Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

is ," Ko ci ns k i s aid. "T h a t [th e overhe ating pro blem] was o nly one of the prob lem s , but th a t' s n ot m y m ajor concern . If th e e ng ine d oe sn 't m a ke it, the re 's noth ing I ca n do about tha t. We 're tr ying to ge t the bike to hand le p rope rly - tha t's a no the r thin g . There is so mu ch that we ha ve to do. I ha ve ridd en on so mu ch st uff this we e k , I ca n't even bel ie ve I wa s at the fro nt of tha t ra c e . I'm not a n e ngi nee r, and right now I'm a bett e r attorney th an I am a rider." Wit h Ko c ins k i slowin g , Bost rom was doing the exact o pposite. He wa s o n th e charge, and he ne ver gave a hint of giving up . It paid off whe n he was a ble to st a lk, po u nc e a nd pass Koc ins ki for th ird place. Kocins ki ha d th e consolation of being a ble to finish fourth. "Really , I d idn 't th ink we had any sh ot at it [third p la ce]. " Bo strom sa id. "Two laps from th e end , we were still a couple o f s e co n d s beh ind h im . Actually, I think th ose two laps were my best la ps . Everything wo rked out pre tty good . We ca u g h t him g o ing down t he b a c ks t ra ig ht a nd got h im [Koc insk i] go ing into five . It was a p retty b ig mo men t because I did n 't th ink we had a sh ot at the podium." F ifth p la c e went to Mladin . The Yosh imura Suzuki ride r had been with the lead g ro up unti l falling off the pace on the 12th of 16 laps . "It was pretty av erage , " Mlad in said of his ra ce . "The bike was slo w and th at's it. And I screwed the front tire try ing to hang in there. I'd been by myself all week so we d idn 't reall y k no w, but it was e ven s lower than Aaron's [Yates]. We ' ll put a new one (engine) in tonight a nd see what hap pens." Sixth went to the lonesome Prid more , all alone for the majority of the ra c e on his Yoshimura Suzuk i. "We had s o me problems thi s morn ing , so we didn 't use a qualify ing tire a t a ll the last two days ," Prid more sa id, "I started th e race with a new motor, and I didn't know what to ex pect. Sixth is okay. We be a t a lot of guys who were ah ea d of us in t h e cha m p ionship , so that is good ." Rapp managed to fight th roug h to finish s e ve nth , d e s p ite starting from th e b a c k ro w and also running strai ght in turn five on one occasion. Sti ll, he ma nage d to beat Kawasaki 's Do ug Ch a ndle r, the th ree -tim e AMA Superb ike Cha mpion h a v in g t ra n s m iss ion problems. Th en ca me Yamaha's To mm y Ha yd en and Ha rl e y Davidson 's Scott Russe ll and Pasca l Pic otte, the la tte r hav ing been forced to und ergo a sto p-and- go penalty h is seco nd s uc h pun ishm en t in as many wee ks . Th e la s t of the facto ry bikes wa s rid den to 12 th pl a c e by Miguel DuHame l, th e French Ca n ad ia n suf- . fe rin g from clutch t ro u b le s and a se tu p that was far from perfect. Ya maha 's J a m ie Ha c k in g , meanwhi le, was a non-finisher. RACE TWO Although the end result would be ve ry sim ilar , arr iving at th a t result was a bit d iffe rent th is tim e a ro und . Th is t ime it was Nic k y Ha yd e n s h oo t ing t o th e fro nt o ff t h e st art , much to his su rpr ise . "I got a reall y good start and wa s surprised to get the hol eshot," Ha y den said. "I ne ver thought I would get o ne of those . Latel y, I h aven 't be en getting too good of starts." The holeshot was his , but the lead was short-liv ed. Koc insk i seemed a bit headstrong to try to make th ings happen on da y two of racing at Road Am erica . He qu ic k ly put th e Ducati into th e lea d a s th e pa c k headed for turn five for th e first tim e , and he had his head do wn , o p e ni n g a gap o f nearly ha lf a second by th e comple tion of th e firs t la p. If Kocin s k i wa s in a determ ined mood , then so too was Mladin , a nd he qu ic k ly mo ved a round Ha yden and hon ed in on th e Vance & Hines bike , taking th e lead for the firs t time in Canada Corner. By ripp ing off a 2 : 11 . 115 , Mlad in was ab le to pu ll away , g iving ev e ry ind ication that this could be Road Atla nta all over aga in. Obvious ly, Mladin 's new engine was better than ye ste rd a y' s. Hayden , though , was saving himself . But when he saw Mladin making a run for it, he turned it up a notch , passed Kocinski, and set off afte r his champi onship rival. Yates also passed Kocins ki on the third lap , and DuHamel would shortly drop the former World Champion back another s pot. By th e ha lfway mark, the race had be e n split into two groups of two - (A bo ve left) Doug Chandler struggl ed at Road Ame ric a. Here he leads Tommy Hayden (2 2) early i n the second race. (A b o ve right) Miguel DuHamel (17) f ixed his problems from Saturday to run at the front on Sunday. He beat Kocinski to finish fourth. (Right) Ni cky Hayden chases his father, Earl, with a bottle of bubbly after winning both AMA Superbike Natio n a ls at Road America. Mladin/ Hayden a nd DuHa m e l/Ya te s wi th Ko cins k i h an g in g o n in fifth plac e and pullin g cle ar of th e ne ar e st purs uer, Kawasaki 's Bostrom, Su dd en ly , th ough, the t op four we re tog eth e r, with Ko c ins k i also s ho wing sig ns of life after posting the qu ickest lap of th e race - a 2: 10 .07 1. Tr y as he might , Kocinski co u ld n' t ge t any high er a nd he 'd ha ve to se tt le for fifth. "Fo r m e the handling of our motorcycle is so far awa y," Kocinski sa id. "The day we get it close is going to make s uc h a big d iffer en ce . We ca n ge t th e sta rt, get out front, but what' s undernea th has to wo rk s o you c a n ta ke advantage of good sta rts . I had good starts all weekend , but you 'v e got to go away after th at. It's fa r awa y from be ing right , and we 're really g o ing t o hav e to do someth ing to im p ro ve the handling . I t h in k t h e J a p a ne se have improved , and th is thing ha s kind of stayed the same fo r qu ite some time, but everyone goes through those stages. They get stale and you ha ve to freshen them up to s ta y co m pe titive ." DuHa m e l also fell sl ig htly o ff the pa ce, leav ing the tr io at the front to battle right to the finish . It came down to th e final lap , and Hayd en ha d the lead, the Suzuki inf ig hti ng a c tually s lowing them a nd m a king it easier on th e Hon da rid e r. At th e lin e it was Hayd en - but just by .457 of a second . "I thought the pa c e wo u ld be faster toda y just like at Roa d Atlanta ," Hay den sa id. "Eve ryb od y learns someth ing on Saturday, but I didn 't think it cue I would be q uite this close. We made a few ch anges this morning, bu t it was kind of wet, a nd we could n't tell if it was be tter o r not, so we pretty mu ch went ba ck to wha t we had ye sterday. "Ma t [Mladin] tried to get away and was reall y pushing hard , and I wanted to sta y with him , but I wanted to sav e a littl e bit of tire at th e sa me t im e . Th e IRe] 5 1 was running good , a nd I definitely had a top -speed advantage . I could draft by th em a lot easier, and I j us t had a fe w we ek p lace s, lik e right in the m iddle of the corners a nd at th e Ca rousel - I was really weak through th er e and th e y were pulling m e . Other t h a n tha t, the b ike was really good , and it wa s fa st. " T ry a s he m igh t, Mladin couldn 't get th e Suzuk i pa st Ha yden on t he fina l lap - but his race was far and away better than the previous one, "Ye s t e r d a y w e j u s t h a d a bad motor for the race," Mlad in said. "Th e b ik e was reall y, rea lly, rea lly slow , and Nick y was pu lling 10 bikelengths up th e back straight th ere at the start of th e race . We loo ke d at our da ta , and Aaron [Yates] had like three m ph on us , and Aaron is a little b ig g e r than I am a nd we us ually have a mph or so on him . To be thre e m p h down, we knew we had some sort of problem. To d a y th e e ng in e was fre sh er, a n d it wa s g o o d today . It was as st ron g as we c ou ld ask fo r a n d it made it a lot easier to ru n a t the fro nt . I was struggling to be in fourth pla ce yesterday an d decide d fifth wa s bette r than nothing, " Mladin thought that pe rhaps the n e _ S • JUNE 7 , 2000 11

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