'Wild' ride expected at Laguna Seca.
Two of the leading AMA Superbike contenders will be on hand this weekend at Laguna Seca to give the World Superbike regulars an extra headache in Sunday's ninth round of the 2001 World title chase.
The tortuous 2.238-mile Laguna Seca Raceway on the Monterrey peninsula is the mist demanding and spectacular of all the venues visited by the World Superbike Championship and this weekend it plays host to the ninth round of the 2001 World Superbike Championship.
Two of the leading AMA Superbike contenders will be on hand this weekend at Laguna Seca to give the World Superbike regulars an extra headache in Sunday's ninth round of the 2001 World title chase.
The tortuous 2.238-mile Laguna Seca Raceway on the Monterrey peninsula is the mist demanding and spectacular of all the venues visited by the World Superbike Championship and this weekend it plays host to the ninth round of the 2001 World Superbike Championship.
In addition to the undulating dips and rises of the eleven turn course, two of the leading contenders from the AMA Superbike Championship will be aiming to upset the applecart and match the double race win by Makoto Tamada in Sugo earlier this year.
Former World Superbike race winner Doug Chandler and Eric Bostrom, brother of factory WSBK Ducati rider Ben, will both be rubbing their hands with glee at the prospect for taking on Bayliss, Edwards, Chili, Corser et al as they uphold the honour of the highly regarded AMA Series.
Next to Japan and Britain, the United States has the strongest national Superbike Series as displayed by the Vance & Hines Ducati squad who took both 1999 Laguna race wins with Anthony Gobert and Ben Bostrom but fans were denied another 'clash of the titans' last year when some unruly scheduling had the AMA and WSB Championships competing in the same country at different venues!
However while Chandler and Bostrom, E are more than worthy contenders for victory on their Kawasaki's, they are but fifth and fourth in the AMA standings and are performing double duty this weekend as yet again the AMA have a Championship round on the same weekend as the World Championship, albeit at the same track this year.
That means there will be no Mat Mladin, Nickey Hayden or Aaron Yates, the top three riders in the current AMA points table and no Miguel Duhamel or Jamie Hacking who are ninth and tenth overall. Anthony Gobert was scheduled to compete until sustaining a wrist injury at the last AMA round while John Kocinski's testing accident aboard the new GP1 Yamaha ruled him out of a possible WSB return.
