Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/127592
~ ROAD RACEAMA National Cham Road Race Series: Final round ~ Colin Edwards II led the Supe rbike pack on the opening lap at Sears Point Internati onal Raceway; here he's being chased by his Vance & Hines teamm ate Jamie James u arne (2) and the rest. • OlD at ears By Paul Carruthers Photos by Henny Ray Abrams SONOMA, CA, AUG. 28 UZZy Kawa sak i's Miguel DuHamel saved his best for last, emerging from an epic du el w ith Fast By Ferracci's Doug Polen to win his first AMA Superb ike National of the season as the lD-race series concluded at Sears Point International Raceway. DuHamel fought off Polen 's now habitual late-race advances and did all the right things to secure his only win of the season and the second AMA National w in of his career. The two fought to the bitter end with the French Canadian barely holding off the Texan at the finish line by a scant .053-0f-a-second after 63 miles of hea ted racing in the AMA's return engagement to the northern California race track after a three-year hiatus. . A popular and impressive third place wen t to local hero and "roll" model to big racers everywhere, Scott Gray. The 22Dpound Santa Rosa, Califo rnia, resid en t hand ed $5000 to Eraldo Ferracci for a weekend ren t-a-racer outing on one of the Fast By Ferracci Ducatis, and he made the most of the golden opportunity. The "Big Man" qua lified second (see sidebar) and ran at the front for the majority of the race before wisely settling for a third place finish behind DuHamel and Polen. It was Gray's best perfor- M 4 mance after years of disappointment and a season of struggle on a outdated privateer Kawasaki and, like Dale Quarterley's victory in Mid-Ohio a few weeks ago, it was a much-approved resu lt. . Fourth place tod ay went to Vance & Hines Yamaha's Jamie James, the Louisianan completing a highl y successful run of eigh t straight top five finishes after missing the first two races of the season due to a serious hand injury. James ended up on top of a near-race long battle with Team Mirage's Dale Quarterley, who with his fifth place finish solidified his position as the second ra nked rider in the series - a rather remarkable feat considering his privateer status. Behind Quarterley came the factory Yoshi mura Suzuki of Thomas Stevens, the Flori dia n again encountering some late race suspension langu ish es bu t emergi ng a head o f Vance & H ines Yamaha's Colin Edwards II. The young Texan ba ttled to th e bitter end of his rookie season of Supe rbike racing with a wrong tire choice after lead ing the early laps of the 25-lap National. Camel Ho nda's Mike Smith came back from a dead-last start (after killing the mo tor of his Hond a RC30 after the warm-up lap an d being forced to start last on the line) to finish eighth, well cle a r of Muzzy Kawasaki's Takahiro Sohwa and 10th place finishing privateer Calvin Rayborn II. DuHamel pocketed the $4250 winner's share of the $25,000 Superbike purse with Polen taking home $2850 and Gray earni ng $1900 on his $5000 inves tment. Instead of the light spectator turnout man y had expected, Sears Point clai med a three-day crowd of 22,500 despite the event being held only two weeks prior to the U.s. Gra nd Prix which will be held only a two-hou r drive away in Monterey, California. The 1993 AMA Su pe rbike Na tio nal Championship ended with Polen on top, his whopping 326-poin t total eclipsing Quarterley's 263 by 63 p o ints . DuHamel's last grasp shot a t second p lace in the points came up two points short at 261 points, but he was 31 points ahead of fo u r th-ranked Ja m es ' 230 . Sohwa filled the top five wi th 189 points while Edw ards (183), Smit h (181), Stevens (178), Pab lo Rea l (169) , and Pascal Picotte (147) rounded out the top 10 scorers. Real ended his seaso n wit h a 14th place finis h at Sears Point while Picotte was forced out of the race after breaking his collarbone in a WERA Pro Series event at Pocono two weeks earlie r. The Superbike National at Sears Point, loca ted in California's wine country no rth of San Francisco, got u nderway under bright sunshine, b u t with cooler temperatures than in qualifying as the heat wave that had engulfed the area h ad sta r ted to break. Smith's Honda RC30 was taken off the grid with a dead engine, a result of the ignition be ing cut off when the ra m -air induction system came in con tact with the swi tch - and he s tarted from dead last. Meanwhile, it was ex -mo toc rosser Edwa rds timing the dropping of the flag perfectly to lead the 22-rid er pack into tu rn one, a tire-construc ted, left- right chi cane. James was tucked in nea tly behind his teammate on the first run up th e hill toward s turn two with Gray, DuHam el, Q ua rte rley, Polen , Stevens an d Schwa in hot p u rs uit. Smi th was dead last, and his day would be a long one; tho ugh he wo uld eve nt ua lly fight throu gh to finish eighth. Gray wasted little time in moving by James and into second place by the time the p ack com p let e d t he fi rs t la p . Mid way through the second lap, Gray took over at the front, the crowd roaring its approval as he rode around the outsid e o f Edwards in turn seve n.