Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

Cycle News 1997 07 09

Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles

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the fi rs t la p w h ile Tho m a . Wit-on'. VRlOOO lasted for 14 of the 21 laps. In keeping w it h the pa rit y that is AMA Superbike racing, th e top five fin ishers were mo unted on fiv e different bran ds of motorcycles - Hond a, Yamaha, Ducati , Suzu ki and Kaw asa ki. Ch andler's fift h-p lace result co mbined with Mlad in' s thi rd allo wed the Austra lian to close the ga p in the cha mpions hi p p oint standings to 15 p oints, 186-171. Crevier is third with 162 points, ju st four clea r of P icotte. Ya tes hold s down fift h wit h 154 poin ts, two m o re than DuHamel's 152. The Hitching Post Suzuki Classic go t underway under cloud cover, but with the threat of rain hav ing di ssipated. fittingly, it wa s a Suzuki at th e front of the pack a. it roa red its way d own the long fron t s tr aigh t and into the high-speed turns one and two. The lead was shortlived, th ough, as first Mladin and then DuHamel ducked through. By the time they reached tum three, Du Ham el wa s in the lead . And he was there to stay: "It feels 'great," DuHam el sa id later . "I've been tryi ng hard all year, but obviously everybody kn ows abo u t the problems we've had. At Loud on (where he crashed ), it was my fault because I was trying too hard to wi n one and get back into th e ch a m p io ns h ip . ~ ste r day in practice we we re d oin g low 38s with a race setup - full fuel and race tires no problem . Maybe it helped that we did n't ha ve ano ther sessio n (see q ua lif yi ng side bar) so th ose guys cou ld go out and try som ething d ifferent. I thi nk I m aybe s ta rted th ird . I pa ssed on e guy goi ng into one and I passed another go ing into number three. I just passed them on the ins id e. Th en it w a s ju s t, 'O kay , yo u know you can ride this race: I put m y h ead d own a nd s ta r ted ripp in g so me quick laps ou t. O n Friday and Saturday, we' re always amon g th e quickes t, and o n Su nda y some th ing ha p p en s. This weekend w a s jus t o ne of those d ays where everything came togeth er: ' Any hop es the top men had of staying wi th Du Ha mel we re dashed as ea rly as the second lap. By then, he'd already put a gap between himself and his pursuers - and they already appeared to be prepa red to let him do so. Then the ga p stopped g row ing , w ith Mladi n ge tting by Picotte in tum one . And there was a ray of hope. Wi th th e pair goi ng back and for th, howev er, the gap sta rted t o stretch again. End of sto ry, "I got past on lap thre e an d held the ga p to Miguel (Du Ha mel) exactly th e same," Mladin said. "The n he (Picotte) drafted past me and I go t pi ssed off. I had the shits and that screwed my race right there. I could n' t ge t into a rhythm so I could n't m ake up any time. [ had a few littl e s hoc k pro b le m s, but a pa r t from that Migu el (Dul-Iamel) was goin g to win toda y." The fr u stration Ml ad i n ha d with Pico tte ev en tua lly go t to hi m a nd lie opted to wai t it ou t. "I knew we w eren't goin g to be abl e to pull away," Mladin said. "Th is track is n' t lik e tha t. Tod a y .. . w ell , Pascal (Picotte) was getting in my way. He wa s d ra ft ing 'p as t me o n th e s traig h t a nd then pulling it up in the middle of th e tu rns . I'!l get ba ck past him and he'd d raft past me agai n. 1 jus t co uld n' t be bo thered doing it anymore, so 1 d ecided I was jus t going to s it back th ere until there were tw o o r three laps to go . I cou ld n' t run Migu el ' S pace w he ther I got past or not : ' Tho s e tw o con ti nued to go a t it , while Cha nd ler started picking his way thr ough afte r a d readful start. He wa s fourth by the seco nd lap, after getting > by Yates, Pegram and Kipp , and then he s tarted to clo se o n the Picotte/Miad in struggle. It took him un til the ninth lap to get eve n wi th the pairin g, bu t by then DuHamel was almost six se conds in fron t. At this point, DuHamel hit tra ffic for the first tim e - but it mad e no di fference. He was never threatened, leading by as mu ch as 10 seconds before casi ng off. "When I go t up to 10 seconds , 1could see the fear in my m ech an ic s' fac es ," DuHam el said. "I was still trying to put some good laps together, but I could see they w e r e thinking , ' W ha t a re yo u doin g? You've got 10 seconds; don't go chunking a tire: If 1 kept going tha t pace and ended up chunking a tire, I'd look lik e a co m p lete foo l. From m id race, 1 thou ght I felt a vibrati on from the rear but the tire is fine. It was probabl y just in my head. Mayb e with the shoc k problem I wa s getting a bit more feed back:' Chand ler finally made his mov e a t the start of the 16th lap as he jette d up th e in side of Mladin in turn one . H e then dived under Pico tte in turn three. He wa s su d denly seco nd , but it o n ly lasted for a lap. "Hey, better tha n last year," Chandl er sa id later, recalling hi s breakd own a t Brai nerd in 1996. "This mo rn in g, I rode the number-two bike and it w as working good. I thou ght it was starting to slow do wn and 1 opted for th e other bike. It just did n't run as well. We rode the weak bike to make sure we finished - that was the main concern . They'd just lea ve me off the corners. I got a d raft on Mat (Mlad in) once. 1 held on and tried ... but they were back by me before we got to the s ig nboa r ds. We had to p lay it safe." • "Sa fe" led to a fif th- p la ce fi ni sh although for the majority of th e race it loo ked as th ough he cou ld n' t po ssibly fini s h a ny lower than fourth . T hat's before Kipp got extreme ly insp ired . N o o ne paid much attention to the bl ue Yamaha u ntil th e 17th of 21 laps. That's when il became a ppa rent tha t Kipp had intenti ons of grandeur. He (Top) DuHamel was in a class of his own at Brainerd. Lapping cons istently faster than his rivals , DuHam el was able to pun clear from a battle (ab ove) that included Mat Mladin (66), Picotte (21) and Doug Chandler (1). and the Rick Hobbs-tuned YZF750 shot pas t Chandler and Picotte on the 19th lap; the n he passed Mladi n a lap later. Sud d enly, he wa s sec o nd a nd there to stay . "For se ve n or eight laps, I was just re all y str ugglin g with (Steve) Crevier and (Larry ) Peg ram ," Kipp sa id of hi s race. "A nd actu all y Thomas (Stevens) was there, too . They all had fast m oto rcy cles, I w as pretty fast th ro ug h th e infie ld , bu t I had a tough tim e taking care o f bu sin ess o n the front s trai gh taway. 1 put my head d own and had a co u ple of clean la ps by myself. With l'.... 0\ 0\ ...... 5

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