Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

ROAD RACE AMANATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES Round 9: Pikes Peak Raceway AMAlPro Honda Oils 600cc Su ers ort Series By Paul Ca rruthers Photos by Henny Ray Abrams FOUNTAIN, CO, AUG. 17 . t is high ly unlikely that Larry Pegram won't win a 600cc Super- ..... u: ::s 00 ;::l -< 10 , sp o rt fin al in hi s ca reer, but if he doesn't it will be hard for him to forget the one held at Pikes Peak International Raceway in 1997. Pegram and his Yoshimura Su zuki see med to be in the perfect po sition as the ra ce came to a close on the tight and twisty tra ck - he was a head of both Migu el DuHamel a nd Pascal Picotte. Th en it all went wrong . With o nly two laps to go, Pegram led coming out of the fast lcft -handcr that leads to th e ba ck s tra ight, but the gritty DuHamel had a bet ter drive, and he pulled his Smokin' Joe's Ho nda up next to th e Ohi oan o n the entrance to the hairpin. Pegram had little choice but to wait a lillie longer to brake. DuHamel, tho ugh, followed suit, and Pegram couldn't dart to the ins ide to block the line. Instead, he ran wide, and bot h DuHamel and Picotte snea ked by o n the inside. First to third in one corner. Opportunity lost. From th ere it w as ju st a matter of DuHamel holding Picott e off to the line. And he did just th at, winning his fifth race o f the season to further exten d his cha m pionship po ints lead . But Pegram made th e race mem orable as a rid er who has never won one o f these ca me very close to doin g so. It a lso ma y a lso be enough to tum around Pegram's seas on of unfulfilled promise - that and a new bike . (Top) If it's Sunday, it must be another great 600cc $upersporl race. Miguel DuHamel (1) leads Larry Pegram (n ), Pascal Picotte (21), Jamie Hacking (2) and Tom Kipp (16). (Above) Ben Bostrom crashes out of the race ri ght in front of race winner Migu el DuHamel. "We've been having trouble with my 600 all year with rear -wheel chatte r," Peg ra m ex p la i ne d a fte r. " We' ve cha nged everything from the axle nu t to the fram e on it, an d it never go t any be tter. This weekend they had a spa re 600, and I ju mped on it, and there was no cha tter. I said , 'I wa una rid e this one.' That's basically th e di fferen ce between this race and eve ry oth er race." Pegram had finished on the podium earlier in th e seas on at Loudon, but it was more of a gift.as several riders we re docked a lap for pa ssin g under a wa ving yellow flag. This one he earned . But w he n a ll was said a nd d on e it was Mr. 600cc Superspo rt wh o crossed the finish line first, with DuHamel win nin g the class for the fifth time this yea r. It wa s also his 34th career 600cc win, a mark that is far and away the sta ndard by which future 600cc cham p ions will be measured, and puts him on track to win his fifth class championship. DuH am el now ha s 293 poin ts to Picott e's 273 as the series boils do wn to a two-m an race for th e ti tle . Picotte' s Yoshimura Suz uki teammate basicall y e li mi nated himself wi th hi s second s traig h t r a ce crash, tho ugh th is one was n' t his fau lt . Yates wen t ou t early w hen Smoki n ' Joe ' s H ond a' s Steve Crev ier cras hed into him, with both riders hitting the d eck in the hairpin . Ya tes was able to remount quickly, however, to post a sevent h-place fin ish. Cre vie r still hold s fourth in the ser ies with 230 po ints after being credi ted wit h finish ing 15th. Fifth in th e series point stand ings is class rooki e but racin g veteran Rich O live r. O live r rod e his Team Oliver Yama ha to fifth in the race and he now has 218 points. Fo urth place a t Pikes Peak went to Kink o' s Kawasakl's .Iam ie Hackin g in his most memorable rid e since Brainerd. Th e young Sou th Ca rolinia n was with the lead group through out, po sting his seco nd fourt h- place finish of the yea r. The firs t of three ra ces on Sund ay ended up producing th e most drama, thoug h Pikes Peak's tight a nd twisty layout on ly further proved that racing is at its bes t on fas ter circuits. Picotte led the 39-r ider field int o turn o ne for the first time, but DuHamel wasted no time in relegating him to seco nd with an outbraking ma ne uve r go ing into the hairpi n . Zero G ra vity's Ben Bos trom fol lowed suit, the yo ung Ca lifornian also in a .hu rry to ma ke good on a seaso n that hasn 't li ved up to hi gh expectati ons. Bostrom followed DuHamel across the stripe to end the first lap , but w as promptly passed by Picotte a nd Yamaha's Tom Kipp. Crevie r and Yate s were going a t it over fifth place and it wouldn't have a happy ending. O n the fourth lap, the pair went down in th e ha irpi n - with Crevier taking full responsibility . "It was my fau lt," Crevier said. "I tried to get off to a decent start . We were a bit unorganized with the superbike practice being right before the race , and my tires didn't ge t on wa rm ers. It's been three yea rs s ince I rod e without us ing warmers and J can' t believe how it was a cting . I hit Aaron (Ya tes) twi ce . I passed a co uple of guys a nd it s tarted hopp ing going in there - and I was out of contro l. He's very mad. I went over to apo log ize, but he won't accep t it. He's no t her e to mak e friends, but he'll get o ve r it. I'm s tri vi ng to d o well , a nd I ca n' t ba ck off. I've got to get somewhere." On the followin g lap, Mu zz y Ka wasa ki' s Tommy Ha yden cr as hed ou t, badl y dama ging th e sk in on .hi s right knee in the proc ess. . Thin gs at the front were far from stable. DuHamel led across the line at the end of five laps w ith Pi cotte, Kip p, Bostrom , Mall Wait, Pegram, Jason Pridmore and Hacking in tow . Oliver, meanwhile, wa s cha rging, and he too would en d up tagging on to the lead pack. Behind hi m ca m e Eric Bostrom, Mike Smith , Richard Ale xander Ir .. Mark Miller and (surprise ) 1li-year-old Nicky Hayd en in his first weekend of professional road racing. Ha yden was impressive, even tua lly fini sh in g .1 2th in th e s tar-studded field . Bos trom was hurrying again on the sixth lap , and he moved by Kipp go ing into the hairpin. Picotte took the lead for the first time a lap later, only to give it back to DuHamel after tw o laps. Then Bostro m shot by Picotte, and on the 12th lap he passed DuHamel to take the lead . Pegram, m eanwhile, was becoming a factor as he mo ved int o fourt h wit h a pass o n Kipp . Bostro m led the way for two laps, then !ossed the CBR600 down in the hairpin, almos t taking Du l-iarnel his fu tu re teammate - with him "1 w a s about bein g ni ce whe n I cras hed," Bostrom sa id . "It's all I can do . I was br aking right o n the sealer strip. I s ho uld ha ve run w id e a nd w e would have both been pushed out. A few guys wou ld have go tten under Us... but I put it in the re and it we nt. Those guys we re totally tak ing it easy on cold tires - I was read y to go." DuHamel was ni t too pleased w ith his teammate-to-be. "I was surp rised abo u t Ben for two thin gs: that he was up there and that he sort of turned off his mind," DuHamel sai d. " He a lmos t took m e out thr ee tim es. That su rp rise d me. In the past, I'v e coached him and helped him alo ng and tau gh t him to be smoo th and everythin g. Today, he wasn 't paying at tention to that and th en he crashed righ t in front of me. I thou ght I was goi ng to go down wi th him. He came inside of me an d he locked u p the fron t; he was tryi ng to keep a tight line in stead of going wid e beca use he overs hot the corner. He lost it a nd I ju st barely m ad e .the co r ner. That 's enoug h abo u t that situa tion." With Bostrom d own, it was left to Pegram to p ick up the pieces to try to win one for the ex-di rt trackers fra ternity. And he d id an ad mirable job. On the 18th lap, he shot up the inside of Picott e going into the hairpin and closed in on DuHam el, wh o had started to pull a ga p on the o thers in traffic. Pe gram w as so o n on the Hond a ' s back wh eel and he tnok the lead for th e first tim e on the 22nd lap. "We' d caught some la pp ers goi ng into the big corne r and I was strugglin g there, mo stly because I was dra gging m y cases th ro u gh there e ve ry lap," Pegram sa id later. " Bu t that la p he'd caug ht a tapper and went to the outside of him. I went to the inside and had a run on him . I went in there and had to jam on the brakes to get it stopped. That was about it." H e wou ld lead for si x more la p s, unti l DuHamel made his final move. "I really thought I could win it once I got in the lead , but Miguel got a run on me down the back s tr a ig h ta w ay:' Pegram said. "He got up beside me and I knew that with him on the inside I had to go in d eeper. H e knew that I wa s going to do that and he went in deeper. Basicall y, we both went in really deep and I was on the outside. I didn't have the line and Pascal slipped und er wh en that happened, too. It really wa sn 't that corn er . It looks like I made the mistake there , but he basically ma de a mo ve on me in the o th er corner . He had m e. I could have pulled in behind him and jumped on the br akes to tak e seco nd, bu t I wan ted to try a nd go deep and hope that he would shu t off a lillie. But he didn't and I go t in too deep. It was a good race . My bike worked goo d and the tires were good to the end . I had a few riders playing a little rou gh, but wh at-goes around comes around." Picotte ended up second , but it was mu c h too late to try so me th i ng on DuHam el. "If I would have bee n seco nd, probabl y I w o uld ha ve tr ied so me th ing on Migu el; ' Picott e sa id . "Bu t when you 've go t tw o rid er s In front of you, I mean ynu can' t just pa ss both guys - (not) at th e s peed w e' re going . If you mak e a move and try to pass two guys, you 're

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