Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

," ~ ' '' ' ·R ADR E:. ::···::··.· :· Round 7: Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course , O AC · ·. A U MA .S.Supeibike National Championship .' war s By Paul Carruthers Photos by Henny Ray Abrams LEXINGIDN, OH, JULY 17 ven though the monkey that was riding on the back of Colin Edwards II was a small one, it was a monkey nonetheless . But the young Texan ma y have discarded the primate for good at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course wi th a gutty first-time victory in the Honda Super Cycle National. It's tough being a phenom. When you go ou t and win a 250cc Grand Prix Nation al Championship in yo u r first attempt at the ripe age of only 18, pe0ple expec t big things . Wh en yo u fail to win in your rookie seaso n of Superbike racing, the non-believers star t to whisper, "I told you so." So, even though it on ly took the 20yea r-old a season and a half to win a Superbike National, it seemed much longer, and even Edwards admitted that his d om inant season of 250cc racing in 1992 ha d become nothing mor e than a fa d ing memo ry. His con fid ence had dimin ished, the cock-sure at titude was gone, and ma ny had started to giv e up on him . Fortunately, he didn't give up on himself. And, as it turns out, it may have also bee n a little early to give up on the 1994 AMA U.S. Superbike National Championship. Jus t when most wer e prepared to hand the title to Tro y Corser, the Austra lian and h is Fast By Ferracci Ducati suffered their first non-finish of the season. Combine that with Jamie James' second- place finish, and all of a sudden there' s a little drama .again at the top of the point standings. Alth ough a 16-point lead is still quite an ad vantage, it' s given James and the Vance & Hines Yamaha crew at least a glimmer of hope that the veteran can somehow pull off a second AMA Superbike National Championship to go with his '89 title. But given Corser's obvious talent , and the fact that he and' the Ducati have won three races while James is still winless, that optimism is still far from becoming actuality. With three races left on the series schedule, Corser leads James, 204-188. A first-time winner, a suddenly exciting championship points chase...MidOhi o h ad it all - in cl u d in g a HarleyDa vidson VRI000 on the front row of the grid, and that same Harley-Davidson at the front of the pack on the opening lap of the National. French Canadian Miguel DuHamel had even non-Harley-biased race fans screaming their approval as his hard riding put the VR1000 into the lead on and off for the fi rs t three laps . And eve n w h e n he slipped to fourth place, it was a competitive fourth. The VR's run up front lasted until the 14th lap when DuHamel was for ced to pit when his shift lever linkage started to come off. A pit stop to fix the problem left DuHamel to finish I (Above left) Pascal Picotte (21) and Miguel DuHamel (17) - and the Harley -Davidson VR1000 • lead the way du ring the open ing lap of th e U.S. Superbike National at MidOhio. (Left) Coli n Edwards II wo n hi s fl rst ever Superb ike National at Mld-Qhlo. only 14th, but the sight of the VRl000 at the fron t of the pack won't soon be forgotten. Still, the story at Mid-Ohio was Edwards. The Vance & Hines Yamaha rid er ca p tured his second career pole posi tion (see sidebar) during qualifying en rou te to breaking Doug Polen's lap record fro m a seas on ago, fought his way th rough to the front of the pack after a poor start, wa tched as others faltered, and then bea t his teammate James in a str aight fight to the finish in capturin g his firs t-ever AMA U.S. National Superbike victory - which was also run in record-setting fashion. The fi na l laps were dramatic as Edwards battled James. Youth and exuberance vs . old age a nd guile. In this one, youth prevailed as James wasn't prepared to force the issue, especially given the circumstances tha t had developed earlier in the race with the demise of Corser. Third place went to Muzzy Kawasaki's Takahiro Schwa, the Japanese star staying w ith the lead group to finish on the w in n er's rostru m for the sec ond time this season. Sohwa's teamma te Steve Crevier finished fourth , taking ad vantage of a high attrition rate at the front of the pack to keep his consistent season on track. Surprisingly, it is Sohwa and Crevier who hold d own third and fourth in the championship point standings with 179 and 178 points, respectively. Tea m Mirage's Dale Qu arterley ha d his best finish of the season to nab fifth a t the race track on wh ich he won his first-ev er AMA Superbike National just a sea son ago . Yo sh imura Suzuki' s Thomas Stevens, Smokin' Joe's Racing's Mike Hale, Australian first-timer Scott Doohan, Yoshimura Suzuki's Tom Kipp and privateer Ducati rider Brad Hazen rounded out the top 10 finishers. And w ha t of the rest of the factory stars? High attrition sen t many to the wa yside at the race track that sits smack dab in the middle of Oh io. Along with his teammate Corser, Pascal Picotte dropped from the lead gro up when his Fast By Ferracci Ducati suffered a mechanical failure. Smokin' Joe 's Racing's Mike Smith, meanwhile, crashed out of the race while running fourth after choosing the wrong compound front tire, and his teammate Kevin Magee pitted numerous times with handling problems before eventually finish ing 23rd . Muzzy Kawasaki's Fred Merkel was another non-finish er as the ZX750 stopped running on only the seventh lap. The race got underway under sunn:r skies, and in front of a now commonplace large crowd, w ith Picotte leading the horde of superbikes in to the fas t, left-hand tum one. DuHamel jumped h behind the Ducati with Tom Kipp COlT ing from the third row to hold dow.• th ird as the pack blitzed through the Keyhole for the first time. As they ran down the back straightaway, DuHanel tucked in behind the Ducati and - 10and behold - darted under Picotte on tae brakes for tum sev en to take the lea l. The crowd that lined the hill above nzn eight roared their approval at the 'sight of the first-y ear VR leading the race. "It felt great," said DuHamel, whose cornering speeds even left his ri vals with their jaws agape. "I really wanted to lead the race bad. I outbraked him (Picotte), but I was carefu l because the bike wa sn't perfect with a full tank of gas ." DuHamel only stayed out front for two more laps, but w a s still in co n tention until running into the problem with the shifter on the 14th lap: "The

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