Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

down and jus t all ov e r. It's like riding a dirt bike track or s omet hing; a motoc ro s s track . It's just ro ug h, and to go fast you've just got to deal with all the bumps and hold the gas on you 've got to be on top of things and let the bike move. " He was most definitely on top of th in g s , the t wo vic tories h ere this we e kend mea ning that 60 percent of all Yates' victor ie s ha ve come at th e 2 .4 -m ile road cou rs e in Central Oh io . His three wins a lso put him into a tie with Doug Chandl er as th e winn ing est rider in Mid -Ohio S upe rb ike history . T h is weekend cemented the notion that everybody already knew : Ya te s goes fa st at Mid-Oh io . T he Ge o rgi an , o n h is Yos hi m u ra Suzuki, wa s steadfast a ll we e kend . He d id n't earn po le positio n and he d idn 't always lead the most laps , but he did lead the laps that counted most. Over the cou rse of two days, Yates rarely p ut a wheel wrong in winn ing both AMA Superbike Nationals and finis h ing second in the 600cc Supersport fi nal. It was enough to make his father , Lucky , state: "I've been stand ing in th e winner's circle so much this we ekend , I th ink s omebod y needs to c ut the grass. " Or wo rds to that effect. With Yat es having fa r and awa y the best weekend of anybody in the paddock , it's fa ir to sa y that Am e rican Honda's Nicky Hayden came out s e cond best. If Yates is Mr. Mid-Ohio , th en Hayden is Mr. Doubleheader - a title t h a t e arn ed h im a brand-n ew Ch evy S ilve rado truc k, in the Ch e vy Tru cks Lik e A Ro c k Chall enge , the priz e in th e p oi nt s c hase within a poi nts c ha se from th e three doub le h ea der rounds . In those three double hea ders , Ha yden won twic e , finished second three times a nd th ird once. It was e n o u g h to earn h im the n ew truck . Hayden finished second and third in the two ra ces a t Mid-Ohio , though he was nev er really in the hunt for th e victory. Still, he us ed his two strong performan c es t o g ain a li tt le on Yoshimura Suzu ki's Mat Mla d in in the AMA/Ch e vy T ru c ks U.S. Superb ike Championship . But it was o nly a little - two poi n t s to b e pr e c is e , w ith Mla di n le a di ng t he t itl e chase b y s eve n points , 300-293. Yate s , m ean wh ile, h e lp ed h is c h a nces a s he mo ve d to wit hi n 32 p o int s of hi s te ammate Mlad in. Mladin e nded up putt ing togethe r a dec ent little weekend for himself at a course he ge nera lly doesn 't do ve ry well at. The Au stralia n wa s fourth on th e first day , bu t im pr o ved to a close second on da y two and was really the o nly rider othe r tha n Migue l DuHa m el to giv e Yates a run for h is mon ey . And what of DuH amel? The Am e r ic an Hon d a rid e r led almo st a ll of S atu rd a y ' s Su p erbi ke Nationa l but c rashed o n th e fina l lap whi le try ing to re pass Ya te s . On Sun - (Above) Nicky Hayden (left) chases Eric Bostrom (right) In Sunday's Superblke race. Hayden passed Bostrom late In the race to earn 2·3 finishes on the weekend and w in a Chevy Truck In the process. (Left) Eric Bostrom (3 2) finished third, in front of Mat Mladin (1), in Saturday's Su p e rbik e race. Bostrom finish ed f ourth on Sunday behind Nicky Hay d en, with Mladln losing two points to Nicky Hayden in the champ onshlp chase over the course of the two races. day , D uH am e l ag a in s h o we d th e s pe ed necessa ry to ma ke a run at th e Georgian , but he again c ra she d - this time wh ile leading on th e 1 1th la p. It was a d isaste r of a weekend p o int s wise, but it was a positive one in tha t it showed th a t DuHamel is still fully capable o f runni ng a t the fron t o f a Superbike Nati ona l. If th e race was s c o re d o verall ba sed o n t he two ra c e s , then Kawasa ki's Eric Bostrom wo uld have co me out of it all four th best. Bos trom rode stro ng all we ekend lon g to finis h thi rd on Saturda y a nd fourth on Sunda y. Va nc e & Hin es Du c a t i' s John Ko ci ns k i co n t in ue d h is stru g g le to find the pace necessary to cons istently run at the fron t, and he carded a pai r o f fift h- pl ace fin ishes o ver the course of the we ekend. Kaw a s ak i's Dou g Chandler, mean whil e , e n d ed h is we e k e n d with eig hth- a nd s e venth -place finishe s ; a little b it be tt er th a n t he tw o n in th s turned in by Harley-Davidson 's Pas cal Pic ott e. Yosh imura Suzuk i's Ja son Pridmore put together a s ixth o n Saturda y , but followed that with a 10 th on Sund a y wh ile Competition Acces - he would ma k e sh or t work of Bostrom , passing in tu rn seven/eight. Bos tro m already kne w he wa s in troub le and he started da mage contr ol stra ight away, kn ow ing his gamble o n tir es wasn 't go ing to wo rk t he way he 'd hoped . "I got 11 good sta rt, but I just wasn't go in g anyw h er e a n d the s e guys dr opped m e ," Bo strom s ai d . "I just tried to stay uprig ht on the thing ." That left DuH a m e l o ut front by al most a second , th e Fr en ch Ca na d ian seemingl y he ll-bent on turning his seaso n a round wit h a win at MidOh io. Yates was a no the r who seemed on a missi on , and it lo o ked c e rt ai n that the pa ir were se t to clash for th e duration . F irs t , Ya tes h a d to pl ay catch -up , whi ch he di d on th e s ixth la p - before a lm ost c rashing in th e Carouse l. He 'd wor ked his way right t o DuH a m e l' s re a r wheel wh en he a lm o st h ig hs id ed , the b ike s la p p in g him up a nd out of the GSX-R's seat. "I don't know; I guess I got on the g as a little hard ," Ya tes ex p lained la ter. "It' s a pr e tty tough s pot the re with those s e a m s . It can ste p out if yo u g et up o n o ne of those s eams there . It wa sn 't ha lf as bad as th e two in qu alifying." It di d littl e to deter h is p ro g re s s , a n d a la p la t er h e was b a c k on DuH a m e l. By the n in th of 2 6 la p s , Nicky Ha yd e n ha d also jo ined th e fight - hon ing in on th e lea d pai r. But he wasn' t a bou t to get ca ug ht up in th e m om ent a nd he wa s fully 'a wa re that Mlad in wa s a few places behind him. When he wa s ba lked by tr affic with ju st a few laps to go , he kne w he was better off to ke e p his c oo l, ta ke the points a nd mo ve o nwa rd. "The y got away fro m me a nd I was k ind a stru g gling and cou ldn' t hang s o rie s .c o m' s Larry Pe gra m was s ev enth on Saturd ay a nd DNFd on Sun day . Steve Rapp was almost a ca rbo n c o py of that, with a DNF (c rash) o n S aturday followed by a sixth o n Sunday . The factory Yam ah a te am di d n 't ha ve a particularl y st ro ng we e kend . Tommy Hayden finished 11 th o n S a turda y and eighth on S u nd a y , while Ja mie Hacking carded a 10th on S a t urd a y and a 12th on Sunda y. O uc h! The fina l factory rider wa s Ha rleyDavidson's Scott Russell . The Georgia n s howed bursts of speed , but still strug gles to find a comfortable setup on the VR1000 . Russell suffered a mecha nica l failure on Saturday, but bounced ba ck to finish 11th on Sunday. RA CE ONE Th e lights flicked to green on S a turd a y aft ern o o n wi t h pole sitter DuHamel le ad ing the pack into turn o ne , followed cl o s e ly by fa st -sta rte r Bostrom. Rapp a lso got a good jump fro m th e second row and hel d down third as the le a ders swept up towa rd the Keyhole. Yates, tho ugh, wa s a lre a dy showin g some hung er as he jetted past Rapp and into th ird pla c e . A la p later, c u e . e n e _ s J ULY 26.2000 7

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