Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

·~ ROAD RACE:·: .... . Round 7: New Hampshire International·Speedway .AMA S iJperbike National C pionship Series . ham AMA Pro H ondaO 600cc S Rs upersport series R ound7 N wHampshire Intemal'l Speedway : e DuHamel baek 00 top By Henny Ray Abrams Photo by George Roberts LOUOON, NH, JUNE 16 te r n ot steppi ng up onto th e podium for the pa st tw o races, mokin' Joe's Racing' s Mi guel DuHam el returned to his winnin g ways in the Pro Honda Oils 600cc Supersport race at N ew Hampshire International Speedw ay , passing early lead er Mike Smith of th e Muzz y Ka w as aki team, then holding off a late charge by Kinko 's Kawasa ki's Thomas Stevens . It was DuHamel's fourt h win of the year an d third in a row a t Loudon, '\ tight track th at fa vors aggression in p ass ing , so methi ng DuHamel h ad in . spades tod ay. " I seem to have a go od kna ck o n w he n to pa ss and when to pus h a nd w hen not to push," DuHamel said after taking advantage of lapped traffic late in th e race to escape from the pressu rin g Stevens . But Stevens wasn't u sin g the slower riders as an excuse . "I just sa t back and tried to keep my tires th e best th at I co u ld keep th em because I knew that it was just a matter of time before Miguel wai ted to take off and th at ' s pretty much what he d id ," Stevens sa id . "As soo n as he go t in to so m e traffic h e wen t rea lly good. II w asn't m y d ay today an d w e'll keep pluggin g along, eve ntually we're going to be able to give them a better race and close in on them ." T h ir d p la c e went to earl y r a ce lead er Smith . The Muzzy Ka w a sa ki rid er gave up the lead to Du Ham el on th e 11th of 24 laps , with DuH a m el u sing a gutsy pass on the inside line go ing int o turn six , a corner th at had Aj 10 bitten Smith durin g su perbike practice the previous day. Smith tho ught about ans w eri ng the charge on the ru n back over the hill , then ba cked off the throtlie. "I could have gone up there swapp ing ends and tryin g to p sych e him out," Smith sa id after getting passed by Stevens on the ne xt lap and finish ing third. "It was only a matter of time before he got me. I kn ew I wa s on borrowed time." The battle for fourth w ent into th e . late stages of the race, wi th Moto Liberty Honda's Gerald Rothman Jr. getting the better of Erion Racing's Doug Tol and en tering the fro nt straight on th e 19th lap . Toland hung tou gh for a few lap s, · then dropped slightly ba ck to a safe fillh . . H is Erion Racing teammate Andrew Stroud was sixth, well in front of Hyd Mech Saw s Owen Weich el, who himself was clear of a race-long, three-way batlie for eighth that went to Ban dit Internati onal's Matt Wait in th e end . Sutter Home's Brian Parriott took ninth by the sm allest of margins afte r d rafti ng by Road America winner Todd Harringt on at the flag. Zero Gravity' s Ben Bostrom, a factor in th e early going bef ore cr ashin g in tum three, finished II th after rem ounting. DuHamel completed the 24-lap, 38.4mile race in 31· minutes, 15.783 seco nds at an average speed of 73.967 mph. His margi n o f victory was 3.1 secon ds. Because the race was sho rte ned this year from 30 to 24 laps, the res ult set a new race record. More importantly it gav e DuHame l a bit more breathing room in his chase for a fou rth cham pio ns hi p. After seven of 10 rounds, DuHamel leads Stevens, 228206. Toland is third a t 177, five better than Rothman. In marked contra st to the past two races, Sunday' s event bega n under brilliantly sunny skies and warm temperatures gree ted the field of 29 that took to the 1.6-mile track. Sm ith go t the ju mp on th e fie ld , s ha dowed cl o sely b y Du Ha m el , St evens, Toland a nd Bostrom. Miguel DuHamel returned to his winning ways In the 600cc Supersport final at loudon . Th e fi rs t move came on lap three when Stevens went by DuHamel in the final turns before the start-finish line, a . favori te passing zone for DuHamel himself. On th e next lap the leaders were joined by Penguin Roadracing School's Eric Wood, the Kawasaki rider making "it a seven-rid er breakaway. DuHamel's regression continued on . the fift h lap when Tola nd went und er him in tum one, dropping the d efending N ational Champio n to fourth . That served as a wake-up call. "I was lethargic," DuHamel explained. ·"I was behind them and not bein g too aggressive. I didn't have a game plan. And that' s u sually what happen s when yo u d on't have a game plan. I was just out there going, 'Sho uld I pass th em now or not ?' And w hen I was d eb ating th at I was go in g ba ckw a rd s a nd not too mu ch pan ick ing because th e p a ce w a s con t rolled b y Mi ke (Sm it h) . He w as taking it quit e easy out there. I was second, then I was third, I was fourth . When I was fourth th at starte d to be a littl e far ba ck so th at ' s w he n I d ecided to get back up ther e with Mike and Thomas be cause they were rid ing really stro ng." His first mo ve forward came on the nint h lap, passing Toland to take fourth, th en go ing up th e in side of a lapped rid er w hile Stevens went outs ide of him on the run down the hill to tum nine to take second . Endi ng lap nine DuHamel w as in second, where he w ould s tay for less th an tw o laps , passing Smith going down the hill to tum six to take the lead he would never relinquish . "I started getting a little worried that if I di dn' t get up ther e right on the rear end of Th omas and Mik e Smith tha t I might ge t th e d ir ty end o f th e stick. I went from fourth to second or firs t in abou t a lap and tha t's due to traffic and rid ing sma rt," DuHam el said . Smith knew that hi s se tu p wasn ' t righ t and that he was vulnerable. His pit board was showing him fairly docile lap times for several laps in a row an d he was as ki ng himself, "W here is everybody? I thou ght mor e wou ld be going by," Smith said , and he was right. Stevens got the better of him on the 12th lap, the same lap that Wood left the back of the pack with a spill in tum six. "The first 10 laps of the race were not rea lly important as long as I could stay close eno ugh to see them and see wh at was going on. Obviously, th en you 've go t to get seri ous," DuHamel said . So the seco nd half of the race beg an with Du Hamel lead ing Stevens , Smith, Tol and, and Ro th ma n w it h Bostrom pulling away fr om Strou d and Weichel, and the ba tile for eighth raging am ong Harrington , Wait, and Parriott. Traffic was becomin g a n issu e and both Stevens and DuHam el used it well, so well that they wer e able to put some room on Smith within just a few laps. At th at p oint it b eca m e Smith ' s pl an to ma in tai n his spot, w hich he d id to the finish, though he was able to make a late run at Stevens and the two raced together for the last four laps. " I was m e s s i n g u p w hen I was beh ind Thomas (Stevens)," Smi th said a fter fin ishi ng abo ut five bike len gt hs behind Stevens . " I kne w I didn't have the best setu p. I was pushing the front a lot in practice this morning, all weekend really. We never go t it ha nd led ." Bostrom was ou t on th e 17th lap, a simple front-end slide putting him temp orarily into the tires be fore h e got going again. By now DuHamel and Stevens had about three seco n ds o n Sm ith with Stevens not r elenting, though they would s o o n com e up on traffic . DuHamel used a backmarker to gain a few mo re bike lengths in the final turns, 10 to 12, ending the 19th lap : anda lap later he had better than a second. The barrage was on and DuHamel stretched it to better than thr ee seco nds at the finish . "A few tim es I got messed up with traffic, but th at' s no t the reason that I lost th e race," Steve ns said . "It wasn't tra ffic that cost Thomas Stevens the victory . It was some other things that I'm not going to go in to. Hopefully, we' re going to work on them and make them better. Miguel played the traffic really well and it kind of held me up a littl e bit. I pulled a littl e bit on Mike then I got kind of ten tative in traffic. Once my tires dropped off I kn ew I d idn't have anyth ing for Mi guel. Tha t's pretty much how it went." "There are days that tra ffic goes for you and th ere are da y s that it goes against you," DuHamel sa id. "You just have to use your head and your experience and go for 6040 or 5O-SO and that's usually the bes t you can hope for. Some d ays are better than others." Today was a good d ay for Rothman, the Connecticut rider pa ssing Toland on the 19th lap and inchi ng away un til he had close to 2.5 seconds a t th e finish. Rothman said th at he kn ew th e pa ce w as slow at the beginning and that he wanted to ge t in front, but "nobod y was ma king any mistakes. I was up on those guys a couple of times. I tried them in tu rn on e, but it was too hairy. The next lap I stuc k it in on on e of th em , then Bo strom. I s tar te d doin g 17s but I wasn 't close eno ug h to ge t those gu ys," he said . After finishing abou t eig ht seconds in front of his teammat e Stroud, Tol an d described his race fairly sim p ly. "I got a pretty good start. Fourth, third, fou rth , fifth. That' s w he n the leaders started pulling away I th ink. I th ink it wa s

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