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/127831
ROAD RACE AMA PRO HONDA OILS 60dcc SUPERSPORT SERIES By Henny Ray Abrams Photos by Abrams and Kinney Jones DAYTONA BEACH, FL, MAR 9 he Pro Honda Oils 600cc Supersport race was undeniably the best race of Motorcycle Week and just as undeniably owned, when it counted, by one rider. That rider was Yoshimura Suzuki's Pascal Picotte, the winner on the tech-nical twists of Phoenix International Raceway three weeks earli~r backing it up with a win on the high-speed banking of Daytona International Speedway. If there is a configuration which doesn't suit Picotte and the Suzuki GSXR600, the series hasn't found it yet and Picotte aims to make sure that they never do. "Honestly, I think I'm doing a really good job," Picotte replied when asked about the team's success. "The bike's working really, really well. I think [ had a little bit of speed, maybe not on everybody but on a few guys this week on the oval. We need still to work on it because all these guys, an of them were right there. [ was leading and all of a sudden I was seventh. I don't think we have so much of an advantage." That's the kind of race it was, the intensity of the pace whittling the lead pack of a dozen down to about seven at the line. Picotte, who qualified on the pole, led for the final nine laps of the IS-lap event, down from IS after it was red-flagged on the fifth lap of the first start and restarted with 15 to go. But it was only for the last three that he appeared to have a secure lead. That's when he made the daring and potentially ruinous' decision to lead out of the chicane, normally a recipe for disasfer in a tight drafting war. But he had faith in the machine and his crew to make it work. "[ had plans with my guys," Picotte explained, to have his signaling crew of team manager Don Sakakura and suspension technician Dale Rathwell alert him la te in the race if he was ini.periled. "I said, 'If there's anybody behind me and you can see that he can draft me the last three laps, I want you to show me my pit board reversed. I'm going to settle for second and draft him for the win: So they didn't show me my pit board and the last lap I turned around and I had maybe a second in front of Steve (Crevier) and [ said Okay, it's mine now:" And so it was, though not by much. At the flag Picotte was .lS0 of a second in front of Smokin' Joe's Racing's Crevier, the Canadian who led midrace making a much-needed return to Victory Lane after -a disastrous and injuryplagued 1996 campaign. Most impressive was that he hadn't qualified well, starting off from the fifth row in the SOrider field and persistently working his way to second. Then in swift succession came Aaron Yates, Picotte's Yoshimura Suzuki teammate; Smokin' Joe's Miguel DuHamel, who'd led before tbe red flag; Zero Gravity's Ben Bostrom, Barnett Tool & Engineering's Matt Wait, Team Oliver Yamaha's Rich Oliver, Kinko's Kawasaki's Mike Smith and Yoshimura Suzuki's Larry Pegram, who led early then Pascal Picotte (21) won his second straight 600cc Supersport final, but not wlthoU1 incident. Picotte was forced to take to the dirt while trying to overtake lapped rider Victor Braga (109) In the chicane. fell back when he overshot the chicane on the 14th lap. Because the IS-lap, 64.0S-mile race was red-flagged early on, there was no time of race or average speed. The numbers most important to Picotte are the championship standings. After two of 10 races he has 71 points, nine better than Yates and 12 ahead of twotime defending series champion DuHamel. The race began under .bright, sunny skies, a warm breeze greeting the field of SO who'd qualified. The first start was a: mess according to many of the riders, Picotte thinking it should have been red-flagged and done again, but it wasn't. "The light never went green and everyone knew that," said Ben Bostrom, who didn't take off with the pack. "Even the AMA guys knew it, but they decided since .everyone went just to keep letting them run. I was like 'What're they doing?' I almost got killed by guys ramming me. I'm sure guys are upset at me for not taking off:' DuHamel had taken off at the start, getting something of a flyer with Pegram, Kinko's 'Kawasaki's Jamie Hacking, Erion Racing's Doug Toland and Andrew Stroud, and Muzzy - Kawasaki's Todd Harrington following . as the pack streamed behind. Pegram quickly gobbled up DuHamel and took the lead on the third lap, then Hacking was in front, hard on the brakes into the chicane on the fourth lap with Picotte moving by at the end of the fourth. Before the entire field had completed the lap, Chicago Performance's Greg Kahle crashed hard coming off the East Banking, coming to a stop on the track and forcing the AMA to throw a red flag. After a 40-plusminute delay the race was regridded using the running order at the end of the third lap, the last one the entire field had completed. Bostrom was probably the happiest that the race was stopped. "When I came in someone had thrown a washer through my radiator," Bostrom said. "We had to clean up the mess. We had to replace the radiator. Our team just jumped on it and fixed it." This time the start was clean and Picotte got the holeshot and held it until Pegram and DuHamel swept by, the lead trio three wide at the line. Then came Wait, Crevier, Toland and Mark Miller. Muzzy Kawasaki's Tommy Hayden, who was riding with an injured right hand, had been near the front pack, but overshot the chicane and fell well back. He'd damaged ligaments in the hand during practice on Friday and only decided on ?unday morning to race. Todd Harrington, the other Muzzy Kawasaki rider, crashed in turn one on the sixth lap. The lead pack ran the next lap five wide down the back straight, Picotte the bravest on the brakes into the chicane for the lead, holding it in front of Pegram, DuHamel, Crevier, Wait, and about five others, all nose-to-tail, all using the draft to constantly change places. Ending five it was Picotte in front, then Pegram took the lead, Picotte taking it back when the lead trio ran three wide on the East Banking. ow it was Hacking's turn to take to the front, the Kinko's Kawasaki rider corning out of the pack to lead into the chicane, only to lose it on the run to the flag, first Picotte, then Crevier getting by and taking the point for the first time. But Picotte was swallowed up by the pack and dropped to eighth on the eighth lap as DuHamel took the lead for one lap, Pegram again in front as they approached the halfway mark. Behind the leaders the action was equally fierce, Bostrom ·and Mark Miller bumping into each other in the. chicane and HyperCycle's Jason Pridmore getting pinched up against the wall at the top of the banking. Pridmore later said that in the course of the race he hit the wall in NASCAR Four and his foot was stuck between his exhaust pipe and the wall. The Suzukis seemed to have an