Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

ROAD RACE AMA Superbike National Championship R n ou d3:Lagun ecaR aS aceway Seca, a race track located only miles from where Chand ler was born , raised and currently resides. His victory also snapped Ducati's four-race win strea k in AMA Superbike 1 ationals at Laguna , while giving Kawasaki its first AMA Superbike win since the 1995 Day tona 200. Some 24 seconds behind Chandler at the finish was his former Cagiva 500ccGP teammate, Australian Mat Mladin - the Yos himura Suzuki rider having p ut together a stunning ride afte r finis hing the first lap well back in ninth place. Third place went to ano ther Suzuki , this one in the capable hand s of Pascal Picotte, the factory pairin g giving the promising new Suzuki GSXR750 its best weekend of the young supe rbike season. Vance & Hi nes Yamaha's Tom Kipp finished fou rth, only frac tio ns behind Picotte, but well clear of fifth-place finisher Mike Smith, des pite suffering from a d is tirict lack of horsepo wer from his YZF750. DuHamel's teammate, Steve Crev ier, ended his day in sixth after a hard ride to make up for an early off-track excursion. Crevier caug ht and passed Vance & Hines' Jamie James and Fast By Ferracci Ducati's Shawn Hig bee late in the race after earlier disposing of the two factory Harley-Davidsons, ridden to ninth and 10th by Thomas Wilson and Chris Carr, respectively. (l eft) Doug Chan dler (10) and Miguel DuHamel (1) were th is close for the majo rity of th e Superbike Natio nal at laguna Seca; Chandler won with DuHamel crashing out late In t he race. (Below) Aussie Mat Mladln fi nished third. By Paul Carruthers Photos by Henny Ray Abrams MONTEREY, CA, APR. 28 he entire 1996 AMA Superbike National Ch ampionship changed dram atically in a matter of just a few second s as Migu el DuHamel was violently tossed from the sad dl e of his Honda RC45 with onl y two laps remaining in the Rotten Robbie-spo nsored Superbike ational at Laguna Seca Raceway. Exit DuHamel, enter Doug Chand ler. Chandler and his Muzzy Ka wasaki had led the majority of the 28-lap race, with Du Ha mel always nip ping at his heel, the two apparently headed to an exciting finale. Toward the end of the race, though, Dul-lamel had managed to make a slight break, seemingly marching toward a third successive victory as his rival slowed slightly with fading brakes. Cha nd ler was persistent, how ever, nar rowing the gap back to just under two seconds with the race coming to a close, his brake dilemma suddenly rectified. Then carne lap 26. It was then that DuHamel was highside d from his Smokin' Joe's Honda on the exit of turn two , the bike launching itsel f into the air before spinning to its final res ting place a nd catching fi re . DuHamel could do nothing but slide to a \0 s top as Chand ler a nd the res t of the 0\ supe rbike pack screamed past - not only ~ victory but the champio nship points lead suddenly gone in a flurry of high drama. " It went from condition green to defcon fiv e in a second ," Du Ham el said later. "It was like the bike was possessed . It self-destructed. [ would have ridd en it around on fire, but the tire was off the rim." Although the cause of the crash may nev er be kn own , DuHam el a nd th e Honda crew believe it was brought on by .a mechanical failure. As the likable little French Canadian described his crash to reporters in the back of the Smokin' Joe's semi, a Japan ese engineer studied a broken rear d isc rotor and a partially smashed rear w heel. "We' re pretty sure it' s a mechanical failure of some kind ," said DuHamel's mechanic, Al Ludi ngton. "Tha t' s not a Miguel mistake." When the du st had settled, Chand ler had wo n the seven th AMA Superbike Na tional of his career and his first since August of 1990 - in fact, it was the first win of any kind for the Californian in nearly six years, four of which were spent in 500cc Grand Prix racing. Surprisingly, it was also Chandler's first win at Laguna Fast By Ferracci's Larry Pegram , the second- p lace fin isher in las t week ' s Pomona Na tional, ended up a lowly 27th a fte r pittin g twice to fix a loose rear wheel. Pegram was running in the group fighting over fourth when his Ducati's rear hub failed him. Chandler's good fortune leaves him w ith a 12-point lead over Picotte, 92-80, with th e Suz uki rider barely leading a tightly knit group of four - consisting of Mlad in (78), Kipp (76), Crevier (73) and DuHamel (70). Mo re importantly fo r Ch andler, he leads series favorite DuHamel by 22 points. "He's going to be my toughest rival," DuH amel said of Cha ndler, the new championship points leader. "He's made for the AMA po ints system; he' s consistent and he doesn't make mistakes. But I' ve got so me money on th ose Suz u ki guys and the others; ['II need some other people to finish up there. But, hey, I' m better off than I was last yea r a t this time." In stark contrast to last year's fog- and rain-delayed Rotten Robbie Superbike race, this year's race started under brilliant sunshine and warm tempe ratu res on the Monterey Peninsula. It also started with Cha ndler grabbing the lead on the run up the hill through turn one, leading his teamm ate Smith and Yamaha's Kipp into tum two for the first time. DuHa mel, meanwhile, was fourth, but that quickly beca me th ird when he dived up the inside of Kipp in tum four. Still not satisfied, DuHamel flew by Smith head ing up the hill to ward La gu na Seca's famed Corkscrew. At the end of the first of 28 laps, the orde r read : Chandler, DuHam el, Smith, Kip p, Pegram , Cr evier, James, Picotte, Mladin, Higbee and Carr. By the completion of th e fift h la p, the Chand ler/ DuHamel scrap had managed to pull 1.5 seconds on the purs uing pack, with Smi th a lso putting a little space between himself an d the d ice for fourth between Kipp and Pegra m. By this poin t, Crevier had already had his moment and was well out of the top 10. "I got a good start with the lead pack," Crevier explained later. "Over turn one I had th e throttl e o n hard a nd when I rolled it off and tou ched the bra ke the back carne up violently. I got into a tankslapper and I had to let off and run off up the access road . It went pretty good after that. [ handled traffic as aggressively and violently as possible and I got through it real quick." While the action was heated behi nd them, all eyes were fixed on the battle at the front: Chandler vs. DuHa mel. On the eighth lap DuHamel took the lead for the first time, going by up the inside on the entra nce to the Corkscrew. He led for a la p, bu t s u r p risi ng ly, Chand ler came righ t ba ck, m ovin g inside th e Ho nda under braking for tum 11. "I sat behind him for the lap and a half," Chand ler said later. "Bu t he was pa rki ng it in all the corners. I thought, 'No, I want to keep the push on.' I didn't want him up there trying to slow it down and cool his tires . So I went back und er him in 11." The pair continued to circulate together, a stark contrast betw een the parabolic lines used by Chandler and the pointand-shoot method used bv DuHamel. Chandle r continued to set the pace, bu t DuHamel sneaked under him on the 17th lap in tu m 11, only to lose the lead seconds later on the d rive up the hill. On the 20th lap, DuHamel tried again, this time managing to keep Chandler behind him on the exit of turn 11. DuHamel had his head down and he quickly opened a slight gap over Chandler, who was having a few problems of his own. "Pretty much I felt like I raced with him for the whole race distance, but when he got away from me I had a little bit of brake problems," Cha ndler explained. '1 kind of overshot the chicane (Corkscrew); I had a lot of lever travel and I had to back it off to save what I had. Then it started to come good and I s ta rted to charge again." The charge carne with just a few laps left, at a time w he n all drama seemed gone in the race for the lead . But just as suddenly, every thing changed in a puff of dirt as DuHamel spun the Honda out on the exit of turn two, continuing a long history of bad Du H a m el famil y luck at Laguna Seca. "It was one of those things - it was pretty mu ch handed to me, " Chandler

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