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
.R A O DRACE . '.' .;. Rou d6: N Hampshire International'Speedway n ew . AMA Superbike National Championship . ne • until he'd closed to within striking distance on the 29th of 39 laps. He took the lead for the first time with eight laps to go, and pulled away to 3.373-second victory. Impressive stuff. Second place went to Vance & Hines Yamaha's Kipp, with the Ohioan havi ng his finest ride of the year. Kipp led for nine laps, but he couldn 't man age to ma tch the pace of DuHamel in the closing stages. What he did do, however, was hold off the determined advances of one-time leader Smith and the Fast By Ferracci Ducati. Smi th hounded Kipp to the very end, bu t it was Kipp getting the ru nn er-up spot at the finish line. Birthday boy Steve Crevier rode the Muzzy Kawasaki to a fourth-place finish after batt li ng to pass Smokin' Joe 's Honda's Mike Hale . Crevier fi na lly moved aro u nd Hale with three laps to go to secure fourth. Hale's ride was heroic. The young Texan had crashed his Ho nda CBR600F3 during Friday's practice session, suffering a broken rib as well as some lung damage in the accident. A bruised and battered Hale elected to throw in the towel in the 600cc Supersport Championship in an effort to save himself for the Superbike National - and the strategy paid off in a big way. Hale ended the day in fifth place , but more importantly managed to hold on to his lead in the AMA Superbike ational Championship. After six of 10 rounds, Hale leads his piping-hot teammate DuHamel by 19 points, 174-155, a proposition that seemed highly unlikely given the pain Hale was in all weekend. Behind Hale came the two factory Yoshimura Suzukis, ridden this time by Fred Merkel (the first father to finish on Father's Day) an d Donald Jacks. After qualifying o? the front row of the grid, Thomas Stevens was forced out of the race after 19 laps when he succumbed to (Left) Miguel DuHamel became the first Canadian to win the Camel Loudon Class ic, and he did so In impressive style. (Below) Fast By Ferracclteammates Mike Smith (68)and Freddie Spencer (19) both took tums leading the Superb lke National; Smith ended up third and Spencer was eighth . By Paul Carruthers Photos by George Roberts LOUDON, NH. JUNE 18 f t he t h ree co nsecutive races squeezed into the month of June were su pposed to separate the men from the boys, th en Mi guel DuHamel has proven himself to be the very bes t of t he Superbike m en. Fo r the th ird s traight weeken d, DuHamel a n d h is Smokin ' Joe's Honda RC45 rose to the occas ion, further establishing the pairing as the class of the class . 1£ DuHamel's two previous victories at the Mid -Ohi o Sports Car Course and Road Am eri ca can be described a s impressi ve, then his latest victory in the 72nd Loud on Ca m el Cla ss ic a t N ew Hampshire International Sp eed w ay shou ld be viewed as nothing less tha n spectacular. The French Canad ian ended the first lap in ninth p lace, s tayed the re for six more laps, moved u p to eighth p lace, then to seventh, fifth, fourth an d third . Bu t he didn't sto p there. Instead , he contin ued his met hodica l ma rch to the front, eati ng away at the ga p to the two up front - Tom Kipp and Mike Smith - I I.!) 0\ 0\ ...... 6 the pain in his left shoulder - the result of a qualifying crash on Saturday. Fast By Ferracci's Freddie Spencer ended the race in eighth place, though early on he looked like a sure bet for victory. The three-time World Champion was ru nning in the top three when he pitted on the 15th lap to remove a wrist wrap tha t was cutting the circu lation off in his right hand . Spencer had us ed the wrap after his qua lifying cras h on Saturday to prevent th e injury from swelling. He rejoin ed th e race in 16th place, but eventually moved into eigh th by the finish. The facto ry Harley- Davidson VRI000s ro unded out the top 10, with former National Cha mpion Doug Chand ler leadin g his tea mmat e Chris Carr h ome as th e p air fi nishe d ninth a n d 10th, resp ectively. . Altho ugh much more at tri tion was expected, only three of the factory men failed to finish . Stevens, Muzzy Kawasaki's Pascal Picotte, who lost a cylinder on his Kawasaki, and Takahiro Sohwa, . with electrical problems on his Fast By Ferracci Ducati. One, however, didn't start. Vance & Hines Yamaha's Jamie James missed the sixth round of the series after breaking a bone in his wrist at Road America last weekend . Team Mi rage's Dale Quarterley crashed his Ducati, remounted and finished 20th. The top finishing privateer was the hard-riding Aaron Yates. The Georgian ended up 11th on his Suzuki GSXR750 to lead home a host of non-factory riders . The 39-lap National finally got under way at 5:40 p.m ., the lateness serving at least some relief to the sco rching temperatu res . The man getting the best jump at the start was Picotte, though the same couldn't be said for his teammate Crevier. "Everybody jumped; I lost my race off the start," the Canadian said. "I went to ' put my feet down and they flag dropped . I gassed it, but the fla p had opened on my boot. I reached down and put the Velcro back on - I had a bad couple of turns ." . Up front it was Picotte leading Smith, Spencer, Sohwa, Ha le, Kipp, Stev ens, Merkel, Du Hamel, and Crevier - with a gap back to Chandler and Jacks . Smith