Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course Lexington, OH Round 8 August 6, 2006 AUGUST 16, 2006 • C Y C L E N E W S 24 Pro Honda Oils Supersport The competition is seeing in double-Hacker vision BY HENNY RAY ABRAMS J amie Hacking is on a roll. The Yamaha rider added a fourth-con- secutive Pro Honda Oils Supersport victory to his third-consec- utive Superstock win from earlier in the day at the Mid- Ohio Sports Car Course. The Supersport victory added to his burgeoning championship lead - now 59 points with three races to go - and gave little hope to those in pursuit. "I'm riding 110 percent every weekend," he said. "I'm not giving anybody any slack and I'm not backing off. I'm having to work for every one of these." This one was more work than normal. Among the unsightly parade of red flags, came one on the sixth lap of the Supersport race. At the time, Hacking, who'd set a new lap record in qualifying, and a few others were chasing Team M4 EMGO Suzuki's Michael Barnes, who'd pulled a gap after a lightning-fast start. Matsushima Performance's Danny Eslick was one of the pursuers and his aggression didn't go unnoticed. He was braver than all in the back-straight kink and into the braking zone at the end of the back straight. Hacking, for one, did- n't want to get involved with Eslick, so he took a wait-and-see approach. "I didn't want to be battling with somebody like that; he has nothing to lose," Hacking said. "All it would've taken is for him to slip and fall and take me down. I just had to sit behind him and really play out where I was going to pass him." Roger Lee Hayden was watching Eslick and Hacking. Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course Lexington, OH Rounds 13-14 August 5-6, 2006 AMA Superbike Championship and I got on him, and he basically moved over and said, 'Okay, well, why don't you try?' And then I was trying, and trying maybe a little too hard, but finally I got a little success, got a lit- tle rhythm going, but I wasn't making any time on Ben. But I gapped Mat a bit. And towards the end, I was hoping to get lapped riders [between us]. I got tired, made little mistakes here and there. I got a lapped rider, and then Mat got a second wind when he saw that, he was going, 'Whoa!' I could feel him just coming up on me, and I was like, 'Oh, man.' So then he made a nice clean pass coming out of one. I was surprised, because I thought I made a good corner, but he came up on me. I was trying to return the favor as far as for the championship - if I was going to make a pass on him, I was going to make it as cleanly as possible to make sure that nothing crazy [happened]. But he had a couple of good last laps. I was able to keep him in sight, but not close enough to get second." Mladin concurred with Duhamel that they had nothing for Spies. "He just took off from the start," Mladin said. "For the first five or six laps, I thought it might be possible, but I need to get better starts. I need to get up there and mix it up with him in the first few laps and see if I can push him off the track. But honestly, we gave every- thing we had today and couldn't get it done and started falling back a bit, and Miguel was there and we were close. [I figured], 'Let Miguel [Duhamel] have a go.' To be honest with you, I was going to let Miguel have it, because I was just sort of hanging on with Miguel. I couldn't make any inroads on him until about six or seven [laps] to go. It's like, the Tour de France has been in the news a lot likely, and I thought it's not real good to pass somebody who's been dragging you around the racetrack all day. But with seven or eight to go, he got into a few troubles and the back tire start- ed to go a little bit, [he] started making a few mistakes, and I had a bit of rhythm and I kept going and got him out of turn one there. As usual, he hung on all the way to the end. It was a good race." He added with a smile, "I'm stoked to come second." The battle for fourth place fizzled late in the race when Bostrom, hot on Zemke's heels and trying to get a good drive onto the back straight, highsided in the Keyhole, taking Yates him. That left Zemke alone in fourth, with Hodgson there to pick up the pieces in fifth. Pridmore, also alone, ended up sixth. Tommy held off Roger Lee Hayden for seventh. Holden and Lynn rounded out the top 10. CN MID-OHIO SPORTS CAR COURSE LEXINGTON, OHIO RESULTS: AUGUST 5-6, 2006 (ROUNDS 13-14 OF 19) SUPERBIKE QUALIFYING: 1. Ben Spies (1:24.917); 2. Mat Mladin (1:25.442); 3. Jake Zemke (1:25.558); 4. Miguel Duhamel (1:25.741); 5. Aaron Yates (1:25.899); 6. Jason Pridmore (1:26.160); 7. Neil Hodgson (1:26.256); 8. Ben Bostrom (1:26.376); 9. John Haner (1:26.917); 10. Jake Holden (1:27.037); 11. Tommy Hayden (1:27.106); 12. Roger Lee Hayden (1:27.115); 13. Steve Rapp (1:27.327); 14. Larry Pegram (1:27.355); 15. Matt Lynn (1:27.390); 16. Martin Craggill (1:27.620); 17. David Weber (1:27.909); 18. Chris Ulrich (1:27.976); 19. Eric Wood (1:28.587); 20. Cory West (1:28.847); 21. Jason Curtis (1:29.123); 22. Scott Jensen (1:29.568); 23. Roberto Pietri (1:29.626); 24. Fernando Amantini (1:30.347); 25. Douglas Duane (1:30.514); 26. Taylor Knapp (1:30.901); 27. Michael Sanchez (1:30.926); 28. Akira Tamitsuji (1:30.945); 29. James Kerker (1:30.999); 30. Dominic Jones (1:31.026); 31. Andi Notman (1:31.117); 32. Dean Mizdal (1:31.163); 33. Kenny Noyes (1:31.221); 34. Jean Paul Tache (1:31.571); 35. Barry Teasdale (1:31.621); 36. Brad Hendry (1:31.789); 37. Marco Martinez (1:31.842); 38. Carlos Macias (1:32.498); 39. Marcin Biernacki (1:34.558). SUPERBIKE RACE 1: 1. Ben Spies (Suz); 2. Mat Mladin (Suz); 3. Miguel Duhamel (Hon); 4. Aaron Yates (Suz); 5. Tommy Hayden (Kaw); 6. Steve Rapp (Suz); 7. Jake Holden (Suz); 8. Roger Lee Hayden (Kaw); 9. Larry Pegram (Hon); 10. Matt Lynn (Suz); 11. John Haner (Suz); 12. Scott Jensen (Suz); 13. Eric Wood (Suz); 14. Cory West (Suz); 15. Roberto Pietri (Suz); 16. Neil Hodgson (Duc); 17. Akira Tamitsuji (Suz); 18. Dean Mizdal (Suz); 19. Jason Curtis (Suz); 20. Ben Bostrom (Duc); 21. Douglas Duane (Suz); 22. Jean Paul Tache (Suz); 23. Andi Notman (Suz); 24. James Kerker (Hon); 25. Michael Sanchez (Suz); 26. Barry Teasdale (Suz); 27. Fernando Amantini (Kaw); 28. David Weber (Suz); 29. Jake Zemke (Hon); 30. Jason Pridmore (Suz); 31. Taylor Knapp (Suz); 32. Dominic Jones (Suz). Time: 56 min., 14.011 sec. (due to red flag) Distance: 26 laps, 62.4 miles Average Speed: 66.58 mph (due to red flag) Margin of Victory: 5.713 sec. SUPERBIKE RACE 2: 1. Ben Spies (Suz); 2. Mathew Mladin (Suz); 3. Miguel Duhamel (Hon); 4. Jake Zemke (Hon); 5. Neil Hodgson (Duc); 6. Jason Pridmore (Suz); 7. Tommy Hayden (Kaw); 8. Roger Lee Hayden (Kaw); 9. Jake Holden (Suz); 10. Matt Lynn (Suz); 11. Larry Pegram (Hon); 12. Scott Jensen (Suz); 13. Jason Curtis (Suz); 14. David Weber (Suz); 15. Cory West (Suz); 16. Fernando Amantini (Kaw); 17. Jean Paul Tache (Suz); 18. Taylor Knapp (Suz); 19. Dean Mizdal (Suz); 20. Dominic Jones (Suz); 21. Akira Tamitsuji (Suz); 22. Andi Notman (Suz); 23. Barry Teasdale (Suz); 24. James Kerker (Hon); 25. Douglas Duane (Suz); 26. Ben Bostrom (Duc); 27. Aaron Yates (Suz); 28. John Haner (Suz); 29. Eric Wood (Suz); 30. Michael Sanchez (Suz). Time: 37 min., 30.123 sec. Distance: 26 laps, 62.4 miles Average Speed: 99.8 mph Margin of Victory: 4.256 sec. AMA SUPERBIKE CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS STAND- INGS (After 14 of 19 rounds): 1. Ben Spies (501/10 wins); 2. Mat Mladin (456/3 wins); 3. Miguel Duhamel (387); 4. Neil Hodgson (358); 5. Tommy Hayden (354); 6. Aaron Yates (335); 7. Jake Zemke (325/1 win); 8. Jason Pridmore (285); 9. Ben Bostrom (284); 10. Larry Pegram (260); 11. Steve Rapp (251); 12. Jake Holden (227); 13. Eric Wood (185); 14. Jason Curtis (177); 15. Matt Lynn (175). UPCOMING ROUNDS Rounds 15-16 - Alton, Virginia, August 19-20 Rounds 17-18 - Braselton, Georgia, September 2-3 Spies (center) with Mladin (right) and Duhamel (left) on the podium. Jamie Hacking (2) dominated the Supersport final, beating Roger Lee Hayden (95) by more than four seconds.

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