Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

ROAD RACE AMAIMBNA SUPERBIKE NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP BRAINERD,MN, JUNE 29 s cr azy a nd fa r -fe tc hed as it seemed, it w as fact: Mig u el DuHamel hadn't won an AMA Superbike National in just over a year. But th ose w ho w itnessed th e drubbing he gave his superbike rivals at Brain erd International Raceway pro bably left th e wood ed facility in Minnesota wondering if he'll ever lose again. Na tu rally, he will . But nn this clou dy d ay in Bra ine rd, he appeare d unbeatab le. There was simply no matching the to rrid p a ce that DuHamet an d his Smokin' joe's Honda were able to set as he pulled away ea r ly a nd w as never headed . In the end, the mar gin of victory was only 3.45 seconds - but that was purely an illusion . The French Canadian had in fact led by as much as 10 secon ds before slowing slig htly nea r the en d of the ra ce to secure his first victory of th e yea r a nd th e 13 th of h is ca ree r. Although the Cha mpio nshi p appears to be ou t of DuHamel's reach at this point, his performance proved once again tha t he and the factory Honda team remain a force to be reckoned wi th. Wi th Du Hamel checkin g out early, 0......;;.1 4 Round 6: BrainerdInternational Raceway attention tu rned to the battle for second and, more imp ortan tly, the chase fo r the A MA Su perbi ke Nationa l Championship. And it was a battle worth watching, as Fast By Ferracci's Mat Mladi n a nd Muzzy Kawa saki 's Dou g Chandler battl ed o v er th e runn e r- u p s po t, w ith Yoshimura Suzuki's Pascal Picotte sandwiche d between th em for the rnajori ty of th e race . Sud denly, however, th ere were four in the pa ck, as Yamaha 's Tom Kipp reeled the trio in late in the race. And th en he beat th em , d ecisiv ely, in w hat was his best effo rt of the season and h is fi rst po d ium fi nish since la st yea r at this same venue . Seemingly coming out of nowhere, Kip p picked off Chandler, the n Picotte a n d fi na lly Ml a d in to finis h seco nd beh ind DuHam el. It was enough to q u iet th e Kip p n a y sa yers, many o f whom had wri tten off the Ohioan. "There are riders and there are racers - tod ay I was a racer," Kipp said. And he won 't get mu ch of an argument. Beh i nd Ki pp ca me Ml ad in , s tru ggling a bit wi th a fading rear shock but happy to have ga ine d valuable points o n series lead er Cha nd ler. Pico tte held on for fourth, after being balked late in the race by traffic, and Chand ler was a d isa p poi n te d fif th . The d e fend ing Superb ike Na tio na l C h a m p io n w a s forced into rid ing his backup motorcycle in the Na tio nal, opting to make certain of finishing th e race rather th an risk rid ing the faster of the tw o Kawasakis and po ssibly suffering a repea t of last year's Brainerd d ebacle . Chand le r sa id th e backup ZX7R wa sn' t as fast and he sim. p ly cou ldn' t keep pace. The ever-consis tent Steve Crev ier fin ished sixth on the second Smo kin' joe's Ho nda, ridi ng alone for most of th e race after losing tou ch wi th the har d-char ging Kipp. Then ca m e Vance & Hines Duca ti's Tho mas Stevens in his best outing of th e yea r o n th e n ew te a m ' s By Paul Carruthers Phot o s by Henny Ray Ab rams Migue l DuHamel (17) led each and every one ofthe 21 laps in the AMA Superblke National at Brainerd International Raceway. Pasc al Picotte (21) and Mal Mladin (66) give chase. Ducati. Still d own somew ha t o n top speed, Stevens also suffered from an offtrack excu rsio n but battled o n to give the team its best res u lt of the season . Eig h th a n d n inth we re h eld b y Yoshimura Suz u ki's Aa ro n Yates a nd Larry Pegram, both the victims of poor tire choice. Th e pair spent mos t o f th e race fightin g slides, but ca rried o n to card top-10 resul ts. Tenth place we nt to Mu zzy Kawasaki upstart Tommy Hayden, matching his season's best. Attri tion was ligh t, at least whe n it came to the factory men . Fast By Ferracci's Ge rald Rothman [ r, failed to capitatize on his bes t q ualifying result of th e yea r when he cras hed ou t on th e 15th lap; and both of th e factory Harl eyDavidsons suffered broken cam chains, kno ckin g Chris Carr ou t of the race on

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