Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

"When I came down I iust landed flat on my back. k knocked the wind out of me. Couldn't breath for a while. The whole back went numb. That scared me. And then everything came back and Iwas in pain. I took muscle relaxers and stuff As soon as the muscles seemed to release from the back, I was up and walking around, and now l'm fine." But he wasn't. Nearly four months later, Bosrrom was still hurting. His spinal column has a chicane in it. Corrective surgery would involve toint in through the front, takint out his rnternal organs, straighlenrng up the spine, replacinS the organs, and sewint him back up. lt would end his season before ir srart- ed. So he puts it out his mind as best he can. And he goes fast, "Very surprised," was his reply when asked how he felt about being second fastest, only halfa second down lrom Ben Spies. "l just expected to come and hang out and ride the bike and wait for the next test. As it turned out from day one, I said I love rhis bike. And when you like a bike, the times come easier." Bostrom sad the biggest asset was 'the feedback it Sives you. I know we'll make one small change, ltake one lap, halfofa lap, I know th€ change has already worked or h's not. I finish my lap. and I ,usr come back in. It's real easy to make quality lap6 on the bike, and every little chaflge is very sensitive." Had he pinned it on the banking, he might have found that half a second. "Unfortunately, l'm a bit of a pussy com- in8 around the banking. I don't seem to b€ able to hold the throttle wide open," he said. "l've done it a cquple of times, but it iust scares the hell out of me-" Bostrom might have ended the test with the fastest time, but then had a crash late on the final day. "l'4y foot slipped off the rear b€ke, and I we6 goint to run ofl the track, I iust lost the front," he said of the spill in the final infield left. "lt's really, really important to stay on the rear brake and slide the bike in. And when my foot came off, I was on the fronr tire. lt doesn't have a straitht runofi so you iust end up on the grass so fast. That's what test, but it didn't diminish his tdid." The crash wasn't the besr way ro end And, as he'r recentry proven, it won't slow him down. Eri( Bostrgm neered parts. We're very very careful when we stray away from any of those standard production parts. At this point, we really haven't." Halve6on said Yamaha was develop- in8 kit parts through Yamaha Engineerint Corporation ffEC), bur the team wouldn't be able to test them until the beginning of Februar/. "When that happens we'll be able to test those and endurance test them and see if that makes a bit difference for our engines or an +preciable difference for our engines. lJp to that point we can't count on those parts," Halverson said. The most important factor in winning Daytona is finishin8. Honda had the race to themselver last year and could afford a conservative approach. Not ao this year And not so for Yamaha. "l think at the Daytona test we were delinitely trying to size them up; they were probably doing the same with us," Halverson said. "With the engines we had. we were both very close on mph. At this point. of course, you've tot to finish the race- That's the main thing. And we only have a certain amount of tests before the Daytona race. Reliability is definitely a paramount consideration. So if we aan tet more power safely out of the bike before the race. we're defi- nitely lookint into that." What did it alladd up to? ''This is the most technologically advanced bike that l've ever ridden." said Yamaha's.,ason Disalvo, the fastes! of the Formula Xtreme riders by over a second. "The 250 that I rode was a pretty good bike to go ahead and set some thints up and iust change a lot of stuff with it. At that point in my career, I was so young that I really didn't have the knowledge, the feedback, to tive to the 8q/s to to ahead and take advantate of all the stuff that we had available to change on that bike. And now I've come to a point where I can talk to these Suys and tell them what's goint on and really adiust to how we need to. you know; and work with them, and make the bike befter. and really flture out what's going on on the track with the bike." Disalvo wa5 fastest of the Superstock set, as well, though not with as much "We're back to square one develop- ing that bike," he said. "The thing of it is, it hasn't come off the track a5 race- able as the Formula Xlreme. So it's,ust toin8 to take a liftle bir oftime. a little bit ofwork. I think a couple of the other Suys hit their selups a little bit quicker than we have. lCs not over. We've still got a lot ofthings to do and a lot of thinSs to rry I think it will come roSeth- er come race time.' Race time is when Jamie Hacking hopes to be 100-percent physically. The former Supersport .hampion said he was riding at 50 percent, still bothered by the after effects ofthe May bicycling iniury that dislocated both elbows. "That was a big deal," he said. "Not only the dislocation, but both radial heads were broken. I had to pin both of those. I had to have nerve trans- plants in both of my elbows. So I wa5 havint to wait for my nerves to heal up. I was getting a lot of tingling sensa- tion - lost a lot of strength in my hands. And I was still tryint to do my rehab on top all thar," At the end ofthe three-day test, Hackin8 admifted, "l'm really, really weak right now. And I'm actually pretty damn sore ritht now. My elbows are reallx really sore. I just need to build them up just testing. We did a lor of laps today. I did like 52 on the 600 and 40- Continocd on page 36 a, Neil HodEron ;!-.,.r A 'l "4 ( t r / J I Jomic Hocldea 't ).a ) \ ) t, t .4 I t & 7-. f/ T CYCLE NEWS JANUARY I8, 2006 35

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