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AMA/Pro Honda Oils SOOc c S u p e r s p o rt S eries Round 4 : N e w Hampshire International S p e e d w a y By H EN NY R A Y A BRA MS P HOT OS BY T OM R ILES LOODON,NH,JONE18 o ur gene rations of the Yates fam ily ce lebrated Father's Day in style when n ew dad Aaron rode a m a sterful rac e on a track that su ited his style , winn ing th e Pro Honda Oils 600c c Supersport race o n a da rk a nd slig ht ly dam p morning at New Hamp shire Internati on al Speedw a y. With his fath e r, un cle , gr a ndfather, wife a nd infa nt son looking on , Yates took co m m a nd of the re d-flag -int er rupt ed race with a .m a ste rful m ove by frie nd a nd fe llow c o m p etito r Jamie Hacking on the 11 th of 24 laps. "I got a good dr ive up the h ill one tim e a nd th en th ought, ' If I'm go ing to pa s s h im, I might as well go ah ead a nd try it here : s o I tri ed to g o b y him : Yate s said . "It wor ked out real good. Th en I was a ble to just kind of run a clear track a n d run my own F race." Yates immed iate ly set a new lap reco rd , dr opp ing the mark from the p re viou s 1: 12. 5 2 3 t o I : 12.446 , a ti me h e lo we re d t o h is be st o f I :12 .364 on th e 15th lap. Th e 26 -year-old Georg ian wa s a t his aggr e ss iv e be st, us ing his motocros s s t y le to tackle the 1. 6 mile , 12 -turn road course and win by 2 . 191 seconds , down from over three, after he lit up the rear tire coming onto the front s traig ht to celebrate the win , th e first for Suzuk i at Lou don since 1988. Ea ch of the four Ja pan ese manufa cturer s wa~ represented in th e first fou r p la cin gs . "Aa ron rod e a great race," Ya maha 's Ha c k ing sa id. "It's k ind of like his style of riding , jus t m ot oc ross. " Be caus e there wa s a red flag , th e re was no race tim e or a verage speed. The first attempt to run th e ra ce 12 JUNE 28 , 2000· c U 'C • e 3 Eric Bostrom 1 2) leads the 600cc Supersport fin al from Tommy Hayden (22) and a host of others, In clu d ing M iguel DuHamel (1 7). e n d e d on la p seven when a ri d er c ra s he d in turn two , upsetting some o f t h e tracks ide ti re barriers which spilled th e ir watery contents on to the racing surface. At th e t ime th e ra ce wa s stopped , Yates was in th ird plac e in a t ig ht pa c k, with Yam aha 's Tommy Hay den and Ha c king out fro nt, and America n Hon da 's Nicky Ha yd en a nd Ka wa s a ki's Eric Bo strom just behind. Th e re -start was a ra ucous affair , turn on e se ve re ly grid lock ed with ride rs bump ing into ea ch other - Yate s among th em. "J ust as I started to kind of lea n it in a littl e b it I felt t h is pr etty good push and it kind of stra ightened m e up : Yates sai d , c ourte s y of a bump from Ha c king . Erion Racin g 's Kurt is Rob erts s aid he , too , ran into Yates . "I wa s kind of in between the m a nd the y fu n ne le d into ea ch other a nd th e y le ft m e no room ," Robe rts s a id after a spe ctacul ar sid ew a ys slide into the heart of the pa ck . "I just started la yi n g it o ve r; in c a se I h it one of them I wou ld have some roo m . 1 hit Aa ron a bit, but nothing big. " Th ere were 17 laps to run and it took until the fifth lap after the re start before Yates made his wa y past with an impressive m o v e around Hacking . "Ac t u a lly, t hat's how I thoug ht I was going to pa ss him th e first tim e , yo u know, run up on the ou tside a nd t he n he ' d ki n d of g et in t h e re a n d s q uare it o ff up und er h im ," Ya tes said . "But I got in th er e good enough to try him on the o utside a n d just kind of ra iled a round th er e a nd got a wh ee l in front of him ." n u VII' s Ha c kin g s aw the m ove as a wake -u p call. "I was kind of g lad he c a m e by beca use it j u s t kind of p icked me up a little to get going, because I kn ow he gets go ing pretty g o od and h e 's exce lle nt through lappets." Ha c king s aid . Ha c k in g m ore or le s s stuc k to him un til he oversh ot turn three on th e 15th lap, re -joi ni ng th e ra c e at the end of a pa c k of four riders now contesting sec ond. "The g e a rb o x , som etimes I'd go down th e fro nt s tra igh t awa y a nd I'd s h ift in to fo u rth a n d it' d g o back t o thi rd," Ha cki ng said. "I do n't know if it had anyth ing to do with it ov er here . I we nt down o ne gear too m any go ing into turn three a nd , I hate going into t h e r e a n d g etting . a ll messed up , beca use it screws your d rive up t h e h ill. I lo o ke d o ver m y s ho ulde r and I saw th is whol e freigh t trai n of guys , and I was like , ' O h, he ll, I've got another race to run now .' " Back in fifth, Hacking m ethodically went a bo ut the ta s k of re -gai n ing sec on d s pot, un fluste red b y the c h allenge . "I had the m s ized up pretty good ," Hacking said . "I m e a n , I wa s rid ing h ard , a lo t mo re ag g ressive t han the y we re getti ng th rou gh lapp ers , just try to work o n o ne e very lap , ju s t no t try to get to o gr e edy, just get one a la p. I knew I ha d ple nty of time le ft. " Firs t to go was Yamaha 's Tommy Hayden who he nail ed on th e 18th la p going into turn on e . On th e 2 1st he pa s s ed Erion Racing 's Rob erts on th e inside g oing th rough turn s ix, with Ha c king now up to th ird. Kawa saki's Eric Bostrom would be h is la st victim , gett ing undern e ath him in turn three on the penu ltimate lap. Bostrom was ha p p y to be on the podium . More than that, he was surpr ised. . "I'm actually s u rp rised to be here : Bostrom s a id. "Th e first start m y bik e was , I was rea lly struggling . I mean we cou ldn 't get a ny whe re near. So we made some change s aft er th e red flag and it helped out a little, but it ke pt turning re a l bad . It wasn 't a good race for m e. It was rea l h ar d to keep my he ad down." Bostrom had led for a fe w laps on th e firs t start, but m o s tly h e wa s in th ird c hasing Ha c king and Yat e s a fter the re -s tart. At o ne poi nt he had ove r a se c o nd o n Ro be rts , but t h e ot h e r rider s cl os ed u p . Roberts wa s in no cond it io n to m ak e a run at h im a nd kn e w fo urt h wa s th e best he c o u ld hope for . "I was c has ing th e fron t e nd all weekend ," Roberts said. "We had the thing g ea re d good by m yself. Trying to pass people I co uldn 't do it. I'd get a run on th em and they 'd get on the gas and th e y'd out-accelerate me a nd I j us t cou ldn't m ak e up all th e dis t a nc e o n the b ra k es . And I reall y coo k ed t he fro nt , overwo rk e d the front and rear tr y ing to get around Er ic [Bostrom ] at th e b eg inning , because I knew Er ic was starting to get away and I was re ally try ing ha rd to get around Eric and then just started mess ing up a bit because I was pushing the fron t so bad. I must have a lmo s t fell off eve ry la p it see m e d like ." Roberts ga ve away two c ha m pi ons hip points to Bos trom, but m a inta ined his lead . " E r ic , Tommy [H a yd e n], a nd Migu e l IDuH a m el ] were t he m a in gu ys co mi ng in he re a nd we got po ints ove r the other two g uys , we gave o ne back t o E r ic o r two ," Roberts said. In fact it wa s two , but Rob er ts still le a d s the ch amp ionsh ip b y four po ints , 122-118 , over Du Hame l, who wa s seventh toda y behind the Hayden brothers . Er ic "Bostrom is th ird wit h 117. The victory in the 600cc Su persport race went to Yoshimura Suzu ki 's Aaron Yates, ending a Suzu ki w in drought In the process.