Race
1 Report
AMA Chevy Trucks Superbike Round 9
Date
July 27, 2002
Circuit
Mid Ohio, OH
HMC Ducati rider Doug Chandler was running in sixth place when
he was forced to pull out of Mid-Ohio’s first race with
a broken foot peg. The peg broke in the eighth lap and was replaced
when he returned to the pits, but he chose not to re-enter the
race at the rear of the pack
Flash thunderstorms an hour before the race, delayed the start.
Although the track was quick to dry in the Ohio heat, turn one
continued to seep water leaving a wet section that forced riders
to take another line. Isolated thunderstorms are predicted again
for tomorrow’s race
“At this track you’re
pretty active on the pegs,” said Chandler. “Of all
the places to break it was going into the first turn. As I back
shifted my foot broke loose and tipped me in early so I had
to go across the water and had a moment. I put my foot out and
rode all the way to the edge of the track with my foot on the
ground. I didn’t know if I was going to keep it on the
track or head onto the wet grass.
“I thought we could have easily run with Pascal (Picotte)
through that race, I wasn’t too sure where Aaron (Yates)
was but I thought we had a good shot with those two. I was biding
my time but we had our race cut short.”
Race 2 Report
AMA Chevy Trucks Superbike Round 9
Date
July 28, 2002
HMC Ducati rider Doug Chandler did another late race charge,
coming from
ninth place, in the first lap, to finish fifth at Mid Ohio’s
second race.
The veteran rider picked off riders one-by-one making the
action for fifth
almost as exciting as the action up front. Chandler was bridging
the gap on
Kurtis Roberts, in sixth place, when a nasty crash of Aaron
Yates brought
out the red flag stopping the race. The restart was more favorable
for
Chandler, who immediately went on the hunt for Roberts, passing
Jamie
Hacking in the process and finally having to settle for fifth
just 0.75
seconds behind Roberts.
Doug ended his day with another two-seater ride, this time
for the
Make-A-Wish foundation. Ricky Claar took the seat behind Chandler
as he did
two flying laps of Mid-Ohio on a Ducati 748. Arai generously
donated a Doug
Chandler replica helmet for Ricky to use on the ride and keep
as a souvenir.
Joe Rocket supplied the use of leathers and gave a Chandler
t-shirt that was
personally signed. HMC would like to thank Corse Superbikes
for arranging
the bike through their demo fleet.
“Our race bike wouldn’t start in the first race
so we had to use the back-up
bike. That put me off a little, but once we got into the race
I got going
pretty good,” said Chandler. “I knew I had Kurtis,
and the guys I was with,
covered. Then at the red flag we made some changes but I don’t
think that
was the problem, I think there was something wrong with the
bike that just
got progressively worse. I wasn’t very happy with the
way it was handling.
It was frustrating just sitting back and watching those ahead
of me broaden
the gap, even if it was slowly. We’ll go over the data
and see if we can
find the problem.”
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