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/127850
ROAD RACE AMA/MBNA SUPERBIKE SERIES r (Above) Miguel DuHamel (17) gol the jump on the field at the start of the Superbike Nati onal. Mat Mladin (66), Dou g Chandler (1), Ben Bostrom (11), Thomas Stevens (7), Pascal Picon e (21) and Tom Kipp (16) give chase. (Left) Chandler leads DuHamel and Mladln In their heated battle for the lead. By Paul Carruthers Photos by Henny Ray Abrams LEXINGTON, OH, JULY 20 n w h a t was in a rgua bly the most th rilling AMA Superbike Na tiona l of t h e se as o n , Smo kin ' Joe's H o nd a ' s Mi gu el DuHa m e l a od Mu zzy Kawa saki's Doug Chandler ba ttled to the biller end a t the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Cou rse, with DuHamel wi nning the mad d ash to the finish line by just .120 of a second. It's rare ind eed that a su perbike race ~ ~ ~ " - t-.. ~ .0' c<) >.... ;:; .......... 6 overshadows the always-intense battles of the 600cc Su pe rs po rt cla ss, bu t this one did just th a t. And initia lly it featured mo re than ju s t DuH amel a nd Ch andler. Ea rly on, Fast By Fer ra cci Ducati's Mat Mlad in wa s also a pro tago nis t in t he s trugg le; and later, Yosh imura Suzuki' s Aaron Yates .joined in aft er fig h ting his wa y to th e front after a poor start. But in the end it came down to jus t two - DuH am el and Chand ler - as Mlad in faded to fourth wi th a misfiring Ducati, a nd Yates jus t didn' t have enough to keep pa ce in the closing stages. But in this case, two was plenty. In a . race made all the more in teres ting by the multitudes of lapped traffic, neither cou ld make a n adva ntag e stick and it sim ply came down to the final lap. And there's no tougher racer in the seri es than DuHamel in a nothing-to-lose mood on the fina l lap, especially when Chandler ha s a championship to protect. At th e line, it was DuH amel wi nn ing for th e 15th lime in hi s AMA Superbike career, movin g him self int o a tie with Freddie Spence r for third on the a ll- time w in list. He was ha ppy, Chandler was happy ... and w hy not? Both had turned in s te ll a r performances that had the large crowd on its feet. "Those were two of the most gra tifying wi ns I'v e had in a long, long time," DuHamel sai d of his double 600cc Supersport and Superbike victories at Mid-Ohio. "It didn't look so good here. We were a second off in 600 and a bit off in superbike - what, a full tenth or so m e th in g ? I w a s ju st really ri ding hard. My bike was chattering bad and I think I fell once or twice - I just forgo t to fall all the way down. In Superbike, I saw four or five guys that would be up there and that it would be a hell of a battle. I was really able to ride hard, through all those cement patches ar.d ripples . Everyone was rea lly g oing hard, and to come ou t on top in one of these really feels gr eat. "