From two press releases, one issued by Mat Mladin’s publicist and one issued by American Honda:

MAT MLADIN Racing – MEDIA INFORMATION
For immediate release
Sunday, 2 June 2002

Round 8, 2002 AMA Chevy Trucks US Superbike Championship
Pikes Peak International Raceway, Fountain, Colorado, USA
Race Report

TYRE PROBLEMS FORCE MLADIN OFF PIKES PEAK PODIUM

Fountain, Colorado, USA: After holding down second place for much of the race, defending American Superbike champion, Australian Mat Mladin was forced to ease his race pace to preserve his rear tyre as it blistered badly in the sweltering conditions at Pikes Peak International Raceway to finish fourth at round eight of the AMA Chevy Trucks US Superbike Championship.

The race win went to Team Kawasaki’s Eric Bostrom who led each of the 48-laps finishing 15.28 seconds clear of a trio of Blimpie Yoshimura Suzuki GSX-R750s led by Aaron Yates who was followed by Jamie Hacking and Mladin.

Championship point’s leader Nicky Hayden (American Honda) crashed out of the race on lap sixteen and failed to score any additional points. Bostrom’s win, his first of the season, takes him to second on the points table with 211, ahead of Yates (204) and Mladin (181).

With track temperatures soaring to 125ºF tyre selection was always going to be critical around the tight 2.12km (1.315miles) course. Starting from the outside of the front row of the grid, Mladin got away well and was immediately in with the lead group. He held second place behind Bostrom, but on lap 22 began to experience problems with his rear tyre. Easing the pace slightly to preserve the tyre, Mladin was passed initially by teammate Jamie Hacking and then by Aaron Yates who was forced to undergo a stop / start penalty for jumping the race start. Yates passed Hacking on the final lap of the race to take second, while Mladin coasted to a safe fourth.

“Unfortunately it has been another frustrating race for me this year,” said Mladin. “We’ve had a few tyre problems this year and today was another. The tyre has just blistered all the way around one side and there was nothing I could do about it. It was the same tyre as the others were using, but mine just gave way at about mid race distance while the others looked good at the end of the race. The race got off to a good start for us and I was holding second place quite easily. Eric was very fast out front and I don’t think I could have got close to him anyway.

“The team has worked very hard to get on top of the handling problems that we’ve had lately and going by what has happened this weekend I think we’re definitely heading in the right direction now. I’ve moved up to fourth in the championship, but there is still a lot of work to be done if we want to get even closer to the front.”

The AMA Chevy Trucks US Superbike Championship heads to the Road America circuit at Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin next weekend (June 8 & 9) for another Double-Header Superbike round for rounds 9 & 10 of the championship.


And now Honda’s release:

HONDA RACING NEWS

Rocky Day in the Rockies

Temperature: Sunny, 32 degrees
Crowd: 5000

American Honda’s Nicky Hayden leaves the Colorado Rockies with a 42 point AMA/Chevy Trucks U.S. Superbike Championship lead, despite ending the day with a fiery crash early in the Superbike race. Hayden was unhurt, but his Honda RC-51 was too badly damaged to continue and his winning streak of five Superbike races in a row ended in flames at Pikes Peak International Raceway. Teammate Miguel DuHamel had a slightly better day, though he also fell. The resilient French-Canadian crashed out of fourth place in the same slow left hand corner as Hayden, but with less damage. DuHamel picked up his RC-51 and soldiered on to finish fifth. The race was won by Kawasaki’s Eric Bostrom, Hayden’s nearest championship challenger and the 2001 championship runner-up.

Bruce Transportation Group’s Honda CBR-954-mounted Jake Zemke finished a close second in the Formula Xtreme race, closing to within 0.369 seconds of race winner Jason Pridmore (Suzuki) at the checkered flag. Erion Honda’s Roger Lee Hayden was fourth. Roger Lee, the youngest of the racing Haydens, finished third in the Pro Honda Oils 600cc Supersport race, won by his oldest brother, Tommy, on a Kawasaki.

Nicky Hayden, 20, of Owensboro, Kentucky, came to Colorado riding a five-race winning streak and looked to match the record of six, held by teammate DuHamel, the winningest rider in AMA Superbike history. Hayden qualified second, but didn’t have a great feel in the front end around the tortuous 1.315-mile PPIR road course, a seven-turn bull ring set in the middle of a one-mile banked oval. As the race began, Hayden gated badly and was back in fourth, soon to move to third. With a race length of 48 laps, and 55 second lap times, Hayden was patient, up to third by the ninth lap and gaining on the leaders. It all went wrong at the end of the back straightaway, a hairpin first-gear left-hander with surface irregularities and concrete patches. Hayden was instantly down and the machine was on fire before it stopped. Corner personnel arrived immediately and doused the flames, but his day was over.

Though he lost significant points in the championship, he still leads race winner Bostrom 253 to 211 after eight of 15 rounds. DuHamel is sixth in points after his crash and re-start.

Having also suffered front end problems in practice, DuHamel, who celebrated his 35th birthday just prior to the race weekend, tried a different set of offsets in the race. The result was less front end traction, which resulted in his turn three spill on the 38th of 48 laps. A quick inventory showed no damaged, and DuHamel brought the scuffed motorcycle home in fifth.

The pair will have a chance to redeem themselves next week at Road America, a high-speed four-mile road course where Hayden earned his first two Superbike wins.

Nicky Hayden, DNF
Got a bad start again, which is bad. And just got in there and was trying to ride hard, trying to catch up. Just kind of tipping it in. I didn’t have my knee down or anything. Just let the front get away from me. I’ve been fighting the front end all weekend pushing the front a lot. No excuse, I just made a mistake and it’s just one of those deals. It’s tough around here to make up time. I was just riding hard to try to catch up. I don’t know what happened, why it caught fire. I was still sliding, trying to get away from the bike and it was on fire. I was kind of hung under the bike and the thing was on fire and I was trying to get out from under it. I’m OK.

Miguel DuHamel, Fifth Place
We kind of took a big gamble before the race and we changed offsets and we made it two or three clicks worse than it was before the race. We hung in there and obviously it would have been interesting to see where we finished if I didn’t tip over in that corner. There’s a lot of tire patches and asphalt patches in that corner, turn three, where everybody’s fallen. I think it’s a corner if you do nothing wrong, and you hit the wrong line, you’re probably going to go down. I tried to save it with my knee and my elbow. There was nothing I could do. The bike didn’t want to get back up. But I kept it running and got back up and came around and caught Pascal Picotte. He was having bigger problems than I was I guess. We got a top five finish, that’s not bad.

Superbike:
1. Eric Bostrom (Kawasaki)
2. Aaron Yates (Suzuki)
3. Jamie Hacking (Suzuki)
4. Mat Mladin (Suzuki)
5. Miguel DuHamel (Honda)
6. Pascal Picotte (Ducati)
7. Brian Parriott (Suzuki)
8. Ricky Orlando (Suzuki)
9. Vincent Haskovec (Suzuki)
10. Brian Livengood (Suzuki)

AMA Superbike Championship Standings:
1. Nicky Hayden (253)
2. Eric Bostrom (211)
3. Aaron Yates (204)
4. Mat Mladin (181)
5. Pascal Picotte (190)
6. Miguel DuHamel (172)
7. Jamie Hacking (160)
8. Brian Livengood (159)
9. Brian Parriott (151)
10. (TIE) Anthony Gobert/Rich Conicelli (118)