Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

ROAD RACE AIrfAllfBNA SUPERBIKE NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP Eventual winner Miguel DuHamel (1) chases Nicky Hayden (69) In the 600cc Supersport race. Hayden crashed trying to repass DuHamel on the last lap. DuHamel's average speed of 86.408 mph was faster than the time Yoshimura Suzuki's Pascal PicQlfe had qualified to earn the pole last year. DuHamel completed the IS-lap, 37.8-mile race in a new race record of 26 minutes, 14.860 seconds. He won the race by 1.41 seconds. Crevier steadily moved his way through the pack, taking advantage of attrition, to earn second when Hayden crashed ou t on the final lap. The spill handed third to ~arly leader Eric Bostrom. It was the best finish of the year for both Crevier and Bostrom. '1 got second, I got handed second, I was in third, but I'm happy to take my second," Crevier said. 'Tm quite happy to do it for Suzuki, but I've got to win one of these dang things." Crevier added that the team was beginning to heed his suggestions about setup, and they were paying off. HyperCycle's Jason Pridmore was fourth just behind Bostrom, the pair well in front of Brian Parriott. Parriott was disqualified after his Honda CBR600 was found to have a numOer of illegal engine modifications. Parriott said he knew the bike wouldn't pass the post-race teardown, but wanted to race anyhow. His disqualification moved San Gabriel Mountain Spring Water's Steve Rapp, the busiest rider this weekend after racing in three classes, up to fifth. Rapp crashed in turn seven .early in the race, remounted then ran down the leaders. The last rider he passed was Barnett Tool & Engineering's Richard Alexander Jr., who finished sixth, well in front of HRC Japan's Takahito Mori. With two laps to go, American Honda's Ben Bostrom moved in front of class newcomer Chris Carr to take eighth, Carr ninth, and Erion Racing's Kurtis Roberts was 10th. When the race began, Eric Bostrom led the 42-rider field out of the chute, up the dragship, then up the hill, DuHamel, Crevier, and Chandler in pursuit, with another handful of riders right there. The order of the top four moved around and they were soon joined by both of the HyperCycle bikes, Hayden and Pridmore, Brian Parriott just off the back, then Richard Alexander Jr. By now Steve Rapp had already crashed, dropping to about 18th, and had begun making his.way forward. Two riders were most noticeably on the move, DuHamel and Hayden, and they would soon take over the race and make it their own. DuHamel was in the lead on the eighth lap and Hayden went by a lap later. Bostrom tried to fight back, but realized it was fruitless. "I got off to a really good start, and I could feel these guys breathing down my neck the whole time," Bostrom said. "Every time I'd throw it into the turns I could hear bikes behind me. I was like, 'Come on Eric, go harder, go harder.' Then, I don't know, maybe around the halfway point Miguel put it past me. He made a real clean pass, and then I kind of berserked it back by him and Miguel's probably mumbling words under his helmet. He got me right back. "Then, man, mentally, I just couldn't keep up with those gu~," Bostrom said. "I really wanted to be there and I was riding hard, but 1 wasn't riding as well as I needed to be," Bostrom said. DuHamel and Crevier were soon joined by Chandler, but the Muzzy Kawasaki rider knew a win wasn't on the cards today almost from the start. '1 was suspect from the start when I couldn't run with those guys up the straight," Chandler said. "The thing was soft. It was working good, but the motor was soft. It started making noise. I tried to milk it." But it didn't work. The engine dropped a valve on the 12th lap, and Chandler dropped out of the points lead. "So now we get to come from behind," he said philosphically. Hayden first took the lead by going under DuHamel in turn nine, a very fast right, on the 12th lap. DuHamel took the lead back on the 14th lap and was in the lead when Hayden made his move on the final lap. Yoshimura Suzuki's Crevier saw it all. "I guess Nicky went in (to turn seven) and the back end stepped out a little bit," Crevier said. "I think he just touched the throttle a little bit and his back end come around. He might have something different to say. Nicky was about five feet in the air." "1 got in too hot," Hayden said. "I was trying too hard. Like I said yesterday, once you get used to winning you don't want to get second. It's just all my fault. I was stupid. I just got in too hot and, actually, I don't really know what happened. I kind of had it backed in and then I don't know if I was rubbing Miguel or what happened, but I just went down. 1 rang my bell a little bit but not too bad. I should have just stayed behind him and waited for him to make a mistake." " icky was doing a good job," DuHamel said. "0 was) going to try to get by him and hopefully he'll make a bit of mistake. He did going into one, he went in there too hard, lost his drive going up the hill, so I was able to put it underneath him going up the hill and I wasn't going to get that many chances to get by him. He's good on the brakes, and his bike seemed to be working good, and· he's cutting good corners. So when he did that I put it underneath him, and then after that it was just trying to keep him honest on the brakes and going in . there pretty good. "Going into seven I went a little bit wide, went through the middle, which is normal race tactic, but I went there deep, I maybe braked early like six inches," DuHamel continued. "But I went in there pretty hard, and Nicky went in there harder. He was trying togo for the inside and, everything was okay u~til we got to the apex, where it's the slowest part of the corner where you try and turn the bike, and I heard a whoop and crash. There was a guy that was out there that was a lapped rider, he was really out there. Thank God he overshot the corner because he could have come into play. I thought maybe that guy crashed trying to come back on the track. I wasn't sure it was Nicky. And then I was trying to ride good, and that's why I gave it a look coming off the last comer, 10. Gave a look back to make sure if it was Nicky or not. I had a gap and then 1 took it easy through 11. I looked back, I heard it when I was down there, and then when I looked back obviously I didn't see anybody. I saw somebody back there, but it was Jason." DuHamel said he owed much of his success to the diligence of his team. The Honda hasn't been handling as well as he'd like all season, but it seems to be coming around. "I think it's a combination of suspension in the rear and Dunlop, they came up with some new tires, and it took us a while to adjust the bike to work with those tires," he said. 'The bike is steering pretty well because of the new front tire, the rear tires are gripping good. "To me, I think the suspension was the biggest thing. We had quite a bit of chatter the years past. Showa was able to calm that down. We were able to carry just a bit more corner speed, not as much as I'd like, but at least we're able to get in there and get out of there with the competition." Like DuHamel, Crevier said that the improvement of the GSXR600 was an evolutionary process which was coming to fruition. "To me, one of the things with racing, a big part of my racingris being comfortable," Crevier said, "and a lot of times mechanics don't make the changes you want until you get the bike up to speed. And when you ride for a factory team, unless you're up to speed, they're not going to make the changes. I'm coming up to speed now and a lot of the changes that I want are being made, and I'm just getting a lot more comfortable riding the GSXR600 now. It's all coming around. We've got to work a little of my corner exit speed, my corner entry might be a little bit too much, and I'm not getting on the throttle hard enough" Crevier said during the race that he could see the top two pulling away, and was being pressed !:iy a number of different riders. "I had enough to worry about," he said. But he drew away from Bostrom in the end and was a comfortable second. Bostrom was in front of Pridmore and able to hold a slight gap, not enough to be comfortable, but enough to stave off an attack. He held it from the 12th lap all the way to the winner's circle. His chances, he said, were somewhat hurt by a lack of practice time, though the team made the necessary adjustments to make hfm competitive. Parriott would cross the line in fifth after running the last half of the race mostly by himself. He was later disqualified. Behind him, Alexander and Mori went back and forth, swapping the spot' until Rapp interrupted their party. He stormed through on the 12th lap and moved up to finish fifth in the end. For Rapp it was more work than he'd expected. "I wasn't even trying," Rapp said of his early race crash. '1 was just cruising. I lost the front end going in to seven. I don't know what place I was in then, about 18th. I finished sixth, but I'm not happy about that." He was dear of Alexander Jr., who was in no danger from Morl, with Ben Bostrom having passed Carr on the penultimate lap. Next to cross was Erion Racing's Kurtis Roberts, who just beat Yoshimura Suzuki's Larry Pegram to the stripe. 0 Sears Point International Raceway Sonoma, California Results: May 3, 1998 (Round 5 of 14) 600

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