Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

7. 5. Pascal Picotte - #21 Age: 27 Hometown: Granby, Quebec, Canada_ Team: Yoshimura Suzuki Best result in 1996: first (Mid-Qhio) PASCAL PICOTTE HAS THE ability to make this pick look really bad. There are times when nobody is faster than Picotte, it's just that you can't seem to count on that at each and every race. In what will likely be the most competitive superbike season yet, Picotte will have to click at all of them. . Picotte pundits say that the French Canadian is somewhat of a one-lap wonder. That he can turn it up for a quick qualifying or testing lap, but that when the tires start to get a bit greasy rnidrace, he starts to lose positions. To succeed in 1997, he'll have to prove them wrong. - Last year Picotte fell a bit by the wayside, even in the team he was supposed to lead. Despite,finishing smack dab between his teammates Mladin and Yates in the championship, Picotte didn't get the attention that the others did. This off-season he has moved to California in an effort to be cioser to the team. He's a regular visitor to the Yoshimura race shop and so far in off-season tests he's been consistently the fastest of the three Yoshimura riders. Again, Picotte could prove to be.the surprise of the title chase. The luster of his win at MidOhio last year was taken off somewhat by the weather, and by Jamie James' crash, but.he is capable of winning again - at any race on the 'schedule. 8. Larry Pegram - #72 Age: 24 Hometown: Columbus; Ohio Team: Yoshimura Suzuki Best resull in 1996: second (Pomona) By THE END OF THE 1997 SEAson, we'll all know how good Larry Pegram really is. If he fails to come to grips with the Suzuki in 1997, then it will be fair for pundits to point to his '96 success and say it was all due to the fact that he rode a Ducati. Then again, the 1997 season may also prove .that - like Mike Hale - the Ducati didn't really suit Pegram's style and that his career flourished when he got aboard a four-cylinder motorcycle. We'll just have to wait and see. I beli~ve that Pegram's style will be well suited to the Suzuki, but I also feel that it'll take him a while to get the bike to the front. This will prove to be a learning year for Pegram and that's why he's not picked any higher. 6. Tom Kipp - #16 Age: 28 Hometown: Mentor, Ohio Team: Yamaha Best result in 1996: third (Road America, Loudon and Brainerd) You GET THE FEELING THAT Tom Kipp just needs to win an AMA Superbike National to truly get rolling. Although he finished third in the championship last year, Kipp was never really that close to finally winning one - despite the fact that he obviously has the talent to do. so. Plagued by somewhat-dated Yamahas, it's really amazing that Kipp continues to put in such stunning efforts when he knows' that· he's fighting a losing battle. This season he will be faced with the uncertainty of the Yamaha team moving in-house after a long association with Vance & Hines, and he'll also be the lone Yamaha rider in the field. Although you would have to be fairly close to the team to know how much information was shared between Jamie James and Kipp in years past, not having a teammate to help develop the aging Yamaha can only be a detriment to Kipp's chances. Last year Kipp never fini~hed worse than 10th while accumulating points in every race in the 10-event schedule_ He'll likely repeat that performance in 1997, but it'll take more than that to crack the top five. 3. Miguel DuHamel 4. Paacal Picotte 5. TomKipp 6. Aaron Yales 7. Thomas Stevena 8. Thomas WIlson 9. Larry Pegram 10. Steve Crevier 5. Aaron Yetes 6. Tom Kipp 7. Thomas Wrison 8. Lany Pegram 9. Thomas Stevens 10. Steve Crevier 10. Steve Crevier - #14 Age: 29 Hometown: Pitt Meadows, British Columbia, Canada Team: Smokin' Joe's Honda Best result in 1996: fourth (Homestead) 9. Colin Fraser - co-producer of Canadian Superbike Series. director of competition for F-USA, Cycle News contributor ,. Mat Mladin 2. Miguel DuHamel 3. Pascal Picotte 4. Doug Chandler DFSPITE MISSING THE FIRSf lWO RACFS OF the season in Phoenix and Daytona, it's not asking much of Thomas Stevens to finish this high in the 1997 AMA Superbike National Championship. Stevens will be reunited with his tuner of old, Jim Leonard (the pair won the superbike title together in 1991), and with team owner Terry Vance. More impor. tantly, Stevens will be armed with Ducatis. It would be easy to predict that the Vance & Hines Ducati team will encounter teething problems along the way in its debut season with the V-twin, but it would also likely be incorrect. This is an experienced team and they have an experienced rider in Stevens. They'll get their bikes too late to compete in Phoenix and Daytona, and that's why they've been placed this low. One thing is certain, they'll come to Laguna Seca well prepared and with high expectations. I think they'll do well together and it wouldn't be much of a surprise to see Stevens win a Superbike National in 1997. - Every year there is at least one rider who has reached the put-up-or-shut-up stage of his career. In 1997, that rider is Thomas Stevens. STEVE CREVIER WAS FINALLY given every opportunity to shine Thomas Wilson - #30 in 1996. He was placed in the Age: 29 Smokin' Joe's Honda team, given one of Hometown: the best tuners in the business (Merlyn Plumlee), Oregon, Ohio and was handed motorcycles that Miguel Team: Harley-Davidson DuHamel had proven good enough on which to Best result in 1996: win. second (Mid-Ohio) Crevier, though, didn't take advantage of the THOMAS WILSON CAME VERY situation. His season started with consistent results close to giving the Harleyin the first four rounds and he may have shown Davidson VR1000 its first AMA drastic improvement in the second half of the seaSuperbike win last year in the rain at son - but his debut year with the Honda team was Mid-Ohio. He also finished the season ruined by a personal watercraft accident that left with strong fourth- and fifth-place finishes, earning Crevier with internal injuries. The tough little himself the AMA Superbike Rookie of the Year Canadian came back at the end of the season, but honor along the way. not with the aggressive style that had earned him a He was a pleasant surprise in 199~ and was spot on one of the top teams in superbike racing. always in. the top 10 when his VRI000 didn't fail Now Crevier finds himself in a lame-duck role, him. He also surpassed teammate Chris Carr as the having virtually been replaced for the 1998 season man most likely to put the VR on the winner's rosbefore the 1997 season even starts. Young Ben trum. _ Bostrom is waiting to move into the team in 1998 and Crevier will have to perform admirably in '97 Unfortunately, the VR continues to be unreliable at times and that alone is enough to prevent me just to assure himself a spot on a factory team in '98. from picking Wilson - or Carr - higher in the standLike Stevens, it's put-up-or-shut-up time for ings. That and the fact that it takes the Harley team most of the season to get the VR competi- __--J---l------_::Cr.,evier. tive, despite always ending the previous season with a motorcycle capable of winning. Other so-called experts... 1. Doug Chandler 2. Mat Mladin Thomas Stevens - #7 Age: 33 Hometown: Sanibel, Florida Team: Vance & Hines Ducati Best result in 1996: Did 'not race in AMA Superbike Series. Finished second in AMA 600cc Supersport Series. Wild cards: Chris Carr, Gerald Rothman Jr., Ben Bostrom, Tommy Hayden... ANY OF THESE FOUR RIDERS COULD SQUEEZE INTO THE TOP 10 IF THE OP!'ORTUNITY ARISES. Ln

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