Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/127827
FIVE POINTS. FIVE MEASLY POINTS PREVENTED ME FROM actually being right. I predicted in this same space a year ago that Miguel DuHamel would successfully defend his AMA Superbike National Championship. It was a safe bet, considering what the French Canadian and his Smokiri' Joe's Honda had accomplished in 1995. In fact, I felt it was somewhat of a shoo-in. Ditto for my choice for the man who would finish second, ' Doug Chandler. Despite the fact that many had written him off, I felt very comfortable in predicting that Chandler would be the man to push DuHamel the hardest and that he would end up just behind the Honda man in the title chase. Alas, those two flip-flopped - making me wrong for the third straight year. 1hree bad years in succession doesn't Fact: Miguel DuHamel didn't win the 1996 AMA Superbike National Championship as I predicted, He did, however, finish second. Excuse: I don't need one, Hey, I picked him to win and he finish",d second. Given my record of late, I'll take that as a victory. Fact: I figured Doug Chandler would be in the hunt for the 1996 Superbike title and the Muzzy Kawasaki rider didn't disappoint. When push came to shove in the final round, Chan· dler met the challenge and won his second AMA Superbike crown, I'd picked him to finish second. Excu_: Again, I don't need one, I argued Chandler's case to numerous peop'le over the off·season. They had written him off. I hadn't. Fortunately, neither had Rob M,¥,>" Fact: Tom Kipp finished third in the 1996 series point standings, Right where I picked him to finish, Excuse: I'm starting to get the hang of this prediction thing, So I'm bragging a bit. Problem? Cheek my top three and match rt against the final point standin9s, Now do we need to talk? Fact: I wrote that Pascal Picotte would finish fourth in the final point standings on the new Suzuki GSXR750 and he ended up one spot lower, in fifth, Excu_: I continue to impress' myself, but since my arm is gelling a bit tired sound that bad, until you realize that I only came up with By Paul Carruthers this silly and somewhat humiliating idea four years ago. So , Photos by Henny Ray Abrams if life were a baseball team, going one-for-four would have .me batting eightFt. Last year was the first year that I included some picks Mat Mladin - #66 from so-called"Experts and, to make matters worse, one of Age: 25 them - Henny Ray Abrams - correctly picked Chandler as Hometown: Camden, the champiot;'. Fortunately, the others were worse than me, Australia with some of them picking Chandler to finish as low as fifth Team: Fast By Ferracci while all of them, except Abrams, picked DuHamel to sucDucati, . cessfully defend his title. Best result in 1996: Let's take a closer look at. how my forecasts from 1996 second (Laguna Seca, Sears Point and Las turned out. With these results you'll also see my excuses as Vegas) to why things didn't tum out the way I said they would. 1. from all the back·patting, I'll give myself a break. Fact: Mike Smrth continues to kill me. I pick him to be champion, he finishes seventh. I pick him to finish fifth, he drops to , 1tho I tell every· one he's the FMTNWAN (Fastest Man To Never Win A National) and suddenly he can't keep the leaders in sight. Exc...., Maybe I'm killing Mike Smith. Oh, by the way, Mat Mladin is my new FMTNWAN, And I hope that isn't a jinx. Fact: Steve Crevier didn't finish sixth as pre· dicted by yours truly. Crevier finished 10th, Excu_: I didn't know that Crevier worked part time as a personal watercraft mechanic. Fact: Mat Mladin isn't a washed·up has·been, Mladin is a very good road racer, despite a past that sometimes says otherwise. 'I picked him to finish seventh in his AMA debut season and he ended' up fourth, Excu_: Uke Giacomo Agostini, maybe I never really gave Mladin a decent chance. Fact: Jamie James was supposed to have fin· ished eighth in the 1996 season point stand· ings. But he ended up 17th, Excuse: James' final season of AMA road racing wasn't the happy one it was 2. supposed to have been, His season was ruined when he crashed out of the lead in the rain at Mid·Ohio and that's a shame, A win at' Mid·Ohio might have kept the likable veteran around for another season. . Fact: Chris CarT didn't ride his Harley·David· son to ninth in the championship. Instead, CarT dropped to 12th, a victim of both the unreliabili· ty of the VR 1000 and his road·racing inexperi· ence, Carr qualified on the pole for the Pomona National and may have stoqd a chance of winning, Unfortunately, he crashed in the first turn, Excuse: I knew a Harley would end up ninth in the title chase, I just picked the wrong one, Fact: I predicted that young gun Aaron "Yate~, would be a surprise in the 1996 series, And that he was, I also predicted that he'd make mistakes and end the series in 1Oth, He ended up not making many errors and finished sixth. Exc....: I figured that ponytail would slow him down, Who knew that Suzuki would make him cut rt off, Thankfully, 1996 is history, and so are my picks from a year ago. Here are my 1997 picks, with apologies to all of those who are doomed to be jinxed by them, 3. Miguel DuHamel - #17 Doug Chandler - #1 Age: 31 Hometown: Salinas, California Team: Muzzy Kawasaki Best result in 1996: first (Laguna Seca, Las Vegas) IF DOUG CHANDLER WERE TO SUC- . 20 Age: 28 Hometown: Montreal, Canada Team: Smokin' Joe's Honda Best result in 1996: first (Daytona, Pomona, Homestead and Loudon) MJGUEL DUHAMEL CAME 'INTO THE cessfully defend his AMA Superbike crown, he would be the first to do so since Fred Merkel in 1986, Last year I predicted that Chandler would be the man to step up and give DuHamel a run for the money. This year I'll repeat that Doug Chandler will be the man to step up and give Mat Mladin a run for the money, If Mladin falters the slightest, Chandler will be there to pounce and he will earn his second straight and third AMA Superbike title, Unless his Muzzy Kawasaki fails him, Chandler will be there week in and week out. He doesn't have bad races, he doesn't fall down - and he doesn't make poor choices, Thanks to nothing but positive preseason tests, Chandler is also riding a wave of confidence, And a confident Doug Chandler is a difficult man to beat. Last year, Chandler raced most of the season in the shadow of Miguel DuHamel, despite leading him most of the time in the championship points chase. DuHamel, for the most part, was still the fastest guy, winning four races to Chandler's two, But all of that momentum swung the other way in the final round of the series in Las Vegas, Chandler won the race and the title, but more importantly, he now thinks he's going to be the fastest guy at each and every track on any given weekend, For the above reasons, Chandler will be in the hunt all season. And if the Ducati or Mladin hiccup at all he'll be the champion, 1996 season riding a wave. Coming off a red-hot season in '1995, DuHamel followed that up with a stunning victory over Scott Russell in the 1996 Daytona 200, He was on fire and there was no way he was going to be beaten. A win in Pomona only further bolstered that notion, Then things unraveled a bit in Laguna Seca when he crashed while leading in the final moments of the race. Still, he bounced back with a win in Homestead, Poor 'decisions left him with a fourth and fifth in the wet races that followed at Mid-0hio and Road America, but he won again in Loudon and was second in Brainerd, At Sears Point, he was ninth due to a mechanical failure. All things pointed toward another championship as the season went to the final round in Las Vegas, But DuHamel couldn't match Chandler in qualifying, and he couldn't match him in the race. And he lost the title. Since those two days in Vegas, DuHamel hasn't been able to match Chandler at any of the places the pair have tested, How DuHamel reacts to all this will determine if he wins the 1997 AMA Superbike National Championship or if he falls to my predicted spot - or worse. One thing is certain, when he's on he is the hardest man in AMA Superbike racing to beat. Maybe the preseason tests don't mean anything, Maybe Las Vegas was an aberration, We'll all know very soon, AFTER A TWO-YEAR HIATUS, THE Ducati bashing will start anew in 1997, And it'll start after four rounds, By then, Mat Mladin and his Fast By Ferracci Ducati will be leading the AMA Superbike National Championship, The griping will start slowly, but it'll gather momentum in a hurry as , Thomas Stevens and his Vance & Hines Ducati start the season late but begin to jell and run at the front with Mladffi and Co, By Brainerd, the complaining will turn into a revolt with the other 'team owners demanding rule changes against the big red V-twins, But that's only my scenario. And, as you know, I've been wrong before. The other possibilities are: Mladin never comes to grips with the Ducati; or when he does the crankcases started to explode and he drops out of all too many races to be it contender, I'm sticking with my prediction because of three things: 1) I still believe the Ducati is the best motorcycle under the current rules; 2) Mat Mladin desperately needs to win again to further his career; 3) Eraldo Ferracci is on the bubble. A championship in 1997 will help him. retain his status with Ducati for at least another year while a poor season will only further. bolster the Vance & Hines Ducati effort, With their backs against the wall, I think Mladin and Ferracci will make a formidable combination. 4. Aaron Yates - #20 Age: 23 . Hometown: Milled geville, Georgia Team: Yoshimura Suzuki Best result in 1996: first (Sears Point) PICKING AARON YATES TO finish ahead of his Yoshimura Suzuki teammate Pascal Picotte was difficult to do, Last year the big, talented and brave Yates becam~ a factor - right away, He led the Daytona 200 and he did so without any hoopla this was exactly what he figured he could do, It took him until the penultimate round before he won, but he did so in brilliant fashion with a hard-fought victory over his then-teammate Mladin, Surprisingly, Sears Point was the only time Yates stood on a superbike podium all season, Although I don't think Yates will contend for the championship yet, I do think he'll lead the next group of challengers, I also think he'll be challenged in this spot by Picotte and it'll come down to more than who can be the most consistent. If that were the deciding factor, I'd pick Picotte in this spot because he will likely be more steady, I happen to think that Yates' flash will put him at the top in at least one race in 1997, and that'll be good enough to place him fourth at season's end.