goi n g to end up cras hing, u r youre
gu ing to run wide and they'll take yo ur
d ri ve bac k. With Larry in fro nt of me
and Migu el, [ just couldn 't figure out...
to really bea t Miguel was kin d of im possi ble. Ma ybe [ had something fur Larry,
maybe. But he w as riding really good
and his GSXR600 was working bea utifu l, like mine ag ain. Miguel rode a great
race. Lapped traffic didn't reall y go my
way a g a i n this w ee k e n d - it alw a ys
seems like it end s up going better for the
other guys. O ther than that, I'm really
happy. We're still in th e h u nt fo r th e
champions hi p . A nything can happen.
There a re o nly tw o races left , but you
need o nly just one lap, or one comer, to
crash o r have a mechanica l failu re."
For DuHamel, the wins kee p coming
- but they seem to be getting a bit harder.
" In the pa st, sometimes it's maybe
bee n a bit easy, for sure," DuHamel
said. " Bu t now thes e gu ys are just really
running hard. [ mean it ge ts to be a real
workout. I've got to giv e than ks to Ray
Pl umb, AI Ludding tu n a nd Ioey Lornbardo a nd Hunda for giving m e t ha t
C BR F-3 . We pla yed a bit with jett ing
this w e ekend a n d I t hi nk we r e a ll y
na iled it for today. The bike was reall y
accele ra ting w ell and I t hink [ ha d
power on everybody. I think jetting is
so m e t h in g we don't pla y that ofte n
wi th, but we really hit it on the head. I
think we also have to realize that I was
running first a lot of the time so my bike
was getting a lot of clean air, so it was
probably running at least 10 d egrees
cool er than their bikes. [ could see when
[ got behind Larry that it got up to 104
or something like that. I was worried
a bu u t Pascal because I knew h e was
there, and he never shows himself until
..
he wa nts to make a pas.. and go.
'The way Larry was riding, [ didn't
think [ could get by him. [ was going to
try, but nothing too stupid . I w uuld
have settled maybe for that. But he w ent
a bit wide in that comer d own there and
I was able to dive in. I also figured th at
all weekend my bike wasn't that good b ut fu r the ra ce it was re all y, re ally
good. I had a winning bike and I had to
put it where it needed to be. If the bike
w as a little oii, m a ybe I wou ld have
taken it easier."
H a cking fi n is hed right b e h i n d
Pegram, a n d Oliver was fi ft h , ag ain
im p ressi ve in his d ebut se as o n o n th e
YZF600.
'"
Pikes Peak Intern ational Racewa y
Fou ntain, Colorado
Resu lts: August 17, 1997 (Round 9 of 11)
AM A/I'RO HONDA OIL"i 600« SUPF.RSPQRT: 1.
Migud Du llamd (lion); 2. r... ~1 Nrotte (..<;Uz); 3. Lmy
Pegram (Suz); 4. Jam ie Hac king (Kaw); 5. Rich Oliver
(Yam); 6. Tom Kipp (Ya m ); 7. Aaron Yates (Sur.) ; 8.
jason Pridmore (~uz) ; 'J. Ma tt Wait (Ha n ); 10. Mark
Milk,. rt M iasek ( Ha n ); 28.
Mile Klein (Hon); 29 . Kurt Marmor (Hon); 30. ClYg
Whitt" (Suz); 31. &:utl M c Ro~rh (J(a w); 32. Rebert
B'u!o>.""-'Y (50.17-); 33 . Mich"'lc'1 Appldl4re. ( Hu n) ; 34 . J~
M..dina (Suz); 35. J.t!olm Odrzywul..ki (H un); 36. Bryan
a-..--- (H on): 37. Tf"t""u lmani...h i (Kdw); .3A. Andn'w
Stroud Uion};J9. Tommy Hayden flCawl.
Time: 28 min.. 22.680 we.
Distance ?J laps. J7:J mik:s.
A-n:n~ Sperd; 1'J.710 mph.
Margin of Victory: O.JYO see,
600(e SUPERS PORT SE RII:-:S C' S H I P POINT
STANDINCS (After IIJ of 11 round sl : I. Miguel
OuHamd (293 /5 wi n s); 2. Pa:-ca l Picotte (273 /3); 3.
~ron Yates (254 /1); i . Steve C re vie r (230); 5. Rich
Onver (218); 6. Jason Pridmore (207); 7. MikE' Smith
(183) ; 8. JamiE' Hacking (lBO); 9~ mE) Ben Bostnim/Tom
Ki p p (1b6) ; 11. (TI E) Er ic Bostrom /La rry
Pegr.am l Andre w Stroud (159 ); 14 . Tommy Hayden
(29); 15. Doug Tolan d (121).
Upcomi ng Rounds:
Round 10 - Sonoma, California, Augus t 3 1
Round 11· Las Vegas, Nevada, October 5
AMAfTeamline 750cc SUpersport Series
R 8P P
ound : ikes eakInternational Raceway
By Paul Carruthers
Photo by Henny Ra y Ab rams
FOUNTAIN,CO, AUG.15
o r all practi ca l purposes, HyperCycle Suzuki' s Jason Pridmore
wra pped u p th e 1997 A M A /
Teamlin e 750cc Su perspo rt C ha m pi ons hip with his six th wi n of the-season,
this one coming a t Pikes Peak In ternati onal Racew ay . With a 70-po in l lead
w ith twu races left in the series, all Prid more ha s to d o is score tw o poin ts in the
next round. Irs safe to say, yo u can start
ca lling him "cham p."
A n d a d eserving cham pion he will
be . Pridmore's latest victory at Pikes
Peak was calcu la ting , with iffy conditions at the s tar t o f the race failing to
forc e him in to cruise-mode. Instead, he
w ent out and passed tw o-time World
Champion Doug Polen ea rly, then mainta ined a stead y ga p o n the veteran - a
gap he held to the finish. Th e result his
sixth win in eight starts. In two weeks,
he 'll take his first-ever AMA title of any
kind .
Second place went to Pol en and his
Team Polen Suzuki GSXR750, the Texan
leading uff the start but giving way to
Pridmore ea rly. Still , he was able to
p res sure Prid more throughout, gaining
g ro u nd in tra ffic bu t end ing up a few
s eco n ds behind . It was Pol en's third
podium fin ish of the season.
Th e race wa s stopped one lap prematurely when Michael Barnes and John
Jacobi crashed afte r colliding in turn
one, bring in g o u t th e red flag. Fo rtunately, neither of the rid ers was seriousIy inju re d , th ough IJames had severe
lacera tio ns un his left hand. Reports that
one of the tw u riders had lost the ir helmet during the cras h were false, according to Barn es ,
The red-flag stoppage took much of
th e dram a ou t of w ha t cer tainly w ould
have been a grea t last-lap scrap fur third
place between Tea m Suz uki Spo rt's
Rich ard Alexa nder Jr. an d HypcrCycle
Suzuki's Mark Miller. Mille r had closed
the gap considerably afte r a s ta r t tha t
ha d him w ell outside the top 10, but he
d idn 't get th e u p po rt u ni ty fur a lastg as p pas s as th e ra ce was stop ped.
Alexa n der ended u p thi rd a nd Miller
fou rt h as the resu lts were backed u p to
th e 27th lap.
" It all started mi d race w he n (Da le)
Kie ffer was a hea d of me: ' Ale xander
sa id. " 1 was ca tching him and [ was abl e
to use lapped traffic to get u p to h im
and get by him . Ge tting him was a tas k
that [ ha d to overcome, but I d id . Th en I
caught a glimpse of orange coming an d
I kn e w Ma r k M i ll e r was co mi ng. It
w uu ld hav e been tight at the fi ni sh
because I know he was right on me. But
tha t's how thi ngs ended up. It would
hav e been good; a good race to th e fin ish. I never looked back, but there a re
ce rta i n corners w here yo u ca n ca tch a
glimpse of a rider - I sa w ora nge."
Hooter's-backed Brian Gib bs ended
up fifth a ft er al s o w orkin g hi s way
around Kieffer, who held third for most
of the ra ce before falling to sixth. Th en
ca me Steve Rapp and his Cycle Gearbacked Suzuki, Grand Prix Motorsports'
Chris Ran kin, Hooter's James Randolph,
a n d Zero Gra vity's Ben Bo strom, th e
first non-Suzuki GSXR750.
Bostrom needed to finish bett er to
keep his slim championship hopes ali ve,
but it w asn't to be as the yuung Califurnian blew through the chicane on one
lap, los ing several spots in the p rocess.
So after eig ht of 10 races, Pridmore is
70 poi n ts a head of Bostrom, 279-209.
Kieffe r is thi rd with 189 poin ts a nd
Polen is fourth with 171 points. Fifth
place is being held by Alexander with
165 points.
The ra ce started o n a drying race
track after a downpour soaked the track
only an hour or so p rior to the race, and
Polen seemed the most eager to face the
conditions. Th e Texan nailed the start
and held the lead for the first two laps;
then Pridmore dived und er him in th e
sweeping tum two.
Bostrom, meanwhil e, w a s t hi r d ,
using heroic late-braking maneuvers
intu the hairpin tu pass several uf th e
GSXR750s on hi s Hunda CBR600. He
w a s o b vi o usly r iding hard , bu t he
couldn't keep it up and he slow ly gave
ground to the bigger bikes . His undoing
came w hen he ra n hard into the chicane
b u t co uldn' t g e t th e b ike sluwed to
make the second portion o f the temporary d es ign; he ra n straight an d was
forced to take the slow route. He w ou ld
eventually finis h 10th - and only after
Jacobi and Barn es were ta ken out uf the
equation,
T h a t took a ny d ra ma out of the
cha mpions hip ba ttle, bu t the race at the
fro nt still kept th ings interesting.
Prid mo re led, but Polen was close close eno ugh to make a run if traffic
balked Pridmore in any way. That happen ed on the 15th lap, but it wasn't
enough for Polen to strike. He got close,
bu t Pridmore was able to ext end the gap
again, even tually laking the victory.
"In the beginn ing, [ really d idn' t
kn uw (if he could hu ld the lead)," Po len
said. "After the race sta rted to play itself
out, [ was able to start catching back u p
to him. Then [ really caught him when
he got to a grou p uf la p ped rid ers. But at
that poi nt and time, ev erything o n my
bike was starting tu p re tty much settle
uu t and it jus t seemed a little bit slower
than his (Pridmore's) - a tenth or two a
lap when we had open race track. That
was the difference there."
Polen was. t he only rider s miling
w hen the rain started to fall o n Satunday
afternoon. A wet race wou ld ha ve suited him and his Pinelli tires just fine, he
figured.
"I w as hoping for a completely w et
race, actually," Polen said. "fhat wuuld
have bee n really good. I haven' t had a
chance to rid e o n th e Pirelli w ets yet that wuuld have been a good o pportunity to d o th at. Last w eekend th ey had
rea lly g ood re sults he re; th ey pretty
much smoked every bod y in the wet. I
Jason Pridmore won aga in in 750cc
Supersport and Is al most assured of
wrapping up the title In the neXl round 01
the series.
was kinda looking furward tu that, but it
dried up real quick. The only place there
w as any kind of real moisture was coming o UI of the hairpin in the infield ."
Stand ing under an awning in the rain
prior to the race, Pridmore was the complete opposite, H e wanted it d ry and he
got what he wa nted.
"We knew it was going tu be a DOT
tire all the wa y: Pridmore said. "I guess
I'm kinda the opposite (fro m Polen): I
wasn'tluuking furward tu racing here in
the rain. [ wasn't looking fo rward to
slipping and slid ing around here in the
. rain. This is actually th e first time all
yea r tha t I've thought about the championship. When it was ra ining, that's
when I thoughl about it. [ just sa id, 'As
much as I like tu win, I'm jus t going to
use my head also and just finis h where I
finish - if irs a rain race: [ took a nice
easy wannup lap like [ did at Brainerd,
saw where some of the dry lines were,
and stuck my GSXR750 on ' em at th e
sta rt uf the race. That was it.
"I like to finesse my way around and
that's what [ did - even the first five, six
la ps of t he race," Pri d mo re ad d ed . "I
was still being pret ty conservative on
some of my lines; guing in tig hter than I
n urma lly w ould just beca use [ didn ' t
know w ha t to expect any wider. Once I
s tarted feeling more relaxed a nd comfo rta b le, I saw 'Plus ' a n d I t h o ug h t,
'Well, [ ca n run this pace all day: Th en [
ran in to a huge pack of backmar kers,
and [ took a pee k over my shoulder and
saw 231. [ thought, 'Uh oh, here w e go it 's going to start : [ was a ble to get
through a couple of o ther backmarkers
probably easier than Doug and that was
p robably it. Hey, irs 29 laps and th ere
are guing tu be ba ckmarkers - a nd Dou g
kno ws irs '19 laps . That' s the nea t thing
a bout having Do ug in this class . .Th ere
are a lot of young guys in th is class, bu t
having a vetera n like Doug, who you .
know know s th e situation.. . I've bee n
rea lly planning my races this yea r and I
kn uw that's what Doug d oes. I thought,
'Well, ['II just see how thin gs sha ke out
here.' There's o nly o ne specific spot on
the track that [ can say [ was a little bit
quicker at the very start of the race - and
that was after tu m one through the fast
left. That's w here [ w as able to get by
hi m. I sa w 'Plus l ' fo r an awful lo t. [
knew J w a sn't guing a nywhere, and I
figu red he was just waitin g until th e
end"
0;
Pikes Peak International Raceway
Fountain. Colorado
Results: August 16, 1997 (R ound 8 011 0)
750« SUPERSroRT FINA L: I. J.non Pri d more
:
CSu7J: Y ja~ Randolph
.
