AMA SUPERBIKE CHAMPIONSHIP
ROUNDS TWO AND THREE, FONTANA, CALIFORNIA
SATURDAY/SUNDAY APRIL 5-6 2003

Duhamel and Bostrom Podium at Fontana Doubleheader

American Honda’s Ben Bostrom and Miguel DuHamel were able to score a pair of third-place finishes during the doubleheader weekend of AMA Superbike racing at California Speedway in Fontana, California.

On Saturday, Bostrom finished third behind the two Yoshimura Suzukis, ridden by Mladin and his teammate Aaron Yates, after inheriting the spot when his younger brother, Eric, was penalized 10 seconds for cutting the track in the turn one-two chicane. The two brothers had raged a bitter battle that went the duration, though Ben was given the spot when the AMA handed down the penalty to Eric and his factory Kawasaki.

DuHamel – the winner of the Daytona 2000, the opening round of the series – ended up fifth, six seconds ahead of Erion Honda’s Kurtis Roberts. Roberts would have fared better, but his rear tire had spun on its rim during the race, causing a bad vibration that he thought was a chunking rear tire.

Mladin’s win in the first race was his first of the year and it put him in a tie atop the championship point standings with DuHamel, both holding the top spot with 63 points following Saturday’s racing action.

Mladin’s run to victory in the second of the two Superbike races was a bit more hectic and a red flag aided him in scoring the victory. The man who suffered the most from the race stoppage was Roberts, who was leading Eric Bostrom at the time and seemed to be in a good position to score the first AMA Superbike victory of his career – especially since Mladin trailed by nearly eight seconds after undergoing a stop-and-go penalty for jumping the start.

Pegram crashed his Ducati and the race was stopped, giving everyone the opportunity to restart on equal footing. The AMA doesn’t score races on aggregate time, so the bikes were gridded in the running order and restarted, with Roberts losing all his advantage on Mladin. On the restart, it was Eric Bostrom on the Kawasaki rocketing into the lead with Roberts second. Kurtis encountered a “racing moment” , when hard acceleration, combined with a rough section of track caused a tank-slapper, and his brake pads were momentarily moved away from the rotors. A quick pump of the brake lever returned his stopping power, but not before he had to run straight through the corner at the end of the back straight and rejoin the pack to finish third on the track. He would later be docked 10 seconds for missing the corner, and that dropped him from a podium finish to fifth.

Mladin, meanwhile, closed in on Eric Bostrom, passed him five laps into the restarted race and pulled away to a 6.373-second victory.

DuHamel moved around Yates on the run to the checkered flag to finish third, despite almost crashing with just two laps to go. Yates would finish fourth, clear of the penalized Roberts with Ben Bostrom garnering a sixth place finish.

The win gives Mladin the lead in the championship after three rounds. He leads American Honda’s Miguel DuHamel, 100-92. American Honda’s Ben Bostrom is third with 87 points with Erion Honda’s Kurtis Roberts in sixth place in the standings with 80 points.

RESULTS :
First race result: (Laps 28 = 100 km)
1 Mat Mladin, AUS (Suzuki)
2 Aaron Yates, USA (Suzuki)
3 Ben Bostrom, USA (Honda)
4 Eric Bostrom, USA (Kawasaki)
5 Miguel DuHamel, CAN (Honda)
6 Kurtis Roberts, USA (Honda)

Second race result: (Laps 28 = 100 km)
1 Mat Mladin, AUS (Suzuki)
2 Eric Bostrom, USA (Kawasaki)
3 Miguel DuHamel, CAN (Honda)
4 Aaron Yates, USA (Suzuki)
5 Kurtis Roberts, USA (Honda)
6 Ben Bostrom, USA (Honda)

AMA Superbike championship points:
1 Mladin 100, 2 DuHamel 92, 3 Ben Bostrom 87, 4 Aaron Yates 86, 5 Eric Bostrom 85, 6 Roberts 80, 7 Higbee 64, 8 Deatherage 60, 9 Haskovec 55, 10 Pegram 51

Next round: Sonoma, California, 05-04-2003

Pro Honda Oils 600 Supersport
Round 2: Fontana, CA
April 6, 2003

Honda Red Riders enter a tussle at Fontana, California.

After chalking up a dominating season-opening performance at Daytona, the Honda Red Riders entered the second round of the Pro Honda Oils Supersport Championship series at California Speedway with high expectations-only to be reintroduced to the often rough-and-tumble side of AMA racing. The Honda contingent missed the podium in the 600 class, but high points still emerged as veteran racer Doug Chandler claimed top position among Honda riders with a solid sixth place on his No Limit Motor Sports Honda CBR600RR. Team Honda’s Miguel Duhamel followed in seventh, garnering enough points to hold onto a solid third place in the points chase. Honda Erion Racing’s Roger Hayden, Jake Zemke and Alex Gobert, plus Bruce Transportation Racing’s Marty Craggill all finished within the top dozen riders.

As a seasoned veteran with a most impressive racing resume, Doug Chandler remains the consummate track-going professional. However, the years of experience have not dulled his enthusiasm and he was beaming after the Supersport race. “We’re feeling pretty good about our finish here at Fontana,” Chandler said after the race. “We have a new team, with new bikes and new tires, so we’re still making a bunch of adjustments and getting used to a lot of different things. But now, everything is starting to come together. During yesterday’s qualifying runs we lost some time when we made a miscue on a tire change, but during this morning’s practice I was right up there at eighth quickest, so I knew we would be in the hunt during today’s race.

“I really like riding the CBR600RR,” Chandler added. “It’s got great handling and really no weak spots to work through. It’s a solid, trustworthy racing platform, and we’ve gotten off to a great start, even though we still have lots of fine-tuning to do. Today’s finish will be a big boost for our team morale, so I’m really glad for all the guys. You know, I started my racing career on Hondas, and now it looks like I’ll finish up my career racing Hondas-and going well!”

Reflecting on a week of frustration, Miguel Duhamel said, “It wasn’t our greatest day of racing today. We needed more time to get the bike dialed in for this track, and so the settings we ended up with for the front end were too soft, not quite where we meant it to be. Besides affecting the handling, that also meant I couldn’t brake as hard as I wanted to into corners. Still, it was a good race, and our time here was very productive for developing a data base for this bike, which is still very new to us.”

Duhamel’s Crew Chief Al Ludington added, “Yeah, this week it seemed like we chased the front end settings around and around. We’re still learning more and more about the bike every time we take it out. Although we had a good amount of practice time and data gathered for the race at Daytona, we really didn’t have much in the way of settings for the track here at Fontana. During the testing session we had here earlier in the year, the weather was so windy we washed out an entire day, and it was real cold too, which prevented the tires from getting up to the proper operating temp. So we ended that test session with no hard data at all for this particular track; no suspension settings, no gearing selections. We started in on all of that work this week, and there just wasn’t enough time to get things dialed in perfectly. But thanks to Miguel, we stayed real consistent, gathered good points and filled in some of our data logs. We’ll be doing more development work, more dyno testing, and we’ll be ready for the next event at Sears Point/Infineon Raceway in May.”

Ever the team player, Duhamel wasn’t about to make any personal excuses for his day’s showing. However, he took hard tumbles during both the Superbike and 600 qualifying sessions on Saturday, and he had to be feeling the physical affects of those two get-offs. When questioned pointedly, he confessed, “Well, I have to admit my muscles are a little tight today and my elbows are definitely sore. During Superbike qualifying yesterday, I had a hot lap going and I could see by my split times that I was on pace to land a front-row position. So I came charging into a corner where I could see a slower rider ahead, and I thought I could just slip past inside him. But the door closed and I had nowhere to go and I ended up T-boning him-not a good deal for either one of us.

“Then in Supersport qualifying, I had slowed going into a corner when I thought a problem was developing, and the rider following me must have thought I was going for it, so he gassed it and hit me from behind. That one hurt; I banged my knee, elbow and head pretty hard. Thank goodness for my Shoei helmet!”

Regarding his transition to two classes once again after racing only the Superbike last year, Duhamel said, “I’ve raced two classes many times before, but now there are more double-header Superbike races than in past years. It’s a mental as well as a physical challenge racing two classes, three main events in a weekend. Here at Fontana, it’s a real physical track, lots of quick left-right transitions that give your legs and arms a hard workout. But I like racing in the 600 class; there’s so much good competition, lots of guys are going really well. It makes for great racing.”

Stay tuned for more great racing featuring Honda’s new CBR600RR, as the series moves to Sears Point/Infineon Raceway.

Pro Honda Oils U.S. Supersport Results:
1. Jamie Hacking – Yamaha
2. Aaron Gobert – Yamaha
3. Tommy Hayden – Kawasaki
4. Damon Buckmaster – Yamaha
5. Ben Spies – Suzuki
6. Doug Chandler – Honda
7. Miguel Duhamel – Honda

9. Roger Hayden – Honda
10. Jake Zemke – Honda
11. Alex Gobert – Honda
12. Marty Craggill – Honda

14. Chris Peris- Honda

16. Craig Connell – Honda

20. Jason Curtis – Honda

Pro Honda Oils U.S. Supersport Point Standings:
1. Jamie Hacking – Yamaha – 69
2. Aaron Gobert – Yamaha – 55
3. Miguel Duhamel – Honda – 54
4. Damon Buckmaster – Yamaha – 53
5. Jason DiSalvo – Yamaha – 49
6. Jake Zemke – Honda – 48

9. Roger Hayden – Honda – 42
10. Kurtis Roberts – Honda – 37
11. Doug Chandler – Honda – 37
12. Alex Gobert – Honda – 36

14. Ty Howard – Honda – 26
15. Chris Peris – Honda – 25

17. Ben Bostrom – Honda – 21 (tie)
17. Jason Curtis – Honda – 21 (tie)

20. Marty Craggill – Honda – 18

AMA Formula Xtreme Series
Round 1: Fontana, CA
April 6, 2003

Zemke and Craggill have the Formula for Championship Season

Although the rest of the AMA classes kicked off at Daytona International Speedway during Bike Week, Erion Racing’s Jake Zemke had to wait an entire month before getting the chance to throw a leg over his Formula Xtreme bike in competition. In 2002 Zemke came as close to winning the series title as one can get without actually winning the championship. After putting his #98 Honda CBR954RR on the podium at seven of nine races, he tied in Formula Xtreme series points, but because he had one less race win, the championship went to another rider. This year, Zemke plans to win the title outright and he began that process by finishing second at the opening round of the series at California Speedway.

“Finishing second today is a good way to start off the championship,” said Zemke, who bested his 2002 performance at California Speedway by one spot. “That’s how I got to where I was last year, by getting on the podium at every race. As long as I can keep that up and get some wins we’ll be okay.”

No one was surprised when the 17-lap race was complete and Zemke was second across the stripe, but another Honda rider by the name of Marty Craggill shocked road racing fans with his third place showing. The Bruce Transportation rider who also races a CBR954RR turned in some of the best Supersport and Formula Xtreme lap times in off-season testing, but a serious neck injury kept Craggill from competing in the opening round of 600 Supersport competition at Daytona. Luckily, he had an extra month to heal before the Formula Xtreme series began.

“Before Daytona I had a crushed disc in my neck and it would cause my left arm to become paralyzed,” explained Craggill. “I went into surgery six weeks ago to fix the problem and this weekend was my first real outing on the motorcycle. I’m pretty happy with how things turned out and so is my surgeon. I promised him I wouldn’t crash this weekend.”

Both Zemke and Craggill started from the second row, but took different approaches when the 31-man grid cleared the California Speedway paddock. Zemke charged directly to the front behind race leader and ultimate winner Ben Spies. Both Spies and Zemke wasted little time in separating themselves from the rest of the field, but Craggill rode more patiently.

“At the start I waited for everything to settle down and for my tires to warm up,” said Craggill. “After that I picked up the pace. Between laps five and eight quite a few things happened. A lot of guys started running wide in turns so I’d just go in underneath them and make the pass. After Jamie Hacking crashed I moved into third and put my head down for a couple laps and tried to catch Jake (Zemke), but that didn’t happen because he was too far gone.”

While Craggill was settling into third place, Zemke was trying to close a five-second gap on Spies. When lapped riders came into play Zemke wasn’t able to close the gap, but he kept Spies honest all the way to the checkered flag. Meanwhile, Erion Racing’s Roger Hayden was climbing up the results at a steady pace. Hayden started from the 11th position on the third row, and quickly moved into fifth, but slower lapped riders prevented a charge to the front.

“I had to put some aggressive moves on a few guys,” Hayden explained. “At the half way point I was in fifth place, but I got hung up by Steve Rapp. While I was following him I started to get anxious and that was a little hard on my tires. Once I finally got around Rapp, everyone else had already taken off.

“I just need to qualify better,” continued Hayden. “I’ve been off the pace in qualifying and then when the race comes, I pick up the pace but then I’m stuck behind traffic.”

The 19-year old ultimately finished the race in sixth, but Hayden remained optimistic about his chances this year.

“Last year at this race I crashed out so the way I figure it, I’m already further along this year. Plus I always get stronger toward the end of the year and I’m really looking forward to the next round at Infineon Raceway.”

Hayden isn’t the only CBR954RR pilot anxious to get to round two of the Formula Xtreme series. “California Speedway is a cool track and I’m glad to have a track in southern California, but it doesn’t really suit my style of riding,” said Zemke after receiving his second place trophy. “I like really fast flowing European-like tracks and although I wouldn’t label Infineon a European-like track, the layout is a lot less stop and go than it is here at California Speedway.

“I still had a lot of fun,” continued Zemke. “I look forward to racing no matter what track it is. And with the way my bike is working, it’s going to be an awesome season.”

Zemke, Craggill and Hayden’s awesome Formula Xtreme season resumes May 2-4 in Sonoma, California at Infineon Raceway formerly known as Sears Point.

Formula Xtreme Results:
1. Ben Spies – Suzuki
2. Jake Zemke – Honda
3. Marty Craggill – Honda
4. Josh Hayes – Suzuki
5. Damon Buckmaster – Yamaha
6. Roger Hayden – Honda

11. Doug Chandler – Honda

13. Jason Curtis – Honda
14. Ty Howard – Honda

21. Alex McElyea – Honda

AMA Formula Xtreme Point Standings:
1. Ben Spies – Suzuki – 38
2. Jake Zemke – Honda – 32
3. Marty Craggill – Honda – 29
4. Josh Hayes – Suzuki – 27
5. Damon Buckmaster – Yamaha – 26
6. Roger Hayden – Honda – 25

11. Doug Chandler – Honda – 20

13. Jason Curtis – Honda – 18
14. Ty Howard – Honda – 17

21. Alex McElyea – Honda – 10