Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

,Round 1: Daytona 200 by Arai (Left) Doug Chandler (10) rode a heady race to finis h fifth: topping Steve Crevier (1 4) and Tom Kipp (16); Crevier and Kipp finis hed sixth and eight, res pectively. (Below) Troy Corser (3) leads Miguel DuHamel. Corse r was the fas test rider on the day, but his Ducatl failed to go the distance. \0 0\ ~ one of th em. Th e Te xan ca me in ju s t prior to the caution period and he was able to rejoi n the race in sixth p lace . Yates also used the caution period to pit, ge tting fuel and two new tires - but it would end up costing him dearly. More on th at later. It was also on th e 30th lap that th e pole sitter's d ay would end, as Corser' s Ducati fina lly overheated to the point of termination. · . "The temperatu re was going u p and it was getting hot," Corser explained. "I broug ht it in bu t they (the crew) said to kee p goi ng. It just kept gettin g hotter and hotter and it finally stopped." Suddenly, Pegram had the only factory Ducati which was still running. With th e p ack circulating slo w ly behind the pace car, the ru nning orde r read : Russell, DuHamel, Picotte, Yates, Edward s, Chandl er , Crevi er, Kipp, Pegram, Carr and Wilson . Wh en th e hammer was d ropped it was DuHamel taking over from Russell at the front - with Picotte, Edw ards and Yates coming with him. Edward s wo uld lead the pack for the first time since lap ei gh t w he n th e p a ck ro a re d across s ta rtfi nish . Ru ssell, m eanwhile, w as slowing, now acu tely aw are of a problem with his rear tire. "1 picked up a puncture, right behind th e pace car;" Russell said .later . "That ruined it for me, 1 think. After that 1 was ju st luc ky to be back u p there in it. 1 mean they were gone . 1 thought, 'This isn ' t going to work out: We had to pit, and then 1 thought maybe we' d have to stop again for a little bit more gas. That was m y race, it was over. But we jus t kep t p lugg rng away out th er e, and when everybo dy started making th eir pit stops we came back." It was a stop th at proved pivotal in th e race, for Russell was now playing catch-up, rejoining the fray ou tsi de of the top 1Q. On the 39th lap, Picotte pitted, taking on two tires and fuel in a long stop as the crew had problems with a sticking rear axle; Chandler also pitted, his stop much more uneventful. Edwards continued to lead, wi th Yates and DuHamel tucked in behind as Russell forged his way forward - seventh on the 40th lap, sixth on lap 41, etc. On the 42nd Iap, DuHamel pitted for the final time, re-entering the track just ahead of Ru ssell in fifth pl ace. A nd those two would fly in forma tion until the bitter end . On the 43rd lap, rookie Yates would lead the Dayton a 200 for th e very first time, th e yo u ngs te r showing all the savvy and b ra vad o of a mu ch mo re expe rienced rid er . That would last for four laps, but tw o of those wo uld be painful. Appar entl y, Yates had pa ssed rid er s during the cau tio n period, a nd the AMA was about to punish him. For two lap s he was sho w n the "meatball" . flag, and he would have to take to pit road for a stop-and-go penalty. On the 47th lap , both Edwards an d Yates pit ted . It would be Edward s' fin al sto p . Not so for Yates. The stop for two tires and fuel didn 't count toward his penalty, and the Georgian would have to stop again on th e 50th lap . The second one was costly and it knocked him down to an eventua l seventh-place finish. "1 gues s 1 passed a couple 'of peopl e under th e pace car," Yates sai d. "We chan ged tires (during the cau tion period ) and when 1 went out 1 didn't know wh ere 1. was su ppose d to go. One of my guys in the signal area was waving me on. Then I thou ght 1 could take my pit stop and meatball at the same time, bu t they (AMA officials) waved me off -1 guess th at wasn't what they wanted. 1 was pretty aggravated, bu t I ran with 'em - 1was right there." By the 47th lap, the race for the 55th Daytona 200 by Arai was for all intents and p urposes d ow n to th ree ri ders Russell, DuH amel and Picotte. Edwards was fourth, bu t he was too far behind to pose a serio us threat. A lap later a nd Pi co tte' s chances were also lost. He'd screwed up the chicane, losing the d raft of the lead twosome, and now he had to be concerned with holding off a hard-charging, "balls to the walls" Edwards. Picotte wo uld lose third place on the final run around the tri-oval , with Edwards drafting past at the line to claim the final rostrum spot. "1 could have be en third , easy," Picotte said. "1 got screwed up on pit signals - comple tely. Five laps from the end, 1 had a two -second lead . The rear tire was gone. 1 screw ed up the middle of.the chicane an d he d rafted and blew by me at the sta rt I finish line. 1 was really confused with my pit signals:' So now th ere were tw o: three-lime winner Russell an d one- time wi n ne r D u H a m e l. Ru sse ll led the p airing through the 50th lap, bu t DuHamel ha d come to the conclus io n th at winning . from behind wasn't going to be possible. He had to lead , and he did just that, taking over on the 51s t lap as th e p air scorched their way toward the end. "A couple of things came to me as I was behind Scott;" Du Ham el explained later. "I was trying to size him up for a d r aft p ass a t th e finis h line bec ause everybody wa nts to d o tha t. 1 kn ew Scott was expecting it and 1 w as ju st measu rin g it up - bu t d arn if 1 d idn' t have the wrong tap e measure. I couldn' t get it right. So 1 said, '1 guess I'd better lead th is thing.' Mayb e 1 co uld h ave pulled it off (a draft pass), but it wo uld have been so close I d idn't want to do it. 1 fig ured I' d better ge t in front an d 1 think that's w ha t Scott wanted so it was n't very hard to do . When 1 saw lap eight I was thinking, '1 can' t believe it the200·and there's only eigh t lap s left. Boy, I'd better do somethi ng he re: 1 thought my chances were 50 percent if 1 was leading . If I wasn't leading I thought those chances were down to 45 percent, 40 percent:' Still, DuHamel was worried. Leading out of the chicane at Daytona is a risky thi ng: "We'd (DuHamel and his crew) been watching all these other races and everybody wh o was lead ing ou t of the chicane got d rafted and passed at th e finish line. The only thin g I was thinking was th at if 1 lead this th ing ou t of th e chican e and I lose, 1 better just keep on dri ving to California and not even come in the pits: ' Russell had other con cerns. Namely the bothersome thought of running out of fuel. "When there were like eigh t laps left, 1 didn' t car e if th ey told me to stop . 1 th ought, '1 ain't stoppi ng, I'll run thi s thin g right ou t of gas. Th ere's no wa y I'm stopping :" . DuHam el took th e ris k, d eciding to lead out of the chicane. It came down to a w ild fin al ru n to th e tri -oval, w it h DuHamel leading and taking the draft up the wall in a final effort to weave free of the pursuing Ru ssell. Th e m ove cause d both ri ders to sli de th eir rear tir es near th e wal l at ISO-plus mph, a high-speed two-step tha t caused both to ba ck off the thr ottl e - DuHamel apparently less than Russell. "1 came out real good, strong, no t as strong as I'd like to of course, but stro ng enough that I had a decent drive out of it;" DuHamel ex p la ined . "1 wen t up high and then 1 came d own low . Then 1 thought, 'Okay, I've got to do something else: So 1 went back up high . It's kind of hard to move on the bankin g, up and d ow n lik e th at , w it h all the g-forces . Whe n 1 went back u p 1 had to bring it back becau se the wa ll was coming pretty close to me. When 1 pulled it in, the rear end broke around, sliding comi ng o ff the b an kin g; a n d I mu st h a ve blipped the throttle - maybe 9S percent. The n it was, 'Get back on it or you're going to lose the Daytona 200: Then the straig ht looked like it was 50 miles long to th e finish line. Twen ty feet before the line 1 felt him, bu t I knew it was too late. As soon as I crossed the line 1 coul d see Scott ou t of the side of my eye, right by my knee puc k:' . At the flag it was ever so close, but Du H amel emerged vic to rious, ta king h is se cond Day ton a 200 victo ry by a scan t 0.010 second. " It was a good race, the whole race;" Russell said. "At the beginning of the race it was kind of hectic. I just kin d of laid back and let Colin (Edwards) and Mike (Hale) and Anthony (Gobe rt) and

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