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Round 9: Sears Point International Racew y
a
- - ;-R ADR C
O A E-
AMAlCCS H 4600cc Supersportseries P
change at the top
By Paul Carruthers
Pho tos by Henny Ray Abrams
SONOMA, CA, AUG. 21
h e expected batt le for the
AMA/ CCS 600cc Su p ersp or t
Series crown won't come down
t o th e fi n al rou n d at Road
Atlanta next mon t h . Mike
Smith made certain of that by cra shing
out of the 600cc fi na l at Sears Point
Raceway, and all but handing the championship to Vance & Hines Yamaha's
Jamie James.
As is the norm, the ba ttle at the fron t
of the 600cc Supersport pack at Sears
Po int was hea ted , and it includ ed bo th
of th e championship hopefuls - Smith
"an d James - along with Kinko's Yamaha ' s Jason Pridmore and Muzzy
Kawasaki's Steve Cre vier. But there was
much more at stake here than just a race
victory,"as Smith and James were sep arated by only a single point in the championship heading into the ninth of 10
rounds.
The championship ended up being
decided on the 18th of 19th laps, when
Sm ith lost control of the Honda CBR600
in the ultra-fast tum 10, a right-hander
lined with hay-bale p rotected Armco
barriers. Sm ith slammed in to the bal es
and was fortu nate to n ot suffer serio us
injury; though he would not compete in
the Superbike National late r in the day
d ue to a foot injury.
Wh ile the series championship ma y
have been decided a lap earlier, the race
winner was in doubt until the very end.
Su rprisingly, James d idn't back down
and the trio fough t to the flag. As the y
crossed the finish line it was James by a
scan t .224-o f-a -se con d over C revier,
with Pridmore just as close in third .
James' victory, his fourth of the season,
only further em p h a sized h is title of
champion-elect.
Smokin' Joe's Racing's Mike Hale finished fourth after getting the better of a
struggle with local hero Brian Parriott
on his Armadillos Restaurant-backed
Honda CBR600. Gerald Rothman [r.,
Thomas Wilson, Robert Wright, Owen
Weichel and Randy Renfrow rounded
out the top 10 finishers.
James completed the.1 9-lap, 47.S-mile
race in 34 minutes, 0.554 seconds as he
. averaged 83.801 mph around the daunting Sears Point road course. James' suc ces s - matched wi th Smith' s fa il u re giv es the Yamaha rider a 32-p oin t lead
with only one round remainin g on the
series schedu le, 290-262. Crevier is third
w ith 255 points and Hale holds d ow n
fourth with 252. Rothman is fifth wit h
210 poin ts.
Ja mes led Crevier, Prid more, Rothm an, Hale, Weich el an d Smith u p the
hill and in to tu rn tw o on the op enin g
lap, but by the time they completed lap
one Sm ith w as al ready up to third . A
lap later and the Georgian was leading.
Just w hen it looke d as though Sm it h
was thinking about breaking away, he
was back to third - on the very next lap.
Thi s time it was Cr evier's tum to ru n at
the front, with James and Smith tucked
in behind and Pridmore, Hale, Rothman
a n d Parriott making it a s even-rid er
p ack at the front.
Crevier led on e more lap wi th Smith
taking over again on lap five. Smith led
laps six through 11, with James taking
T
over to lead lap s 12 throu gh 15. On the
16th lap, Smith was back in front and he
was leading when his race ended on the
. 18th lap .
"Right as he bent it in, he go t in troubl e ," Ja mes said o f th e Smith crash .
"Mike's go t a b ig heart and he stayed
with it to the last minute and it pitched
h im off."
With James taking ove r at the front,
Crevier ga v e it h is all b ut en d ed up
fighting just to keep Pridmor e behind
him.
"I got a bett er start than normal and
the first coup le of comers were good,"
Cr evier said. "I kn ew it was only a matter of time before Smi th an d Jamie started p layi ng th e poin ts ga me. My bik e
makes plen ty of power, but it acts funny
w hen you're runn in g it through the
gears - lik e they don't co n nect qu ick
en ou gh . The brakes were hot and th ey
were coming into the bar . On the last
lap I outbroke Ja son (Pridmore ) and
then 1 just closed the door. I di d what 1
had to to get second."
Pridmore's ride was some what heroic, considerin g he'd inju red his elbow
and whack ed h is hea d in h is 750cc
Supersport cras h jus t the da y before.
"I just didn't want to get in the wa y
of Jamie an d Mike," Pridm ore sa id . "1
didn 't want to take anybody ou t - I was
kind of in a weird position. I'm 'really
h app y. 1 sh ou ld have fin ished first or
second yesterday, so I'm hap p y to get
up th er e in the 600s . I almost d id th e
same thing as yesterday in tum four on
one lap - another foot out and it would
have been the sa me. After that I had to
run ' em down again. 1 seemed to be
re ally ripping throug h 10 and tha t' s
where I was making up ground. Steve
(Crevier) did a go od job a t the en d. I
really didn't have any energy left. The
last four lap s I was feeling rea lly weird.
1 hit my head pretty hard yesterday." CN
Sears Point Raceway
Sonoma, California
Results: August 21, 1994
600cc SUPERSPO RT FIN AL: 1. Jamie Jam es (Yam);
2. Stev e Crevier (Kaw); 3. Jason Prid mor e (Yam); 4.
Mik e Ha le (Ho n); 5. Brian Par riott (Hon); 6. Gerald
Rothma n Jr. (Kaw); 7. Thomas Wilson (Yam); 8. Robert
Wri g ht (Ka w ): 9. Owen Weichel (Yam); 10. Rand y
Renfrow (Han); 11. Gee p Terrano va (Han); 12. Jamie
Bowman (Ha n); 13. Thoma s Monta no (Han): 14. Jason
Black (yam) ; 15. Lee Brown (H on); 16. Jim Leste r (Hon);
17. Matthew Brown (Ha n); 18. Stu Morrison (Han) : 19.
Dav e Rodgers (Han ); 20. Joe Wi ns to n (H a n ): 21.
Akiharu Shigen o (Ha n); 22. Akihito Kobas hi (Han ); 23.
H ideaki Nakazawa (Hon ); 24. Alv in Chin (Han); 25.
Mike Smi th (H on); 26. Ga ry Cr anda ll (Kaw): 27. Hikaru
Miy agi (Ha n) ; 28. Da vid Esto k (Hon); 29. Rona ld
Chia ratti (Han).
Ti me: 34 min., 0.554 sec.
Distance: 19 laps, 47.s miles .
Average Speed: 83.801 m ph.
Margin of Victory: 0.224 sec .
600