona, but we're not talking about a rookie racer here. Fresh off a season where he won the British Superbike Championship, Bayliss has proven that he's tough and smart, and he's also not going to let anyone push him around. If you get a chance to watch any video of the British Series, you'll know that the newest Australian in the series isn't afraid to mix it up. Bayliss also won that British title on a Ducati - a Ducati fitted with Dunlop tires - on racetracks that aren't much different from what he'll see here. The bottom line: He's familiar with the equipment, and he's on a team that will make him feel at home. It's the AMA racetracks that critics will point to as the reason why Bayliss won't succeed in his first season here. "He doesn't know the tracks, the other riders, blah, blah, blah ... • To believe that this guy can't leam his way around places like Laguna Seca, Brainerd and MidOhio prior to the time they drop the flag on Sunday is ludicrous. The last time 1 checked, the Isle of Man wasn't on the schedule. And as far as Bayliss being scared of places like Loudon, forget about it. He's raced at places that make Loudon look like Phillip Island. I also think the days of the Ducati blowups may also be over, although both Ben A I n order to properly rationalize not picking Mat MJadin to finish first in this year's title chase, I had to talk myself into the fact that any of my top five picks could emerge with this championship in hand. That made me feel a little better, though picking Mladin this low is still a big risk. Mladin may not have been perfect in 1999, but he was close. He didn't do anything wrong from Daytona to Pikes Peak, and for that he was rewarded with the title he'd been striving for since his debut AMA season in 1996. The Australian has long known what it takes to win the AMA title, and he finally put the package together that would allow him to do just that. Make no mistake about it. the portion of the Yoshimura Suzuki team that MJadin resides in, truly is Mladin's team. He has the people he wants doing the tasks he wants them to do, and the results speak for themselves. Last year in this space I stated that Mladin was the complete opposite of Gobert, the walking time bomb. I said that Mladin was rock·steady. A sure thing. I said it then and I'll say it again, Mladin doesn't screw around and he doesn't screw up. It will be interesting to see if his volatile relationship with the AMA improves now that he is the series champion, but either way it doesn't seem to affect his performances on the racetrack. In fact, the opposite seems true. The more pissed off Mladin gets, iguel DuHamel is a pit bull. He doesn't waste his time barking at you. He simply walks up and bites your leg - and you can't shake him off. I truly believe, if the new RC51 is as good as it is supposed to be and DuHamel keeps it upright and doesn't hurt himself, he very welJ could be the champion. To those of you who don't believe he can rebound from breaking his leg again, you don't know much about pit bulls. DuHamel isn't like the rest of us. \When he was lying in an Atlanta hospital waiting for Xrays on his broken leg after crashing out of the 600cc Supers port race at Road Atlanta, he wasn't thinking of the pain - he was thinking about how he could get back to the track in time for the Superbike National. He's a sick individual, but he's a winner through and through. Unfortunately, what makes him so good is what makes him so bad. He wants to win so badly that sometimes he takes a risk that he doesn't need to and the result is usually disastrous. But you simply can't count him out. Take Daytona last year for example. I've long been a DuHamel fan, but I didn't give him a chance in helJ of winning the 200 given his physical condition. Then he went out and won the 600cc Supersport final and Daytona 200 on the same day - after having to be lifted on and off the bike. Compared to Jast year, DuHamel is a picture of health heading into this season. If he stays that way, look out for the pit bull.