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CN III ARCHIVES I t was a race that had reporters reaching for the AMA record books—the epic AMA Pro Honda Oils 600cc Supersport Series race at Laguna Seca Raceway in April of 1996. It was a show- down between two of the all-time greats in the history of super- sport racing—Miguel Duhamel and Mike Smith. The pair was one and two, respectively, on the series all-time wins list and now here they were, on the beautiful road racing circuit in Monterey, California, going wheel to wheel for the victory. At the checkered flag it was Smith, on the Muzzy Kawasaki, edging Duhamel and his factory Honda for the win. Why were writers scrambling for the record books? They were trying to figure out the last time DuhameI lost a 600cc Super- sport final. Turns out it was 10 races earlier. Ironically, at Laguna Seca Raceway. Further, the last time a Kawasaki won an AMA 600cc Supersport race prior to Smith's victory, was nearly three years earlier in August of 1993 at Sears Point, and it was DuhameI who rode that Kawasaki to vic- tory. Even more amazing was the fact that it had been nearly two years since a non-Honda won a 600cc Supersport race. All of these points of trivia came up after Smith managed to put a stop to Duhamel's historic P122 BATTLE OF THE SUPERSPORT 1990 WERA Formula USA Cham- pionship. Finally, in '91, Smith got the call up to the AMA ranks with Yoshimura Suzuki to race AMA Superbike. After a year with Suzuki he was signed by Camel Honda in '92 and he did double duty in Super- bike and 600cc Supersport (not uncommon in those days). He immediately picked up where he left off and became one of Su- persport's elites. Over the next few years he won a slew of Su- persport races, yet couldn't quite nail down the championship. 10-race win streak with his scintil- lating victory at Laguna. The fact that Smith was battling for a 600cc Supersport victory was a bit of surprise on its own. Smith had been an early star of supersport racing. The Georgian was a rising club-racing star, but little known in the pro ranks when he came out of nowhere to win take an unexpected victory in the Road Atlanta AMA Supersport race in 1988, just the second year of the series. It marked one of the very few times in history a racer had won a road racing national event in his pro debut. Even after winning his AMA Pro Road Racing debut, it was a few years before Smith got a full-time ride in the AMA. Instead he was riding for Team Hammer in the WERA Pro Series and earned the Mike Smith (68) leads Ben Bostrom (11), Miguel Duhamel (1), Thomas Stevens (2) and others at the Laguna Seca AMA Supersport race in April of 1996, breaking DuhameI's 10- race win streak in 600cc Supersport competition. PHOTOS: HENNY RAY ABRAMS BY LARRY LAWRENCE