Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

"R ADRACEC" ' . Round 5: Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course O AMASuperbike National hampionship Yam aha on w hat becam e the final lap ; M u zzy Kawasaki 's Mike Smith was lu cky to escape serious injury when he crashed in the sa me corner as Jam es, bringing about th e first race stoppage; Larry Pegram cras hed the Fast By Ferracci Ducati early in the first portion of the race, and Yoshimura Suzuki's Mat Mladin did likew ise after running second beh ind James ea rly in the second portion. Despite the surprises and many miscues, the champio nship point sta ndi ngs didn't get scrambled too much . Chandler still leads, bu t Picotte has jumped up to tie DuHamel for second place - 13 po ints behind, 149-136. Fou rth is held by Kipp with 124 points with Mladin slipping to fifth with 113 points. .Rain tires were definitely the orde r of the day wh en the pr oceedin gs finally got under way on a day that w ould featur e varying degrees of rainfall . When the light flashed green, it was By Paul Carruthers Photos by Henny Ray Abrams LEXINGTON. OH. JUNE 2 ronically, it was while stand ing in the showe r in his hotel room that Pascal Picotte figured ou t how to make his Yo sh imura Su zu k i co m peti ti ve o n a soaki ng w et Mid- Ohi o Spo r ts Ca r Course. Later, while standing ii - a shower of a differ ent kind on pit lane, Picotte was caugh t somewhat by surprise when informed th at the AMA Supe rbike N at ional at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course was being called complete after the second of two red flags an d after the completion of only 13 of a scheduled 26 lap s. His raise d eye brows we re qui ckly joi ne d by a bi g sm ile when he fin ally learned that not only was the race being called complete, but that he'd w on - on thi s, a rainy and crash-filled da y that can be described as nothing sho rt of bizarre. The race was finall y called complete b y th e AMA when Vance & Hines Yamaha's Jami e James crashed out of the lead in the daunting fina l comer at MidOhio, he and his YZF750 slamming violently into the Air Fence-protected concrete wall with debri s littering the track. Th e cras h brough t ou t th e secon d red flag of the da y, left James with a broken tibi a, and caused th e AMA to call it a day - giving Picotte the victory, a first for Suzuki in an AMA Su pe rbike National since Sep tember of 1990. With Jame s out, Picotte's victory was a narrow one. In fac t, on th e lap tha t James crashed, it was Harley-Davidson's Thomas Wilson who led Picotte across the stripe. But when the race was taken back a lap in the final scoring, Picotte was awarded the victory. Still, Wil son's second-place was an impressive.one an d Harley' s best-ever AMA Superbike Na tional finish . Once the rain came on Saturday night, Wilson was firml y in the hunt, tu rning the second -fastest time in the moming wannup a n d the qu ickest lap of the r ace - at 1:46.181. "Actually, I thought I had a real good chance wi th th e way this morning ' s practice session went," Wilson said after the race. "We changed a couple of things that we thought would work out for the positive, sus pens ionwise . So I figured I 6 we had a real good chan ce. I also kne w that everybody else wou ld probab ly step it up a bit, too. Getting bad starts didn' t help . I really had to work to get th rou gh tra ffic. Once I got clear, I could really ru n some times, but following guys kind of messed me up. I wa sn't sliding aro u nd as much as some of the guys I was followin g; th ey w er e ligh ting it u p real hea vy and really sliding all over. I had some g oo d lin es pi ck ed ou t th at I reme mbered from riding her e in the rain a while back. I used those, and I think they're real good lines. The team worked im macul ately hard to accom p lish th is and l ow e a lot to them. They deserve every bit as much, if not more, credit than I do. They've been wo rking at this bike a lot longer than I have." If Wil son' s runner-up finish was a surp rise, th en th ird p lace was simply astonishing. That spot went to privateer Brett Metzger in what was only his second-ever AMA Superbike National. Metzger rode hi s hardly touched, Supersport-trim, Metzger Motorsports-b a ck ed Su zuki GSXR750 with a used Dunlop rea r rain tir e, and a new front DOT Supersport tire, to beat the likes of defe nding AMA Superbike Nati onal Cha mpion Migu el DuHamel. "It's more like a pr oduction bike than a Supersport bike," the 30-yea r-old Metzger said of his Suzuki. "I was surprised I was lead in g (Miguel) DuHamel, but I d idn't know I wa s in fourth. I had no idea where I was. I kn ew I was so me where near the fron t because I started from the third row and could see who was ahead of me. But I didn't quite keep track of h ow many th ere were. I just w anted to be smooth and safe. DuHamel p assed me a couple of times on the back straight, bu t I just outbraked him in the ne xt corner witho ut pushing m yself. I just tied it all together, stayed smooth an d it p aid off." DuHame l e n de d up fourth, later admitting that he'd waited a bit too long to deal with Metzger . Still, the Smok in' Joe's rider had no idea the race wo uld be s to p ped and h e was fa irly pl eased to have ended the day pulling back som e valuable points on championship leader Doug Chandler, who en ded up a careful seventh on the Muzzy Kawasaki. (Above) The seco nd start of the red-flag interru pt ed AMA Superbike Nati onal at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course gets started in th e rain . (Right) The win fin ally went to Pascal Picotte on the Yoshimura Suzuk i after Jamie Jam es crashed out of the lead, bring ing about the premature stoppage of the race. Fifth p lace we nt to AMA Superbike debutant e Alessand ro Gramigni, the Italian not only racing in his first-ever AMA race, but also h is firs t-ever ra ce on a Du cati. In fact, it was his first race of any kind since October of last year. "This is the first time I use this bike in the water," Gramigni said. "For eight months I don't ride, so th is is good. (Eraldo) Ferracci gave me a good op portunity." Next came the flu-ridden Tom Kipp, ridin g hi s Van ce & Hines Yamaha to sixth after being too ill even to ride in Saturday' s final qualifyin g. Then came pole-sitter Chandler, car eful not to throw his championship points lead down the road once th e conditions turned from d ry to soakin g wet. "I had some trouble with th e rear, " Chandler said . "N ot w ith the tir e, but with the setup. I had it pretty finn andit should have been softer. I just wanted to get this one beh ind us ." Yos himura Suz u ki's Aa ron Ya tes, Harley-Davidson's Chris Carr an d Fast By Ferracci's Shawn Higbee roun ded ou t the top 10. The list of non- finishing factory stars was so mewh a t len gthy, an d all w ent down with crashes . Jam es seemed to have the race under co n trol until h e w as tossed fro m th e Picotte taking the holeshot despite starting from the secon d row. By the end of the second lap, the French Canadian had opened up a co nsi derab le lead over James, DuH ame l, Ml ad in) Kipp and Smith - but that wou ld disappear quickly when the AMA forced him to pit for a stop-a n d -go pena lt y after conduding that he'd jumped the start. "I d id n 't jump at all ," Picotte said la ter. "I just h ad a really good start. There's a big white st rip e line of paint and it's really , really slippery. When you go over that thing it just spins the tire. Starting from behind, yo u 've got just en ough momentum to cross th at thing without sliding the tire." Fortunately , Picotte h ad opened up enough o f a lead so th a t when h e returned to the track after the stop and go he was still in second place, behind James but in front of Mladin, DuHamel, . W il so n , Kipp and Smith . Gram igni, mean while, held down eighth, we ll clear o f Ya tes w ho in turn was a head of H arl ey-mounted Tr ip p Nob les and a struggling Chandler. By thi s point, Pegram and Canadian M ich a el Ta yl or ha d crashed in tu rn seven. It wou ld be the first of four crashes on the day for Taylor, who would ultimately finish 22nd. Pegram would return to the pits with a br oken brake lever .

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