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/127734
Round 6: New Hampshire International Speedway (Left) For a W hile, Larry Pegram (6) managed to hold off M iguel DuHamel (117) in the 600cc Supersport race ; DuHamel ended up winning with Pegram third. (Above) !:tich Oliver eas ilywon his 20th career 25Dcc GP race, tying Jimmy Filice for the all-time record. (Below) Rich Oliver(1) leads his teammate Chuck Sorensen (2)and Nicklenatsch (3) into turn three for the first time in the 250cc Grand Prix final. By Paul Carruthers Photo by George Roberts LOUDON, NH, JUNE 18 m o kin ' Joe's Ho nda's Migu el Du Ham el could have easily been excused for taking it easy in this one. After all, his teamma te and chief rival, Mike Hale, was on the sidelines after injuring himself in a practice crash; and the championship for all practical purposes was DuHamel's for the taking - win or n ot. But DuHamel doesn't much care for anything other than win- S 10 ning . And win is exactly what he did at New Hampshire International Speedway . The leader on the all-time win list in the class won the 19th AMA 600cc Supersport race of his career in the redflag-interrupted race, held on a sizzling hot day in New England. Early on , DuHamel seemed content to sit and watch, and he was second to Kinko's Kawasaki 's Thomas Wilson when the red flag came out after nine laps . On the restart he again kept wa tch from behind, this time keeping his eye on race leader Larry Pegram. By the 15th lap of the res tart, though, DuHamel had grown tired of watching and he moved into the lead for the first time, pulling away to beat runner-up Wilson by 2.756 seconds. Third place went to Erion Racing's pegram, who like Wilson had his best outing of the season at New Hampshire International Speedway. Pegram led for th ose 15 laps in the second half of the race and at one point ope ned up a gap over DuHamel and Wils on . Thatlead evaporated quickly when he misjudged his pa ssing attempt on a lapped rider, and was forced wide in turn three, allowing the other two to jet by on the inside. . Canadian Don Munroe finished fou rth on the Canadia n Kawasaki Motors ZX6, easily beating fifth-place finisher Gerald Rothman Jr. on his selffunded Honda CBR600F3. Rothman was fortunate to be in the race at all after crashing in t he oil in turn 12 that ' brought out the r ed flag . With his CBR600 badly damaged, Rothman was assisted by crew members from a variety of teams, including Superbike racer Dale Quarterley. The repairs were made while the oil was cleaned up from the racing line and Rothman was able to co n ti n u e. He continued to circulate while others around him crashed out, and he was rewarded with a fifth-place finish. With Hale out, DuHamel's victory gives him a commanding 38-point lead in a championship that only last week featured a three-point gap between the pair. Hale holds on to second place with 164 points with Jamie Bowman, eighth today, climbing to third in the standings with 145 points. Wilson put the Kinko's Kawasaki into the lead straight off the start with local hero Eric Wood tucked in behind him. A stream of 600s followed : DuHamel, Rothman [r., Russell Katzenberger, Muzzy Kawasaki's Steve Crevier, Pegram, Bowman and Pascal Picotte. The order at the front stayed the same', with Wilson, Wood, DuHamel, Katzenberger and Crevier pulling away a litt le bit from the pack behind them by the sixth lap . A lap later and Picotte was way back, losing 10 places as he ran straight in turn th ree and had to stop, turn around and go again. As has been the case with every other 600cc Supersport final this year, the race was stopped, this time with nine lap s in the books. Oil in turn 12 was the culprit. The typical tire change melee followed on pit lane, with Rothman's crew the busiest of them all as they hastily made repairs to the crash-damaged bike. The u nlu cki es t man in all of this turned out to be birthday boy Crevier. When it was time to re-grid, Crevier's Kawasaki refused to fire to life. Despite quick work by the crew, Crevier missed the start of the race with what was diagnosed as vapor lock in the ZX6. The rest of the pack, meanwhile, . blasted off the start line with Pegram passing DuHamel on the outside to lead the way on the black and orange Erion Racing Honda. DuHamel was giving chase, follow ed by Action Speed's Hikaru Miyagi and Wilson . By t he seventh lap , Pegram had opened a gap between hi mself and Dul-lamel, who in turn had his hands full with Wilson. Wood was a distant fourt h, followed by Miyagi - who would con tinue to fad e after hitting his rear brake lever on a curb and damaging it Bowman, Ka tzenberger, Munroe and James Rando lph . Pegram led DuHamel by tw o second s after 10 laps, but su d d enly th e French Canadian started to close in on the Baltimore, Ohio, resident. On the 16th lap, things changed at th e fro n t when Pegram tried to pass a lapped rider on the brakes for turn three. He carried too much speed into the tight right-hander, and was forced to pick the bik e up and run wide. Both DuHamel and Wilson went by on the inside. "I was just trying to bide my time," Pegram said. "I saw DuHamel's board and knew he was coming. lguess I just s tuck my nose in where I shouldn't have. It upset me a little bit and they pulled a few bike le ngths. I lost my rythm and lost my drive. I just decided to take third and that's what I did." DuHamel also managed to pu ll clear from Wilson to eventually win by almost three seconds. "I think th e red flag helped everybody," DuHamel said. "It was a long race, a bumpy race, a traffic race. I changed both tires and the break from the heat was good. I'm really happy and very pleased . It's very unfortunate, especially for my teammate Mike Hale. He would have been up there, but I think he's doing the wise thing by concentrating on Superbike." With Wilson a lonely second, things changed quickly behind him when Katzenberger and Wood had last-lap cra shes. Munroe was there to pick up the pieces and collect fourth place with Rothman cruising in for fifth. Bowman had faded to eighth after running at the front, getting passed by Owen Weichel and Martin Gaudreau lt. "They started out real good on the resta rt," Wilson said. "I was biding my time; I thought I ha d something for th em. Fortu na tely, Larry (Pegra m) got mixed up with so me lappe rs a nd that helped me and Miguel (Dulfamel)." £N