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AMA Teamline 750cc SupersportSeries
Round 4: Homestead M
olorsports Complex
Collarbone
cured
By Pau l Carrut hers
Pho to by Henn y Ray Ab rams
HOMESTEAD, FL, MAY 18
oshim u ra Suzuki's Pascal Picotte
has been sayi ng for the past three
races that things wo uld get much
tougher wh en hi s tea m ma te A a ron
Yat es returned to health. Well, things
just go t mu ch tougher.
W ith hi s broken collarbo ne healed,
Yates m an aged to beat Picotte by som e
six seco n ds a t th e Homestead Motor sp orts Complex, the Geo rgia n's seco nd
victo ry of th e ye a r movin g him ba ck
into title conte n tion in the title chase as
he now tra ils Picotte by jus t six points,
136-130.
After trailing both Picotte an d ea rly
lead e r Mic hael Ba rn es early on, Yates
took over at the fron t of the field on the
thi rd lap and he never looked ba ck,
leaving Picotte an d Barnes to battle for
second pl ace . Th at fight for second
ended up going to Picotte, with the sorewristed Barnes bravely hol di ng on to
finish third on th e EBSCD In d ustries
Suzuki GSXR750 logging his first AMA
,
Supersport podium finish since 1992.
The fir st n on-Su zuk i - qui te an
achieveme nt in a season dominated thus
far by th e new GSXR750 - to cross the
fini sh lin e was the Kinko's Kawasa ki
ridde n by Thom as Stevens . The Floridian got the best of a race-long duel with a
host of riders to finish fourth, ahead of
Team Suzuki Spo rt's Mark Miller. Team
Suzuki Sport's Mark Black ende d the 17lap, 37.5-mile race in sixth, just clear of
Kinko's Jason Pridmore, the Californian
having ran as high as fourth before running s t r a ig h t at the e n d of th e back
str aight and h aving to start his charge
allover again. .
EBSCD' s Mark McD aniel (ri d in g
with a re cently sepa ra ted right sh oulder), Hudson Valley Me's Richard
Ale xander an d Dats Trucking' s Da le
Kieffer filled the top 10 positions.
With Picotte and Yates perched atop
the cha mpionshi p point stan di ngs, th e
next best is th e EBSCD' s Barn es who
narrowly leads his teammate McDaniel,
108-107. Miller is fifth with 106 poi nts.
The first AMA road race ever held at
the new Hom estead Motorsp orts Complex fitti ngly got und er way with florid ian Barn es lead ing the w ay into the fast
do uble-left, tu m one ! two combination.
The Yosh boys were tuc ked in beh in d
and it was those three w ho qu ickl y
drew away from the pack.
Do u g Cha n d ler a n d th e Mu z z y
Kawa sak i di dn 't last lo n g, with ' the
Supe rb ik e N ati ona l Ch amp ionship
points leade r pulling the bike on to p it
late on th e second lap.
"Firs t gear wa s bad," Chandler said.
"But th en I s moked the clutch a b it.
There was no po int in it (continuing)."
Yates took over the lead for the first
time on the th ird lap , di ving inside of
Barnes on the entrance to tum six. That
was all she w ro te. Yates cleared away,
eventually winning by 6.006 seco nds.
"I feel pretty good now," Yates said
in regard to his healing collarbone. "I
had my supersport bike working reall y
good and I'm reall y comfortable on it. I
looked back a few time s and I wa tched
my pit board. I had a five-se cond lead
Y
(Above) Mark M
cDaniel (10), Michael
Barnes (34), Pascal Picotte (21) and Jason
Pridmore (7) lead eventual 750cc
Supersport winner Aaron Yates (9).
(Right) Ben Bostrom was in a class of his
own In the SuperTwlns final at
Homestead.
and it dropped to four, maybe th ree . I
was looki ng around, keepi ng track. The
race went reall y quick. It's so smooth.
It's really easy and short."
Th ings beh ind the Georgian weren't
so clear. Barn es and Picotte conti nued to
go at it, wi th Barnes doing most of the
leading. Pridmo re, meanw hile, was the
m an on th e m o ve, clo s in g in on the
Ba rn es ! Pico tt e ba ttle a t the h a lfw ay
mark and appearing to be very capabl e
o f cat ching th em . That all we nt w rong
on the 10th lap wh en he ran straight at
the end of the back straigh t, com ing to a
stop to tum around and rejoin the race ba ck in 10th p lac e. Pridmo re w oul d
fight back, eve ntu ally finishing seven th.
A lap later - on lap 11 - Picott e took
over from Barnes for second, a sp ot he
w ould h old to th e fini sh . Barnes, too,
w ould keep hi s composure - riding in
pain to third p lace.
The race for fourth we n t to Steven s
over Miller and Black.
"It feels pretty good," Bames sai d . "I
haven't been on the pod ium in a Su perspo rt race since '92 wh en I was on my
own Kawasaki . I really ha d to step it up
a litt le bit, especially to ru n with these
guys. I thought I was going to be able to
run w ith Pascal, but I w as ob vious ly
holding him u p a little bit. My w rists
were a little sore; I go t off th is morning
on my Harley (VRl000 su perbike), went
u p h igh in the air an d landed on both
. wrist s. You look at the n u mbers a nd
we ' re all in contention for the cham pi onship. I just wan t to put in a cons istent,
real goo d year. I'm really looking for a
championship and I'd love to win one of
these because it's been awh ile."
"When we tested here I did a lot of
time on my su perbike and Aaron did a
lot o n th e s u p ers por t b ik e," Pic o tt e
exp lained . "That's wh y I think I'm faster
on my superbike and he's faster on the
su pe rsport bike. I had a really hard time
this weekend making my bike pe rfect. I
know I was stronger than him the last
two races, but now he's back in shape.
But s till I' m leading and I'm rea ll y
happy. Mike (Barnes) was ahead of me
and I was really having a hard time with
deep braking; my bike was really humping. I w as a litt le faste r th an Mike, for
sure, in a coup le o f corners. Aaron
(Yates) rode a really good race and I
want to give him all the credit."
Homestead Motorsports Complex
Homes tead, Florida
Results : May 18, 1996 (Round 4 of 10)
T EAMLINE 750 SUPERSPORT FINAL: I. Aaron
Yates (Suz); 2. Pasca l Picotte (Suz); 3. Mike Barnes (Suz );
4. Thom as Stevens (l