,- .ROAD RACE.
. AlIA Superblke NatIonal ChaIIIpionship .
DuHamel into
turn one and up
the hill towards
turn two. Hale wasted little time in
inoving to the front, disposing of Picotte
on the brakes into the tight right-hander
that leads to perhaps the most daunting
piece of race track on the AMA schedule
- the run through the esses and into the
tunnellike turn 10. So at the completion
of the first lap it was Hale, Picotte,
Crevier, DuHamel, Smith and Merkel in
the lead group, then a gap back to Fast
By Ferracci's Takahiro Sohwa, Quarterley, Freddie Spencer and Rayborn.
Spencer's race would end shortly thereafter.
"It made a big bang on the first lap
going up the hill," Spencer said later.
'Td never heard that before. 1 was looking back to see if I was smoking. It just
slowed way down and wouldn't run."
Sohwa's Ducati would also stop running for good on the ninth lap.
By the end of the third lap it was evident that Hale was trying to make a
break for it. He led by a full second,
with DuHamel moving into third past
Crevier. Then came Smith, who also
moved past Crevier in his haste to get
to the front. DuHamel then moved
around Picotte and into second, with
Smith following suit a lap later. Suddenly, the Kawasakis dropped out of
the hunt, with Hale, DuHamel and
Smith pulling clear at the front. Crevier
would finally inch around his teammate
Picotte, but he'd lost touch with the
lead threesome. He would end up a
lonely third.
"I got a really good start, but I started
wheelying jnto Pascal (Picotte) and he
.
.
Briefly.. ~ ~".
Round 9: Sears Point Raceway
was wheelieing into me, but I was third
or fourth into the first turn and that was
one of my better starts of the season,"
Crevier explained later. '1t just took me
a while to pass my teammate and I may
have been too cautious with him. Anyway, Miguel (DuHamel) snatched me
up while I was following him and Smith
snatched me up while 1 was following
him. It just pushed me back. I don't
think 1 could have stayed with those
guys because they were running a
tremendous race, but 1was pretty happy
Superbike r~und' at Laguna Seca, but 'the
injury got wome instead of better and rt kept
him from· racing in St. ·Louis. "Ttger" was a
non-finisher iu the Superbike. ~ation81 at
Sel!m Point..·
.
.
Vance & Hines Yaniaha's Jemie Ja.m8S was.
a. nO-show at Seam Point with·thll LoLiisiariian .
sitting Quf the race "following his crash' a1 the. Oo:'e of the big questions in I!MA racing is.
Ga~ew8Y Intemationar Raceway round, two
where MI~e "Hale wl~I'.be· racIIlg .next .year.
weekS ago. James didn't sUffer any broken. The y~u"g Te~att os hqt pr.oper:ty, '!'(Ith
bones in the Gateway crash' but he is still too . Smokin' Jqe's defonitely kee!l to keep Hal~
bal!1y brlJised to ri!le. He is~xpect9d.to reI\,Iin. 'fro"rgQing ~1se.whEi~. "TI)ere, are'a lot.oI.~is
for the final round of the series at Firebird cusslons .gomg on nght now, Hale said. Irs
Raceway on'September 23-24. .
hard to say. when we'lIll 600cc Supersport
round of the series in 'Chandler, Arizona; are practice session,. Mi~on c~ashad in ·tum 10,
strong. "The adVance sales fot Firabird have sUllering serious head injuries. He was still
. been gGlod,". Mueller said ·aCSears PQint. '. unconS!;ious as o~ Sundey eYening.
.
. :'We've used some 'spots (commercials) on
.
"." .
.
.
Dal. aUlirteriey ·cras.hed .his Team Mirage'
.TNl-J arid we've had good·.'esP,Ons...."·
Ducati dUling qualifying .On Saturday, and lost
Fast By· F'erracci's. Takahlro SQhwa' was' valUable time as he missed·the lest of the ses· .
back" in action' alter miSsing the Gateway sion. "That kmed me," Quartertey said. "I had
Il)ternational' Race~ay .~ClUnc! of t.he s.eries four laps ttiis moming" (Sunday) aM we're'
d" red the stuck in thef ~ p8ce." 'Quartertey ended up
d
ith r
w a b oken hlin. Sohwa' ha InJU
finlsh;nn seventh ~ the Supe''rbike National.
hand in'a olini-bik~ ~h prior to the World
. ......
.'
_
10
(Right) Miguel DuHamel celebrlltes
on the footpeg8 of his Honde
RC45. (Below) Steve Crevier (14)
moved by his teammate Pascel
Picotte (21) to finish an eventulll
third. Picotte was fourth after
edgIng Fred Merkel.
with my setup. I'm coming to grips with
the ZX7 and it shows by how we're
doing at the end of the season. I just
wish we'd started out better."
On the fifth lap, Smith passed
DuHamel to take over second and a lap
later he did the same to Hale, with this
pass coming on the. brakes in turn 11.·
Then Smith started to pull away momentarily. DuHamel wasn't going to
make it easy for the Georgian and he
disposed of Hale to give chase to the red
Ducati.
After 10 laps the order read: Smith,
DuHamel, Hale, Crevier, Merkel,
Picotte, Rayborn, Quarterley, HarleyDavidson's Chris Carr, Yates and Kippup to 11 th and moving in on the groups
ahead of him. Carr was impressive, having easily his best outing in his first season of road racing. Sadly, it would come
to a premature end when the VRlOOO
broke a cam chain, knocking Carr out of
a solid eighth place.
'1 thought I bad an exhaust leak," a
disappointed Carr said. "With six laps
to go it started to slow. With two laps to
go, it just quit. I felt really good out
there. 1 felt like a road racer, like I was
finally becoming part of the gang. I
qualified with them, and I raced with
them. 1 proved 1 was going to finish up
there."
DuHamel took over at the front by
the end of the 10th lap and he was
never headed again - but at times it was
very close. On the 17th lap, DuHamel
got word that Hale was out of the race.
Suddenly, Smith was right with him
again.
"Miguel (DuHamel) pulled out a little bit in the middle when he saw I was
there," Smith said later. "I could tell he
got on the gas and I thought, 'Well, we'll
see what you can do.' And he went for
it. 1 just kind of bided my time. He got
into a little lapped traffic and I got to
going smooth. I caught back up and was
ready for the end of the race. I thought,
'I'm gonna win this thing.' 1 really
thought like I had him in the last corner
down here. The Ducati was braking
really good. I knew what it was going to
take and it was going to be a pushing
match. I was getting all prepared for
that, and here come a couple of lapped
riders and he just went right through
them. That was pretty much the story.
He rode a really good race.'"
By the 23rd of 25 laps, DuHamel was
clear. Victory was his, as was, it appears,
the championship.
"My crew showed me '23 (Hale) in'
and then '23 out,'" DuHamel explained
later. "When I saw that, I started thinking about a lot of things. 1 started getting reaJ.!.y worried about my tires - 1
could see that I was sliding really bad. I
was thinking, 'Maybe Mikey (Hale)
came in because he chunked a tire.'
Because he was riding pretty hard in
the beginning. 1 thought, 'Whoa, I'm
sliding around, maybe 1 should take it
easy, bring it in and not be stupid. But 1
felt like being stupid. I just tried to go
as fast as I could, as smooth as I could. 1
was trying not to spin too much, shortshifting, making sure I got traction and
not having any stupid slides. Mike
(Smith) came right up on me, but you
can't sneak up on somebody with a
Ducati. I heard him before I saw the
board and' thought, 'Here's Mikey
(Smith).' "
"We've got to do something to get
that thing quieter," Smith said.
"1 had to be on my toes because 1
knew this was a golden opportunity
and he was going to go for it,"
DuHamel added. '1 was really debating
seriously what I should do. It was really
confusing. I wanted to go for the win,
but I didn't want to crash or chunk a
tire - next thing you know I could not
only lose six wins in a row, but the
championship. So 1 was really concerned, but 1 had faith in Dunlop and in
mycrew.
1f
Behind the lonely Crevier, the dice
for fourth place heated up late in the
race, despite Picotte's race-long woes.
"I picked the wrong tire - big time,"
Picotte said. "From the second lap it was
handling so bad it was unbelievable. I
think it was too soft. It was wobbling
like hell and 1 was fighting just to stay
on the seat. Then I hit a false neutral
three times in a row going into turn
three - I thought I was going to die. 1
thought the chain was loose because it
felt like it was jumping, but I guess it
must be something in the transmission. 1
