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*. " •, RQ\D RACE . ... . Round 4:HomesteadMotorsports Complex . AMA SuperbikeNationalChampionship . By Paul Carruthers Photos by Henny Ray Abrams HOMESTEAD, FL, MAY 18 he d ifference be tween the two is ext reme . One is fiery, th e ot her mellow. One 's a talker, the other is coy. On track, one looks to be always on the ragged edge, the other deceivin gly slow. But together they seem destined to make the fight for the 1996 AMA Superbike Na tional Ch ampionsh ip a titillating one - no matter the outcome. Th e tw o in qu esti on a r e Migu el DuHamel and Doug Chandler, and their latest combat was played ou t in the first AM A Superbi ke Na tion al Ch amp io ns hi p ra ce ever h el d a t the b randspanking -new Ho mes tea d Motorsports Complex in Sou th Florida. This time the bat tle was w on b y DuHamel and h is Sm okin ' Joe' s Hond a, th e d iminutive French Can ad ian pu tting in a solid performa nce tha t push ed hi m to th e fron t from th e ge t-go and ke p t h im th er e despite la te- race p ressure from Chand ler. The war, however, is still being won by Cha nd ler and the Muzzy Kawasaki. Two weeks ago, Chandler kept the pre ssure on DuHamel througho ut at Lagu na Seca , w ith the H ond a rider crashi ng only two laps from the end of the race with a suspecte d me chanical failure. Tha t gave Ch a ndl er th e w in and put him in the catbird seat in the race for the championship . . Enter Miami. DuHamel did what he needed to do a t H om estead, sco ring m axim um po int s by earning pole posi tion, lead ing the most laps and win ning the race. Chand ler, too, d id what w as need ed . He kept the pressu re on, giving awa y five seconds to DuHamel early in the race, but pegging him back until he was on the Honda rider's rear fende r in T th e w an in g m om ents of th e contest, Chandler en ded up second, bu t he left th e H omest ead venue with 16 more points than DuHamel as the series readies itself for a three-week ru n through such places as Mid-Oh io, Road America and Loudon. Behind th e lead pair came Fas t By Ferru cci' s Lar ry Pe gr am , th e Ducati mounted rid er fightin g th rou gh from a dismal start to pass all the factory bikes with th e exce p tion of Chandl er an d DuHamel. Pegram, in fact, caught Chandler, only to lose touch again wh en the Kaw asaki rider reeled in DuHamel late in the race. Fo urt h w as left to DuH a m e l' s Smokin' Joe' s teammate Steve Crev ier. The RC45 -m ounted Can ad ian wa s another wh o started slowly bu t persisted, ta kin g o ver fo ur th fro m Mu zzy Ka wa sa ki 's Mike Sm ith at r ou ghly thr ee-quarter dis ta nce w hen Smith ran off the track in a fast right-han der. But Smith persevered, ult imately finishing a lonely fifth. The second of the two Fast By Ferracci Du ca tis fi n ished six th, r idden b y rookie Shawn Higbee. Higbee passed the fast-starti ng Mat Mladin late in the race fo r th e positio n w hen the Aus t ra lian w as slo we d with a nu mb ing righ t hand . Ear ly on , Mladin and his Yoshi m ura Suzuki had been a facto r, runnin g as high as second before front disc brakes wa rped bad enough to cause intense vibration> bad enough to induce his hand to go numb . Mladin held on to finish seventh. Then cam e th e tw o Vanc e & Hines Yarna has, t he stil l-und erp ower ed YZF750s ridden to eighth and ninth by Tom Kipp and Jamie Jam es, respectiv ely. The Yos himura Su zuki of Pascal Picotte rounded out the top 10 finishers . DuHam el's win vaulted him to sec- ond in the cha mpio nship poin t sta nd ings, tho ug h he still trails Chandler by 16 po ints, 124-108. It also ma rk ed th e 12th ' AMA Superbike win of his career, tying him for sixth on the all-time list with Scott Russell. Mlad in is third with 102 points, just a single p o int clear of a tie betw een Picotte and Crevier at 101 points apiece. Onl y Sm o kin' Joe' s Honda a n d Yoshimura Suzuki had tested at the new Homest ead faci lity p ri or to the fir st AMA race, so most didn't know what to expec t . Racers a nd crews fo u n d an imm aculate facility, featurin g a smooth and safe 2.2-m ile race track, and most wer e m ore th an gra teful that ow ner Ralph Sanchez - the ma n behind the two AMA Su perb ike races he ld on t h e Miami street circu it - had decided to run motorcycles at his new facility. Sanchez, too, must h ave been pl eased w ith h is motorcycle debut race d rawing a crow d est im ated a t 25,000 by public relat ions personnel. Hi gh clo uds a n d re lative ly hi gh humidity greeted the start of the 29-lap, 64-mile race and thi ngs were hot rig h t away as Du Hamel led Cha nd ler, Mlad in and the rest of the pack in to turn one, with some bum ping and grinding along the way . Pegram was caugh t napping at th e start, a nd was in t he m id st of a melee of bikes and ride rs in turn one, eventually ending the first lap way back in eighth place. "1 just left late - tha t's all there was to it," Pegram sa id . " I bogged it a littl e because I left late and overcompensated b y releasing the cl u tch ou t fast e r. Mladin ran into somebody and then came into me. 1 turned and 1 turned to miss him and ran into (Mike) Smith and it just got worse: 1 was like at least 10th in the first corne r." DuHam el wasn' t wasting an y time and he started to.draw away right awa y, putting a ga p between himse lf a n d Ch andl er, wh o wa s s ha do we d by Mlad in. Then came James, Smith, Crevier, Picotte, Pegram, Kipp, H igbee and Yoshimura Suzu ki's Aaro n Yates. By th e fourth lap, Du H amel's cushio n w as roughly th ree seconds , w ith MJadin moving aro und Cha nd ler on th e same lap to take over second . Those tw o had pulled clear of Smith, who in turn could begin to hear the fast-approaching V-twin Ducati ridden by Pegram. Pegram ' s cha rge ne tted him th e race's fastest lap by the halfway point (a 1:27.127) but th at fast-lap honor wou ld , eve ntually go to Ch andler at roughly th e three-q u a rter s tage of the race . Ch andler, th ou gh, con tin ued to follow Mladin earl y, the Australian sliding the Suzuki into corn ers under hard braking. Pegram manag ed to work his way aroun d Smith on the 10th lap and a lap later Chandler was by Mladin. "He (Mla d in ) seeme d li ke he was putting a lot of effort in," Chandler said. "1 th ought that m aybe he'd tow me on u p to Miguel. Bu t wh en he came by it seemed like he turned his focus more'on keeping me beh ind him ins tead of trying to ca tch Miguel. So w hen 1 had a chance, I got back by him and just kep t going with my own race." It was th e beginning of the end of Mladin 's run up fr ont as he began a stea d v fade to his eventua l sev en th place finish. "1 h ad a few prob le m s, m ainl y warped fron t brakes," Mladin explained later. " It was vibrating so bad my right hand went numb. 1 cou ld n 't feel the br akes or the gas. I ha d no feeling left in the han d . Th e first 10 lap s we showed we were quic k enough. It's safe to say that' s as close to the lead Su zu ki h as been in a whil e. I'm giving it everything I' ve got, bu t I' m a lso tr ying to st ay upright. 1 cou ld have m ayb e finished sixth ins tea d of seven th, but I wo uld ha ve ri sked cr as h ing; it's not really worth it for one spo t." By the 13th lap, DuHame l led Chandler by almost five seconds, with anoth er gap to Pegram. Mladin 's slide had him in the grasps of Smith, and Crevier, too, was closing in. They would both ge t by when Mladin temporarily ran off the tr ack in turn on e. Pegram held tough, un til encounterin g lap ped traffi c at an inopportune time. "1 tri ed to pa ss a lapper goin g in to seven and he went wide, so 1 lost a cou ple of seconds in one lap," Pegram said. "So I just had to take third." An d th en Cr ev ie r m oved aroun d Smith. "1 ran off on the exit to six," Smith said lat er. "1 stepped it off in the sand there. That w as pre tt y much all she wrote." Chandler 's fast lap , a 1:27.056, came shortly thereafter as he starte d to claw hi s w a y tow a r d s D u Ham el , ever so slow ly. By the 16th lap, the gap back to Chand ler was four secon ds; on the 19th lap it was down to three seconds; then it dropped to two seconds on the 21st lap and fin all y to unde r a second by th e 23rd of 29 lap s. The race was on, and the crow d was on its feet, cheering wild ly in the closing lap s. "1 was a littl e b it s u rp r ise d, " DuHamel said o f Chan dler's cha rge. "But not that much beca use 1 had some tro uble with lapped traffic. 1 took m y time becau se I'd worked hard to get th e lead and 1 wasn 't going to do something s tu pi d passing one of th ese guys - o r actually, 1 should say, passing the same gu y like five times . 1 just wante d to be sa fe. 1 gave away a lot of th at lead to lap ped traffic, but it d idn't matter to me