Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

AMA SUP€RBIK€ Rounds 2/3 A.pril a2-23, 20o6 AMA SupcPbik€ Championship Mv OwN F[Ace IOO Neil Hodgson 6th/5th Place Both DuGti Austin riders agreed that Barber Motorsports Park was their worst track, but they weren't sure why. Neil Hodgson was a distant sixth on Saturday and a closer lifth on Sunday, but only because the race was eight laps long. Hodg- son nearly got caught up in the Yates-Hayden incident, and mitht have prolited, ifYates hadn't recovered. "You see it happening in tront ofyou and you iust hope and pray, you think you've got a chance ao rqueeze in," he said. "l w"as obviously on rhe wrong side of him, but there was nothing I could do. ' As for the Ducati F06, "We knew this track was wrong really. Doesn't suit the bike to be honest. We'll see what happens at the next round." I55 gen Bostrom 9th/6th Place "This is absolu(ely the bike's work track, riSht here," Ducati Austin's Ben Boslrom 'aid, "because you're on the side of the tire too long. For the Ducati you have to lean it over quite far to steer them. And on the side of the tire like you are at this track, you're done. That s your day riSht lhere. Because there's no grip over there and everyone else just rides around the corner-" Bostrom also thought he might catch a break after Aaron Yates hit Tommy Hayden. "l thoutht, 'Wow' Neil [Hodgson]. miSht actually shove it in t]ere and make this commotion and both of u3 can ac-tually sneak by,"' he said before realit,, struck. "lt looked like Neil mitht have had him, but you know how Aaron is. He lust bulldogged his way Past." Like Hod$on, Bostrom said the bike never worked. "We knew it was going to happen. We leamed a lot. We iust kept testing, even during the red llag we kept testinS stuff and it worked out better." During rhe red flat he shortened his wheelbase. Saturday was nothing but frustrating. "l think there's something about not racing for fi.st that kind of wrecks the race," he said after finishing a dist.nt ninth. "You can be racing with l0 8q/s and scared to hell the whole time you're out there, but if you're racint for tenth it's not all that cool. The coolest part about it was sliding the Ducatiaround every corn€i" 59 Jake Holden DNF/8th Place ,ordan Suzuki's Jake Holden ran off the rack on the fourth lap of Satrrday's rxe, th€n used the rest as a test session. What he leamed was put to use in his eithth Place finish on Sunday. Holden. like many others, said the test data they'd Sathered earlier in the year, in cooler weather, was of little use on the hot race weekend. "This whole weekend's been difrerent," he said. "We made a couple ofsmrl adiustments bewveen reces, but nothing maior I think the rubber on the track helped out a little bit. And iust the h€at of the race we just droPPed our lap times a little bit." Be{ore Sunday's red flag Holden "had a hard time... trying to get around.lordan Szoke and Clint l4cBain, they've got their [Canadian] Superbikes, lt was tough. This track's tough to pass on. There's onty a couple of spots and it's pretty sketchy.' 22 Tommy Hayden Sth/7th Place Kawasaki's Tommy Hayden b€gan the weekend by putting the Kawasaki on the front aow in only its second race. ,t ended with the Kentuckian trying to hold back his anSer after tettin8 center-punched by Aamn Yates. \ryhen Yates hit him, he was just tryint to stay upriSht. "l mean, first couple of bumps I thoutht he was going to go over the highside, tock up, fall over," he said. "Then we 8ot broke up and started to to. At the lime, I was tried to stay on the track because I knew he'd bumped into me, but I didn't know. You're pretty optimistlc at thar point." On Saturday he said he was "pushing the front really bad - kind ofwent down a couple of times, kind of lost some confidence. And then felt better as the race went on. Miguel came by and I actually started feeling befter. Able to get back by him. Tried to put my head down. Miguel's a tough tuy to have behind you at the end ofthe race. You know h€'s toing to be rrying something, I thought maybe I couH hold him off. Felt pretty good: but getting into ttaffic, he got by me in the back and couldn't get back there with just a few comers to go." 98 Jake Zemke 3rd Place/DNF .lake Zemke earned his recond Sup€rbike podium for Arnerican Honda in the first race. "l'm happy to tet the Honda up h€re," he said. "lt's a lot better than where we staned at Day- tona. We're at least going in the riSht diredion." Sunday's race ended with a hiShside at the end ofthe fifth lap, but not beforc he was already in a hole. "l Sot a horrible start. ' he said. "The clutch did its typical thing and it engaged and popped the front end and then I had to pass a few Suys to tet where I was, " The day ended in the final turn sequence. "The next to the last corner up there in the riSht-hander as it tightens up ritht as you cliP the +ex ofthe curb there," is wherc the crash began, he said. "Right when I tet to that point, the back end iust start€d cominS arcund on its own. Picked up the firottle a little bit and iust to keep it from high-siding me bu! the thing iust kept Soing and Soing and I tried to stand the bike uP a little bit to get some traction, but the thing just kept coming around. Finally, I hit the steering lo.k, snapped once, twice, thero I went, up over the top pretty hard. When I landed, I kno€ked the wind out of myself pretty good." 95 Roger Lee Hayden l4th Place/DNF Kawasaki's p@ger Lee Hayden has won the first two Sup€rsport races, bu( has no luck at all on the Superbike. On Saturday he fell in tum two when the from end tu.ked. 'lust 8ot in there a little bit hot and lost the front end," he said after crashing out of fourth on the founh lap. 'Just pretty frus- trated iust because I screwed up. lt's m), fault. l'll take the blame." The right foot peg was down to a nub and the {ront brake was bent up. But he soldiered on to l4th. "l was determined to do betler than what we did at Daytona. We'll move on. I wouldn't chan8e a thint to be honest. We'll iust keep going for it. l'm not really leaming anything b),, cuttinS my races shon. Hopefully tomorrow we can keep it on tvvo wheels a little bit lonter and just see what happens." Hayden did keep it on wvo wheels lonte( to the 2lst of 28 laps, when he says he was hir from behind byJames Kerker Hayden told team manager Mike Preston that he'd iusr passed Kerker on the run over the hill to turn four when Kerker ran into him (see 'ln The Wind"). 17 Fliguel Duhamel 4thi3rd Place ''We're miles ahead ofwhere we were last year," American Honda's lnliSuel Duhamel said after finishinS third on Sunday. "The bike is so much bet[er." Duhamel and Zemke struggled through 2005, but the work they put in is payint off in 2006. Though they're still at a disad- vantage to the Suzokis, they're much closer to the front and continue to progress. Duhamel said he went wkh the back-up bike on Sunday. "lt was one little ingredient missint. I stood there {or three hours and at the last minute said let's take some oil out of the front fork. And that was the miracle cure. And rhe bike was really wonderful after that. ln the flrst race, until they red-fla8ged it, I lhought they could reel Ben in. ,f he stans relaxinS, I m 8oin8 to to 8et him because my bike was wonderful in that first race. 20 Aaron Yates 7th/4th Place Yoshimura Suzuki's Aaron Yates had an eventful weekend. He crashed on Saturday, re- mounting to finish seventh, and on Sunday ran into Tommy Hayden, but still managed to finish fourth. Both incidents carne in the same corner, the downhill, left-hand, hairpin turn four. "l got into the tum a little easier than I had before and iust tipped it in a little tithter or something, and then the front iust went in," he said of Saturday s crash. Yates bent the handlebars, and the foot pet was just about gone. "Luckily I was able to get the bike up and go aSain and got some okay points, I tuess." Sunday's incident came later in the corner, as he was trying to tum in just b€fore tlle apex. "hetty much got beside fTommy Hayden]," he said. "l felt I was prett), much enouSh beside him that he saw me tfiere." Yates contlnued. "l hate that it hap_ p€n€d. I wanted to get on the podium. I know Tommy did too-" t I U , ",,n,t *:s "We ran off the racetrack," l''lladin said. "For whatever reason, it happens to everybody. That's the way it goes. Can't complain. The guy qualified. That was the second time we d lapped him, but that's the way it goes. No complaints, honestly, no excuses. lt was a good race - uP until that point it was a good race. Everyone was hanSinS it out. lt was good fun. Like I 18 MAY3,2006 . CrCIE NEI/YS said, hadn't had a race like that for the last 12 months, and it was fun. A good, fun race, " Mladin had a plan, had the incident not happened "lt was going to be tou8h, but some- thing would have happened," he said with a 8rin. "Don't know where though," Spies marEin of victory was 10.723 seconds. "lt was actually a pretty good shock," Spies said at the realization he'd beaten lYladin 'l iust didn't know what. lwas, like, 'Whoa, I'm in this position.'Just like last year, it was a malfunction [at California Speedway] and this time a lap- per thing ran him ofl the track, and it did- n't get to go down to the last lap. But at least lwas happy I stayed there... on a real racetrack, stayed there the whole race and made it happen. Will i( happen a8ain tomorrow, or the whole year? I don't know. But we're iust goinE to keep work- ing from here." Zemke was over 16 seconds behind Spies in third, and aware that there was work to be done, Borbcr Molorspo?ts Pork Birminahom, Alobsmo ,!?

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