Saturday Noon News

Anthony Gobert was the first rider out in the morning's Superbike practice. Gobert has not ridden since July and said after the session, that he felt a bit "stale". He was seventeenth fastest with a 1:41.097. Mladin's time this am was 1:37.843

Top twelve from that session:


Doug Chandler caught a virus from one of his children this week and missed his flight to Vegas on Thursday (he was too ill to ride on the promoter day). The weather closed in and Chandler had to charter a plane to get him to Vegas.

Harley-Davidson Pascal Picotte is ill as well, with a cold, but he seemed better this morning.

Kawasaki tested a WSC chassis yesterday on Chandler's bike but it will not be used this weekend.

Vance and Hines has three A chassis here, one for each rider. They have two "A" engines. Gobert now has one and Pridmore.

Eric Bostrom crashed his 600 this am in practice, he was unhurt. The bike ended up dead-animal style on the clip-ons, wheels up.

Gobert says that his chances of winning the race tomorrow are "nearly impossible". He said that the situation with Vance and Hines is "good" and that he has WSC offers right now but wants to stay with Ducati, preferably here in the States. He says that he's behind the eight ball here and his first goal is to beat his other VHR teammates.

Steve Crevier scared the beejesuss out of everybody, especially those editors who have already laid out Steve Crevier 600 Supersport Champion stories, when he crashed his GSX-R600 yesterday. He was unhurt. Crevier needs to finish ninth or better to clinch the championship, if Chandler leads the laps and wins the race tomorrow. --Dean Adams