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GROADRACE AMA/CCS 600 and 750(( Supersport Series: Rounds 5/5 ' e Miguel DuHamel, Steve Crevier and Tom Kipp lap a slower rider en route to th eir thrilling finish in the 600cc Supersport final at the Charlotte Motor Spee dway. DuHamelnips Kipp at Charlotte By Paul Carruthers CHARLOTIE, NC, JULY 6 om mo nwealt h Honda's Miguel DuHamel was at it again today, . winning his fourth 600cc Supersport final of the season at the Charlotte Motor Speedway. Ah, but it wasn 't easy as five riders battled for the lead for th e entire distan ce. In the end it was DuHamel topping Atlantic Motorsports' Tom Kipp by a scant .373 of a seco nd aft er 12 laps and 27 miles of fast-paced racing. Third place went to new Two C Brothers Racing recruit Steve Crevier. The Canadian rod e th e spa re Honda CBR600 F2 of teammate J eff Farm er, wh o fin ished fifth today, in impressive fashion. Crevier at tim es led, and was in the hunt all the way to the flag. " T hey ca ll ed a fter Cal gary two weeks ago and inv ited me down and I didn 't pa ss it up," Crevier said. "I was just kick ing cans ar ound the pits and I find it an honor to ride one of (tu ner) Mike Velas co's bikes." NoBles the Top Expert king_ __ '" nterin g the Charlotte round, Andrew 'Tripp' Nobles led the Top Expert points chase in both , th e 600 and 750cc Supersport classes, in addition to leading the Harley-Davidson Twin Sport series. Quite an outstanding feat , piinctu. ated by the fact that he has been racing for less than three years. Nobles began his rapid ascension to the road racing hierarchy in 1988, when he competed in three Novice road races. Nobles liked what he saw, and for '89, he bought a new Suzuki GSX R. The bike saw much use , as Nobles ran it in both 750cc Supersport and Superbike, as well as WERA A and B Production and Superbike. Nob les also raced a Harley 883, and helped pioneer that class . Nobles began to make national headlines that year , his first full season. Rolling away from the Daytona Race of Champions with. three National Championships was certainly a thrill, but the season was not over . The WERA Grand National Finals were just a few weeks away, and he would shine even brighter at the GNF, win ning four titles. For his outstanding E 14 Also running in th e lead group was DuHamel's Commonwealth teamma te, R ich Arnaiz. T he Ca lifornian ended up fourt h , j us t ah ead of Farmer and jus t behind Crevier. Honda CBR600 F2s dominated the race with the top five all aboard the black and purple beauties. Sixth place went to the Yamaha FZR600 of Vance & Hines ' Larry Schwarzbach; the Texan ran with the leaders early, but coul dn' t keep pace on the Yamaha. Top Expert Tripp Nob les, Takanobu Koyama, Mike Moores and the Yamaha of J ames' Leslie rounded .out the top IO fini shers. DuH amel 's victory ex ten d s his cham p io nsh ip points lead after four races to seven points over Kipp, 8073. T h ird place is held by Arnaiz at 47, followed closely by Farmer at 46. Van ce & Hines Yamaha 's J amie J ames holds down fifth in the cha mpionshi p despite not competing at Charlotte. T he Lo uisia na n has decided to concentrate h is effo rts on the AMA Su perbike Nationa l Ch ampionship and will n o lo n ger r ide th e team ' s . other FZR600. ยท The race was red -flagged almost im mediately when Kevin Ren tzell crashed on the exit of tum four. The Chattanooga, Tennessee, residen t suffered a broken left fem ur in the accident, On the restart it was fast-qualifier DuHamel leadi ng Kipp, Arnaiz, Crevier, Schwarzbach, and Farmer as th ey quickly broke away from the gr oup ' behind them cons isti ng of Nobles, Koyama and Moores. The or der shuffled repea tedly each an d every la p on the high banks as the top six drafted each other toward the start/finish line. Schwartzbach lost the draft on the fourth lap, and he wou ld ride on to a lonely sixth pl ace. The others, however, were locked together for the duration with Kipp, DuHamel and Crevier doing the . majori ty of th e leading. At the lin e it was DuHamel just nipping Kipp and Crevier with Arnaiz and Farmer close behind. " Mi g uel' s bike was pulling m e everywhere," Crevier said after th e race. " I rode aro und him everywhere on the in field, but I coul dn' t put a wh eel in on him in the chicane. I'm pretty disappointed that I cou ld n' t draft pas t him. He did wh at he had to do to win." (N Results 600cc ss nNAL: I. Migu el DuH amel (Ho n); 2. T om Kipp (Hon); 3. Steve Crevier (Hon); 4. Richard Amaiz (Hon); 5. J eff Far mer (Hon) ; 6. La rry Schwanbach (Ya m); 7. Trip p Nobl e, (Ho n ); 8. Takanob u Koyama (Ha n ); 9. Mike Moo res (Han ); 10. J ames Leslie (Yam); I I. J ohn Choate (Ya m); 12. T itian Bue (Hon ); 13. j osep h Prussiano (Ho n); 14. Fran klin Knight (Han ); 15. Roy Nicholson (Han); 16. Lee Pounders (Ho n); 17. Robert Meister (Ho n); 18. Thomas Dinardo (Ya m); 19. Kevin Sleeewski (Yam); 20. Will iam White (Yam); 21. Gene Church (Hon); 22. Dan ny Roberu (Yam); 23. Ronal d McG ill (H o n ); 24. Bru ce Fo wler (Hon); 25. Mi ch ael McKinl ey (Yam); 26. Robe rt Barringer (Yam) ; 27. Gl enn Cooper (Ya m); 28. Greg Hutcheson (Yam); 29. La psley Hope (Yam ); 30. J ordan Brown (Hon); 31. Gary Duffy (Hon); 32. Chri, Cuomo (Hon); 33. Scott Zampach (Ho n ); 34. Dou g Carmichael (Hon); 35. Tom Francis (Ya m). T imeL 16 min .,29.743 sec. Distance: 12 laps , 27 mila. A VCD,KC speed: 98.207 mph. Margm o(Vietory: .373 sec. 600ccSSC'SHlPPOINTSTANDtNGS: I. Miguel DuH amel (80); 2. Tom Kipp (73); 3. Richard Amaiz (47); 4. Jeff Farmer (46); 5. Jamie James (45); 6. Tripp Nob les (40 ); 7. Larry Schwanbach (38); 8. James Leslie (30); 9. Michael Barn es (28); 10.Scou Zampach (27); II. Mike Moores (25); 12. (I1E) T itian Buy Takanobu Koya ma (19); 14. (I1E) Dave Sadow,ki! Steve Crevier (15). Rtmell makes it five in arow By Brent P l ummer CHARLOTIE, NC, JULY6 ndefeated. Such a nice word. It describes perfection; it describes Scott Russell. In what is becoming typ ical Russell style, the Muzzy Kawasaki rider had a slow start, and then charged to th e front, taking the lead by the fourth lap , and sta ying there all th e way to the end. T he surprise story of the race is that of Steve Crevier, wh o raced a nimble T wo Brothers Honda CBR600 F2 to fin ish second, af ter he, too , had a poor start. Off the li ne, Crevier was fifth behind Russell, but he managed to climb into second although he had little hope of catch ing Russ ell. The Kawasaki-moun ted Russell would occasio nally sneak a peek back, adj us ting his speed to keep a healthy cushion over Crevier. The final rostrum finish went to privateer jeff Heino, who is sponsored by Heino Brothers Ra cing, Parkway Cycle, and Bridgestone Tires. Heino . won a race-long dice with fourth place fin isher Bri tt Turkington. Heino may have had a sho t at finish ing second if it weren't for - problems resulting from a lack of practice time. Heino, being a privateer, has to work during the week, and arrived at the track late. In his normal carefree style, Heino wasn 't worried about the fact that he o n ly had two practice sessions, both somewhat damp. With dew on the track in th e early morning sessions, H eino cou ld not get up to full speed, and hen ce, he chose the incorrect gearing. When th e race came, Heino was abou t two teeth too high, and was bouncing the engine off the rev limiter all th e way down both NASCAR stra ig h ts. With the increased speeds he was reaching, the initial suspension settings were also incorrect, turning the bike in to a pogo stick. Front row starter Jacques Guenette U performance in '89, Tripp ,'W0n the John D. Rue award that is given to the most outstanding Novice. . ', Sponsorship has always come from his brother Cliff, who owns Downstaging, a stage setup and supply company. Nobles realizes that he " co uldn't have made it without him," as Cliff generously supported all facets of Tripp's racing, including wrenching for him. When 1990 came around, the Nobles' decided to chase Suzuki mo ney, and to do it properly, they purchased new 600 and 750cc Suzukis. Also within the budget that year was Dave Sadowski's old GSXRlIOO. So equipped, the brothers began their assault OR, the 1990 Suzuki Cup series . T hey ran into almost insurmountable problems thafyear, as Tripp explains: "My brother and I, we were really green, pretty clueless about tuning the bikes. I had to ride my, heart out chasing (Mike) Smith, (Kurt) Hall, and occasionally, Mike Harth." Now 1991 is here, and things are looking up for Nobles. He is sponsored by Bartels' Harley-Davidson for Twin Sports, and David Sadowski's Atlantic Motorsports .is helping him in the Supersport classes. Sadowski is currently becoming somewhafof a mentor to Nobles. At the beginning of the season, Tripp was "intimidated by (Scott) Russell and all the factory guys, but Dave just told me not to worry about it; to believe in myself, and it has worked." Indeed it has , and for proof, one needs look no farther than Nobles' record. . Nobles designated this year as the one to demonstrate his ability, which he hopes will help him secure a factory ride, in any class, for 1992. If the desired factory ride does not materialize, he will be ba ck anyway, contesting T op Expert once again, and beyond that, who mows. . . Breot PI_