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Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/128618
" A lot o f it w a s just m y stra ight- wa y to further p ad his le ad . He would awa y speed , " Ha yden said. " I think , cross the line 1.486 seconds in front M ladin a n d 3 1 b ehind H a yden . The team 's th i rd r ider, Ja son Pr id more , bumps a n d b rui ses. He was qu ick ly up o n h is feet and h eading back to was a model of consistency v jinlsh inq sixth and se venth in the two races. t he p its t o m ak e th e re st a rt on his back -up bike. " I was in t he le ad and w as kin d a fo r th e most p art, it was a safe pa ss." Kocinski , and he too made the pass " It feels reall y good," Hayden said. holding m y line and g o ing strai g h t, " stick. Although Kocinski would keep " I' v e been on the box in the last fo ur Rapp sai d . " John [ Kocinsk i ] k i nd a moved over into m y line and brok e before I was going to, o bv iou s ly . I close to the lead pair, they seemed to races in a row, starting with Colorado If you look at the two ra c es f ro m an overall pe rspective, then Vance & Hines Ducati 's J ohn Kocinski had the fourth best weekend of the bunch . Kocinski l ed both times o ut before fin ish ing fourth and fifth , respectively , in th e t wo 64 -mile races . He was on th e pa ce d espite s u f f e r i n g w ith a setup that he ' s st ill n o t c omfortable w ith, and h e has served notice that if he g ets th e bike to h is li k ing , he w ill win races. Kawasaki had its ups a n d d owns th i s we ekend. Eric Bostrom was the up and Doug Chandler wa s th e down . Bostrom finished third on Saturday and slipped ( li te r a ll y!) t o s i x t h o n Sunday , while Chandler b attled trans missio n and setu p problems t o fin ish an un cha ra cte rist ic 10 th and eighth in th e two rac es. Amer ican Honda 's M iguel DuHamel al so h ad a n up -an d - d o wn week end. On Saturda y , a p o o r setu p and a slip pin g cl u tch resu lted in a 12 t h- pl ace fi ni sh , b ut t he French C an ad ian got it all ri ght on Su n d ay to run at the front before eventually fini shing fo urth. The fact that St ev e Rapp is up an d w a l k in g is amazing all in it self. T he fact th at he was able to fin ish seventh a nd ninth in the two races is a lmost unbelievable when you take i n t o a c c o u n t that th e Californ ian was i n v o l ved i n a n ug ly , ra c e- stopping crash o n the opening lap o f the first rac e on Saturday . We 'll sta rt th er e.. . R ACE O NE t ri e d to get ou t o f his wa y , b u t my fro nt brake lever h it h is exhaust p ipe or something and lo ck ed up the front . There was noth ing rea lly I could do. I j u st can 't believe I 'm ev en walking right now. I 'm stand ing here, so I guess I' m okay ." Fortuna t ely , the r e st a r t will be known for the ra cing and not for th e acc id ent. It will also be remembered as th e st art of something very b ig for H ayd en . On e day , th os e in a tten d ance w ill be able to te ll their ch ildren a n d g r and chi ldr en t h a t th ey s a w yo u n g Ni c ky H a yd e n w i n hi s fi r st o f Yates fo r the fi r st v ic to r y of h is Y a t e s w as next to have a go a t promis ing young c areer . have h is measure on this day. Mean - last year. I was ready to get that first whil e, Mladin and B o st ro m seemed to win out of the wa y. I'm really excited. be fading . In Bostrom's c ase , howev- Th is is by far th e biggest w in of my er, this was an illusion. career, and I couldn't be h app ier. I B a c k to the front , though , w i th wasn't riding that good in the begin- Hayden continuing to lead and fi na ll y n ing because I think I was a l ittl e bit putting some distance between him - nervous because I had a good shot to sel f and Yates. He had his head down w in . I was riding a little bit tight, a nd a n d h e made the most of it, tak ing John [ K o c i n sk i ] was getting away . advantage of some traffic along the A aron [Yates] came by m e because I Kawasaki's Eric Bostrom finished third In the first race' and followed that with a sixth In race two. The Californian seems to have recovered his confidence after a d ismal 1999 season. Superbik e N at io n al. And he had to earn it. Kocinsk i agai n got th e j u m p o n the p ac k an d w as ab le to open up a .78 of a second lead at the en d of the first lap. That di dn't last , though , as Yates, Ha yd en , Mladin and B o st ro m closed i n over the co urse of the next fe w la p s w i th t hose five showing t h e i r superiority over th e rest right away . Ko ci nsk i led un til the seventh lap, though Yates had taken a brief lead here a nd there around the four -mile track . At the stripe every time, however ,. it had been Kocinski in front. On the eighth l a p that ch anged . On the entrance t o turn five , Ha yden went up the in side of Kocinski to take the lead. H orr ifi c is th e o n ly word t ha t c an aptly d escribe th e o pen ing 15 seconds o f th e f irs t race at Road America . With K o c in s k i and Rapp g ett in g fli er s from t he second row , the p ack headed toward t u rn o ne , wi th t he form er World Su p erbik e Ch ampion lead ing t h e pac k . A t th e e nd of th e front straight, Kocinski moved a little to his left t o se t up fo r th e corn er and got on t he b rakes , c at c h in g Rapp com pletely o ff guard. The consequences were horrible. Rapp 's front brake lever caugh t the b a c k of Koci nski's Du ca t i , s en d in g the C a l i f o rn i a n st ra ig ht o ver the handleba rs , t h e 996 b as i ca ll y ri p ping it self i n h alf w ith pa rts fly ing off with each and every costly flip and bounc e. Both Chandler a nd Yat es b arely m issed running over Rapp a nd th e de b ris w hile the re st of th e p ac k took evasive action . At th e rear o f th e p a ck , another c ha i n r e a c t i on c r a sh oc c u rre d w ith Jimmy Mo o r e, And y D e ath erag e , Sh an e Cl a rk e and Randall M ennenga g oing down a s w ell. F o rtunat el y , none of the five were inj u re d, th ough C larke and Mennenga didn ' t m ake the rest a rt . Rapp cam e out of the accident w ith noth ing bu t a sca re and some Yoshimura Suzuki' s Mat Mladin is qui ckly beco ming unstoppable when it comes to fitti ng a soft qu alify ing tire to his GSX-R750 and going out and putting in the perfect lap. The Australian did it again at Road America, further proving his mastery of the Dunlop qualify ing tires by earning his second-str aight pole posit ion and t he 13th of his AMA Supe rbi ke career. In th e process, the 28-yea r-o ld smashed the lap record with his 2:09.425, taking . 177 of a second off Anthony Gobert's qualifying lap of a season ago on the fast and furious four -mile Road America circuit. "I did my fast lap on my last lap , and I wasn't drafting on anyone," Mladin said. "I missed a few comers , but was able to gather it up well enough to get a mid nine . I'm motivated more than ever this season after some of the things the AMA did to me last year and the way the Vance E. Hines team acted like crybabies. It's really irrelevant to me {how man y races he can win in a row]. In 1992, I won 13 races in a row in the Aus tralian Superbike Champ ionship , so it' s nothing new to me to win this m any races in a row . After winn ing the title last year, I have a new focus. Since I now have the title, I've done that, and now my focus is going out and winning races, and the championships will come." As for the two races at Road America, Mladin said: "I thi nk the race is going to be a close one. It' s a drafti ng trac k, a littl e lik e Daytona. It will probably come down to the last lap and will tum into a bit of a shit fight. Whatever happens will happen." Am erican Honda's Nic ky Hayden put in his best qualify ing effort of the season, though he readily admi ts he sti ll has a way to go befor e he feels com pletely comfort abl e with th e qualifying t ires. Hayden lapped at 2:09 .827 on the very last lap of the last session on Saturday , and felt that all was well heading into the first of the two races on Saturday. "We used a real soft tire , not a race tire but not exactly a qualifier either and we did a nine-po int-e ight: Hayden explained. "I'm pretty happy, but I kinda struggle in qualifying. I'm more of a racer than a quali fier. I enjoy the race a lot better. The qualifiers [tires] are kinda different. You gotta tell yourself to get on the gas when you don't think you should be getting on the gas. I always think I should have gotten on the gas soon er. It's something I have to improve on because Mat [Mladin] really has the quali fiers figured out . He got a point, and those add up. Not only did he get a point, but if I would hav e beat him I would have got the poi nt , so it's almost like two points . I need to try and get going a little better on qualifiers ." Aaron Yates put the second Yoshimura Suzuki on the front row in the third position after tuming in a 2: I 0.209 in the final session. The Georgian had bettered his time from Friday, and was getting more com fortable with the bike each time he went out. "This is the th ird weekend, and we've got the bike worki ng pretty good for me now and I'm pretty happy with the setup ," Yates said. "I think I could have done a nine, but on my first lap on the qualifier, going into tum five, right at the apex of the tum , the thing kicke d back about three ti mes, and I almost ran off the track. I screwed that lap up and cruised around trying to get another lap in, but the tire was lightin g up everywhere on that lap. They 've got the bike working good, and I'm com fortable. We're confident we're going to be there in the race." Kurti s Roberts was the surprise of qualifying on Friday, putt ing the American Honda RC5 1 on provisional pole position in his Superbik e debut. Not bad. That went sour, though, on Saturday when he crashed the V-tw in during the final qualifying session. "I was just going into Canada Com er or whatever that is at the end of the back straightaway, and messed up ," Roberts said . "I was leaned over a bit too mu ch on the brakes, and the thing ju st flicked back and flick ed me off the inside. That' s about it. Before we put the quali fiers on, I did a couple of l Os, and the tire wasn't real happy with it, so I was confid ent that with the qualifi ers on we could do som e nines. I think we will be all right. We're still on the front row, and hopefully they can get that thing back together." As it turned out , Roberts' crew found more damage than origin ally antic ipated , and it ultimately left him sidelined on a weekend that mi ght otherwise have seen him pull off a podium finish, or two, in his first two AMA Superbike starts. With row one featuring two Hondas and two Suzukls , row two would be made up of two Ducatis and two Kawasakis: Vance E. Hines Ducati's Steve Rapp, Kawasaki's Doug Chandl er, Vance E. Hines Ducati's John Kocinsk i and Kawasaki's Eric Bostrom. cue I e n e vv S • J UNE 2 1 , 2000 7