Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

Tooete, UT AMA sUP€RSTOCK nound 5 June la, 2006 L L I I L AMA Repsol Lubnicants Superstock Series raves l'lotorsports Yama- ha's lamie Hacking won his third Repsol Lubricants Superstock final of the sea- son by being patient and befting on tires. Hacking wasn't sure his front DunloP would make the end, nor did he think the rear Pirelli of Team lY4 EMGO Suzuki's Geoff May would, either. He was half right Hacking's front held up and May's rear didn't, and it added up to a Hacking victo- ry in the first-ever Superstock main at Miller l''lotorspors Park. "l was thinking, Just let him 8o,"' Hacking said. "Just keeP him at some- what of a distance.' Geoff [May] was run- ning an unbelievable pace. Just some- thing that we couldn't... I couldn't run with him, He was doing a Sreat iob. I iust had to just sit there and keep the gap and... iust kind of let him come back towards us later in the race, typical of what the tires do. I lust rode a really easy race, you know, really didn't know what the situation was with the front tires and how long they'd Eo." May fell back one more sPot into the clutches ofYoshimura Suzuki's Aaron Yates, who passed him on the final lap to take sec- ond to Hacking by .785 of a second. The weekend ended with Hacking adding four points to his championship lead. After six of I I races, Hacking leads Yates, 207- 194. Graves Motorsports Yamaha's .lason Disalvo, fourth today t . after making a bad tire choice, is third at 170. Hacking led the first lap; then it was lYay with Hacking in his wake at varying inter- vals. The lead peaked at .875 of a second on the fifrh lap and was down to 755 on the seventh. Hacking cut it to .498 of a second on the eighth laP, and it would continue to shrink. "l wds able to start pulling time back on Geoff [May] a little bit in this toP sec- tion over here where he wasn't able to get into corners a little harder than lwas," HackinS said. "The front iust wasn't working as good toward the end," May said. "lt wouldn't steer sharp. So I got off into the corner and kind of went a little wide and ended up changing my line- So when Jamie went by me , I figured, 'Okay, l'll iust run it out wide and square it off. get a drive out, and draft him and pass him back into one.'I almost got him. He just went off in there deeper than me. He just seemed to be more comfortable with the front end the last few laps than I was.'' Hacking took May in the Club House left-hander, though there was little in it. When Hacking, l'4ay and Yates crossed the line to start the l2th lap, they were separated by ,303 of a second. But Hacking's advantage would grow on the next lap, to over half a second, and a liftle more at the fla8. "l knew lhad to PUt in some really good, hard laps, and we got the last laP and made sure that I did every corner perfe(t," he said. "l did every corner on the last lap perfect- Didn't put a wheel wrong anywhere. Pulled our fastest laP of the race on the last laP." Yates went up the inside of May on the final lap and when May tried to strike back, he ian wide. He'd finish 1.2 seconds back. 'Jamie [Hacking] pulled out a little and saw the white flaE - I iust went as hard as I could," Yates said. "l knew lwasn't going to catch Jamie on the lap unless he made some kind of mistake. I kept my head down just in case he did make a sliP some- where - get a little wide - but he didn't, and I brouSht the GSX-R 1000 home second." "l just rode as hard as I could - that's all I had left," May said. The difference, he said, was that he needs more tire at the end of the race. ''They [Dunlop] iust seem to have lig- ured something out with the tires where they work better at the end of the race and ours work bette. in the beginning," he said. "lt iust doesn't work out. lf I saved my tire, ried every different way with these guys I've tried to beat them, savinS them just doesn't do any good. They're the same at the end a5 they wo'rld be if I go hard, so l've got to use them when they're good. That's what we did today- I was really hopinS to see a lit- tle bit bigger gap. I knew that really was- n't going (o be enough,'' Disalvo came fourth after a race spent struggling with rear grip. He'd chased teammate Bostrom for much of the race, taking fourth when Bostrom ran off the track on the l2th of 13 laps when he hit a false neutral on a backshift. By then, l'lillennium Technologies/Kws Motorspons Matt Lynn was only a few seconds back in fifth, after spending the entire race in sixth. Fifth is a career AMA best for the Georgian. Steve Rapp used a fork change on the Jordan Suzuki GSX-R|000 to finish sixth for the second time in a row and third time this year. Erion Honda's.losh Hayes was next, with less than a second on Bostrom, Bostrom dropped to eighth when he ran off the track and didn't recover any positions. Hayes' Erion teammate Aaron Gobert was four seconds behind Bostrom in ninth and the first of three Australians. HotBodies Racing/Mat lvlladin MotorsPons' It4arty Craggill was loth, with Attack Kawasaki's Damon Buckmaster I lth. Cl{ I Iu lttt' Jomie Hocking is the mon in Superstock Bv Hrrxv Ray ABnar s PHoros BY NELsoN & RltEs 1 I I T t I t, ' ':l:. I I \ LL !- -) I d rr a I L. - I t a J , :t a a '( t _) I fomie Hocking \ swept bolh lhe Superstock ond Supersporl ro(es or Miller. I \ r-: {fI I -\ { [7 t- ) I L .a Tt-t I =26 8

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