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AMA Honda Pro Oils 600Cc Supersport Series
Round 4: H
omeste Motorsports Complex
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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