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/127686
w it h Ha rley-Davidson's Mig u el DuHamel leading championship ho peful James sitting in sixth, just ahea d of Edwards and the other ride r with a title on his mind - Corser - in eighth. "I got a real good sta rt," Smith said. "We went up the hill and everybody was stop pe d . 1 thought, ' Hell, I'll go : Pascal (Picotte) about blew my paint off down th e back str aig h t. After th ey all got thei r sk irts off, they started matching my brake markers and they took off. They upped the pace and started matching me w he re 1 was making my time . That was it." Smith's fade would eventually land him in a battle over seventh place with DuHamel. When DuHamel's da y ended on the last lap due to a bad electrical fuse, Smith raced alone to sixth place, passing James late in the race when the Vance & Hines Yamaha ran into problems . Russell took the lead for the first time on the th ird lap and he quickly upped the ante to pull out a half-second lead on Picotte, who suddenly had his hands full with Edwards. The Texan moved into second place a lap later and the expected Russell vs , Edwa rds battle seemed ready to materialize. But that never happened, and the race for victory was quickly over as the partisan crowd cheered Russell 's every lap . Russell suddenly led by a second, then a second and a half, then two seconds, 2.8 seconds, three seconds, four seco n d s , five seconds .. .and then Edwards decided it was time to s tart playing his role in helping James win the championship . "I kept looking over my shoulder in five," Russell said after winning the 11th AMA Superbike National of his career. "I saw Colin (Edwards) and every lap 1 was putting it on him. It got to 10 seconds and I put it on cruise mode, but I was still pulling away. I started thinking ' abou t the championship (between James and Corser) and I had to tell mys elf to , (Opposite page) Pascal Picotte (21) led Mike Smith (68) and Jam ie James (2) on the open ing lap of the U.S. Superblke National at Road Atlanta. (Right) Scott Russell dom inated the race, winn ing by some 10 seconds. watch what I was doing. I was thinking, 'Man, I hope Jamie wins this thing: " By the 11th lap, the pack had caught Edwards, who seemed to be looking for his older teammate. A lap later, Corser went by Edwards, with Picotte and Sadowski leading James. Edwards was back in second on the 13th lap, but James appeared to be falling off the pace while Corser seemed to be getting stronger. On the 16th lap, Edwards dropped all the way back to sixth, behind his teammate James, as the chess match really started to heat up. Just when it appeared that James was racing himself out of the champion sh ip , he jumped past Corser, Picotte, and Sadowski to take over second place. That la sted until the 20th lap, when James quickly fell off the pace, ev entually finishing seventh when DuHamel st opped on th e fin al lap. But th ere was no helmet-throwing tantrums in the Vance & H in es p it. Instead, James was on hand at the w inne r's circle following the race to give his congratulations to his rival Corser. ::> 1 "When Colin dropped in behind me I figured it was time to roll," Jam es said later. "It was working out great, and then all of a sudden it quit running. I just ran the heck out of it, thinking that maybe it'd blow the valve right out of the exhaust. We worked for two days so the bike would be strong at the end of the race. When it was time to rock ' n roll, I put a little distance on them - then we were dead in the water. We were doing what we needed to do - there's nothing to feel bad about. I congratulate Troy (Corser ). He had to race against us on our race tracks all year, and that's not easy to do ." As bad as it seemed for James, all w as not o ver fo r the li keable Lou isianan. With two laps to go, Russe ll led b y a mil e o ve r Sadowski, Ed wards, Picotte and Corse r - with two rid ers, Smith and DuHamel, separating th e Australian from James. Tha t w as enough for Corser to w in the title - but on th e follow ing lap, DuHame l rode th e Ha rley in to the pits and now th ere was on ly one rider bet w een the tw o, switching the championship back to James. On the last lap , however, Corser was able to move past Sadowski to take fourth and, more importantly, the extra championship point he needed to top James. "The easiest way to win the championship was to win the race," Co rser said. "But Scott (Russell) got away. I knew exactly where Jamie was in the race and where I was. Jami e re-eaught me and I knew it was time to get going again. He seemed to slow really quickl y, and me and Colin almost ran in to th e back of him. I saw the white flag and I was behind Pascal (picotte) and (David) ,Sad ows ki. I got pa st Dave on the back straight. I wasn't su re what was suppo sed to happen with Pascal. Maybe he should ha ve finished behind me, but it doesn't matter now. It was just unlucky for Jamie to have his p roblem, but that's racing. I'm happy wi th the way I wen t all season. It's great:' Edwards ended up third, after being passed by Picotte on the final run to the flag: "It was pretty tou gh, you kn ow," 7