Ducati Sporting Club UK > General > Idle Chat > AMA *result spoiler*

[domski]

This weekend’s round at Pikes Peak International Raceway was a collision between two powerful and opposing trends in AMA Superbike racing. Yoshimura Suzuki’s Mat Mladin came into PPIR the dominant force of ’05 having hardly been challenged over the season’s opening half. In the other corner was the well-established mastery of the idiosyncratic bullring by Ducati Austin’s Eric Bostrom, who entered the Colorado weekend with five prior victories at the venue.

Despite a motivated Mladin, who completely changed his set-up and plan of attack in hopes of finally succeeding at PPIR, Bostrom’s uncanny ability at the circuit won out in the end.

But as it turns out it, Bostrom’s stiffest challenge wasn’t provided by Mladin. Instead it came from his factory Suzuki teammate, Aaron Yates, who nearly bested Bostrom in what was the Californian’s most spectacular PPIR triumph to date.

At the start, ‘The Boss’ made a perfect launch from second on the grid while the five-time champ stumbled off the line. The Georgian charger quickly moved his GSX-R over into second and was closely followed by the America Honda CBR1000RRs of Miguel DuHamel and Jake Zemke.

Mladin regrouped and diced his way past several of his rivals before settling into fourth just as DuHamel pitted (he was shown the ‘meatball’ flag for jumping the start).

At the front, Bostrom was actively gapping the pack aboard his Parts Unlimited-backed factory Ducati 999; he opened up over a second on the field by lap three, was two seconds in front on lap six, and stretched his advantage to a maximum of 3.596 seconds on lap 13 of 48.

Defending series king Mladin overtook Zemke to grab command of third on lap seven and looked to have something for Yates as well -- perhaps even Bostrom. However, by lap 20 that was clearly not the case; the Aussie started losing chunks of time just as his teammate began to close the gap to the lead.

Maintaining his early pace deeper into the contest than the rest of the field, Yates quickly ate away Bostrom’s margin and moved to within a second of the lead by lap 25. Two laps later Mladin was in the pits fitting a new rear. Zemke, who reclaimed third due to Mladin’s impromptu stop, suffered a similar fate, pitting for fresh rubber himself just over ten laps later.

For several laps Yates showed Bostrom a wheel of his GSX-R1000 at just about every opportunity before finally making a move that stuck on lap 35, powering underneath the popular Ducati Austin rider exiting Turn 9 and running first down the front straight.

The way the Suzuki rider had hunted his prey and skillfully taken the lead, it seemed as if Bostrom’s three-race win streak at PPIR was destined to end. However, taking maximum advantage of lapped traffic, the two-time AMA Superbike Championship runner-up somehow kept himself in contention, if only just.

Yates crossed the line to open the final lap with nearly a half second in hand (.490). Bostrom refused to give in, however, and closed right back on the tail of Yates’ mount with an incredible final run through the high speed, sweeping Turns 1 & 2. With Bostrom just inches behind, the Yosh star made a minor mistake in Turn 3 -- just the opening the Californian needed.

The Ducati pilot accelerated ever so slightly in front of his adversary thanks to a superior drive on exit and put himself in position to close the door on Yates in the subsequent righthander. From there, Bostrom protected his line and claimed his sixth PPIR victory with just .255 seconds to spare.

“That was a lot of fun,” Bostrom said with a big grin. “That was a pretty short race around here. I thought it would be much longer and more demanding. But as it turned out -- I think because of the pressure -- it ended up going by real quick.

“The start of the race was perfect; I got a great start and jumped out there. Ran good lap times -- low 55s, and I thought to do that as long as I could, but it didn’t seem like a gap was opening up. I thought if my bike was sliding around as hard as that everyone else would be going backwards too. Aaron didn’t. He just kept coming. I thought I was in big trouble because he was coming fast.”

Bostrom continued, speaking about trying to regain the lead after being displaced to second by Yates. “It seemed like whoever was in the lead would get balked by one of the lappers and that certainly played in my favor at the end of the race and made things a little easier for me because it was a big seesaw. Aaron was riding quick through the infield and I could reel him back in around the big sweeper. It was a big seesaw but all the same it was hard to get close enough to make a move.

“With the last-lap move, Aaron basically got into the turn pretty deep. He broke the thing sideways and it gave me just the right chance to kind of get the bike upright in the middle of the tires. I knew that he was so much stronger going into that righthander so I did have to kind of close his line. I apologize for that, but I wanted to win so bad.”

For his part, Yates remarked, “The last few laps I was leading and things felt pretty good. You get to thinking you’re going to win this thing, but…

"It was a good race. It was pretty fun. You always know Eric is going to be a contender here. He got out there pretty good at the start and I was just hoping to keep hold of him and just get in a groove. I started feeling pretty good and got to pushing hard. Through the infield I could tell I was closing up on him.

“You know, the last few laps I thought we were going to win. The tires were sliding around a good bit. I got into Turn 3 just a little bit hotter than I’d done before and had the thing sliding pretty well. I skidded in there and was pretty much almost pointed on the way out. I thought I could probably drive out pretty hard, but I got on the gas the thing just spun up pretty bad a couple of times -- it just didn’t want to go. I was trying to be a little too aggressive and he just dropped up under me.

“On the next turn he went up there and kind of blocked me out. He went straight to the inside of the next turn and I had to breathe it a little bit. I’d been pretty strong getting into that turn and I guess he figured that out running behind me. And that was basically it -- we brought the GSX-R home second. It feels good being the first Suzuki.”

Yoshimura Suzuki rookie sensation Ben Spies fought past a terrible start (he was in tenth following the opening lap) and eventually worked his way up to third to grab the final spot on the box. It was the seventh Superbike podium of Spies' young career.

The Texan said of the race, “It was really long. We pulled up to the grid and my whole dash went out -- the whole electrical system -- whatever, I don’t know what happened. I guess it turned off. Our shifter was kind of messing around the whole race, and it was just a long race.

"To get on the podium -- I’m really happy because we shouldn’t have been up here. To be on the podium in every race so far this year except for one isn’t bad for me. I’m pretty happy with that and the team and how everything is going. I just didn’t have anything for Eric today; I think he can win on a scooter around this place.”

Mladin, Zemke, and DuHamel weren’t the only top-tier riders forced into the pits during the afternoon. Bostrom’s factory Ducati teammate, Neil Hodgson, noticed his 999 acting up right from the start and pulled in when he discovered his bike spilling fluid on lap 9. He returned to the fray but was unable to make up enough ground to salvage any points on the day, finishing down in 31st position.

DuHamel and Zemke did respectably to make up for their misfortune, rebounding to claim ninth and thirteenth. However, the comeback of the race went to Mladin who claimed fourth despite his pitstop, finishing just over five seconds behind Spies.

Attack Kawasaki’s Josh Hayes took his second fifth-place finish of the season aboard the team’s ZX-10R Superbike. He was followed home by Jordan Motorsports’ Steve Rapp and North Valley Honda’s Mark Ledesma, the final rider on the lead lap.

Lion Racing’s John Haner picked up eighth while Corona Suzuki’s Brent George rounded out the top ten.

Following eight of seventeen races, Mladin continues to control the championship race with 255 points. Spies is closest to the five-time AMA Superbike champ at 240, while Yates is third at 239. Bostrom’s win moves him ahead of teammate Hodgson for fourth, 204 to 201.

Next up: Road America, June 3-5.