Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

·R A RA E·.·· ., . O D. C : AMA Supefbike National C hampionship Series Round 7:New Hampshire International Speedway a d ifferen t rear spring. He also foun d his hands uncharacteristi cally cramping up early in the race. He finished 10th. One of th e case covers on Mladin's engi ne sprung an oil leak, forcing him to back off after it lubed up the rear tire. Th e Aus tralian said it was mor e of a p roblem in the left-hand corners and cause d him to drop back from pursuing the lead ers, wh o he'd been with early on. He ended up sixth. Fou rth went to Fast by Ferracci's Larry Pe gram who mi ght have d on e better if he could get a drive up the hill ou t of tum four onto the back section of the cou rse. For some reason, the Ducati didn't hook up there. He was still able to roll away from Yoshimu ra Suz u ki's Aaron Yat es who hit on a sus pe nsion solution the night befor e th e race tha t turned out to be the trick. His team fitted the stock shock and linkage from his 750cc Supersport machine and he wa s immediately able to knock half a second off hi s times in th e Sunda y morning warmup . Th e probl em in th e race turned ou t to be a lack of top speed and accelera tion , with Pegram stopping in the corners and powering away on the straights. Yates finis hed fifth, about 6.7 seconds back. Seventh we n t to Harley-David son's Thomas Wilson , who survived two near hig h-sid es an d a burned-out clu tch to come home ahea d of Fast by Ferra cci's Sh a w n Hi gbee a n d A less a nd ro Gramigni in w ha t may have been his la st rid e fo r the team (See Briefly...). Gramigni said he foolishly went against the ad vice of Eraldo Ferracci on suspensi on settings and su ffered the consequ enc es of not being able to accelerate wit hou t spinning the tire. Since the race was shortened by one lap from last year's 40, DuHam el's win goes into the record books immediately. He completed the 39-lap, 62.4-mile race in 49 minutes, 4.572 seconds at an average speed of 76.290 mph. His margin of By Henny Ray Abrams Photos by George Roberts LOUDON, NH,JUNE 16 e pe nd ing on yo u r p o in t of view, Smok in ' Joe' s Racing' s Miguel DuH amel ' s pa ssing man eu vers were either relen tless, a gg ressi ve, or psychotic, as one rider who wa tched a few of them close u p sai d . By a ny d efinition th ey were effective, and it was his ability to rut h- . \0 less ly slice thr ou gh traffic that ea rned 0\ the d efending National Champion his 0\ fourth win of the year before a crowd of ..... 32,000 on a sun ny da y at New Hampshire Interna tional Speedwa y. Du H am el is one of th e more vocal critics of backma rkers and Loudon is a place where you run up on them soo n and often . He was balked during quali fying and it may have cost him the single point that goes to the pole qua lifier. D 6 . In the race he mad e sure not to be victimized and made intelligent use of the slower riders to hold Mu zzy Kawasaki' s Dou g Ch andler off and wi n hi s 13th career Superbike race at the Lou don Cam el Classic with a flou ris h, slid ing out of the final corner and w heel ying across the finish line. " It was a tou gh race," DuHamel said after narrowing the points ga p on Chandler to 15. "We d id every thing we ha d on the agenda, except get the poin t for winning th e pole. That was so mew ha t disappointing because we need ed -that point badly." It was not an easy victory for the 29~ yea r-old French Canadian , w ho now calls Los Angeles home. He led the most laps , but he didn't lead all of them, wi th Chandler taking the point on laps six and seven and Vance & Hines Yamaha' s Tom Kipp leading a few just past the halfway point. But DuHamel led th e m o st a nd th e o ne th at coun ted by enoug h of a margi n tha t he could d o th e ce leb ra to ry wheelie. "At the end , Migu el got through the last two guys really good and I kind of got he ld up a nd tha t was the d iffer ence," Cha ndle r lam ent ed . "I jus t could n' t mak e it u p. No t eno ug h laps the re . We did th e second best th ing. Wha t we needed to do was finish right behind Migu el." By taking second to DuHamel's first, Ch andl er s till leads the Superbike Championship by 15 points, 213- 198, with three races to go. Kipp holds third . with 185, then Yoshimura Suzuki's Pascal Picotte at 179 an d his teammate Mat Mladin with 165. Neit her of the Suzu ki boys had a day to reme mbe r. Pico tte cho se a rear tire tha t was too hard and was well off on his suspension settings after changing to victory over Chandler was 1.415 seconds and it was never a w hole lot more than that. From th e fl ash o f th e green li gh t Pegram was in control, but it on ly lasted until the 37-rider field exited tum six, at w hi ch point DuHamel took th e lead , with Pegram seco nd in fro nt of Cha ndler, Mladin, Kipp, and Muzzy Kawasaki's Mike Smith. Smith' s da y ended wit h a viol ent high-side goi ng up the hill on the seco nd la p, Smith getting thrown to th e track and lucky to escape getting hit by the pack, especi ally Picotte who was right behind him: Tha t allowed a pack of five riders DuHamel, Chandler, Mladin now third, Pegram, and Kipp - to break away and set off on their own . Behind them came the Suzukis of Picotte and Yates , then Englishman Michael Rutter, Gramigni, and Wilson.

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