Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

ROAD RACE AMA/PRO HONDA OILS 600cc SUPERSPORT SERIES (Above) The 600cc Supers port final gets sta rted with the front row of Pasc al Picotte (21), Aaro n Yates (20), Mi ke Sm ~h (68) and Jamie Hacking (2) launc hing off the line. (Len) Race winner Aaron Yates (20) exits tum 11 with Pascal Picotte (21) In hot pursuit. By Henny Ray Abrams f1 B ~ 14 MONTEREY, CA,jULY13 oshimura Su zuki's Aa ro n Yat es su rvived a red flag, the relentless pressure of te ammate Pa s cal Picotte, and a tumultuous last lap to "officiall y" win his Pro Honda O ils 600cc Superspo rt race of the ye ar on a bri ght and su n ny afternoon a t Lag u na Seca Raceway. "Officially" because he' d won the 600cc race at Lou don, only to be d o cked a lap for passing un d er a wa vi ng yellow flag. This one was less even tful, except for th e red flag w hich s to p ped the race o n th e seven th of 17 laps. At t hat point, the Geo rgian was nom inally in th e lead over teammat e Picotte, the pair having split from the rest. On the restart , Yatestook a flyer, opening up better than a 2.5-second gap before bein g gra d ually reeled in by teammate Picotte . Th e Fr en ch Cana dia n, w ho ' d qualifi ed on the pole in front of Yates, was on him with two laps to go, passing to lead ac ro ss the stripe to begi n th e final tour. But Yates refused to lose, repassing Picotte ent ering the Corkscrew on the fina l lap and hold ing off Picotte's final push in the final left-ban der befor e the finish line. From th ere it was a drag race that Yates won by .150 of a seco nd (because the 17-lap, 34.34-mi le race had bee n red-flagged , th ere was no offic ia l time or av erage speed). "I' d been beh ind Pascal a cou ple of times o n both th e 600 a nd Su perbike, a nd I'd ki nd of seen the w ay he was going t h ro ugh th e Co rkscrew and the way I was go ing through there," Yates said lat er . "I knew that if I was going to h a ve to p ass hi m so mew here, i t was going to have to be there. It wo uld have been hard to ge t un d er him in 11 there and then still be able to ge t out of th e turn good withou t pushi ng him 'off the tra ck o r something lik e that. I rea lly didn't want to do th at to him. I knew that if I wa s g oing to pa ss him , it was go ing to hav e to be up there. Going up out of five through six, I was jus t tryi ng to get a little d rive on him be cause he was kind of just pulling m e a little bit out of all the turns. I was rid ing it a littl e harde r than I was earlier." " I didn't th in k he w as goingto tr y me that hard o n th e brakes (into the Cor kscrew)," Pic otte said. As for his last-la p s tra tegy into turn 11, Picotte said, "I w as go ing to try, but lapped traffic got right in fron t of us . I wa s d efinitely going to try - no t try, I was going to make it." S mo kin' jo e' s H onda ' s Migu el DuHamel finis hed third, a cou ple o f seconds back, des pite rid ing with a con cu ssion after crashi ng hea vil y in morning qua lifying. "I' m pretty happy," DuHam el said . "I wo ul d have been happier if we hadn't ba nge d o u rse l ves up th is m ornin g . Aa ron a nd Pasca l rode hard . To rid e wi t h th os e g uys, yo u h a ve to h ave everything in top shape and have everything clicking, and they put on a good show and they wer e working hard. At the end th ere, I was coming d own th e hill, looking slow to see what was g oin g to happen in comer 11. I saw Pascal wa s le ading ; I saw A aron s t u ff it up the inside of him - he was able to ma ke it stic k to th e fro nt line. But it gave me a bit of a show." Th ou g h he lost a few po ints to the Yos h bo y s, DuHamel still le a d s th e ch a m p io ns hip b y 11 p oin ts, 222 -211 over Yates, who moved a point .in fron t of Picotte - third with 210 after seven of 11 races. Following the podium placings, th e Kinko 's Kawasaki team was ne xt across the line, w ith Mike Smith safely ahe ad of Jamie Hacking. Steve Crevier used his experience to put the Sm okin' joe's Honda in fron t of Zero Gravity' s Eric Bostrom on the last lap to tak e sixth . Team Oliver Yam aha 's Rich Oliver wa s a happy eig h th - happy because he'd crashed in tum 11 just before the red fl a g, r em ounting in a bo u t 20th place. Wh en th e race was stop ped, he was able to mount a new set of tires, fix some cosme tic damage, and win his battle w ith Yama ha's To m Kipp, wh o was ninth. The red flag had come out when Barn ett To ol & En gineering ' s Mall W ait cra shed in turn three, taking ou t Zero G r a vi ty's Ben Bo strom , w ho had no where to go. Bost rom , who was taken to the medical-care center and released , raced - with torn ligaments in his right s ho u lde r a n d possibl y cr ac ke d or bruised rib s - to 10th place . Wait , who ha d a chill y rid e in the course car with Bostrom to the medical ce n te r, didn ' t make the restart. The ra ce bel onged to th e Su zukis fro m the start . Yat es got the ju mp on th e 38-rider field , Picott e going wi th him in fron t of Smith, DuHamel, Hacking and Crevier. It wasn't long be fo r e th e Suzukis establis hed their superiority and , by the sixth lap, they ha d closed to a fo u r-s econd lead o n thir d, w it h DuHamel now in fro nt of Sm ith, then ano the r four seconds to Crevier, Hacking and Kip p. Oliver low-sided in tu rn 11 ending the sixth lap, bu t remounted an d rejoin ed the race. But not lo ng after O liver cra s hed , Wa it wen t down, spinning out in tu rn t hree w hile i n pursu it of the Cre vier I Hacking/ Kip p pack. Bostro m was on his tail w he n it ha ppened. and cras hed heavily afte r h ittin g W a it ' s H onda. Havi ng wa tche d Wait rid e at w ha t he tho u gh t w a s a n im p ru den t p ace, Bostro m was incensed a t being ta ken ou t. "1 m ade th e m istak e o f follo w ing Mall Wait," an irate Bostrom sa id . "H e's cra shed twice ea ch w eekend at eac h ra ce . I w as go ing to p a ss h im in th e Corkscrew." But befor e that could happen, "he crashed right in front me. I wa s three feet be hind his rea r tire. "H e was just riding OVer his head," Bostrom continued. " It was typical. The other guys w ere gett ing away and he was on the gas hard. On the exit of turn three, he spun ou t because he was o n th e gas so hard . I th in k that' s called a no-brainer." "The rear s tep ped out g oing out of three," sa id Wait, w ho had u nspecified injuries to his right sho ul der and right arm . "On my way d own , I go t snagged by Ben's bike. H e had nowh ere to go . I feel bad that he had to go d own becau se of me." Wait sa id he'd wait until he go t hom e to Lodi, California, to receive fu r the r medical atten tion . The red flag allo wed riders to put fresh rubber on and Oliver to clean his machin e up. The second ra ce was gridded fr om positions a t the end of the fifth lap. DuHamel got the jump, but it was short-

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