With MotoAmerica set to bring AMA Superbike racing back to Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, August 16-18, we’re taking a closer look at past Superbike races at the iconic racetrack in Lexington, Ohio.
Muzzy Kawasaki’s Doug Chandler ended a 26-month drought between victories when he won at New Hampshire International Speedway in 1999. But he didn’t wait that long again to win for a second time as he scored the victory at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course less than a month after his New Hampshire win.
Chandler was fast all weekend and took full advantage of Vance & Hines Ducati’s Ben Bostrom’s misfortune to take the win, the 11th of his career and a win that moved into eighth on the all-time AMA Superbike win list.
Chandler ended up winning easily, but things might have been different if pole-sitter Bostrom’s Ducati didn’t let him down on the 17th of 26 laps when an oil-line fitting pulled lose and deposited oil on the exhaust. He was black-flagged and rejoined the race, but his woes took him from a near-certain win and a lead in the championship to a 10th-place finish and 14 points behind Yoshimura Suzuki’s Mat Mladin.
With Bostrom out, Chandler topped Mladin by nearly nine seconds with the Australian taking over the runner-up spot on the last lap when his teammate Jason Pridmore slowed to allow the Australian to pass. American Honda’s impressive Superbike rookie Nicky Hayden crashed just three laps from the end while scrapping with Mladin and Pridmore.
“It’s good when things go your way,” Chandler said post victory. “We had a really good motorcycle. If we were to do it again in a couple of hours, I don’t think I’d change anything on the bike. The thing worked really good, start to finish. Other than kinda getting a slow start, I was really happy with how everything went.”
Fourth place went to American Honda’s Eric Bostrom.
With Vance & Hines Ducati’s woes (Anthony Gobert had front-tire problems in addition to Bostrom’s oil leak), the big winner on the weekend was Mladin. When all was said and done, the Australian led Ben Bostrom by 14 points with just two races remaining.
Chandler’s victory on the Kawasaki in 1999 at Mid-Ohio ended a drought for the brand. The previous winner at Mid-Ohio on a Kawasaki was Dale Quarterley in 1993.
