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/127727
Round 3: Laguna Seca Raceway ·R ADRACE · O A HP~ 600cc Supersport series : MA By Paul Carruthers Photos by Henny Ray Abrams MONTEREY, CA, APR. 30 ast year Mike Hale was the pupil, watching and learni ng from veterans like Miguel DuH am el and Steve Crevier. Nice job, guys . At Laguna Seca Raceway the young Texan used e ac h and e ve r y lesson learned to carve his wa y through traffic en route to beating his Smokin' Joe 's I:I0nda teammate DuHamel in a straight fight , Muzzy Kawasaki's Steve Crevier finished a distant third, well behind the fight at the front that for all practical purposes lasted for only nine of the 22 laps. It was on the 10th lap that Hale go t the better of DuHamel in lapped traffic. He quickl y opened up a gap of two seconds, leaving DuHamel with out th e arsenal with which to fight back. At race's end , Hale wa s 5 .636 second s ahead in winning his second successive 600cc Supersport final on h is Honda CBR600F3. A distant fourth w ent to Muzzy Kawasaki's Pascal Picotte, who onl y 30 minutes earlier had injured his wrist in a Superbike practice crash; Picotte started ,;,ay ba~k in the pack, but managed to fight h is way through to a relatively easy fo u r th-place fi nish . Kinko's Kawasaki's Thomas Wil son also came back fro m a lackluster sta rt-to- fin ish fi~th, just ahead of Erion Racing's MIchael Barnes. Hikaru Miyagi, who had been much higher before taking an off-track excursion, Britt Turkington, James Randolph and Jamie Bowman rounded out the top 10 finishers . In the all-important 600cc Supersport Championship, Hale leads DuHamel by on ly th ree points after three rounds, 100-97. Crevi er is only 10 points behind Hale with 90; Bowman is fourth on 70, while Turkington and Miyagi ar e tied for fifth with 68 points. . When the race beg an, it wa s DuHamel and Hale running side by side over the hill and into turn two, where Hale held the ins ide line and ultimately the lead . Miyagi had his Honda in third with Crevier fou rth and Barnes fifth. Th a t order held for the firs t lap, with Picotte completing lap one in 12th place. The Hale / DuHamel figh t at the front w as cl o se , a n d .looked as tho ug h it w o u ld g o th e distan ce. Alth ou gh .DuHamel never led, he appeared to be able to circul ate at the same pace as his younger teammate. On the 10th lap, though, Ha le got the break he needed in traffic as DuHamel was balked. "Getting through traffic he (Ha le) did a reall y go od job, " DuHamel said . "There were ju st two corners wher e I was really hating it: turns three and four. I just couldn't get through those tw o comers. In three I think I was too low -geared and in four the front would wash a bit. In five I could make it up and through the Corkscrew I could make it u p. The rest of th e race track was pretty good, and then he got me through 11 too. Once he got the break in traffic, I just couldn 't put a lap together." So barring a mistake, the race up fro nt was over. And that mistake never came as Hale continued to prove his ever-increasing worth, winning his second r a ce in a row in immaculate fash ion. "The lap b o a rd showe d that h e (DuHamel) was staying close," Hale sa id . " I knew it was Miguel because I could see his lap board as well, but I don't look back. He was putting the pressure on me and he showed me a wheel one time. I think we had the same (Left) Mike Hale (23) got the better of teammate Miguel DuHamel (117)at the start of the 600cc Supersport race. (Below) Hale .managed to lead the entire race and took his second consecutive 600cc class win. gear ratio through three and four because I had the exact same problem. I figured that Migu el and I would have a I~ng rac~. La!:'ped traffic plays a really big part In th is sport and I was hoping fo r so me good breaks. Fo rtunately, it worked out for me today. I was able to get away a little bit and get som e breathin g room. I knew I couldn 't let up because just as easy as I go t a good break, I could have go t a bad break ." Crevier, meanwhile, had work ed his wa y aro u n d Miyagi, but w as nev er a threat to the two Hondas ahead of him. Instead, he se t tl e d into a pace that allowed him to simply cruise to a thirdplace finish. "I had to deal with Miyagi," Crevier. explained. "He got ahea d of me and he was rid ing kind of loose. By the time I g ot b y h im, t hose g uys (Ha le and DuHamel ) were three or fou r seco nds ahead. They were running about a half a second a lap quicker and I jus t did the best I could. I'm not that p leased abo ut being bea t like that, but I guess we 'll go back to the drawing board and see if we can do something for the next race." Picotte's race was a little more dramatic. After starti ng slow ly, Picotte got going quickly: he was 10th af ter two laps, eigh th after three, sixth after four , fifth after six, -and fin all y fourth after seven laps. He would stay there, running comfortably in front of what would tu rn out to be the only .rea l race on the track in what wa s otherwise a ra ther dull parade. The first drama w as in the race for fifth between Barnes and Wilson - but even that only lasted a few lap s before Wils on finally gained the upper hand . Behind them, the race for seventh went to the line with Miyagi under constant pressure from Turkington, Randolph, Bo w m a n a nd Mori. Despite h is best effo rt in the run to the che ckered flag, Tu rkington came u p just short and Miyagi earned seventh pi ceo l~ Laguna Seca Raceway Monterey, California Results : April 30, 1995 600cc SUPERSPORT ANAL: 1. Mike Hale (Ho n ); 2. Migue~ DuHamel (Hon); 3. Steve Crevier (Kaw); 4. Pa:sca1 Picotte (Ka w ); 5 . Thoma s Wilson (Ka w ): 6. Michael Barnes (Ho n); 7. Hikaru Miyagi (Hon); 8. Britt Turkington (Kaw ); 9. [ames Randolph (Kaw); 10. Jamie Bowman (Hon); 11. Takahito Morl (Hon) ; 12. Rick Kirk (Hon) ; 13. Tripp Nobles (Kaw); 14. Dale Kieffer (Hon); 15. Larry Pegram (Hon); 16. Dave Estok (Kaw); 17. J. Andrew Milt<:,n (Han); 18. Ge rald Roth ma n Jr. (Ho n); 19. Owen Welchel (Kaw); 20. Bria n Parri ott (H on); 21 Mike Murphy (Kaw); 22. Thomas Montano (Hon): 23' Aki h.aru Shigcno (Han); 24. Marc Fost er (Kaw ); 25 : Darni cn Weber (Yam); 26. Rad Greaves (Hon); 27. Gene Buo no mo (Kaw); 28. Chris topher Tay lor (Hon): 29. Rich Thorw aldson (Ho n); 30. Kevin Ca rlin (Ho n); 31. Chris Weir (Ho n); 32. De metri Snow (Ho n); 33. Jim Morgan (Hon); 34. Russell Stopper (Ho n ); 35. Michael Tayl or (Kaw~ 36. Scott Stafford (Ho n). Time: 34 min., 30.226 sec. Di stance: 22 laps, 48.4 miles. Average Speed; 84.700 m ph . Mugin of Victory: 5.636 St"C. AMA 600ce S U PERS P O RT C'SHIP POINT ST AND IN G S (After 3 of 10 round s) : 1. Mi ke Hale ( 1 00 / ~ win. ~); 2. Migu el DuHamel (97 / 1 wi n); 3. Ste ve C re":ler (90) ; .4. Jam i.e 8 <;>wm an (70); 5 . (TIE) Britt Tur kin gtcn / Hika ru Miyegi (68); 7. Michael Barnes (67)' 8. Thomas Wilson (1)5); 9. Rick Kirk (53); 10. (TIE) Tod d H ar rin gt on /Takah it o Mori (4 2); 12. (T IE) Bria n Parriott IJa mes Randolph (41); 14. Gera ld Rothm an Jr. (34); 15. mE) Dave Estok /Shane Turpin /Dave Kieffer (33). Upcoming rounds: Round4 - Lexington, Ohio, June 4 Round5 - Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin, June 11 AMA 250 Grand P Series rix By Henny Ray Abrams . MONTEREY, CA. APR. 30 eam Oliv er Yamaha's Rich Oliver ha s made it customary in recent years for the 250cc GP race to be a runa--:ay. But on a soggy day at Laguna Seca, Instead of Oliver winning, it wa s ~oto Liberty's Takahito Mori taking his first-ever 250cc GP win in very convincing form . Mori was masterful in the we t, winning the faster of the two five-lap heat rac es th e da y before Sund a y's final. When the green flag fell for the final, Mori, who'd ch osen Bridgestone 'ra tn tires front and rear, left the field behind . lapping one or two seconds a lap faster than anyone els e. Zero Gravity's N ick