Cycle News

GROAD RACE AMAlCSS 600cc Supersport Series: Round I m ~ Tom Kip p (4) leads his Camel Honda teammate Mike Smith (68). and th e rest of the pa ck on the op ening lap of the 600cc Supersport final. Smith buries'em in Daytona By P aul Carruthers P h o tos by H enny R ay Abra ms DAYTONA BEACH, FL, MAR. 8 ike Smith restored som e of the magi c that Miguel DuHamel brought to th e Cam el-backed Commonwealth Honda last year with an impressive victory in the 600cc Supersport race at Daytona Int ern ational Speedway. . The Georgian, in his debu t ride aboard the team's all-y ellow CBR600 , did what many thought was impossib le - he managed to break the dr aft and p ull clear from what was initially M a six-rider pack to win by 6.79 seconds after 18 laps o n the 3.56��mile road course . It was a performan ce simi lar to that turn ed in last year by 1991 AMA/CCS 600cc Supersport Ch ampion DuHamel, the very man Smith has repl aced for th e 1992 season. Du Hamel is now conte sting the 500cc Wor ld Champ ionship Road Ra ce Seri es. Smith averaged 105.951 mph on his . Dun lop-s hod CBR. besting second Mik e Smi th was able to break the draft and win the race handily over Steve Crevie r. p lace finisher Steve Crevier on th e Two Brothers Rac ing H on da CBR 600 by over six seconds ; Crevier's CBR was fitted wit h Bridgestone tir es. T h i rd p lace tod a y went to th e returning Randy Renfrow , back from th e serio us inj ur ies that kept him out of racing for the ent ire 1991 season (see sidebar). Renfrow 's ride was perh aps th e most stu nn ing co nsidering th e intens e reh ahiliation he has had to endure just to be able to race again. and he very nearl y beat Crevier to th e li n e. Renfrow. too , was ridirig a Dun lop-shod CBR600 Honda. ��� Fourth pl ace went to Smith's Camel H o nd a teamm at e Tom Kipp, th e Ohioan also in the thi ck of th e battle for second for most of the race. Two Brothers Racing's Rick Kirk rounded out th e top five after losing the draft wh en he ran off ih e tra ck in th e chicane la te in th e race. It was Kipp leading wh en th e pack screa med into the ch icane for the first time, but fast qu alifier Smi th had quickly moved into th e top spot by the tim e they got to the fini sh line. H e promptl y started pu lling away, leading by over two seconds aft er four lap s. almos t four seconds three laps later and six seconds by lap 12. The battle behind, though . wou ld go th e di stance. Kipp, Crevi er and Kirk were able to pull clear at first from Va nce & Hi nes Yam ah a' s Larry Schwarzbach a nd Renfrow. but th ose two used eac h other 's dr aft to get on even terms. creating a five-rider d uel for second p la ce. Honda CBR600mounted Mike Harth. meanw hile. wa s alon e in seventh. a nd his ride would rem ain a lo nely o ne. Wh en the five rider s were hooked tog ether. everyone took a turn a t leading, a ltho ug h Cr evier seemed to Renfrow imnressive in return wO years ago , Randy Renfro w finished an extremely close sew.nd in the I?aytona 200, and went on to finish second III the AMA Nationa l Championship Superbike Series po int standings- H e was 33 years old and o nly getting faster, and he was about to begin what cou ld have been the best racing year of his long career. Armed with Commonwealth Hondas set to be sponsored by Camel, Ren frow was on the team of choice. but things went drastically wrong during a pr e-Daytona test at Willow Springs International Raceway. A high-speed crash left the veteran rider from Virginia, with a badly mangled rig h t hand, an invaluable tool for any motorcycle racer. His season ended that day in the high desert of southern Ca lifornia before it ever really got started, and his career also seemed to have come-to a premature close. But he 's bou nced back in style. Eleven operations later (one of which las ted close to 12 hours) and the diminutive 35-year-old has taken the first step toward what he hopes is a rekindled career. Remarkably. he finished third in the 600cc Supersport race at Daytona in his first race since being injured. ''I'm actually having fun��. " Ren frow said during qualifying...It 's fun to be back out there rid ing again . The last couple of sessions I was ab le 10 start pushing it and slide. around a bit. I started out about four seconds off the pace and now I'm two seconds off. I didn't think I could come down here and run with the fastest guys. so it's not a big disappo int men t. " Byfhe time racing bega n . Renfrow was no longer off the pace. Instead. he T 4 was able to ru n with the lead pack. Incredible. when you rea lize what Ren fro w has been through in the last year. He underwent near total reconstruction of' his righ t hand , including the amputation of his thumb and the. transplantation of a big toe to take its place. Surprising ly, -rhe physical aspect of his recovery isn't th e one getting in the way of faster lap times. A year away has taken its toll on the mental part of Renfrow the racer. " At least here . the hand is not really a problem. " he said. "It has its disadvantages. but it's reall y the menta l pa rt of being abl e to go out and push the front end aga in. At my absolute best I had a defiant attitude toward the bike: You want to do bad things. you want it to push the fro nt and slide around. Here. I've sp ent th e first four days looking for the edge. an d that part is not fun . It gets to be fun aga in when you find the edge and start going over it. " The injury has forced Renfrow to re- learn the basics . Throttlecontrol and braking . have had to be re-programmed, and he has to use different fingers than he used in the past to get the motorcycle stopped. "I reall y hav e to concentrate," he said. "It's j ust getting used to braking with the third and first finger. The thu mb is good fo r a lo t of things in everyday life, but not for riding a motorcycle. I just can't do it the way I used to. The main problem is the front end tends to bob up and down when I blip the throttle. But it 's better than I thought it would be - four months ago this wo uld ha ve been impossible. But lately it started making improvements in really big chunks. It's bett er from every stan dpoint - I couldn't do up zippers a few months ago." "I'm in quite a different situation no w." Ren fro w said. "The goal, of cou rse, would be to be Superbike Cham pion. I have . to look at the steps to see what it would take. and this is a step. Whether I make it back or; not. if I enjoy it the n there's really no reaso n why I shouldn't be out-there." ......_--~-----_ ...... --------_ _--.-..- ~ .I I ) J , -

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