He is now unequivocally the man to beat.

Muzzy Kawasaki’s Doug Chandler dominated qualifying and the race at Laguna Seca and in the end extended his points lead over Honda’s Miguel DuHamel by thirteen points. Chandler’s margin of victory over eventual second place finisher Mat Mladin was over twelve and a half seconds. Former champion Miguel DuHamel led the early stages of the race but faded to an eventual third place finish. His Smokin’ Joe's teammate Steve Crevier, proving the fire still burns within the Canadian, finished fourth. Zero Gravity Honda rider and American Honda protégéé Ben Bostrom, in only his second ever Superbike race, finished fifth after running in the second position for a small portion of the race. Pascal Picotte was the first Yoshimura Suzuki in sixth place, Chris Carr in seventh on the VR1000 Harley-Davidson, Aaron Yates in eighth followed by the new debut Vance and Hines Ducati, ridden by former Superbike champion Thomas Stevens. Muzzy Kawasaki rider Tommy Hayden finished tenth. Larry Pegram, Doug Polen and Tom Kipp did not finish the race, all suffering mechanical failures.

Laguna Seca was nearby Salinas resident Chandler’s home race and the pre-race promotion centered around him. The newspapers covered him in-depth, his face was on the eleven o'clock news each night (not including Laguna Seca’s short late-night infomercial on the race) and even twelve packs of Coca-Cola at the Monte Mart on Del Monte Boulevard in nearby Seaside had a small flier attached to them encouraging people to come out and support their hometown hero.Chandler has been almost untouchable in pre-race testing at Laguna Seca and that held true in qualifying for this national as well. He easily grabbed the pole with a 1:26.851 lap. "That's what the WSC guys did -- I think their best lap was a 1:27.0 and the other was a 27.2. I feel we should be able to do that.," he said after qualifying. Dunlop used World Superbike qualifying tires on most of the factory machines. Jim Allen of Dunlop explained what the new tires were, saying, "It’s a 16.5 inch tall tire and it is a very similar qualifying tire to what the WSC riders use. The qualifying tires we had at Phoenix were last years tires. I ordered these tires last year but they couldn’t get them made for me in time so I took last year’s tires instead."

The talk of the paddock was the new mold release finish that left the new tires as smooth as a bald head and just as shiny. "Basically," explained Allen, "it s a mold finish that helps us with initial grip on the first few laps. It’s the same tire as we have been using just put into a new mold. It’s just something we’re doing in the factory to increase productivity." In addition the Kawasaki and Honda teams tested at Laguna Seca less than a month ago. Pit lane rumor has it they tested very limited availability World Superbike race tires.

Tom Kipp on the factory Yamaha sat second fastest at the end of qualifying. With all of the last minute preparation for a fast lap Kipp walked into the post-qualifying press conference not knowing where he sat in qualifying, "Obviously it was good enough for -- am I second, am I third? Second? Okay. We're still chasing around a front end problem but I know the bike has a little bit left in it. That lap was on a qualifying tire but the bike is working well. The Yamaha crew has been doing a fantastic job; a lot better than we had at Daytona, we had some problems there. I'm excited. Everyone seems to be pretty mellow. I'm healthy, the leathers aren't scratched. I have new leathers and a new truck and I'm happy.

"My bike is not there yet. And it hasn't been there all weekend. The front end has just been really inconsistent, that's really what we have been trying to fix. We've swapped more fork parts this weekend than we did all last year. We're going to put our heads together and try and come up with something better for the race. We hit on a decent set-up yesterday morning and we pulled the thing out of the truck more or less and I was doing 1:27s on race tires. At that point I thought I'd do 1:26s no problem. So I'm pretty irritated that I couldn't run 1:26s in qualifying. I should have been able to, the track is capable of it. And I've got a great motorcycle. I had a choice of two fronts and I think we did as best we could with what we had.



Changing track conditions in practice hampered the abilities of some riders to go fast. The morning would bring fog and slight rain, the afternoon hot sun and some wind. The asphalt expanded and contracted under the changing conditions, its traction qualities changing as well. Both Chandler and Kipp thought that the weather conditions were tricky to set the bike against. "This racetrack seems to be pretty temperamental," said Kipp. "It's affected by temperature and also by wind. At one point during the day the wind seems to get heavy so that's when your lap times go up about a second. That's part of the reason I am having a problem finding a set up, the track seems to be changing. It gets good and then it gets cold and the whole track seems real sensitive. Then it rains. It rained last night so its is a little different racetrack than yesterday. My bike is good though, it's fast, it's reliable and everything. It's going into gear and really there is no reason that we shouldn't have run faster than we did. We're still on the front row and that's all that really matters I guess." Chandler said of the weather conditions in qualifying, "I don't know, I was complaining about the track when we tested here in January, that it was real dirty. But I don't think it is much worse now. It's a lack of grip and that may be because it is not really warm. But I think the track is a lot cleaner than it was in January but for some reason it just doesn't have to have the grip."

Chandler uncharacteristically used a Dunlop qualifying tire to make his pole lap. "I ran 1:27.4s with the race tires but I didn't think there was a lot in it. I had three fronts to choose from -- a soft a medium and some other one. One of them chatters really bad and that's what I had on this afternoon. That's not the tire for me."

Chandler used a conventional swing arm machine to set his pole time and would use the same machine in the race. The mono-arm Kawasaki was absent from the Laguna paddock, although Chandler had tested it in pre-season at Laguna Seca. "That's something I think we'll just save for Daytona," he said. "It's kind of the in between, it's better than the other one (97) for the quick change but I still don't like it as well as the other one. It looks neat, it'd be good just to run it. But every time I have always preferred the bike with the conventional swing arm."

Third place on the grid and unable to improve on his first day qualifying time sat Miguel DuHamel who from the trackside appeared to be lacking grip in the corners. DuHamel has never won at Laguna Seca on a Superbike and he doesn’t care much for the track. Runs in the family as Yvon didn’t have much success in Monterey either. With 1996 in his memory Miguel certainly knew what would be the result if he left the venue without points.

Chandler, Kipp, DuHamel et al, notwithstanding, the one true stand out in qualifying was none other than Mr. Fourth spot on the Grid, Ben Bostrom on the Zero Gravity Honda RC45, a 1996 back-up machine to the models used by DuHamel and Crevier on the Smokin Joe’s team. Bostrom's fourth place qualifying effort was certainly impressive for the rookie, but more so considering that in a recent test at Laguna with the Honda factory team he didn't perform at this level. "I had a terrible day here in testing," said Bostrom after qualifying. "that was like the worst day of riding I’ve ever had. Especially on a Superbike because riding that bike there should be no excuse for a frown. I would get off the bike all unhappy and the guys would ask what’s wrong and I’d say I just couldn’t ride it. I was really sick. I had a real bad cold. The bike was actually hooking up too hard; I know that sounds strange but all I could do was wheelie the thing and it wouldn’t steer. I was really upset and I came away from the test really frustrated.

"They made a bunch of changes to the bike and I did ten laps on it on Thursday and I said ‘this thing is nice, let’s just start here.’ We kept playing with it and the bike just kept getting better, it keeps getting faster. I did a 1:29 out of the box and then a 1:28 one spot off the front row in first qualifying. I told myself that I wanted the front row. I thought if I rode harder that damnit, we could be on the front row. I think a lot of it is seat time. It has taken me until today (Saturday) to get comfortable at speed. I’m looking forward to getting a good night’s sleep and running up front tomorrow. The bike is capable of winning if I can ride it hard enough. I’ll have no excuses." Bostrom qualified the Zero Gravity RC45 in the fourth position a 1:27.506. "I didn’t expect it coming here, especially after the test we had, I was pretty upset," he said.

Bostrom hooked up with DuHamel in the middle of the last qualifying session expecting to improve his time, however he was surprised to see former series Champion DuHamel wave him by, unable to keep the pace. "That wasn’t so good actually. Both of us went out and we knew there was only a few laps left, the tires were getting hot. We went out to go fast and Miguel was charging real hard and he kept making a few mistakes and I was following him thinking I was going to get a two and drop our times, or at least I would by just following this guy. But he kept making a few mistakes and he got into some real bad slides and a lap from the end he just put his hand up and waved me by. That was actually the best thing for me because I just rode real hard. Big slides and a big grin on my face. You can’t help but smile, it’s like riding your dirt bike. I was surprised when I saw my pit board read a 1:27.5 because it didn’t feel that serious.

He rated his chances in the race: "I think on Sunday that Chandler, Miguel and Kipp and all those guys who are real smart on the Superbikes realize how their tires are going to last; they have a little better idea than I do. I’m hoping I don’t slide the bike too much and burn up the tire. I’m too throttle happy and I enjoy riding too much. I’ve got to control that. The way for me to turn a fast lap is to slide the bike and I need to learn some control and smooth it out a little."

Chandler wasn’t worried about Bostrom, but he was, mildly, about some others in the race: "I think Miguel will be there. I think Mat has potential to be there." On Mladin, he said"It’s the chassis they're having problems with -- the thing seems fairly good going in to the corner -- but that was something he was talking about yesterday -- pushing the front. It looks like they switched the weight around on the bike so the rear end is a lot looser."

The new Vance and Hines Ducati had its first race at Laguna Seca. Along with the VHR team were two Italians, Giovanni Merigrinni and Luca Canfarini, who spoke little English but were known to be race engineers from the Ducati factory in Italy. Any questions one asked them they replied " … ah, Ducati factory race team … yeah" and then they nodded their heads feverishly. In addition personel from the DNL Ducati team were present as well. Of the 996 Ducati machines, Thomas had three of them at his disposal at Laguna, sitting under the a brazenly pained trailer and full-length canopy. Just so that we’re clear: three bikes, one semi, six mechanics and … one rider. If this isn’t a Thomas Stevens dream come true, what is?

Well, more horsepower would be nice according to the former Superbike champ and his crewchief. Wrench Jim Leonard said after final qualifying when Stevens sat on the tail end of the third row of the grid, "We made a lot of progress yesterday in qualifying and we actually made a lot of progress today, even though it didn’t show. Our goal is just to make it through the race, keep learning and after we get out of here to get a lot of things ironed out. My list of things that need to be tended to, modified, sourced is now about three pages long. We’re actually ahead of where we thought we would be right now and even if we don’t find out anything more the weekend has been a success in our eyes. Obviously the goal is to win but we knew coming in that we are way behind and under the gun.

"It’s been incredibly hectic. The week prior to coming here hardly any of us got any sleep. And since we’ve been here it’s been sixteen hour days and a couple of eighteen hour days thrown in to keep us on our toes.

Stevens was set in the Saturday morning practice session to unleash the Ducati but instead he coasted down through corkscrew with a dead engine. What happened? "We were trying out a new electric shifter," said Leonard, "and it has some teething problems. Thomas thought the bike had quit when it really hadn’t, so he shut it down. Those are the type of things we’re dealing with right now. We’re all trying to be conservative and not do anything stupid. We’re learning as we go. Beautiful bikes, Ducati is supporting us all the way. We’ll get it. It’s just a matter of time." Similarly, Ferracci’s Ducati rider Mat Mladin was nowhere in qualifying really, heading up row two, a full second off Chandler’s pole time. Recall that Mladin went very well in the race here last year on the Yoshimura Suzuki, finishing second to Chandler.



Larry Pegram was just behind Mladin in 1997 qualifying at 1:28.0, out-qualifying his teammate Pascal Picotte by a few ticks of the watch. Then came Chris Carr on the six speed VR1000 Harley-Davidson with a very impressive qualifying result at a track he is still coming to grips with. Is there another circuit in America that can be considered more of an direct opposite of a oval dirt track than Laguna Seca? Carr qualified on the second row with a full row and a half of factory bikes behind him, including Steve Crevier, Aaron Yates, Carr’s teammate Tom Wilson, Tom Stevens on the VHR Ducati on row three and Tommy Hayden and Gerald Rothman (who crashed early in the weekend and sat out the race with a broken arm) on row four. Kawasaki mounted Canadian Mike Taylor qualified in the top position for the privateers, netting himself $500 from the AMA.When the real practice started, meaning the Sunday morning warm-up when the focus of the teams and riders goes from seeing who can do a fast lap on soft tires that will never last the race distance and instead practice on normal compound race tires, Chandler was still fastest but there was a surprise behind him. Mladin on the Ferracci Ducati was struggling with set-up problems for the entire weekend but come Sunday morning he was second fastest to Chandler.

From the green flag DuHamel had a flier of a start and was instantly in take no prisoners mode, hoping that he could get away while Chandler would get mired down in the pack of Ducatis, Harleys, Hondas, Suzukis and Yamaha’s behind him. DuHamel was on the gas and had a bike length margin over Mat Mladin by the time the first lap went into the record books with young Bostrom behind the Australian Ferracci rider, then Chandler, Picotte, Kipp, Yates and Crevier behind. Stevens came next followed by Carr and Tom Wilson, well off the pace even on lap one, in last place among the contenders.



Yoshimura Suzuki’s Larry Pegram was out before the first lap was completed, his TL Suzuki failing on the grid. He nearly leapt off the bike trying to not get run over by the pack when the green light blazed. "Some guy, I don’t know who, was way in the back, and … he didn’t see me but I saw him coming. He turned at the last second but he hit my leg. He was already probably in third gear if he’d have hit me …" said Pegram. "I thought he was going to hit me." The reason for the failure of the Yosh bike with number seventy-two on the flank was a mystery. "My guys tried to start it and it wouldn’t start. Official line is that it ran out of gas, but I think something in the engine broke," said Pegram.

Coming down off the hill the Superbikes were a symphony of mechanical sound. Standing on the exit of turn eleven the machines are only visible for a few seconds as they enter turn ten because of the increased straw bales on the entrance of the pit lane. The only way to discern who was leading was to listen. The loud Harley VR was the baritone supporting the entire concerto, with the noisy desmodronic valves of the Ducati clattering away to a rhythm all their own. Next instruments was the gear driven v-four RC45 sounding very tight and controlled, the revs increasing with the riders adjustment of the throttle but instantly falling back to idle whenever the rider let off. The Suzuki and the Yamaha filled in the gaps.

After three laps of the Honda out front, Chandler quietly, unassumingly, made his way to second place by lap three and deftly slid into the lead in the run down the hill on lap four. Mladin had dropped back after lap one from second to fifth spot but by lap five he was back in third and had his eyes on the rear wheel of DuHamel’s Honda. To get there he’d had to give young Mr. Bostrom a push in five and then finally he snuck past on the brakes into turn eleven, the left hand turn leading to the front straight. The run-down at this point was Chandler leading by a few bike lengths, DuHamel behind him scrapping with Mladin to stay in the second spot, his Honda visibly a handful everywhere, Mladin close behind in third, then Bostrom, Picotte, Kipp then a break and Crevier, Yates, Stevens and Carr. Stevens was seen prodding 250 ace Rich Oliver on Friday about which lines he was using where, but when asked if the Ducati was like riding a 250 he said, "Yeah, but you’re riding a 250 that has 150 plus horsepower."



There was no stopping Chandler and he was now pushing. His pace prior was in the 1:29s then he dropped to 1:28s and finally a few low 1:27s by lap six. He immediately made a large gap over second place which on lap six was now in possession of Mat Mladin. From there the race at the front was lifeless, from the standpoint of close racing action. Yet from the standpoint of watching a master rider and a pack of thirty-six riders unable to match him, it was fascinating. Chandler was deep into the backmarkers by lap ten, one of the first to be lapped was John Hilton on his RC30. Doug was controlling everything and the moment Mladin would begin to close he would drop the pace down and widen the gap.

The battles were for the fourth spot which for a time was fought by Bostrom, Picotte and Kipp, and the seventh position a full second back where Yates, Crevier and Carr ripped into each other. At this point Tommy Hayden, Tom Wilson and Tom Stevens were losing touch.

Tom Kipp’s Yamaha stopped on the front straight just as he had passed both Bostrom and Picotte. He threw his hand up on the straight and coasted to a stop. All sorts of mystery ailments were theorized and Kipp would only say, "We suffered a failure," when asked for the reason his bike stopped mid-race. Later Yamaha’s Tom Halverson stated, "The chain came off." Kipp had broken one in practice as well. His second DNF of the season completely pulled Kipp out of any conceivable points chase for the championship.



Just moments before the chain fell off Kipp’s factory Yamaha a huge gust of wind came up and picked up the entire Yamaha canopy attached to the transporter and flipped it over. It sat there, poles sticking straight in the air, for the remainder of the race.

Steve Crevier made another late race gamble at the top of the corkscrew and blew past both Picotte and Bostrom to take over the fourth place position. Bostrom had faded with his exhaust damaged and Picotte was struggling with chassis problems all weekend. His teammate Aaron Yates late in the race, tire burned up, over-riding to try and keep the pace but without the suspension and chassis to do so took to personally punishing the GSX-R750 Superbike, pounding the gas tank with his fist on the straight out of eleven and adding a few kicks when he found the time. Isn’t life wonderful on a factory team, Aaron? Yates slowed to the point where he was racing with the VHR Ducati of Stevens on the final laps but in a drag race out of the final corner Yates gained the position and finished eighth. Yates thought he had a hot set-up, the only rider going with a hard rear tire in a field fitted with soft race tires, but he chose the wrong tire, in retrospect.

Ben Bostrom finished fifth making it three Hondas in the top five. "I got tagged by Mladin in five, it put me sideways but I saved it. After awhile I told myself to sit back and pass guys but the bike was losing power with the damage to the exhaust plus some tape I had on my book kept sticking to my shifter, that let Picotte by." Bostrom was certainly impressive in only his second race on the RC45, this race he learned about tire management. "I learned a lot. This is all about throttle control. The tires won’t go twenty laps at the hard pace, at least not the tire I chose. Everybody else was doing five or six fast laps and then sitting back to cool their tires off. I guess what I learned was that I have a lot to learn." After mechanic Joey Weindorf, on loan from his spot on the Honda motocross team, took the Zero Gravity machine back to their tent, Bostrom stood at the bottom of the podium, staring intently at the top three finishers. Passerbys shook his hand and offered congratulations to the rookie, but he never took his eyes off the podium.

Former champion Stevens was happy with the results of the weekend, although the VHR Ducati did sound off-song and the team was hoping to get the fuel injection parts they so desperately needed before the race. It didn’t happen, but perhaps the engine was well-used and singing goodbye? "All thing considered, it sucked. We didn’t have any problems like that … lack of acceleration is our problem," said Stevens. "It’s pretty obvious, we’re getting yarded. We know what we’re up against and they’re going to change it. They’re going to get me some power and some acceleration and some data acquisition and when we have the data we won’t be guessing on our bike. So that’s what we used this for. We went in conservative to keep the thing together. I smelled oil, a lot of oil on lap twenty. It got sideways coming out of the Corkscrew. I sat up and looked long and hard at this one. It looked clean so I took off after Wilson and Hayden. I have faith in the team and the Vance and Hines guys are going to give me what I want."

DuHamel joked after the race, "I got a great start. It’s just the race was just too long, it should have been about three laps long. We worked hard and Doug just had it together. If my bike would have been perfect, maybe I would have had a shot to be close to him, he was riding good and the same thing goes to Mat. I was trying to hang with those guys and was abusing my tires and they were still pulling away from me. I backed it off a bit and made sure I didn’t get a challenge from the back. I just kept a good steady pace, 1:29s and some high 1:28s just in case these guys started getting aggressive so I could pull myself up and have a shot at it. That didn’t happen. They’re (Mladin and Chandler) too much good buddies."

Mladin stated, "I think Ben got me in turn five. I was just daydreaming. I was behind Miguel and I didn’t get the front tire scrubbed like I wanted to on the warm-up lap so I just wanted to cruise for a couple of laps then Ben came flying past … then a couple of laps later I stuck it back under him and I knocked it into first gear instead of second where I would be normally, so I was sliding and I couldn’t pull up. I think I was half of the reason for the muffler falling apart – I hit him pretty hard." Other riders reported that Mladin was riding a serious handful of a motorcycle after ten or so laps, the machine wobbling and shaking, and him overshooting corners trying to stay on top of it.

Mladin said that the shock packed it in early and although he seemed to be gaining on Chandler before it failed, he had to set the throttle to cruise. "It was one of those things – Doug had his game together today. You could tell in qualifying he was going to be fast. We were pretty good up until about lap eighteen, up to that point we were running pretty well, I thought we were going to race to the end … then to tell the truth we had a couple of little problems with the rear shock. It overheated or something. You could see it coming up the front straight, (the bike) was dancing around everywhere. Even if the bike was running well it would have been a tough one to win. Doug loves this place. He rides well here, hisbike is running well. That’s it." Mladin’s Ducati was not sounding well on the final lap and there was fuel or another liquid dripping from the exhaust as he rode to victory circle.
Mladin said the power might be lacking as well. "I wasn’t comfortable all weekend. We’re a little down on horsepower, to tell the truth. As much as everyone says the Ducati is the fastest thing out there, we’ve really struggled with mid-corner speed and punch off the turns. I thought we were doing well but when I got behind Doug in qualifying I knew we were going to have a little bit of trouble tomorrow. His bike is really working well, plain and simple. If my bike was working well as Doug’s … it would still be a tough one to win, plain and simple. We struggled all weekend. On lap eighteen when the shock went I told myself to back it up a bit and finish. The hardest thing was watching Doug go away. I knew that if he is the one leading the championship he is the one I have to beat. Anything can happen in the next seven races. We’ll be there." Ferracci is using a new suspension engineer in 1997 and there were stern looks his way after the race.

One didn’t have to interview Chandler and ask the usual when, how, why questions. The events of the weekend were obvious: the fastest guy won. Chandler said from the podium press conference, "The only thing I did wrong is that I kind of botched the start. These guys beside me, (Mladin and DuHamel) I feel they’re as good as anybody in the world as far as getting on the right bike. I think it’s a boost for the AMA series that we have this caliber of riders over here." Assuredly so, but in watching Chandler and the others it is clear that he isn’t even riding at 110%, and he pulls away. The others do the same and can only watch him ride away. Tires were on many riders minds, after the race there were a plethora of riders cruising the paddock sneaking peeks at their competitors tires.Chris Carr finished the race, his first finish of the year. He celebrated by doing a nice wheelie up the front straight. He said of the wheelie and the finish, "It wasn’t bad, but I didn’t tank-slap near as bad as DuHamel did after he did his after the 600 race. The race was good, I was pleased with the outcome. I got to ride with some guys I hadn’t ridden with in a long time. Once I lost touch with them through traffic – they went through traffic a lot better than I did – they timed it better than I did. They’d come up on the slower riders and time it so they could get by or get one in between us and put some distance on me." Carr re-passed the floundering Yates on the final laps as they went over the hill that is turn one, cutting the lappers right and gaining the position.



Muzzy Kawasaki rider Tommy Hayden, said of his finish in tenth place, "It went pretty good. I kind of got a slow start and then when I finally got going I was running pretty good times, I was comfortable. I was real happy with the bike this weekend. I was having fun. Testing here in December really helped because this is a pretty tough place to get used to." Whatever his generic commenets above, Hayden’s bike was dragging what looked to be a camera in the latter stages of the race, until it was kicked off. According to Muzzy there was no camera on Hayden’s bike.

Tom Wilson finished twenty-eighth. Wilson’s VR puked a cam position sensor and he pitted and then went back out for a finish three laps down from Chandler and company. He was happy just to be racing, "Coming into this I was really undecided if I was going to ride or not. Until I got here I was waiting for my head to clear out and my collarbone is still really bothering me a lot. I dealt with it just fine and we’re looking good going into some testing before Road America. I’m looking forward to it, by Road America I should be 100% I believe. Looking for a good finish from there on out for the rest of the season. It took a while, I was real cloudy for the better part of a month. I didn’t have any equilibrium problems but just very tired and very groggy. That’s why going into this I was very undecided. In fact the first time I had rode, I said that I was going to ride but if there is any problems at all, I’m not going to ride. I know I’m not 100% this weekend. I didn’t see any reason to put my future jeopardy. The rest of this season and so forth."

Wilson took consolation in the fact that on the cool-off lap an attractive cornerworker girl waited for him to come around and with his VR limping, she decided to ‘flash’ him, baring her naked breasts directly at him. She kept them covered for all of the Japanese bikes.

"Does that only happen to Harley riders?" he innocently asked when he came to the pits.

Yes, Tom, only to Harley riders. 1. Doug Chandler, Salinas, Calif., Kawasaki, 28 laps.

2. Mat Mladin, Australia, Ducati, 28.

3. Miguel Duhamel, Sarasota, Fla., Honda, 28.

4. Steve Crevier, Canada, Honda, 28.

5. Ben Bostrom, El Segundo, Calif., Honda, 28.

6. Pascal Picotte, Canada, Suzuki, 28.

7. Chris Carr, Valley Springs, Calif., Harley-Davidson, 28.

8. Aaron Yates, Milledgeville, Ga., Suzuki, 28.

9. Thomas Stevens, Woodstock, Ga., Ducati, 28.

10. Tommy Hayden, Owensboro, Ky., Kawasaki, 28.

11. Michael Taylor, Canada, Kawasaki, 27.

12. Tripp Nobles, Macon, Ga., Harley-Davidson, 27.

13. James Randolph, Santa Rosa, Calif., Suzuki, 27.

14. Dax Snow, St. George, Utah, Suzuki, 27.

15. Eric Moe, Spring Lake, Mich., Kawasaki, 27.

Margin of victory: 12.659 seconds.

Lap leaders: Duhamel 1-3, Chandler 4-28.

Attendance: 30,000.

Conditions: Sunny, 72 degrees.1. Doug Chandler (99).

2. Miguel Duhamel (86).

3. Steve Crevier (81).

4. Pascal Picotte (79).

5. (TIE) Mat Mladin/Aaron Yates (69).

7. Eric Moe (47).

8. Larry Pegram (46).

9. Tommy Hayden (42).

10. Tripp Nobles (41).

11. Paul Harrell (40).

12. (TIE) John Jacobi/Scott Russell (37).14. (TIE) James Randolph/Dax Snow (36).