Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

his lirst since Virginia lnternational Raceway last yeai Even without the luck - a red flag that allowed him to erase a fn/e-second deficit - he was confident he colld win. So the weekend ended with l'lladin only 2l poins shon of Spies in the championship and with a full head of steam. 'After seven nrces or after the second race at lnfineon anybody that tholght the championship was over obviolst hasn't been watching what's been going on for the last seven or eight years out there." the six- time champioo said defiantt after wnntng Sunday's red-flag interrupted race. "lf afly- one thought that we were just goirg to roll ovei it cerainly wasn't the case,'' Spies was good - second on both da;a - with American Honda s Jake Zemke nuking a pair of podium appearances in third. Seemingt intractable clutch problems continue to haunt Mhdin and nearly derailed him. Saturday's slow stan left him an eart fourth. lt took until the sixth lap to move past Duharnel into second and on the next lap he put Spies behind him with an outside pass enterinS the hard-left Kink. Two lap,s later he had over a second in hand and looked ready to disappear But he couldn't. Spies dropped the race lap record on the l2th lap and again on the l4th and used traf- fic to clo6e to within ,270 ofa second on the final lap, For most of the race it w:rs cle2r Spies was havirE traction problems. He'd had trouble with Searing during qualiting and the problem wa5n't resolved for the race. ''Some of those comers where the thing just ba(ked in sideways, I wish I had about half a gear to make it taller" he said. ".iust, you can't do that. so we've got to get on tlte computer and $y to work out some way to change the gearing where it's decent in areas and bener in others." The rear stepped out on the run out of the final right-hander to the checkered flag. The win went to lYladin by . 149 of a second and he was clearly exultant. "l w"s going as hard as I could, I know that for sure," l'{ladin said. "lt ended urp being a good race and a good fight. lt iust worked very, very well on a fe$/ different restart, even though he thougtrt that with l0 laps to run he had a shot, "lf I got a reaily bad scrt in the second one like I did in the first one, it would've been hirt hard," Mladin be8an, "because in the first one, five seconds with I I l+s, cutting some mid-lls, you can catch up pretty quickly." As it war the race would be ll laps, with the front row made up of Spies, Duhamel, Mladin and Jake Zemke. Spies nailed the start and Mladin, aEain, didn't. He finished the lim lap in sixh and was up to founh on the next lap, passing Parts Unlimited Ducati teammates Ben Bostrom and Neil Hodgson. Three hps in he was 2.38 seconds behind Spies, but Sathering speed and about to set a series of record- s€tting lap6. First <2me the 2:ll-567 on lap nine, three-tenths under Spies' pole time. The next hp was even fasteri a 2:11.295, fol- lovred by another 2: I I on l+ I I , the lap he passed Spies in the same place as he had on Saturda, the entrance to the Kink. Wth a clear track he ran $e fastest-ever hp by a motorcycle at Road America, a 2: I I .208, on the l2th, and had over I .5 seconds on SFries. The lead would top out at 5.291 seconds and Mladin would have his double. "Yesterday, after watching the race, I felt that Ben [Spies] was salng in the race because he was catching the end of the draft halinay down both of the straiShB, that's how I feh he was staying in it," Mladin said. lAnd I fek if I could get away and put some good laps in and break that liftle bit of wind, that migk be all we had to do and today it workd." lYladin fifted the new Showa front fork that Spies has used all season, a fork 6at has been irEtrurnental in Spies' success. "That certainb/ helped out a lot," Mladin said. lAnd then this moming. aSain we made a few more changes, well not a few more iust, actually, one change to $e bike. And it certainly helped out in a couple of spos after Traation control was yery much on every- one's mind after the AMAflip-flopped on the issue in the run-up to the race. Plans to issue a press release on Wednesday morning were scuttled when the news was leaked to Cyde News and posted on the C/- b:s T t-, /. t ,t a I ,) Iemke (9E) endcd up rhird both times out Duhomel (I7)

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