Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

AMA SupcPbik€ Championship I watched the race last night where I thought I colld make a bit more time on Ben." The process has been one of ad+tation, f4ladin said, making "yourself better and that's what we've done so far. And we're looking forward to the challenge the rest of the season. I'm looking forward to gefting to the hot races in the middle ofthe summer. I enjoy that part of the year a lot." But to keep the pressure on he'll need befter stans. From the data from fle first start, Mladin said there wasn t a lot he could do about it. "We've got a test at Ohio and I've got 20 spare clutches ard they're all SoirE to 8et wom out, figuring something out," he said. Spix needs to figure out how to regain the ad\.anhge he held for the past three races. He feh something different in the motorcycle between the first and second starts, but dismissed it as a reason for his fin- ish. ''We obviously didn t have his pace today either wa)i" he said. "But something dell- nitely was amiss. \ryhen he came by rne, I tried to hang with him a little bit and knew there was no way. I iust colildnt do it and wasn't going lo drrow it down the drain there. Just kept it up on two wheels and the last couple of laps got pretty difficuh and I just kept tab6 on Jake pemke] and made sure we could llnish in front of him." Despite the setback, Spies said his conli- deflce was intact. ''lt's just going to make me go home and ty harder and train harder and do every- thing I can," he said. "we're still hading the points. kll be good gening to Miller Miller was good and Ohio and soroe pretty difllcult track and see what we can do. So fai that's where our bike's been the bes! in the tiSht twisty stuff." Zemke came third on both days. Saturday he was l4 seconds behind the win- ner whh teamrnate Duhamel two-terths behind after closing at the end. "l think I had a second and a half or some- thing, but then got into some hppers and he closed right back up. and made it exciting for the last couple of l+s," Zemke said, "l deli- nitely had to 8et rny head down and ride hard those last couple of lapG." The gap in Sunday's I lJap linal was 7.44 seconds, with Duhamel losing founh when he ran out of gas on the final lap. Hodgson passed him on the run to the flag, with Duhamel saMaging fifth. 'iAll in all I'm realty happy because I actu- ally linished on the same straightaway as these guys for once," Zemke said, ''That's coming a long wap from last year We're realty working hard to try and 8et that bike up to the front and these Suls are just ridinS awesome right now. And they're taking it to us. But we're goin8 to keep plugging away at it. We're not just Soing to give up and lay over and roll on our back, We're keep charging and keep trying and one of these days I'll get to race with these guys.'' Zemke was one of the beneficiaries of Elkhorr L.rke, wl AMA 5UPCRBIK€ Rounds a/9 June 3-4, 2006 Mv Owru Rnce trio was covered by four-tenths of a second. Saturday's race was doomed when he got pushed wide in the early turns "Went uP to turn one and tried to 80 around the outside of rome guys and got involved in all that." he said. "and then it took a while to 8et around everybody to tet 8oing. I settled into the pa.e I wat in. I was struS- gling tetting into the corners - iust my confidence in lhe front end. We might have chosen the wrong front lire - iust not havinS any feel over the front- And I tried to kind of carry so much corner speed tha! I finished rhe corner too late and slide the tire and bike. running out ofgrip. not going forward." On Sunday Yates said, "We went fasrer today lhan we did yesterday on the Superbike, 'So we've made a little bit of progress there. we're Soing to Mid_Ohio to test and, hopefully, we can take a few more steps forward. and tet the bike working for me like I need it !o win races-" 155 aen Bostrom 8th/7th Place Pans Unlimited Ducati's Ben Bostrom finished about where he't finished all season - eighth and sev- enth. Tire choice was the culprit. He chose the wronS front on Sat- urday, and on Sunday the tire he fir- ted after the red fla8 didn't have the same trip as rhe one beIo.e the race was stopped. "l tore the front 4,', - rire up. I chose (oo soft ofa front," Bostrom said after his Saturday eighth. From the first couple of laps it was iust Sreate and then it iust finally destroyed itsell ' Bostrom had arrived a! Road America on rhe high of toppin8 the Superbike dme chans at the recent Miller Mocorsports Park test. But thads a track with lols ofSriP. somethint chat Road America lacki. "For the llrst star( I had a garbage front and good rear and on the restart we had a really good front and garbage rear," he said. Bostrom tot Sood staru. but had no rear grip. "l'm just disappointed wilh the resul!. The bike has a lot more potential than you goys are seeing. That's what I'm actually startinS to see- I kind of rhought there was a real problem with the bike that thaCs where the level is and I don'a believe that anymore. I think the riders need to ride better. "l think ),,ou ll see that at a few different tracks. The bike has more potential than we tive ir - For sure." He knows that Miller plays to the Ducari's advaneges. "lnlore Srip helps. That s for sure. Because our bike has !o lean over a lot to steer it, so we really need a lot of grip so I get a good drive from the tires. We knew it was Soing (o be toush here. But we learned a lot, so it s cool." 22 r.ommy Hayden 7th/8th Place The Kawa5aki ZXI0R is very much a work in progress. The team con- tinues !o search lor power. which meant that acceleration and speed were a problem on the fastes! trrck in America and one of the fastest in rhe world. Saturday's race was spent dicing with Neil t I OO Neit Hodgson sth/4th Place Bostrom's teammate Neil Hodgson had a more producrive weekend, his best of the year. He came away wirh a Ilfth and a fourth, after steal- ing a spot when l'1iSuel Duhamel ran out of gas in Sunday s race. That was a race -,Saturday he was on his own, finishinS l5 seconds out oI Hodgson, Ben Bostrom. and Aaron Yates. Hayden finished seventh, on the same second as Yates. "Made one mistake and almost crashed," Hayden said. "Lost a couple of seconds They were reel- ing back in and then I passed Yates a couple of limes. He kePt com- ing back by. That's about it." Hayden said ic looked like he was going to catch Hodgson a few times, and then he'd Pull back out. ' Luck wasn't on his side Sunday- The left side of his fairing came loose soon after the restart. "l came out of three on the back straghtaway and Neil [HodSson] and Mat lMladan] blew by me... and I thoutht, 'Damn, I can't believe I got that bad of a drive. And came on anoth- er straEhtaway and the same thing happened again on the next one and I was like, 'Man, what's toing on, and then I felt it on my let lt was like I iust had a sail hantint ou( lhere. lt was wobbling real bad and I couldn t hold it straigh( up on the straiShtaway and it was iust draStint too." I 7 Miguet Duhamel 4th/sth Place fourth. "l ended up on my own, really," he said. "Even though I knew there were riders behind me. but I never saw them, so ir $as iusr a lonely race. really. Just trying to put laps together. I was a long way b€hand the people in front. I thought we were Soing to run for rhird. I rhough( we were hoping to keep the Hondas. see what we could do, see if we had anythin8 at th€ end of the race. lt became apparenc straight away that that wasn t the case. They ran 125 early on in the race, which I don't know where they gol that from. They were doing l3s in practice- ' HodSson had an eleclrical Problem before the red fla8 in Sunday s race. The mappinS was the Problem, and it was earily retolved. So on the restart Hodgson was stronger, and able to run consistent lap times in the 2: l3s, even dippinS into the l2s, where the l4sand l5s were Saturday's pace. "We ran the same bike. they just chansed somethint with the elec- tronics," he said of the red-flag changes. 'lAnd also I think there the tire might have been faulty because it had tood SriP and then it had no Srip and it war weird, really \ /eird. lt was a complete nithtmare and then rhe red flag came up and I was like. thank God. finally. And ii was like I was on the same bike except it was like a completely dif_ ferent bike. I was a second of a lap quicker and I had some luck with Duhamel at (he end." -, -'' -t .1 -,t 0 2O Aaron Yates bigger problem. because I kept adiusring the brakes so oftefl that I almos! got arm pump from adiusting the brake lever Two three laps into h. So then adiust harder, so then adiust harde( too hard, then too soft and that's the scary one. And then you go back to harder So the whole race I could never one flnd one position ofthe lever It's kind of hard to to at speed and doing that stufl ' Duhamel ran Saturday's race in the 2: l3s, mostly, bu. Sunda,, he started with his fas(est lap ofthe weekend, a 2:l 1.985 on his firsr flying lap. He did- n't match the speed, but he was almost always in the 2: l2s. Then came the red fla8 and the bike wasnt lhe same. he said. "For us, the red flag loully killed us- That was a new setup today and it was a really good one with a full tank, but when the tank 8ot lithter the balance went ofa a litde bit. Any bike when they get hot and you go back out, we were iust in a really Sood zone - a Sood comfort zone - that lirst part of the race. The restart I was tq/in8 to do a little too much and ran wide in one comer and Jake lzemke] came by me and that was it. I had nothint for Mat [Mladin]." Coming out ofthe chi- cane on the final lap, going to the back straiSht to Canada Corner, tfie Honda almost stopped. So he lried to limp it in. "lt Pulled out of the l4th turn and going up the hill and then it ran out o[ 8as. lt came to a stop almost." The team had added 2.5 liters during the red flag, but Duhamel's pace was so fast tha! he burned throuth the fuel 6th/6th Place Yoshimura Suzuki's Aaron Yates fin- ished sixth on both days. though his performance was stronger on Sun- da} Yates was part of a three-way llght for founh tha! went to Neil Hodgson on rhe final lap when l{iguel Duhamel ran out of8as. The 20 JUNE ti, 2006 . cYcLE NEWS "Yesterday we had a bit problems with the brakes. We had a wheelie isslre too," American Honda's Miguel Duhamel said of Saturday's race. "The bike was wheelying out of every cornet We had trouble with that. The brake issue wa$ a (

• Cover