Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

4 s\ E I I a a - t ltt - q t lrr, {d\ I -l ,.$ -N r\* --- Brief iy... today was a good race for me - I enjoyed it a lot. I had to push hard at the end. Miguel was there and son of got right back up, right on the back ofme there through a lit- tle bit of traffic, and I had to put my head back down and push hard again, \r'y'hen you're racing at the front with a io-second lead you don't have to do that a lot. I haven't done that for a long time.'' It was the l3th lap before Duhamel passed Hayden on Sunday, the move coming when Hayden made a mistake by overshooting the chicane at the end of the back srraight. For Hayden to stay in front, he had to brake deep, and this time it was too deep. lvlladin was two secondr ahead at that point and Duhamel wasn't able to close the gap as lapped riders came into play- Duhamel was helpless to stop Spies from matching his record. ''ObMously, one day it was going to h+- pen," Duhamel said. "l've been on the bubble for a while, Nicky [Hayden] gave it Codn,!ed hoBt Fage )r) etched in there. At least. for people that dont follow racint that much. they can look at the wall and look up what I done. I ve done a few good things here. So thaCs treat. l'm really happy with i[." Oliver said, "lt's a great honor for me to be here. This is where it all started for me a long time ago. Now to be considered one of the treaE is a huge honor." The pair join NASCAR greats Mark Flartin and Rusty Wal lace, and NHRA veteran Whrren lohnson. Duhamel's spoke of his record of six Super. bike winr in a row being under attack before Yosh's Ben Spies won Sunday's race. Duhamel found solace in the fact that he'd done it in different circumstances, "ln motor- cycle ra.ing, the only thint that I guess is Soing ro help me sleep ar nighr - because ir willget broken - is I can say, 'well, I did it on single mce weekends, and I was racinS 60Os at the same time,'" he said. ln fact, Duhamel won six races in a row. with each of the Superbike wins being matched by a Super- sport win. The supersport streak ran to eight races. "There's a couple oI subtle linle differ- ences about it. But still, yeah, Ben's ridin8 terrific, and he's a great guy. lf he goes on beatinS it, that's treat, because I think he's good for the spon." Then a pause before he deadpanned, "But I dont want him to do it." hrts Unlimited Ducata's Neil Hodgson spent the day before rhe race weekend visiting.hil- dren in hospitals in Sacramento. Hodgson had done sornething similar in llaly a few years back and was more *ran happy to comply when asked. "Would I be interested in doing it? And I said straiShtawax no problem," Hodgson said. No one knew who he was, but it didn t malter- "The kids have borinS days. You'.e in hospital, some of them are terminal- ly ill..- anythin8 that bre:ks it open. We could say you could \ ratch on Speed Channel, that's me. Some of rhem were prefty pumped about watching (he race on Sunday. And like anything - like me, like you - you get some- Sring free it's nice. We gave them hats, T- shirE, stickers, posters." The Graves Motorsports Yamaha team may consider buyinS a new trailer after a narrow escape on the drive up to lnfineon on Wednesday. The team tnnsporter was going down the Grapevin€, on l-5 nodh of Los An8eles near the Teion Pass. wh€n the left rear brakes caught fire. poppin8 the sus- pension air bags and melting a tub of tire warmers inside the truck. A California High- way Patrol officer alened the driver and called for afiretruck, which put out the fire. The leFc), of the incident was a nasty scar of burnt paint on the side ofthe transporter, Rain on Friday threw a wrench into the team s race programs. Mat Mladin's Yoshimura Suzukicrew betan swappinS out the practice motor for their Saturday race engine at about li45 p.m. k they had to, they could do the swap in 45 minutes. They went into Saturday's qualiting session and first Superbike race with one bike set up {or qualifying and the second for the race. The teams were anxious over the possibility of the races being held on Monday. The team tftmsporters were to leave Sunday night for the approximately 800-mile drive to Miller Flotorspons Park in Tooelle, Utah, where a two-day te$, Wednesday and Thursday, was planned. The Friday before the lnlineon weekend Shawn Reilly tot a phone callat his Sacra- mento home. lt was Buell President and COOJon Flickinger asking if he'd like to ride the BRR a! rhe KawasakaAMA Supe.bike Showdown weekend. He rhouShr about it for about halfa second. and then set about renewing his AMA license. "They came out and gave us the bike on Thursday," he said, of the XBRR that was backed by Harley- Davidson/Buell of Valleio. Because of rain on Friday, they never hit the base setup, "so we just really had a severe compromise on the suspension. Basically I had to re-learn how to ride the bike with the torque. Normally we've got a little XB-9 and I also have a GSX-R|Ooo. This is by far on par with the GSX-R1000 with the motor." His teammate for the weekend, Jeremy McWilliams. helped Reilly set his tront end. "We were really, realt struSgling and he's like,'Let me gve you my settings,'and he actually came over and it was very coolfor him to actualt come over and give me settinSs," Reilly rode the XBRR to 22nd, good for nine Formula Xtreme Championship points, the first ever for the V-twin. "lt s quite a dubious extinc- tion, only because I felt bad torreremy," he said. addinS that he sew Mcwilliams pushing his bike with one let a.lont the straightawey between turns I I and 12. I was really hoping he could pull it off today." Reilly said he heard repons that some of the things Mcwilliams was doing werc "just out of sight, A lor of local falt guys were warching turn two, and they're lake, 'Yeah, you're both taking the same turn the same way, but boy he's doinS it a lot more angry iust tuck- in8 the front, and lithtiry up the reac and squarin8 it off.'He's just 8ot so much talent." Yoshimura Suzuki's Ben Spies took his third pole in a ro l, at lnfineon Raceway, like the previous two, with a new lap record, Spies was almost at a loss to explain his recent run ofsuccess. 'Like I lold nry team and every- body fiat asks what's the big breakhrough, I feel like l'm riding the same," he said. "l really think l'm pufting the same effort in. lt's iust we've definitely tot the bike working better to where l rn able to ride it as hard as I can Last year it was faustratinS, because I could feel how good the bike was, birt it wash't working quite right. lt was delinitely, in a way, holding me back, because I couldn't ride it, But that was also my fauk for not being able to set it up. But we've 8ot the bike working a lot better with the new fork we've 8ot on it, and just maybe me being more comfortable and stuff like that. lt's tood." Spies said that qualiryinS had Bone well, despite fle litde time he got olrt of his quajiryinS tire "and we only tot three-tenths out of it. I think \r/e did a low 36.1 or a J6.0 on race tiaes. So k was a little bit better. I wish we .ould've gone a lit- tle bit qui*er than that. But it look like we didnt need (o today." Spies saad that Friday's Conrinued on pdge 3i :--.-- t (lop to botlom) Yotes lost out on o bode with Duhomel for third in Soturdoy's finol; Hodgson (hose5 lhe Kowosoki of Iommy Hoydeni The top thr€€ on borh doys - Mlodin, spier, Duhomel. Bul nol in lhol order, MflW CYCLE NEWS . MAY 31,2006 3I ,?r-----I f. rl B 4 1, ),t I ( ab., .\ L -l \ 2 -- I I -?' E*

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