Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

,rtolorrporr' Park AMA SUPCRBIK€ Rounds IO-l I June t 7-t 8. 2006 They would stay that way to the finish, with Spies winninS for a seventh time on the season. ''Well, we 8ot a Sood start, and we got off the line - I looked over to see how f4at fl'4ladin] got off the line, and he was ri8ht rhere," Spies said. "5o I knew rt was Soin8 to be a hard mce. He came by, and then .lake [Zemke] came by, and I thought the pace they were runnin8 was a bit stout at that time. I didn't want them to 8et more than two seconds on me, and they got right at about 1.5. Right about then, I knew they weren't slowing down. and they weren't sliding around a whole bunch, so I needed to catch back up- Right when I made my charge, they started clickinS off some low 50s fl:50 lap times]. they started passing each other going back and forth, so that helped me out. For Bostrom, it was his first podium finish since finishinS rhird at Virgrnra lnternational Raceway in 2004. "That's been a long time," Bostrom said. ''lt felt strange in there. lt was fantas- tic. lt was a really exciting race to watch from my seat. lt was really good to also see three brands up there. But there real- ly was a good race up front with Mat [Mladin] and Jake [Zemke] for a while. Ben [Spies] son of sat back and eyeballed them up, and got a break towards the end. It's funny - you sit there and think, Okay, the last flve laps, either l'm iust going to bin this thing or get up front.' Then when the boys step up the pace, you don't even have a choice. You ,ust sort of hang on - and I ended up falling back. I guess I'll iust have to try a little harder tomorrow. I don't know what else to say. This is defi- nitely one of the best tracks ifl the world. It's fantastic for passing. And it's iust going to 8et befter as the sur{ace gets cleaner- So l'm really appreciative of l''liller for building this circuit. lt's fantastic-'' Bostrom didn't think it was so fantastic the next day, when he highsided out of second place on the seventh lap in the turn-three corner known as Work Out. Prior to that, Bostrom was pufting on a display, leading the race for a while on the Ducati, and then chasing Spies hard as those Nvo pulled clear of the pack. "lt hadn't stepped out there ever," Bostrom said while holdinE an ice pack on his left hip. "l was just about to get on the gas, and I didn't even 8et a chance to 8et on the throftle, as I might have been able to do a bi8 slide, you know, but instead I was just about to crack the throttle and the thing was just completely sideways, and I was flying through the air and all I could think i5,'F--k.'lwish I had time to do that, you know, at least get on the gas to do a big burner? But ldidn't have a chance. I wanted to just charge, but I kept losing the front, and I was on the limit on my front. We ran a little different bike setup today. The one yesterday had a stronger front and less rear. Today I had no front and no rear. lt was sweet." He laughed. ''l kind of told myself I was going to win or crash, but I didn't need to crash like that, I need to focus on winnin8." All the work Spies had put in was for nothing, as a red flag came out on the eighth lap when corner workers reported that oil was down in one of the corners. At that point, Spies was holdinS down a 3.5-second lead on Zemke and l''1ladin. lt was bad lu.k for Spies but good luck for everyone else, as things wouldn't quite be the same fgr him on the restart. He led inirially, but it was shorr-lived. On the ninth lap, Mladin was in the lead and Zemke was on the charge. Hodgson, meanwhile, was also chargrng after running off the track on the first lap of the restart. He would reel off lap times in the l:50s that were close to the lead trio's, and he d eventually battle back to sixth place. On the l5th of 2l laps, Zemke made his move on Spies and closed in on f'lladin. On the lTth lap, he struck, mak- ing his pass on the Australian in turn one. "lt wasn't much o{ a battle," Mladin would admit later, "l think when he got past me, he remembered what I did to him yesterday, so he got around pretty quickly. He got past and ran some pretty good laps, and I picked up the pace a little bit to where I felt that I was getting to the uncomfortable zone. I fagured that's enough, Ben [Spies] was there. I pushed a little bit more. But today, we took what we could get. Congratulations to Jake and those guys. They worked hard." Spies. meanwhile, couldn r march rheir pace, and he'd settle in for a lonely third. With his head down, Zemke pulled a lead of seven-tenths of a second on the lSth lap, and that gap would continue to steadily grow until he crossed the line with a tad over four seconds in hand - AMA supGrbikc S€ri€s elating his Honda team in the process. The last battle was the one for fourth, between Duhamel and Hayden. the pair exchanging blows in the final few laps, with the Sritty Duhamel fiShting off both his head cold and the resurgent Hayden to earn the sPot. Hodgson, Yates, Pridmore, Rapp and lYillennium Tech/KWS's Matt Lynn round- ed out the top l0 finishers. Mladin had benefited from the red flag, getting the chance to put on a new tire that worked much better than the orie he had mounted for the lirst part of the race. "We were having some little problems in the first one, and had pretty much set- rled for the fact that I was probably going to be third place," lYladin said. ''Something funny happened with the tire. Then the red flag came out. lt was funny. ln the first one, after seven laps, the front tire was almost like it had done 40 laPs: it was completely ruined. The second one, the front tire looked brand new after l4 - very similar to how it looked yesterday. So something funny is going on there. But that's the way it goes sometimes. We were lucky with the red flag. lt took me a while just to get up in front of Ben [Spies]. Ithink I'm behind 2l points now. lt's bet- ter than when we came in. lt doesn't look too bad,'' CN l ru.Et MoroEPorrs PAaK TooEu, [,IAH RrsurBr JUN! l7-18 2006 SUPERAIKE QUAUmNG: l. Ben 5pi6 ( I :49. 167): 2.lake Zemke (l:49541)i3. Mat l'1ladr {l:49.694)i 4. B.n B6lrom (l:50.116)i 5. Tmmy Haydd (l:50.124)j 6. N.il Hod$on (l:50.,11s); 7. AaM Yates 11150.514)r L I'litlel Duh el (l:51.173)i ,. l$on Pridmore (l:52.632): 10. rirr/ Pe8lm (l:52728)i lL. Stde RaPp (l:53.?14): 12- l.ke Horde. (1.51.668). I l6h. Ha-er {':54.120). l4 l4a( L/rn (r:54 l70ri 15 Od'd weDe (l'y 281) 16 Shee iurPn ( I :54.666)i I 7. Roberto Pletri ( I :54 729)r I 8. len curtL ( l:54.912)i l9 Eri.wood (l:54.999)i20 Aki= lamitsuji (l 55.006): 11. Mark Ledesma (l:55.141)1 22. Cor/ West (1i55.14Ji 23. Ben Thodpe (l 55.170): 2'1. lranh cr,83tr (':55.504). 2t r. nendo Amannn' (l:s5.s88)r 26. B@d Hendry (l:55.850): 2T. scon lens€n (1r55.128)i 28 Plrchael Sanchez (l:56.678): 29 Oee M,zdal(l:56.987)i10. Dom,ni.loner (l 57.054):l l. PlaEo l'4an,nez (l:57.157)r 12. AndiNorman (l:57.164)i3l Dale KEtrer (l:57.4411i 34 Taylor KnaPp (l:57.452); 15. C.R. Gitter. ( l:57 485). 36. l'1ike sul,wn (l:57.663)i 37. James Kerker ( I :58.406)i 38. David Lamben ( I r59 195): l9 Ricky orlando (L:59.142):40. Enc Erlins Haugo (2:024m)r 41. Stephen Fish (2:l Ll46). SUPEREXE RACE ONE: L. Ben spies (su.)r 2. Ma! r4ladin (5@):1. 86 Bosftm (DE):4. NeilHodtsoi (Du.)i 5. TomEry Halden (( )i 6 &tun YatB (S@li 7 l'lEuel Duhamel (Hon)r 8. Jake zemke (Hon)i e. ]&n ftidmore (suz)i l0 lake Holden (suz)i i l. stere R:pp (Suz)i 12. Larry Pe8rs(Ho.): ll. M.t LFfl (S@). 14. Aki€ Tamisuri (SE); 15. Roberto Pieni (Sut): 16.latr Cunis (suz): 17. John rloer (5u4 18. g€a Thompron lsuzr: 19. Sh e Turpin (Yah)i 20. l'lar* LedMa (Hon); 21. s.ott Jmsa (Sur):22. Femardo Am tini (Kaw); 21. Dtr Flzdal (tul): 24. t1ar

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