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eROADRACE A MAlCCS HP4 600cc Sup~_ort__ri_es:_Ro und_9 Se _ _ ~ Britt Turkington (28) leads winner Miguel DuHamel (17) and Steve Crevier (4) at the sta rt of the 600cc Supersport race. Jason Pridmore (43) won the 750cc Supersport race. Fritz Kling was second and Britt Turkington (28) was th ird. DuHamel wraps itup at Mid-Ohio By Paul Carruthers Photos by Henny Ray Abrams LEXINGTON, OH, AUG. 8 hen Miguel DuHam el left to go to Europe for an assault on the Grands Prix in 1992, he left as the best 600cc Supersp ort rider in the country. This yea r DuHamel re tu rned to AMA racing on a Muzzy Kawasaki, and he didn't waste any time in p utting his stamp of authority back on th e 600cc Supersport class - his victor y today at W 8 the Mid-Ohio Spo rts Car Course giving h im h is second champ ionship in the ultra-competitive class. When all was said and d o ne, DuHamel had top ped the Yosh imura Suzuki of Britt Turking ton by a scan t .954-of -a-secon d, w it h Kawasaki of Canada's Steve Crevier even closer in th ird place. Du H am el ave raged 90.277 mph in winning the race in 31 minutes, 54.107 seco nds on a bright and sunny day in cent ral Ohio. As is the norm, the 600cc class featu red close racing throughout the field and lots of d rama as two rid ers , Cam el Honda 's Mike Smith and upstart Aaron Yates, battled through the pack after a first-lap crash to finis h 12th and 13th. _ Camel Honda's Rand y Renfrow continued his resurgence w ith another fine r ide on th e C BR600 to fi nish a close fou r th, and C lass Raci ng's Jaso n Pridmore rounded ou t the top five finishers on his Kawasaki ZX-6. In securing the champions hip, DuHamel beca me the first rider in an AMA class this season to reach the 300po int ma rk. The French Ca nad ian has finished near the top in each and every race with his worst resul t being a four th in the rain at Loudon, and he has accumu lated six wins along the way . So with one round remain ing, DuHamel's 300 points is un touchable. He is trailed by Turkington's 253 po ints and Renfrow's 245." Crevier a nd Ge rald Rothman [r., sixth a t Mid -Ohio, ro u nd out the top five in the cha mpions hip point s tandings with 216 and 207 points, respe ctively. It didn't take long for action to take place after the star t. As the pack entered the Keyhole, a long righ t-ha nder just prior to the back straight, two of the faster qualifiers, Smith a nd Yates, crashed together . "I r eall y do n't kno w w ha t hap pen ed," Smith said later. "I don 't know why my bike all of a sudden stood up . Bu t a ll of a s udden my s tuff w as all over. His bike cent er punched me on the way d own." Both rid ers quickly rem oun ted , b ut still re-entered the race in the last tw o po sit ions. Yates .was q uic ker to ge t restarted , but Smi th would eve ntua lly pass hi m as the two scu rried through th e 33- rider fiel d to even tu ally fini sh 12th and 13th. Mea n w h ile, up front , it wa s Tu rkington's late-braking moves the kept him moving to the front at the end of the backstra ight. For the first thr ee passes, Turkington used the same move to di sp ose o f DuHamel from th e top spot. On the fourth lap , though, it was • DuHam e l lea ding C r e vier with Turkington third , Pridm ore fourth, Renfrow.fifth, and Rothman sixth. . By the sixth lap the race had turn ed into fou r three-rider races. DuHamel, Crevier and Turki ngton a t the front followed by Renfrow / Prid more /Rothman and then a gap "to Don Munroe, Owen Weichel a nd Jim Leslie. The fou rth gro up of three consisted of Californian's Tommy Ly nch, Mar k McDaniel and James Randolph. By th e n int h lap D uHamel and Crevier had dis tanced the mselves a bit from Turkington as Renfrow sta rted to close in on the Texa n. By the 13th goaround, though, Turkington was back in the hunt, bringing Renfrow along with him. DuH ame l conti nued to do most of the lead ing, and it ap pea red as though he was only going as fast as he had to. The stopwa tches ga ve confi rma tion of th is as he was well off the pace of his qua lifyin g times. As is th e norm w ith this class, it w ould come dow n to the final lap . And b y this tim e Turkin g ton ha d s n uck around Crevier to take over second, but neither of them coul d match DuHamel's fina l lap and the French Canadian took his sixth win of the seaso n. "I just kept a steady pace," DuHamel said later. "I had so me in hand. I was ta king it easy an d on t he las t lap I picked up the pace." Crevier concurred with DuHamel : "He just went as fast as he had to to win the race," he said . "I just rod e the best race 1 could. It's a tou gh trac k for me because of what happened last year to Larry (Schwarzbach, wh o was killed in the supe rbike race here last year when he crashed along with Crevier) . I'd like to dedicate this race to him. God bless you, Larry. " Turkington di splayed hi s cand id sense of humor in the winner's circle