TALLADEGA
IS
YVON'S
Quick pit stops accounted for a significant part of the Kawasaki victory. Bob Hansen (closest to
camera) engineered them. Steve Whitlock, DuHamel's tuner, holds the board. His idea for keeping
Carruthers gets down to business on his way to the Combined win.
Yvon lubricated probably helped a bit, too.
stop at which point Roberts and
Carruthers took over second and third.
DuHamel had opened up a
commanding lead by his first stop and
didn't lose first with a very fast
refueling job frOm his pit crew, Hansen's
crew refueled all three team members in
split seconds with only one of the stops
not being perfect. Smart, on his second
stop, stalled his engine and as he was
being pushed away flames became
evident, Steve Whitlock, DuHamel's
mechanic, stated, "I saw the flames but
the harder and faster we pushed the
smaller they got so we just ignored
them." Whitlock must be given more
than the mechanic's normal praise £Or a
victory as he had the foresight to rig up
DuHamel's Kawasaki superbike with a
water bottle and water line rig that
enabled DuHamel to sip fluid during the
race.
The Heat took Kel Carruthers out of
the race on the thirty first lap and the
Aussie was taken to the infield hospital
suffering from heat prottation. J ody
Nicholas was hurting with reported
cramps and pitted twice, once to adjust
his leathers, and finally stopped for
good on the 29 th lap,
Dick Mann (BSA) and Gene Romero
(Tri) rode around like a matched pair
until the forty second lap when Romero
was forced out with mechanical
problems. Mann went on to take fifth
place away from current point leader
Mark Brelsford. Brelsford had fifth aU
to himself going into the last lap but he
The Kawasaki of Gary Nixon leads the Suzuki of Baumann, and that's .h~ they
fj~ished.
15.
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