Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

.ROAD RACE R98d.Race. series Sears Point Raceway AMA National Ch.afilplonship (Left) Miguel OuHamel (1) leads the 600cc Supersport pack Into turn one, followed closely by race winner Thomas Stevens (2), Gerald Rothman Jr. (5) and Matt Walt (195). DuHamel wrapped up the series title with his second-place flnJsh. (Below) Rich Oliver (1) was dominant again at Sears Point; here he leads second-place finisher Randy Renfrow (96). AMA Pro Honda Oils 60llcc Supersport series Round 10: sears Point Raceway Finally, it's Stevens By Paul Carruthers Photo by Henny Ray Abrams SONOMA, CA, AUG. 25 'nko's Kawasaki's Thomas Stevens may have been forced to witness Miguel DuHamel winning his fourth AMA 600cc Supersport Championship, but at least he had to look over his shoulder in order to do so. After finjshing second ·four times thus far in 1996, Stevens finally did what was needed to beat DuHamel and the Smokin' Joe's Honda CBR600 - he put his head down and he kept it there for the entire race at Sears Point Raceway. It also helped somewhat that DuHamel knew he' only had to finish second in order to capture his fourth AMA 600cc Supersport Championship and his second in succession, but nothing can be taken away from Stevens~ best effort of the year. The win not only ensured him of getting second in the championship, it also ended a winless drought that dated back to 1992, when the Floridian won the 750cc Supersport final at Texas World Speedway. Third place at Sears Point went to Stevens' Kinko's Kawasaki teammate Jason Pridmore, finally back on the winner's rostrum after a two-year hiatus from it due to the badly broken leg he suffered at the end of 1994. It would have been difficult to find anyoI\e in the paddock who wasn't happy to see Pridmore's apparent return to the form he was beginning to show at the time of his injury in an off-season motocross crash. "I forgot what this place looked like:' Pridmore told the crowd from the winner's circle after battling through from an eighth-place start to finjsh third. Fourth place went to Erion Racing's Andrew Stroud, the New Zealander staying with the lead group until late in the race. In addition to finishing fourth, he also managed to irk DuHamel by forcing the French Canadian wide with a daring pass in turn 11. The move pushed DuHamel back several places and may have been the turning point in the race. "It's frustrating:' DuHamel said later. K 10 "If r hadn't picked up r would have crashed. He (Stroud) just came in there. 1'm not against people battling. but it was another Honda rider who knew the situation. You would think they would try to make it as·c1ean as possible." Moto Liberty's Gerald Rothman Jr., Zero Gravity's Ben Bostrom, Muzzy Kawasaki's Mike Smith, Smokin' Joe's Steve Crevier, Erion's Doug Toland and Yamaha-Suzuki Sport Center's Erik Schnackenberg rounded out the top 10 finishers. DuHamel's 332 points gives him his fourth title in the 600cc Supersport Series, while Stevens" 295 points locks him in second place. Bostrom is third with 261 points, with Toland (248) and Rothman (246) set to take their battle for fourth to the wire in the final round in Las Vegas. The race began with a DuHamel holeshot, the French Canadian shadowed by Matt Wait and Stevens with Stroud, Rothman Jr., Mike Smith, Bostrom, Prid~ more and Crevier all tucked in behind. Stevens wasted little tim~ in disposing of Wait, moving up the inside in turn 11 to pass the Californian who was riding with a shoulder injury. From there it looked as though it would be a DuHamel/Stevens fight, but the others weren't giving up, as $!videnced by Stroud's pass on DuHamel in turn 11 on the sixth lap. The pass dropped DuHamel back, giving Stevens some breathing room at the front. It was all he needed as he was visibly faster through the Carousel, using a wider line than the rest of the field. "Actually Rich Oliver helped me out:' Stevens said. "Him. and r are very good friends. We talked about the race track. That's something (the wide line) that he uses. r didn't show it, I didn't use it all weekend except in qualifying. r used in qualifying. but I was out by myself and didn't'want to show anybody the way through there. And then r knew that I'd use it in the race because it's the way through there. It came down to that if r wanted to really lay it on him it would have worked. When we were side by side, I gave. He thought about giving, and he had the line. Miguel's such a good rider that we don't need to knock each other down. I knew I'd get it done because all the other guys were behind us and when Stroud came up r thought, 'Holy smokes, here we go. Miguel'S going to leave me.' So I had to get by him quickly. r had everything to gain and Miguel had everything to lose. I was willing to ride on the edge, and he wasn't willing to do that. All he had to do was finish second and put a huge bonus check in his pocket. I would have done the same thing. Once I got away I really put my head down. As soon as r saw plus one, r couldn't get to plus two. Then it stayed at plus two. Then my tires dropped off a little bit and then he got it back to plus one. From what r understand, he got balked going into I!. I pulled away. It was still plus one on the last lap, and r lool!:ed back, on the back straightaway and he was still way back. r think he'd given up at that point. "It's been a long time and that's what it's all about, winning." Stevens continued. "So r need to get onto a superbike and I need to get out there and show them that Thomas Stevens is a winner in superbike, and I think that's going to happen. The last win on a 600 was 1990. That was the last year r rode that class. Then the main factory (Suzuki) that I rode for wouldn't let me ride a Supersport because they didn't want me to lose my focus on superbike, and it damn near cost me my career. Supersport racing is really important, especially if your superbike isn't working. You haye to show them what you're made of." DuHamel did indeed manage to work his way around Stroud and Wait, who later slowed with transmission problems to finish an eventual 11th. "r needed to get back up to second," DuHamel said. "r could see Thomas pull away. It's that old thing with some of these guys. You get by them easily and they can follow you. Once they get in front of you they don't know where to go any more. Anyway, I just got by them and then Thomas was out in front and I thought about just letting him go and getting second and after that I was going to try to reel him in. I started to reel him in and I did. Two things worked against me - the Carousel because he was fast through there and would make some time through there..But everywhere else r could make up the· time I'd lose there. Then we got into lapped traffic and when we got lapped traffic he went by pretty good, pretty clean, and I was stuck. behind them. That last guy, that was it, that was the end right there. When he got by, r thought if he makes a mistake, okay. But he got by real clean and r thought, 'what am I' going to do?' I -just stayed behind him and kept riding around. Thomas was looking back and that was pretty much when I decided noNo go." Pridmore took over third on the seventh lap and eventually drew away from Stroud and the rest of the pursuers. "r got kind 'of a bad start:' Pridmore explained. "On the first lap r hit my leg real hard up in turn two-A. I hit my leg real hard and broke my brace, so for the first lap it almost felt like a bone was broken, because it was making a grinding in there. I thought it was my leg. I was freaking. But then r thought there was no pain so I just kind of kept going. I realized that it was my brace because a screw had come out of it and we'd epoxied it for the race thinking it would stay in, but it didn't. I've broken my leg so many times, it was scary, but it was just my brace. I just wanted to make sure that once I got by people they didn't get back by. That's what I did. We struggled yesterday on our setup and we did better this morning. I have not ridden a hard track like this all year long. The tracks Yve gone to haven't been real physical. It showed a little bit. My arms were pump-

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