Updated Post: Duhamel Takes Provisional AMA Superbike Pole, Ben Bostrom Goes 197 mph At Brainerd

Updated Post: Duhamel Takes Provisional AMA Superbike Pole, Ben Bostrom Goes 197 mph At Brainerd

© 2004, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

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Copyright 2004, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

Fresh off of his three-win performance at Road America three weeks ago, American Honda’s Miguel Duhamel had another grand day Friday at Brainerd International Raceway in Brainerd, Minnesota.

After taking pole position for the AMA Formula Xtreme class, Duhamel turned a 1:35.819 on his CBR1000RR Superbike to take the provisional AMA Superbike pole, heading into Saturday’s final qualifying session.

“We need to make the bike a little bit better,” Duhamel told reporters in a post-qualifying press conference. “It’s been better, but we’re just a bit off. The cold weather caught us a little off-guard. As far as suspension goes, we can definitely make the bike better.”

Well into the second half of the 18-round AMA Superbike schedule, Duhamel was asked if he would push hard Saturday in order to get the pole position and the bonus Championship point that comes with it.

“For sure, the pole position and the point is very important for the Championship,” said Duhamel, who trails Championship leader Mat Mladin by 10 points with eight races remaining. “The thing I am pretty enthusiastic about is the bike isn’t 100 percent now and we got pole today. I’m extremely confident that Al Ludington and the rest of my crew will make the bike better for tomorrow. The point is extremely important, and with the way the points are structured you need to try and get them all.”

Erion Honda’s Jake Zemke was second-fastest with a 1:36.054 on his CBR1000RR, but Josh Hayes continued to be the surprise of the event thus far.

After leading Friday morning Superbike practice on his Attack Kawasaki ZX-10R, Hayes went out in qualifying and almost immediately burned up his clutch, the first clutch failure the Attack team has seen on the Kawasaki. In fact, the team had to go all the way back to their truck in the paddock (a great distance at Brainerd) just to get their spare clutch and clutch tools.

Hayes got back out in the session with time for one flying lap on a qualifying tire and turned the third-fastest time of 1:36.525.

“We can do better,” Hayes was overheard telling his team.

Yoshimura Suzuki’s Mat Mladin earned the final spot on the provisional front row with a lap of 1:36.594 on his GSX-R1000.

Fifth-fastest Ben Bostrom (1:36.758) recorded the fastest top speed during the session, a tail-wind-aided 197.1 mph on Brainerd’s almost-mile-long front straightaway.

Friday’s Provisional AMA Superbike Qualifying Results:

1. Miguel Duhamel, Honda, 1:35.819
2. Jake Zemke, Honda, 1:36.054
3. Josh Hayes, Kawasaki, 1:36.525
4. Mat Mladin, Suzuki, 1:36.594
5. Ben Bostrom, Honda, 1:36.594
6. Eric Bostrom, Ducati, 1:37.757
7. Pascal Picotte, Yamaha, 1:38.386
8. Aaron Yates, Suzuki, 1:38.646
9. Shawn Higbee, Suzuki, 1:39.215
10. Eric Wood, Suzuki, 1:39.707
11. John Haner, Suzuki, 1:39.918
12. Larry Pegram, Yamaha, 1:40.096
13. Geoff May, Suzuki, 1:40.453
14. Jake Holden, Suzuki, 1:40.524
15. Jeremy Toye, Yamaha, 1:40.731
16. Cory West, Suzuki, 1:41.441
17. Jack Pfeifer, Honda, 1:41.880
18. Greg Fryer, Yamaha, 1:42.110
19. Andy Deatherage, Suzuki, 1:42.178
20. Jason Curtis, Suzuki, 1:42.626
21. J.J. Roetlin, Suzuki, 1:42.766
22. David Bell, Suzuki, 1:42.886
23. Dean Mizdal, Suzuki, 1:43.591
24. C. R. Gittere, Suzuki, 1:44.054
25. James Kerker, Honda, 1:44.114
26. Scott Jensen, Honda, 1:44.128
27. A.J. Ammann, Suzuki, 1:44.192
28. Roger Hendricks, Suzuki, 1:44.878
29. Eric Haugo, Suzuki, 1:45.300
30. Lenny Beckman, Suzuki, 1:46.128
31. Jason Pridmore, Suzuki, no time

Unofficial Top Speeds (at turn one, as measured by radar gun):

1. Ben Bostrom, 197.1 mph
2. Miguel Duhamel, 195.3 mph
3. Jake Zemke, 195.1 mph
4. Eric Bostrom, 194.9 mph
5. Mat Mladin, 191.0 mph
6. Aaron Yates, 189.0 mph
7. Josh Hayes, 188.5 mph
8. Larry Pegram, 185.8 mph
9. Jake Holden, 185.6 mph
10. Pascal Picotte, 184.5 mph
11. Jeremy Toye, 184.1 mph
12. Geoff May, 183.0 mph
13. Shawn Higbee, 182.4 mph
14. Eric Wood, 180.8 mph
15. John Haner, 178.5 mph


More, from a press release issued by Mat Mladin Motorsports:

2004 American AMA Chevrolet Superbike Championship

Round 11 – Brainerd International Raceway, Brainerd, Minnesota, USA

First Qualifying Session Report

PROVISIONAL FRONT ROW FOR MLADIN AT BRAINERD AMERICAN SUPERBIKE ROUND

Brainerd, Minnesota, USA (Friday, June 25) – Qualifying for this weekend’s eleventh round of the American AMA Chevrolet Superbike Championship got underway in cooler than average conditions at Brainerd International Raceway in Minnesota, with defending champion Mat Mladin completing the opening session with the fourth fastest time and a place on the provisional front row of the grid for Sunday’s race.

Mladin piloted his Yoshimura Suzuki GSX-R1000 to a best time of 1-min 36.594-secs around the ultra-fast 4.828km (3.00miles) Brainerd circuit.

Fastest rider in today’s opening qualifying session was Honda’s Miguel DuHamel, with a lap of 1:35.819, who was the only rider to dip below the 1:36 barrier. Jake Zemke (Honda) recorded the second fastest time, with a 1:36. 054, ahead of Josh Hayes (Kawasaki) who stopped the clocks with a 1:36.525, edging out Mladin’s time by just 0.069 of a second.

At this early stage of the weekend’s round, Mladin is happy with the times that he posted today, preferring to concentrate of race setup rather that single fast lap times.

“We spent the session concentrating on our race set up, more than trying to post any single lap flying times,” said Mladin. “It’s a bit early for that just yet.

“We‘re down on top speed as we expected, but I think we are a lot closer to our rivals than we were at the last race at Road America. I think the nature of the track has contributed a bit towards that. This place has a very long and fast straight where you do need top speed, but the first two corners on the track are equally as fast and you can make up some time through there. So that’s what we’ve been doing today, just concentrating on what we will need for the race and where we can gain an advantage.

“Tyre wise, I think we’ll be in good shape. Dunlop are continuing with developing and supplying new tyres for us to try, so that’s a great boost knowing that they are right there behind you, supplying the best tyres they can.

“We didn’t go for a soft qualifier tyre during today’s session. I know that the three guys ahead of us did, so we have gained some encouragement from the fact that they did and that our times aren’t that far away. We’ll see if we need to throw one in tomorrow or not.”

Mladin arrives at this weekend’s round of the championship holding a 10-point break over DuHamel at the top of the point’s table, with Zemke third another eight points in arrears. The trio have been the standouts in this year’s championship, with Mladin taking five wins to DuHamel’s four, while Zemke has been ultra consistent with a string of second place finishes.

As the championship digs deep into the second half of the season, the additional points for pole position and the most laps led during a race will become vitally important to each of the top three, as will the large haul of points for a race victory.

AMA Superbike Qualifying concludes tomorrow, with Sunday’s program featuring the 21-lap Superbike national.

QUALIFYING, 2004 AMA Chevrolet Superbike Championship, Friday Top 10
1. Miguel DuHamel (American Honda) 1:35.819 mins
2. Jake Zemke (Erion Honda) 1:36.054
3. Josh Hayes (Attack Kawasaki) 1:36.525
4. Mat Mladin (Yoshimura Suzuki) 1:36.594
5. Ben Bostrom (American Honda) 1:36.758
6. Eric Bostrom (Ducati Austin) 1:37.757
7. Aaron Yates (Yoshimura Suzuki) 1:38.336
8. Pascal Picotte (Yamaha Canada) 1:38.644
9. Shawn Higbee (KWS Suzuki) 1:39.215
10. Eric Wood (Hooters Suzuki) 1:39.707

2004 AMA Chevrolet Superbike Championship (Points after 10 of 18 rounds) 1. Mat Mladin (329, 5 wins); 2. Miguel DuHamel (319, 4 wins), 3. Jake Zemke (311), 4. Eric Bostrom (235, 1 win), 5. Geoff May (220); 6. Ben Bostrom (184), 7. John Haner (183), 8. Aaron Yates (165), 9. Eric Wood (161), 10. Lee Acree (156).


More, from a press release issued by Ducati Corse:

BOSTROM ON PROVISIONAL SECOND ROW AT BRAINERD

Brainerd (Minnesota) – June 25, 2004: Parts Unlimited Ducati Austin’s Eric Bostrom qualified sixth in Friday’s session, putting him on the provisional second row for Sunday’s race. After a promising opening session that saw the 27-year-old rider in a close third position, the afternoon wasn’t as kind to the popular race winner.

“This morning things went well and we were close to the pace. But this afternoon, we had a few things happen and it didn’t go as well as we wanted,” said Bostrom, who won his first-ever AMA Superbike race at Brainerd in 1998. “Part of it was me and part of it was the bike, but we really didn’t have the time in the session to get the bike just the way it needed to be. Tomorrow, I know we’ll have a good bike because the team knows what we need to do, and I’m confident I can get on and go fast from the start.”

Bostrom, who recently tested tires in France for Michelin, set his best time of 1:37.757 in the cool weather of the afternoon session. Wind, especially in the turn two area, slowed riders somewhat on the 3.1-mile (4.58 km) Minnesota course. “I’m not sure about going for pole position because we’ve been off the leaders this year, but I hope we can continue to make improvements tomorrow and get ready to fight for the win on Sunday.”

“This is an important race for us – just as every race in the series is – but we’d like to do well here at Brainerd because Ducati is sponsoring the race and there are a lot of Ducati fans here,” said team owner Terry Gregoricka. “All of the crew is working hard to give Eric what he needs to do well and we’re looking forward to tomorrow.”

Final qualifying takes place tomorrow with the 21-lap (100 km) race to be contested on Sunday.

TIMES: 1. Duhamel (Honda) 1:35.819; 2. Zemke (Honda) 1:36.054; 3. Hayes (Kawasaki) 1:36.525; 4. Mladin (Suzuki) 1:36.594; 5. B Bostrom (Honda) 1:36.758; 6. E Bostrom (Ducati) 1:37.757; etc.


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