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/128619
" Essentiall y th e ra c e wa s wo n in t h e first 15 la ps," M l ad in sa id . " Wi t h o u t too m an y b a c km ark ers o u t t here it m ad e li f e a l ittl e b it ea sie r as we ll. Th e first 10 l a ps we re t he h ard est l a p s for m e bec a us e I rea lly put eve ry t hi ng in to it , t otal ly . E sse n tial ly , w hen I got to 2 5 to go , we h ad 4 . 5 secon ds a n d I t h ou gh t it w a s time no w to lo o k after t he b ik e a n d lo o k after t he ti re s. T he la st ha lf o f th e ra c e w a s pret t y e asy fo r me . I h a d a sweat in 10 la p s, then I lo st it b efo r e I fi nished ." S ec o nd pl ace w a s d e c id e d ea rly o n as we ll with K a w a s a k i ' s Er i c B o st r o m s lotting h i msel f i n t o t h e spot after a very combati ve f irst t urn in what wo u ld t urn out to b e a ve ry pro c essio nal affa ir. Yo shimu ra S uz uki's Jason Prid m o re g ot ta n g led up w ith a few othe r rid e r s , runni ng i n to th e ba c k o f Ya maha' s T o m my Ha y d e n . " I do n ' t have a cl ue wh a t h ap p en ed , " Tom my Hayde n said after th e i nc id e n t t hat force d h im to r u n stra ig h t in the first tu rn . "I got a real l y g o o d sta rt a nd I w as r ight th ere a nd I st arted c o m i n g dow n o ff t he speedwa y p a rt an d just fe lt a h uge b um p i n t o me . I g ot c ras hed in to pretty hard a nd it wa s so h ard it j u st Mladi n w as unt ouch a ble. The Australian earn ed po le po siti on , led the m ost lap s and scored the vi ctory, further adding t o his le ad in the AMA Superbike Nati onal Championship. Th e rac e ti me of 45 minu tes , 0 .67 6 s ec onds wasn 't a rec ord b ec a use t he race w a s sho rt en ed o ne l a p to 3 8 fro m 39 . Th e m o re important nu mber is in t h e c ha m p i o ns h i p w he re M ladin c a ug h t a b reak f ro m t h e m i sfo rtune of A me r ica n Hon d a ' s N icky Ha y d en. H a y d e n h it a cone w ith hi s k nee ea rly i n t h e ra c e th at l imi t e d h i s c ha nces of success . " I h it a c o ne a nd it al mo st knocke d m e off t h e b ike, " H a yd en s ai d after f in is h in g six t h . " I was i n r ea ll y b ad p ai n . I coul d n 't tou ch m y knee dow n th e rest of t he race. " M l ad in e a rne d m a x imum p oints b y ta k ing t he po le , lead ing t h e m o st l a p s , and winn in g t he r a c e . A t th e halfwa y p oin t in th e 12 - ro u n d se a so n h e le a d s H a y d en , 209- 19 5 . M ladin s ai d t h e r a c e was wo n at t he b eginni ng and hi s l a p ti m e s p ro v e d it. Qu ickl y i n to t im e s v e ry cl os e t o h i s q ua lifyi ng ma r k , he ga pped th e fi el d , decima ted to j ust 18 b ec ause a number o f p rivateer s h a d l eft th e facil ity . A t it s p e a k , the gap was 4 .898 se c onds on la p 26 o f 38 , a n d h e w a s alway s in c o ntro l. (t]ffJ D[JiJ[) [X]ffJ D @® [JiJ ~W@rz Th e rain that had been threatening most of the day finally let go early in the aftemoon on Sunday at New Hampshire Intern ational Speedway. The schedule was aitered and a non -points-paying Buell Pro Th under race was run. Followin g that, the Superbikes went out for a 15-m inute prac tic e session. Though there were some di ssenters, th e verdi ct from the vast majorit y of th e riders was that it wasn't safe to race, mos tly beca use of the tr ansitions onto the straightaways, which are coa ted wit h a special sealer co mpound. . AMA Road Race Manager Ron Barrick and Bob and Gary Bahr e, the track 's owners, met under a tent on the front str aightaway , along with a number of riders and team members. After discussing it at length, the decision was m ade to postpone the event until Monday . "I' m not going out there m yself and try ing it ," Barri ck said. "I've go t to respect what th e top guy s are tell ing me . I went to Doug Chand ler first, who's somebody th at I really respect in this series, and he's been our multi -t ime cham pion, and he's kind of been there and seen it all and he felt it wasn't a good scenario for the riders. Obvi ously , they all want to com e here and they want to race. We want to be able to get them to the next series of races as wei I." "We' re k ind of disappointed they didn't want to run," said track owner Bob Bahre, who'd 'offered to cut the length fro m 39 laps to 25 . "No way we'r e going to push it. Th ey said it was too sli ppery. They 're the ones that run the bik es, not us. Some of them j ust hate the pl ace anyway . I thoug ht we were going to run in th e rain . I thou ght that was the way th ey run." . Not surprisingly, Chandler was the steady voice amo ng the rid ers, but during th e pr act ice you co uld hear him strugg ling goi ng down th e front straight, the rear tire on his Kawasak i spinning the entire length . ' We co uld go out there and ri de all day . Race, no," Chandler said . "There was pudd le a goi ng into 11 that I didn 't think was too good . Ment all y, you're going to get caught out there and coming onto both stra ightaways, just the surface changes are so slic k that I couldn't gi ve it m ore th an qu art er -throttl e and sho rt-shifting . A nd they were arguing that yo u're not going to hit th e wall. But we're still going to be lying in middle of the track and get mowed by every body else. "And they said th e speed's slower, yo u're not going to make the wall in one. We checked on my co m puter. We' re still going 130 into that thing . You go down in the wet and yo u' re not slowing down, " Chandl er added . Yoshim ura Suzuk i' s Mat Ml adin was another ri der who didn't want to race. Giv ing his some time s acrimonious relationship with the AMA , Mla din chose to sit back and listen, but agreed with the final verdict. "I didn't mak e any decisions, I j ust posted a quick word and listened because I don't want to be bla med for som ething for that I appa rentl y did," Mladin said. "My feeling is I did n't want to race: I felt totally unsafe out the re. Th ere are people who want race. Harl ey seems lik e they wanted to race and I can understand that, I guess they 'r e trying to win a rac e." Harley -D avid son team manager Steve Sch eibe co nfirm ed th at both of hi s riders, Pascal Picotte and Scott Russell , wanted to race. Picotte had po st ed th e fas test t ime i n t he wet practic e, a 1:24 .8 14, with Vance & Hines Ducati's J ohn Koci nsk i seco nd at 1:26. 183 . Th en came Yama ha's Ja mie Hacki ng, Harley' s Russell, and V&H Duc ati's Steve Rapp. Engine co nfig urat io n was a decidin g facto r in who wanted to race, the Harleys and Ducatis wi lling to race, the V-fours not. But th e Am eric an Honda rid ers, Miguel DuHamel and Nicky Hay den, didn't want to race their Honda RC51 V-twi ns. V&H Du cati's Kocinski was amon g the most voca l proponents of th e race, though he's no fan of the track . "This is the bi ggest bunch of bulls hit I have ever seen," Kocinski said. "I can't believe anything that has happened th is weekend, wit h them throwing in a 3D-min ute practice session that I wasn't able to atte nd because I was back at the hotel [Ko cinski mi ssed the delay ed 3D-minute sup erbik e qualifyi ng session late on Saturday aft ernoon] . A nd then we'r e gett ing ready to sta rt the race, okay , it starts to rain. Th ey said 15 minutes, we'll practice, put the rain tires on. We don' t pract ice." The session was delayed until after the Buell Pro Thunder race. "Do yo u think it' s any different in the dry ?" Koci nski asked. "Personall y, I think that they should have ma de every body go out there because we sho uld never be here in the first place, even if it was dry . So they should m ake them get out there in the wet to realize how stupid we all are and then maybe next yea r we'll eith er gain com mo n sense or we'll be stupid and come back again . "Yeah I want to race," he continued. "That's what I came here for. Misano [the site of Sunday's World Superbike race] is slick and we race the re in the rain. Ther e's a lot of places that are slic k." Mladin disagreed. "What can you say?" he asked. "If we race here once it's going to happ en to us every y ear. How many people do y ou have to ask? Ninety percent of th e rld ers didn 't want to race and a few of them did. Doug (Chandler) spent that whol e 15 minutes on the racetrack and he cam e in and said it' s no good. Who do you hav e to ask to trus t?" eye I e n e _ s • JU NE 28 , 2 000 7_