Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

AMA Honda Pro Oils 600Cc Supersport Series Round 4: H omeste Motorsports Complex ad S treakstaRer By Paul Carruthers Photos by Henny Ray Abrams HOMESTEAD, FL. MAY19 m o k in ' Joe's Honda 's Migue l DuHamel won his first race in a row at the Homestead Motorsports Co mplex in south Florida, just tw o weeks after seeing his 10-race 600cc Supersport win streak broken at Laguna 5eca Raceway. In a race that ultima tely contained more drama off the tr ack than on it, Du Hamel easily won the 26th AMA 600cc Supersport win of his 'career, topping Kinko's Kawasaki's Thomas Stevens, in his best finish of the young season, by 5.266 seconds after 17 laps and 37.4 miles of racing at the new facility. The drama unfolded after most had left the Ho mestead race track. It was then that Mike Smith was disqualified from his third-place finish when a postrace tech nical inspection fou nd h is Muzzy Kawasaki to be in violation of the ru les. "We fou nd met al removal from th e inta ke po rt area w hic h is ex pressly in violation of the ru les," AMA road racing m a na ger Ron Barrick sa id on Sunday night. "We did n't pull the valves out of each an d every po rt. But the o nes we d id pull there was obvious metal removal. Whether it was d ue to improper cleaning tech niques or whether it was an attempt to break the rules, I couldn't say. Nonetheless, there was some metal removal." With Rob Muzzy en route to Japan with riders Smith and Doug Chandler to test for the upcom ing Suzuka 8-Hour, it was unknown whether or not the team wo ul d appeal the disqu alification. The ous ting of Smith moved Smokin' Joe's Hond a ' s St e ve Crevier to third with Kinko's Kawasaki's Jason Pridmo re m ovin g u p to fou rt h an d Erion Racing's Dou g Toland taking over fifth. "It went pretty well ," DuHam el said after pulling away to a comfortable win. "The bike was working really, really, really well and Dun lop did a grea t job. They've got a new tire out and it's a great tire. Everyth ing went really w ell and it was well within the limi ts of the bike and myself. I didn't get myself too tire d for th e Superbike race. I tri ed to stay concentrated an d focus ed . Th ose guys were running a good pace and I w as just keeping a goo d gap on them, and trying to be careful through tra ffic. Basicall y, that w as my game plan an d that's how it wo rked out. It tu rned out good." The first attempt at a start was aborted by AMA officials when most of the front row jumped the gun, promptin g ou trage by Honda' officials wh o claim ed the Kawasaki riders in question - Smith and Stevens - sho u ld ha ve been punished. Barrick had a different view . "We had a verbal complaint from Honda' s Gary Mathers about the green bike s on the front row," Barrick said. "Bu t it was an abortive start - the green light never went on." The leader off the real s t a r t w a s Smith, but that lasted all of two laps. DuHamel had seen enough. H e w as through following. It was time to lead. "Mike got the h olesh ot and he was t rying to be too mell ow o u t there," DuHamel explained. "He wa s going real (Left) Mike Smith (68) led the first two laps of the 600cc Supersport class before giving way to Miguel DuHamel. (Below) DuHamel leads Smith, Thomas Stevens (2) and Steve Crevier (4). Stevens ended up second with Crevier third. Smith was disqualified for running Illegal cylinder head modifications. S slow in the comers and was being in the wrong gear and the wrong place. He was like at 6000 rpm - I could see him shaking his head. I was saying, 'C'mon Mike, let's do it .' It took a lit tle time because I thought I had a litt le vib ration m ayb e in m y brakes o r m y w heel; I wasn't sure what it was but it seemed to go aw ay. Then I felt comfortable and decided to push it." The man who really suffered off the start was Zero Gravitv's Ben Bostrom, who m issed the warmup lap and was forced to start from the pit road. "They didn't let me out until everybody had gone," Bostrom said. "I'm kind of bent about it because I thought we should have been on the podium today. I just didn't realize the rush and missed the wa rmup lap . After that I was so upset I was ridi ng too hard and I wasn' t doing the lap times I should ha ve been do ing." A hard ride from Bostrom ended up netting him 10th on the day. With DuHamel clea ring off, he le ft behind a ba tt le for secon d, bu t on this d ay it was Stevens who was the bes t of the rest - and the only rider to keep DuHam el in sight. "It we nt real good," Stevens said. "I had a good start and I kne w these guys were going to go fast from the beginning to the end. We pretty much played the do wn as it came to me. Mike (Smith) w as lead ing, but he m ad e a cou p le of mistakes and Migu el go t by him. I knew how fast Miguel went this morning and I knew that if he thought he had that much on the field he w as n ' t goi ng to wait around and pl ay cat-and-mouse games - he wa s jus t going to go from the beginning to the end. I tried to ge t by Mike and fortunately I did . I tried to run d o wn M iguel , b u t w hen you' re u p agai nst one of the bes t gu ys in the world you can 't give him any. When he gets by yo u've either got to be on him or he's gone. And th at' s ex actly wh at happened. As the race wore on, I got a bigger and bigger gap back to third. Then I picked up a bit of a vibration in my rear tire and I jus t de cided it was better to keep the thing together and finish. We just kind of slacked off a little bit and put it in the winner's circle. "As far as I'm concern ed, if I'm not winning th an it's not good e nou gh," Ste vens added . "Co n siste ncy d oe sn ' t mean anythin g to me in this class - I have to win. If that means falling off the th ing, then fine. We' ve go t to win an d there's no other way to look at it. If we do n't beat him (Du Hamel) and we do n't s tart beating h im soon, th e series is go ing to be over - unless he has some kind of bad luck. I'd rather try and win the series straight u p than have some thing happen to Miguel. We just have to step up the program . I h ad th e thing working really w ell today, we're just do wn on acceleration a litt le bit. With the talent that Miguel has you can't give hi m an inch . All I w a n t to d o is win beca use I want to get back onto a superbike." With Stevens in control o f secon d p lace from the fifth lap on, the race for third we nt the distance with Smith holding off Crevier - on!y to be d isqualified several hours later. " It was p retty good," Smith said afte r the race and before getting the news of his DQ. "We got out front there. I w anted to get out front and get going. I gu ess I' m a lways a little anxious. If you' re gonna g et it on, g e t it on. But w e changed a couple of things this morning and we tried to anticipate some things and we made some mis takes. The bike was good, and I think the Muzzy Kawasaki is the bes t bike out there for su re. It's ju st ge tting me to set it u p. Laguna p layed a little bit better for me because it's a style track for Mike Smith, with h igh corner speeds. This track I think fell a little bit more into Miguel's hands. I'm really thankful for finishing third. We're still second in po ints." Crevier thought he had Smith measu re d, bu t cla imed hi s rival was con- stantly in his wa y, slowing him enough to prevent a pass. " It was frustratin g," Crevier said. "Ou r bike was working really good on the b rakes and in th e turns, but he (Smith) was in the wa y everywhere. We w e re faster in ev ery turn b ut the straightaway turns. He just blocked me th e w hole race. He did everything he I~ could to hold me back ." Homestead M otorsports Complex Homestead , Aorida Results: May 19, 1996 (Roun d 4 of 11) 600cc SUPERSPORT FIN Al: 1. Migu el Du Ha me l (Ho n); 2. Thomas Stevens (Kaw): 3. Mike Smith (Kaw) ; 4. Steve Crevier (Hon); 5. Ja son Pridmore (Kaw); 6. Doug Toland (H on~ 7. Andrew Stroud (Hon~ 8. Todd Harrington (Kaw): 9. Gerald Rothman Jr. (Hon); 10. Ken Melville (Hon ); 11. Ben Bos t ro m (Hon ); 12 . Br ian Parriott (H on ); 13. Eric Wood (Ka w) ; 14. Ma tt W ait (H o n) : 15. Christ opher Rank in (Ka w) ; 16. Haro ld Winkles (Hon); 17. Barry Henson (Ka w); 18. Michael Luke (I

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