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Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/127799
Wilson finished second in the rain at
Mid-Ohio.
Factory stars filled the top 11 places
with Smokin' Joe's Honda's Steve Crevier sixth, Muzzy Kawasaki's Mike Smith
seventh, Yoshimura Suzuki's Pascal
Picotte eighth, DuHamel ninth, Vance &
Hines Yamaha's Tom IUpp lOth and
Fast By Ferracci's Larry Pegram 11th.
Vance & Hines' Jamie James and Ferracci's Shawn Higbee were the only factory
riders who failed to finish, with both
crashing out of the race - Higbee early
and James on the final lap.
Race fans also caught a glimpse of
the future when dirt-tracker-turnedroad-racer Ben Bostrom made his superbike racing debut at Sears, riding a
"parts bin" Honda RC45 from American
Honda to a 12th-place finish in his first
race on slick racing tires and his first on
anything bigger than a 600.
Sunny skies and warm temperatures
greeted the large, 41-rider fieId at the
start of the 25-lap National, and it was
Yates Ieading the way up the hill toward
turn three for the first time with IUpp
and Wilson in his wake. Those three
stuck at the front for the majority of the
first portion of the race, with only Kipp
losing two spots after missing a shift in
turn seven which left him in some discomfort after he was sIammed forward
against the gas tank.
With an ambulance sitting in a precarious position on the exit of turn four
while medical personnel attended to the
fallen Dean MizdaI, the red flag was
finally thrown on the 12th lap and the
riders would be regridded in their positions from the previous lap, lap 11.
At that point the order read: Yates,
Wilson, Carr (who had clocked the
fastest lap thus far with a 1:44.16), IUpp,
Chandler, DuHamel, Smith, Picotte,
Pegram, James and Mladin (who had
fought through after being left on the
line). Crevier was listed in 20th after
remounting from a crash in which he
was taken down by Higbee in turn 11.
"1 had to regrab the brakes," Higbee
.explained later. "1 grabbed them and
there was nothing there, so 1 left off and
the second time the rear end came up
and was bouncing side to side. 1 had no
place to go, and I locked the front."
Crevier was on the outside of the
melee and was collected. The Canadian
was fortunate enough to be able to
restart just two laps prior to the red £lag,
and the race stoppage aIIowed his crew
to make the necessary repairs to his
RC45 for the restart.
With just a 14-lap spri,nt remaining,
the race got under way for a second
time with ChandIer blasting his way to
the front, followed closely by Carr and quite remarkably - Mladin. Picotte was
next with Smith, Yates and Wilson in
tow. Then there was a gap to James,
DuHamel, Crevier and Bostrom. Wilson
lost severaI spots on the next lap when
he was nearly high-sided from his
VRl000 in turn four, the Ohioan managing to save it despite running off on the
exit and gashing his chin on the windscreen.
'1 went in there no different and just
when 1 started to get on the gas it came
around," Wilson explained later. "I
caught it, but it threw me over the top