Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

AMA/Ch e vy Truck s U .S Sup erb ik e C ha m p ionshi p R o und 1 1 : Pi k e s P e a k Int ern a o o n a l Rac e way worry about, what Eric was doing. All b r i n g it hom e i n front o f Ni c k y and we had to worr y about was Ni ck y . t hat's w h at w e did: With about 18 laps t o go, o r there- Ya tes ' only regret wa s that he 'd abouts , h e [H a yden] rea lly started w ai te d to o long to make hi s c ha rge . If he ' d had b een more aggressi v e earl y slowing up a n d we c aught him up pretty quic k aga in . Eric caught h im o n, pe rhap s h e co u l d h a v e gi v en up and he d idn't have an answer for B ost rom a run for his m o ney . Jt, so I figured he was starting to slide around a b it. W e w ent past him a nd " I thought I c o u ld go a li ttle quick er in the ra c e, b ut I g ot a l i t tle p u lled three seconds in two laps . I g ot fo cu sed o n the g uys in front of m e, it ou t to p lus four a nd sa id , 'That's it. w a t c hi n g what was going o n with It 's t ime t o bring i t to th e f in ish. ' O bviously , with where w e sit in th e Ni cky [Hay~en] mi xing i t up up there," Yates expla ined . " I was rea lly c ham pionship , Aaron had to p u ll over fo r m e a t t he e n d . We j ust had t o p e n and I wasn 't totally fo cu sed on c u rio us to see w hat wa s going to hap- Yoshimura Suzuki's Mat Mladin (right) has had a knack for earning pole positi ons in his AMA Superbik e career. And it's a knac k tha t hasn't been lost on th e reco rd book s. In fact, by early next season, he will mo re than likely become the AMA's all-time leading pole position eamer, a mark he enhanced at Pikes Peak Intemational Raceway with his fifth pole position of the season. This particular fast qualifying effort was the 16th of Mladin ' s career and it mov ed him out of a tie with Wayne Rainey for third on the all -time list. He is now just one behind Freddie Spencer and two behind Doug Polen, the current best qualifier in AMA history. . History is great to look back upon. but the present and future are a little' more im port ant to Mladin righ t now . And this pole positi on did a lot to brighten both the present and the future as the cham pionship point that goes with the honor mov ed him that littl e bit closer to a second successive AMA Superbike National Champi onship . With the point in his pocket prior to Sunday 's National . Mladin led Nick y Hayden by 13 points with just two races left to run . Mladin did all of this by runnin g at a slower pace than what he qualified last year. though conditions this tim e around were far from ideal. High heat and winds made the going tougher than last year's near ideal qualifying session. and Mladin was pleased to j ust be close to what he did last year. This time around he lapped at 54.222 seconds. a tad off last year's record-setting lap of 54.009 . "We were try ing pretty hard to get the point." Mladin said. "I didn't use a qualifier yesterday so I had a couple for today . The first time I went out . we did a 4.4 [54 .4]. I came - back in and we put another one on because it had a few tenths left in it. Just as I was going out. I saw 4.3 go up on my board - number 20. So I said, 'O kay, we j ust have to go a lit tle faster than that ,' Fortu nately. we did a 4.2. There really wasn' t much more left in it for me. On an absolute perfect lap . I would have gone.two tenth s quicker than that. but that lap was pretty good . It was pretty close to what we did last year and in these conditions it's a really good lap time. Last year was opt im al conditions for lap tim es and we're only a' couple of tenths slower this year so that's a pretty good effort," Mladin did his quick lap with time to spare on the tight and twisty 1.315 -mile race track - the only track in the series in which the riders turn laps under the one-minute m ark . With his lap in the books, Mladin took his helmet off and observed the monitor . checking to see if anyo ne could go faster. You could tell he didn't think they could . and he was right. Th e m an wh o came closes t to bette ring the mark was Mlad in' s teammate. Aa ron Yates. And Yates was content with his second-quickest tim e of 54.3 3 1. knowing full well that the champi onship point could end up making a difference for Mladin: "The first 30 minutes I was out there running a race tire . the same thing I did this morning." Yates said.· ..We·ve got my GSX-R750 worki ng really well around here. so we're just makin g very fine changes try ing to optim ize it. Th e tires you 've got to run here are so hard on the left side that the bike has to slide and be stable and drive forwar d. Ou rs is doing that very well . I spent a lot of laps out there and noticed I was keeping fast ti me for a whil e. I was looking good for a race setup and every body starts putting soft tires on and you go faster j ust like that. We stuck a soft tire in and went pretty good. I kept thin king I could go a littl e faster. a little faster. Th e thi ng hung in there really well . It actua lly spun up more for the first couple of laps..I kept expecting it to go off and it never reall y did. I just gave out because I'd been out there for a whil e. I figured what the hell. that's Mat and I know he needs that point," . - Kawasaki's Eric Bostrom ended up third fastest with his 54.535 and he was hoping to take advanta ge of his front-row starti ng position. . "Th e track temp eratur e was pretty warm ." Bostrom said. "We didn 't use a qualifier yesterda y . so we had two for today and t hat was a little bit of a gambl e because yesterday was pretty sketchy in the rain . With the second one. I got a couple of good ones in. I thought I could have gone quicker. but it didn't happen . We're happy to be on the front row. but at Brainerd we sat on the front row and couldn't do anyth ing in the race. so we defin itely want to tum that around here.": Vance [, Hines Ducati's John Kocinski fil led the front row. The Little Rock . Ark ansas native. who now calls California home. lapped at 54 .555 . Row two would consist of Vance [, Hines Ducati 's Steve Rapp, Yamaha's Jamie Hack ing. American Honda's Nicky Hayden and Competition Accesso ries.com's Larry Pegram . In all . the top 11 were within a second of Mladin's pole time . In terms of the all -important championship. Mladin definite ly fared better than Hayden;' who for the second succ essive race was struggling with his Honda RC51. "I'm struggling: Hayden said. "I've got a big problem with grip. It's spinn ing up a lot everywhere and it' s really frustrat ing. Hopefully. I can get a good start and go for it - I don't have mu ch choi ce. Both Miguel [DuHamel] and I are having the same problem," DuHamel 's problems. in fact . appeared worse; the French Canadian qualified 13th, just two weeks after winning the AMA Superbike National at Brainerd International Raceway. 8 AUGUST 23, 2000' cue I e n e vv s wha t I was d oing . N icky fi na ll y started c om ing ba ckwa rds and I g ot m yself in gear. I j usttried to go fo r , ward . It 's real slick o ut t h er e . it's hot and the t ires are ha rd - th er e' s a lot of slid ing arou nd. You've really got t o be focused on w hat you 're doing o r you could l o s e it. O n ce I f inal ly got fo cused o n w hat I was doing . I tried t o go after Eric [Bostrom] ." A s fo r lettin g h is teammat e by on the fina l lap: " I was getting pi t sig nals ." Yates said . " W e had a ga me pl a n going . a team thi n g . Tha t's the way y o u' ve got to do it to k eep everyone happy. It's good fo r Suzuki and that's what I' m here fo r - to m ak e Suzuki look go od . We showed ou r tea m spi rit." Hacking ca me ac ro ss th e li ne next, some fiv e seconds after t he c oasting Yates. He'd put in a so lid effort on the factory Yamaha, battling for the m aj ority of the race w ith J ohn Kocinski . who would re t ire t w o laps from th e fin is h w he n hi s Du c at i's fuel pump fail ed h im - and fi nally p as si ng Ha yden right at th e end . " I ' m n o t d isa p po i n te d w i t h m y resu lt . but I'm not happy either: Hack in g said . "Th is m orning I had it running re ally well . but I co uldn 't go an ywher e right off the st art . I started to fall back a n d it was just sp inning rea ll y bad . [Larry] Peg ram got by m e, Yates got by m e. I co uld n' t get around Pegram until I fin all y sized h im up. I st arted to pu ll in Yate s, but I j ust c o u ld n 't do an ything with it. Koci nski c am e up on m e and I wa sn 't about to l et h im beat me. I Eric Bostrom's two-year winless streak finally came to an end in Colorado. His last win, on September 6, 1998, was also at Pikes Peak International Raceway, as a replacement for the then inj ured Miguel D uHamel on the Honda RC45. g la nced up at the leaderboa rd a nd I co u ld see h im [N ic k y Hayde n ] co ming b ack. " Next came Steve Rapp , wi th p art of him w ishing he'd t ak en a c ha n c e on runnin g a tire othe r th an th e d ua l co m pound . "I really need ed a fin ish ," Rap p sai d . "I didn 't n eed any ti res b low ing out o n m e like at B rain erd . It was p robably t he ri gh t choice because I' m not that good at co nserving tires. It w as like rid ing a d irt-trac k b ik e. I wish I' d used a 602 , but I' m sure so do a lot of othe r g uy s." Ra p p had managed to p ass Pegra m on t he f inal la p , and Pegram wished he'd used th e d ual co m pound . Go fig ure . '" u sed a 602 and 1 c h u nked it," Pegram sai d . " It was 10 lap s sh y of . being the r ight tire. A ctua ll y , I h ad to b aby it the w h ol e t ime. I shoul d' v e used th e hard one." Kawa sa k i' s Doug Chandler had b een with those two for most of the rac e , and he cam e up just sho rt in beating th em. The trio w as covered by just half a second at th e fin ish line. " I us ed th e SOl and I b li stered it. " Ch andler sa id. " We j u st didn 't have things q uite right. I started sk at ing the front and had to ac celerate the rear too

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