Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

.ROAD RA·CE.· .. AMA tiP4 600cc Supersport senes Round 8: Laguna Seca Raceway slower. And that's when I said, 'that seemed to be like a fairly good setup for me to pass him' and I could not wait too long because I knew that here it's very hard to pass lapped riders and from my last experience. So this time I said, 'I'm going to take the lead and see what Mike can do.' " Once DuHamel was by, Hale stuck close for a few laps, then got held up in traffic. "I knew Miguel was right there and I knew that lappers playa part. Last time he got by me going down the front straightaway, but there was nothing I could do about that. I was doing everything I could to get the best drive I could out of 11," Hale said. DuHamel was able to pull out a twosecond gap with five laps to go and he added to it each lap to the end, avenging his loss from early in the year. "In that race I was observing him and later it hit me: You didn't win and he did," DuHamel said. The Honda battle drew quickly away from another internecine battle, the Muzzy Kawasaki team of Steve Crevier and Pascal Picotte. Picotte got the better start, Crevier getting left OR the line when he misread the starter. 'They just threw the flag too quick," Crevier said. "After that, there was a whole bunch of work." By Helmy Ray Abrams MONTEREY, CA, JULY 22 etting beaten this past spring in the HP4 600cc Supersport race atLaguna Seca Raceway by Smokin' Joe's Racing teammate Mike Hale was the best thing to happen to Miguel DuHamel this year. Losing to the Texan in the third race of the year motivated the French Canadian and sent him on a record winning streak. Since then, DuHamel's been on a tear, racking up a perfect record of eight wins; four consecutive weekends of winning both the HP4 600cc Supersport and AMA Superbike classes. At Laguna Seca, DuHamel kept the streak intact. "Him beating me definitely lit a fire underneath me and I haven't been off the podium since," DuHamel said after winning the 600cc Supersport race run on a bright and sunny day, the day before the Superbike World Championship. After following Hale for half the 22lap race, DuHamel drove past entering turn two and immediately began to edge away. Both he and Hale were in lap-record territory and there wasn't much between them. "From what I could tell, he was goirig to follow me and the only· thing that was going to separate us was his making a mistake or me making a mistake, or getting a lapped rider in the wrong spot," DuHamel said, and that's exactly what happened. Any chance Hale had to answer back was rebuffed by a number of backmarkers who played a significant role in determining spots far down the field. "I was content to follow him and study him for a while," Hale said. "And we caught lappers and I just caught them at inopportune times and he got away. I don't think our times varied much. That's just racing. I'm second today." Third place was as hotly contested as first, the Muzzy Kawasaki team of Pas- l (Above) Mike Hale (23) and Miguel DuHamel (117) led the way Into the first corner and they led every lap alter that. (Right) Eventually It was DuHamel beating his younger teammate for the victory. cal Picotte and pole-sitter Steve Crevier having at it, Crevier trying to make up for a bad start and Picotte holding him off. The nod went to Picotte at the end, the French Canadian earning his first 600cc Supersport podium of the year, just in front of his teammate after taking a better line around a lapped rider at the very end of the race. Kinko's Kawasaki's Thomas Wilson finished fifth after passing Moto Liberty Honda's Jamie Bowman three laps from the end. Wilson said he didn't feel comfortable on his ZX-6 until the second half of the race. Bowman had run as high as fourth early in the race. Erion Racing's Michael Barnes was a mostly lonely seventh with Hyd-Mech Saws' Kawasaki-mounted Owen Weichel pulling away from Hikaru Miyagi for eighth, Veteran 250cc GP rider Mike Sullivan was 10th on The Brothers Honda-Yamaha Honda CBR600. In winning his fifth race in a row, and sixth of the year, DuHamel averaged 84.995 mph and completed the 22lap, 48.4-mile race in 34 minutes, 23.055 seconds. At the end, he had a 2.732-second gap on Hale. Picotte and Crevier were about another 15 seconds behind and well in front of Bowman. With three races to run, DuHamel has a 44-point lead on Hale in the championship standings, 272-228. Bowman is third with 194. From the wave of the green flag it was a two-man race, Hale vs. DuHamel, the Honda F-3-mounted teammates making it immediately apparent that one of them was going to end up on the top of the podium. Hale was the early leader, though in name only. DuHamel was his constant shadow, waiting for the opening that would put him out front. "Mikey was really riding really well and he was going into the corners really hard and I could tell that we were both riding very hard, and I think it would have been too risky to wait to the last lap to make a pass," DuHamel said. After stalking him for half the race, DuHamel made his move going down into turn two, but the pass was set up late on the previous lap. "I could tell through (turn) 11 I was able to get a better drive than he was sometimes, with the help of the draft, too. Just a little bit counts a lot going up the hill," DuHamel said. "And I believe that the lap that I did pass him I showed him a wheel somewhere, on the inside. He took a little bit tighter line through there and that made it worse for him, he was driving through there a little bit Crevier finished the first lap in ninth, Picotte in third, with Moto Liberty's Jamie Bowman an early fourth. Picking his way through traffic, Crevier was in fifth by the sixth lap and up on Bowman at the halfway mark. A lap later he was into fourth and he and Picotte set off from Bowman. On the 16th lap Crevier was out front, grabbing the lead in the Corkscrew, Picotte taking it back on the 19th, never to be headed. On the last lap the pair came up on a lapped rider in the middle of the track. Picotte had the better line, going wide to get around him while Crevier got pinched on the inside. 'That rider really scared me, I lost all my drive out of the corner, my top speed:' Picotte said. '1 was going to go wide and slingshot by at the start-finish line, but I did my move at probably the right time and he was stuck behind."

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