Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

Zemke wasn't finished, and he was quickly back around the Suzuki. He held that lead to the start/finish line at the end of the eighth lap - becoming the first non-Suzuki rider to lead a Superbike race all season. Zemke held the lead from lap nine through 12, but Mladin went by in the Blackrock Hairpin, only to see Zemke back in front at the comer known a5 Knock Out. The four were all togeth- er at this point, ahd they'd cross the finish line to complete 13 laps with four-tenths of a second covering the top four - with lYladin leading. Then Zemke was back in front, with Mladin driftlngwide in a comer. Then he was back in front in Blackrock, with Zemke getting him a8ain in the next corner Then the two made contact, with Zemke going into the dirt in the Attitudes- "He [Zemke] was running a rea- sonably good pace, and we kept about just over a second on both Bens, for third and fourth, at that stage, on lap six, seven, eight, there- abouts," lYladin explained later- 'And then he started to slow just a little bit, so I wanted to push and try and 8et past. And every time I passed him. he,ust kept coming back by. Unfonunately, I had to get into him up there. Well, actually, we got in fairly deep. I thank the same lap we got in pretq/ deep, and we both ended up iust scrubbing speed from the front, trying to get in there. Obviousbr, I didn't mean to run into him. But I got past him. Unfortunately, at the same time, Ben got Past me there, with me trying to gather it together again. Then Ben probably put about a second on us." Zemke's version was similar- "When lwas in front," he said, "l was just being on the safe side, and when l4at 04ladinl was in front of me, I mean, the times were the same - we were runnihg like mid- 50s and it was fine. and then we started racing a little bit and that was good - just going back and forth. Mat got inside me going up into the liftle S section up there. His entrance line was really tight, and I had already turned in from the out- side and I was on line to make the corner. We hit pr€tty good, and it pretty much knocked me right off the track. He Y/ent all the way to the edge of the track, and that let Ben go by us both- From then on, I was iust trying to play catch-up. and we kept getting these lappers. And a couple of them paid attention to the blue flag, and it was the same even for the leaders- I mean, the guys aren't even paying aftention. It's unbelievable, because they have blue flags going all around the race. track - it's not iust at the start/linish line or somethinS, I mean, they're out there in the corners, especially when there's two guys racing together and one guy stops and looks over and lets everybody go and the other guy's racing, so that makes the guy behind him '/yant to race. lt was just a mess." The scrap with Mladin and Zemke allowed Spies past, and he led across the stripe at the comple- tion of lap 15, with Zemke in founh and 1.7 seconds behind. On the I 8th lap, things got a whole lot worse for Zemke, as he crashed, the Honda tumblangto a stop in a dust storm. Somehow Zemke got it going again and rejoined the race, finishing the lap in eighth place - a spot he would hold to the finish. ''l finally had one lap of clear track, and I closed quite a bit on those guys, aod then I iust lost the front right on the seam going in there," Zemke explained. "Right where the pavement seam is, there is a liftle bit of a dip right there, and I was pushing too hard on the front. It's funny. because at the start of that lap I told myself, Okay, don't push too hard on the front,'because I knew the thinE was already jun a lit- tle bit Sreasy. And I pushed too hard on the front. I wasn't going to seftle for anything but being on the podi- um. I mean, realistically, we had a great shot at winning that race." By this point, Spies had gotten through tralfic cleaner than Mladin, and for all practical purposes the race was run. Bostrom had also given up the fight and was 2.3 sec- onds behind f4ladin with 19 of 2l laps in the books. One thing is cleer immediatelywhen you enter Miller Motorsports Park - it's a first-class racing facili+ From the gar:ges to the press facilities to the raaetrack itself, no expense has been spared at the nervest tacility on the AHA schedule. To a man, the riders raved about the track. "lt's really good," said Neil Hodtson- "lt s one of the best track in Arneri6, I'd say. lt flows really good, and it's safe. The only problem with it is, there are too many patches in already. That's something that needs (o be addressed, but apart from that, it's I 0 out of 10. lt's really good. lt's more ofa European-slyle circuit. lt's flowint, it s sate, it's good fun. lt s fun to ride. lt's not one ofthe old tracks thar's been made safer by putting incredibly tight chicanes in or really tight hairpins- They definitely have the right formula." Ben Spies concurred with Hodgson on his assessmenr of the new track, thou8h he wasn't a hute fan. "Honestly, it was smooth, but it's kind ofgetting bumpy for some Tea- son," Spies said. "lt's wide, it's safe, h's more European- style, but it's not one of my favorites. To me, it doesn't really seem too technical: that's why I think everybody's really close here. You've got a l:so-second lap and you've tot some people stacked up in there right now. Just the first three turns, it seems like you can only go through there so fest. There's really no lechnical section where you 8et to throw the bike around, try to rnake up some tenths here and there in tight areas, lt's not a bad tracki it's delinkely not my favorite, and I don't think it's my strontest by any means. This is one of those weekends, like I said I wanted to do ar Barbet we definitely want to win the race, but ilwe don't, we want to keep the points tap to a minimum. I was tlad I got the pole point today, in case we don't get the most laps led today. All we can try to do is go out and try and win both races. lf we don't, the only person that needs to beat us is Mat [Mladin], and that's how we've 8ot to to about it right now And then, at the end of the season, we can step it up. But right now we're tryint to stay comfonable." What lies ahead tor Ben Spies? "Not World Superbike aa all," Spies said ofhis future plans, "Ge maybe. There's been talk, there's been a couple of offers and stufi, iusr to go test and do other $ing!. And that might h+p€n. We might do one race at the end of this yeai at the end of next year, we don't know lt's definitely somethint that's not out of the work. But definitet I'm working on something to be over here for the next couple of years, for sure. That's something that we're going to do. A lot of younger riders over he.e, they get that opportunity to to over there, they'll do anyrhing, they iusc want ro b€ over rhere. Ahd I'm not too keen on not racint on competitive bikes. Over here, we've got the best Superbike by far yr'hy leave a good thing? As lont as we can win, we're going to do that. lf we get good offers to go over there, it's somethintthat caJr be brouSht to the t,ble and looked at- That's not say- ing no to it. We'rc iust going to look at it." Spies' contraat ends at the end of this season. "There s a few deals that we're looking at right now," he said. "We'd like to stay with Suzuki: that's the number-one goal. We're trying to figu.e some things out. Hopefully we'll be signed up by Latuna. That's my goal." Pole position for the foufth time on the season went to Yoshimura Suzuki's Bert Spies, the young Texan saving his best for the very last lap to knocklake Zemke from the top spot with a lap-record-setting I :49. 167. "Yester- day, he [l''lladinj threw down a pretty good lap, and I rode as hard as I did today, yesterday, to try to beat it, but we couldn't. lt's fau*rating. He's definitely stepped up the level again, and we're kind of having to try to match it these last aouple weekends. i4y team made a pretq/ big chanSe from last night, and it made all the difference in the world. The goal is to try to t€t some load offtle front tire, because that's going to be an issue in the race. The front tires are definitelygoing to be going off jn the end. And we accomplished that. We went out there, and the tire that actually we're not going to run - they're say- ing it's no good or whatever - that's what we went out on the start of the session and went pretty quick on it. So I was pretty confident with the setup. We made agood chanSe, and came in and threw the softer race tire on, and did a 9.6, and (ame in atain, and we knew someone Continued on pose 19 Brief [y... Joke Zemke lries lo nrn down the two Surukis of Mol frllcdin (looding) ond Spies. ?. \ 6- - CYCLE NEWS . JUNE 28, 2006 17 a fourth and a sixth - the Brit running out of tires and having to start the red-flagged Sunday race on used rubber. American Honda's Miguel Duhamel fought a head cold all weekend, but he still managed to muster up a seventh on Saturday and a hard-fought fourth on Sunday, the latter coming after holding ofl Hayden in a finalJap battle to the flag. Yoshimura Suzuki's Aaron Yates, meanwhile, was off the pace all weekend, but he battled on to finish sixth and sev- enth over the course of the two days, the Georgian never Setting comfortable on his GSX-R1000 and never turning lap times close to those of the top men. He was frustrated, but he vowed to go home, train and return with renewed vigor in a month's time at Laguna Seca. The Michael lordan l4otorsports trio was next, with Jason Pridmore coming away with a ninth and an eighth; Steve Rapp earning an I lth and a ninth; andJake Holden putting together loth- and llth- place finishes. Although he didn't have much to show in total from his weekend. l,liller Motorsports Park saw a resurgence of sorts from Bostrom. The Ducati man was fast all weekend, finished third on Saturday, and was racing for victory on Sunday when he suffered a violent highside that left him bruised and battered, That highside came only a few laps after Bostrom had some- how saved an almost certain crash when he lost the front. Still, he'd shown a return to form that we hadn't seen in a while, When all was said and done, the Yosh boys were still well clear of the pack in the championship chase, and their battle will continue- Spies leads Nlladin by the afore- mentioned 2l points, 388-357, wjth Duhamelthird - 86 poins behind Spies. And Hodgson is a funher 14 behind Dtrhamel. Yates rounds out the top llve in the stand- ings with 278 points, l0 behind Hodgson. The llrst-ever Al4A Superbike race at l*4iller Motorsports Park was easily the best race of the season thus far. mostly because there were more than just the rwo Suzukis at the front- lt was Spies leading the way into tum one, but it was- n't long before there was action at the front, as Mladin shor up the inside, with Spies coun(ering. and Mladin again makinS the pass, And this time it stuck. The man on the move was Zemke, the Honda rider showing that he and the team had fo-rnd somahing to make them com- petitive. He passed Spies on the second lap and quickly latched on to the back of Mladin. By the end of the second lap, Hodgson was already out of the llght and was more than three seconds behiM. His teammate Bostrom was still hanging in there, though he ap@red to be fading, as he trailed l4ladin by more than a second. lt was an illusion, however Bostrom was far from finished. On the founh lap, Mladin had a big scare when he lost the front and was for- tunate to save it. By the end of five laps, I .5 seconds covered the top four rideG, and it looked like it would stay that way. Zemke made a pass on l''lladin in turn one on the eighth lap, drifted wide and allowed the Australian to repass. But \ I -a

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