Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

Mike S m it h (9 111 speeds down the front straight at Mid-Ohio o n his way t o w in n ing the Pro Th u n d e r race by over 2 1 s e conds. Ll ckwer (7 4) ; 12 . Scot Do rmier (5 2) ; 13 . Justin Garvin (50 ); 14. Thom as Fournier (48 ); I S. Mo nte Nicho ls (47) ; 16. Mike Kryn ock (44) : 17. (TIE) Tom Chaun cey /Shaw n Higbee (40) ; 19 . Mik e Ciceotto (3 6) : 20 . Paul Vital e (33) . Tim e: 25 m in ., 20.490 sec. Distance: 16 lap s, 38.4 m iles. Average speed: 90 .919 mph . Margin of vict ory : 21 .432 sec. BUELL PRO THUNDER C'SHIP POINT STANDINGS ( Aft er 5 of 8 round s): I. J effre y Nash ( 154 ) : 2. Shawn Con rad ( t 2 1/2 wins); 3. Dale Corser ( 116); 4 . Mik e Smith ( 111/3) : 5. Tom Hull (94) : 6. David Roy (93 ): 7. Wes Pogue (89 ); 8. Thomas Monta no (87 ); 9. (TIE) Bill St. .Jchn /Rlchle Morri s (8 2); II. James Upcoming rounds: Round 6 - Brainerd , Minnesota, July 30 Round 7 - Fountain, Colorado, August 12 BRIEFLY•• • Miguel DuHamel was hoping his pole position would start a turnaround of bad luc k that he's been having in 2000. ' We've been having a bit of bad luck - a bad tire at Road Atlanta, some water problems at Laguna Seea... there has always been something since the beginning of the year to slow me down ." DuHamel said. "II's not the team's fault - they've been working really hard. II' s just been some of those things. We're having trouble catching breaks. but we're not having bad. bad luck. We're keeping it up and just trying to keep a glimmer of hope in this championship.- AMAIBuell Pro Thunder Round 5: Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course B y H E N N Y R A Y A B RA M S Cicc otto an d Na sh w ere h oo k ed up until the eighth la p w hen C icc otto w as forced out of the race w ith a clutc h fail ure on th e Buell 1200 while in second place. LEXINGTON, OH, JULY 15 M ik e Smith finished the Buell Pro Thunder race, which meant that " O n c e he went by I kept m y h ea d down and kept going," Nash said . I had a co uple of moments with lapped traffic he won the Pro Thunder race. toward the end. Slowed a little bit th er e. In the three races the DucshopjBeaudry M:Jtorsports' rider has finished , he 's won, At that point I think I put th e hurt to m y ti res pretty good so I was just trying to and the margins of victory have been conserve those to the end," impressive. There was no doubt he'd win today, (Duc) wa s able to in c rease h is p o ints With the second pla c e fin ish Na sh DuHamel was also happy t o be bac k a t Mid -Ohio . a favorite of his and a track he hadn't competed on in two years because of injuries. He. like most of the others, was somewhat miffed about some things at the facility, however - like parking. "I love this place." DuHamel said. "I love the racetrack. I should be more specific. I haven't ridden here in two years. but I felt right at home right off the bat. There are some other things here that aren't so good, though: they parked us out in the dirt and you have to walk to a paved parking lot to get to here. There are some things about this place that aren't on my good side. but the racetrack by itself I love. I've always done well here." DuHamel crashed out of both Superbike Nationals. Heading into this weekend's doubleheader at Mid-Ohio, Doug Chandler was the all-ti me S upe.... bike win leader at the track. Chandler has won three times at the facility, topping DuHamel's and Fred Merkel's two wins apiece. Chandler won here in 1989, 1990 and 1999. With Yates winning both races this weekend. he moved into a tie with Chandler for the number-one spot. Prior to winning Saturday' s National, Aaron Yates thought he was going to have to use an entirely di ffe rent chassis than the one he had set up for the race. "I had a problem with the steering head bearing being loose in the frame,' Yates said. "I thought we were going to have to change the whole chassis. They made it work for the race, so it all worked out. I got to practice with it because we were going to skip the whole practice session." When asked what type of t ire combination he'd used in winning Saturday' s National. mum was the word from Yates. "I can't tell you.' Yates said. "Aw. come on.- second place finisher Nicky Hayden said. if he finished , and he did, crossing the lead over HMC Racing's Sh awn Co nrad, line 21.432 seconds in front of second who had a sh ort d a y , C o nrad had an plac e at the en d of the 16- la p , 38.4 - engine failure on second lap. Conrad said it w ent o n one cylin de r Although he only finished third in the 600cc Supersport final on Sunday morning. Miguel DuHamel felt better about that race than he did about his race in Road America - a race he won. "This to me was a more important race. a more building race than at Road America," DuHamel said. - I felt more in charge of myself and my riding and I thought I would definitely be up there. At Road Ameri- mile ra ce , setting a n ew ra ce record. wh en he wa s g o ing d own th e b a c k ca I was just hanging o n. I just wish we co uld start this race over again." seconds at an av erag e sp eed of 90.91 9 straight in top gear. He tried to nurse it Nicky Hayden knew his w eak spot at Mid-Ohio: the Keyhole. 'I just could not get out of the Key- mph , b esting the record se t b y Sh awn to the fin ish , t hin king it mi ght b e an Smith won in 25 m inutes , 20.490 Higbee last yea r. " I' m reall y fortu nate to be able t o electrical problem, but th e bike stopped complete ly soon after. lead like I am in a class," the D u c a ti - With three rounds to go, Nash leads mounted Smith said after his third wi n. Conrad 154 to 12 1. Conrad's teammate "I h av en 't led like that in a lo ng time." Dale Corser, s ix th t oday , is third wi th Smith led from the start. as usua l, 116 points. hole for nothing ," Hayd en said. " Since I've been here, since J came her e on Suz ukis, I've never been able to lilet out of the Keyhole. Last year I couldn't get out of the Keyhole. I'll try again next year, I guess .' There were no t eam o rde rs in the Yoshimura Suzuki pit heading into Sunday's Superbike final. With Mladin leading the championship points chase. there were some who figured that Yates would let his teammate by at the end of the second race. It didn't happen. "No. not at all." Mladin said when asked if there were team orders. "I mean. Aaron's only about 30 something points out of it now. too. with three rounds to go. Maybe after the next race. if I get some more points on Aaron. and then if he can help us with the last couple. I'd probably expect that. But at this stage. no. If we have an engine prob lem or some thing in the race, Aaron 's riding to get a championship." b ut the rac e was red -flagged on t h e Th ird on the da y w ent t o Bill S t. th i rd lap . A comple te re -start was J ohn, the first AMA p odium for the BCM ordered , and he led again, pu lli ng away Motorsports/Project M onza Ducati rider. at better th an a second a lap . It was a St. John was secure in th ird 27 sec - far cry from wha t ha ppened the previ - onds b ehin d Nash , but a lmost lO in ous weekend at Laguna Seca , when he front of the fight for fourth. His p ath, like w as knock ed out early in th e rac e with a Smith 's , had been a struggle , with an broken valve. en gi ne d riven in fr om New Hampshire F r o m M ontere y , th e te a m drov e "M y partner James Li ckwar got o n ing in to work on the b ikes befo re mak - th e p odium la st week and he had t o quit ing the long drive to Ohio. They arr ive d raci ng bec ause he ran out of m oney so on Th ursd ay night and got right up to I've been alw ays trying to keep up with speed, the n had a hiccup when Smith him, so I'm lu cky to b e up h ere th is c rashed on Saturday morning . After that week. It's my fir st t ime," St. J ohn said. " I have to figh t real hard at not rid ing Fo urth p lac e w as a fight to th e fini sh , too hard when y ou 've got a lead like T o m Hu ll j us t sha di ng KMC T el ecom's Richie Morris at th e line, the di fferen c e that y ou've got to back it down a little .0 17 seconds. bit," Smith said. " I wouldn't want to do Then came Corser in sixth, about 14 what [Torn] Montano did at Laguna ," second back, with Honda of Houston's when he crashed out of the lead on the Robert Bradlaw seventh. final lap. " Ho pefull y we ca t ch Nash here, J eff N ash before th e en d o f th e season , but h e's going to m ake it tough on us. He's sm art," Smith said o f th e dista nt second place finisher. Nash h ad his h and s fu ll with M ike Cicco tto earl y on. C iccotto w a s ri di ng the T illey 's H ,D/Bu ell m achine for th e injured Shawn Higbee . Hi gbee c ras he d at Laguna Seca, separating his shoulder, Did Yates lay awake at night on Saturday thinking he was going to win the doubleheader? "I hadn't thought a whole lot about it." Yates said. "What I did dream of last night was the sound of that twin. for some reason. I went into the pits and then I heard one. it was like. maybe It was a flashback or something. I heard that last night." Yates and Hayden both ended up with scrape marks on the elbows of their leathers - from draqging more than knees at Mid-Ohio. "This place has got these big curbs and stuff. you know. on the insides and all." Yates explained. "Actually. I've probably got them on my butt. and on my elbows. I put a brand new pair of leathers o n this morn ing and we nt and rode and come in, and the elbows th e night before th e race weeken d . home to its b ase in Id ah o , Smith p itch - he was error-free, ra cing o nly himself . The two wins by Aaron Yates put him past Jamie James and Bubba Shobert and into 14th on the all·time AMA Superbike National win list. CN Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course Lexington, Ohio Results: July IS, ZOOO [Round 5 of 81 BUELL PRO THUNDER: 1. Mike Sm ith (D ue): 2. J effr ey Nash (Duc) ; 3. Bill St. J ohn (Duc); 4 . Tom Hu ll (D ue}: 5. Rich ie Morri s (Du c ); 6 . Dal e Corser (Due): 7. Robert Bradlew (SUl) : 8 . David Roy (Due): 9 . Ju stin Garvi n (S uz) ; 10 . M ont e Nichol s ( Duc) ; 11. J .D. Hard (S uz); 12 . Mitch Bag hdoian (S uz) ; 13 . Micha el Dube (Duc ); 14 . Chris Decelle s (Bue); 15. Mark Reynolds (Bue) ; 16. Robert Terando (Due} ; 17. Tom Chaun cey (Duc ); 18. Michael Delag e (Due); 19 . Mark Hatten (BBM) ; 20 . Paul Vitale (Due) ; 2 1. Mike Cic eotto (B ue) ; 22 . Wes Pogu e ( D ue ) ; 23 . Je rry Cas eiero Jr. ( H- D) ; 2 4 . Jamie L on g ( D ue) ; 25 . Shawn Conrad (Due) ; 26 . Anth on y Sylvander (Due) . both looked the same as these. II' s just you touch them on all the curbs. you bump them every once in a while. II' s just like going into tum one there. you go into there and you've got to pick your knee up because you're going over that curb there. You don't drag your elbow there. But this place, the way the patches are. sometimes you try to keep it right on the inside and tt's only that wide. and the moment you're hanging off you're up over the grass right on top of the curb." After wrecking his Honda RCS1 twice in two days. it was almost comical to hear Miguel DuHamel discuss the damage that he'd done. "1don't understand how this thing gets damaged so much." DuHamel said. "The RC45 was great. You could crash that thing, pick it up and it was fine. , This thing. I've crashed it twice and they were n't very fast cras hes . I guess it gained so me speed on its side or something. I looked at it and it was in the tire wall and I thought, 'Oh, man.' I feel bad for the guys because they have a lot of work to do." Doug Chandler finished eighth and seventh in the two Supertnke Nationals · a far cry from his victory here a year ago. Still, Chandler said he was making progress in getting his factory Kawasaki adjusted to the point where he can ride it faster. "We definitely figured a few things out.- Chandler said. "We made some progress. II' s terrible that I've taken this long. Yesterday [Saturday] we got a good start and I couldn t do anything With it. Today. I got shut down at the start. but then did some decent lap times. We just have to keep going in that direction. II' s tough at the doubleheaders to get things done - we're just using this as a test to keep it going.Vance & Hines Ducati's S t eve Rarp ended up sixth behind his teammate John Kocinski on Sunday - a day after he crashed out a fifth place. "It was a little better today." Rapp said . ' I wish I would have passed him [Kocinski! because he was jamming me up. I saw the flags when the rain came and I was n' t going to throw it away afte r that. " Team Oliver Yamaha's Rich Oliver needed wire cutters to get to the starting line, sort of. After doing a plug chop at the end of the back straightaway following Sunday moming's practice. Oliver waited for a sweep truck that kept gelli ng delayed. After a while. he decided he had to get back to the pits by any means possible. ' I yelled at a fan across the fence. I said. 'Hey you got any tools?' And the guy goes. 'Yeah, I've got some cullers in my truck .' So we cut the chain link fence between the fans and the track. And we rolled the fence back and Bruce Und and I pushed our bikes all the way from the outer edges of the track to the pits and we got back about an hour befo re the race. So it was intere sting, we rushed around got some tires mounted, had a great bike underneath me." Oliver won the 250cc Grand Prix class later that day. cue I e n e .... s • ,JULY 2 6 , 2 0 0 0 15

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