Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

ROAD RACE AMAIMBNA SUPERBIKE NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP "I was a bit disappointed," DuHamel explained. "First of all, my skirt was £lying over my head going down there and I can't see my braking markers. These guys made me look so bad there the whole race - it was unbelievable, and you know I'm going to work on that tomorrow. When Anthony passed me, he was pretty much in control through the- chicane. Then it was a drag race up to the bridge and Anthony, obviously, was do~ng the right thing and staying on the inside. I'm just so confident there and my bike is so dialed through that comer, 1 can almost ride through there wide open. I hit the rev-limiter there, which 1 never did, third gear wide open coming down the hill. Tthrew it in there big-time. Anthony was on' it hard, but I just wanted it so bad. r came down the hill and I wasn't going to be denied. I just said, Tm going for the win here.' For a pass Ii ke tha t, it's better to ha ve that kind of mentality. If you hesitate, then you maybe end up taking the guy out." (Above) Thomas Stevens (7) tried to hold off Jamie Hacking (92) on Sunday. Hacking ended up fifth with Stevens eighth. (Left) Mat Maldin (66) had a miserable weekend, by his standards. The Australian ended up sixth and 10th over the two days. His teammate Aaron Yates (20) finished with a 9-6 tally. al. The efforts of the three at the front made for brilliant racing. When Bostrom took over from Chandler on lap 10, Gobert and DuHamel came with him. On the 12th lap, Gobert took over at the front for the first time with a pass on Bostrom in turn six: One only had to look to the chicane on the 15th lap to see a synopsis of the battle that would go to the end. DuHamel powered past Bostrom and Gobert on the run to the chicane, only to be passed back by the both of them in the left-right chicane. Gobert led from there on each and every lap across the start/finish line, though it often took some demon braking going into the chicane for him to move' around either one or both of the factory Hondas. On tl,e 21st lap, Gobert was officially awarded the cham pionship point that goes with leading the most laps, but there was more to come. Running in the 1:25 range, the three at the front were going at each other all over the race track - the Hondas better on the back straight, the Ducati more stable and able to make up ground under heamg braking. Although he crossed the finish line with the lead at the end of the 23rd lap, Gobert found himseU in third as they started the final go-around. Starting that memorable last lap, DuHamel led Bostrom and Gobert. Gobert, however, disposed of Bostrom and set his sights on DuHamel a they rocketed down the back straight for tl,e final time. Gobert couldn't draft past, but he did manage to outbrake DuHamel on the entrance to the chicane, barely making it up tl,e inside as the pair flicked it left and then right, with Bostrom in their wa ke. Gobert's pass was decisive and it should have been enough to give him the victory. But there's no such thing as decisive when DuHamel's around. So Gobert heads out from under the bridge, knowing that all he has to do is not slip up and victory is his - but here comes DuHamel, tapped out in third gear and painting a solid black stripe on the run down the hill out of turn 11, hell . bent on winning his fourth race in a row. His drive is good enough to do just that and he stuffs the Honda under the Ducati heading into the last corner, sliding all the while, and wins again. Four in a row. Bostrom, meanwhile, has a pretty good seat. for the show, but that's not enough. He still wants to be part of it. Running wide on the exit of turn 11, Bostrom finishes a very close third but runs off the track and through the mud, crashing at high speed and fortunate to not suffer injury. If tllere's been a more dramatic finish, not many could remember it. "Doug was going hard the first few laps," DuHamel explained. "I knew I was gOing' to get challenged from the back. I was trying to make a pa:ss before midrace to get that famous point. Right then T was assuming that it would be Doug and I right to the end, so I didn't want to show him everywhere that I could pass him. But when those guys (Bostrom and Gobert) went by me, then 1 had to pull out all the stops. They gapped me and I did a low 25, a 25.3, catching them back. Then I had to slow a bit to let the tires cool - 1 wanted to make sure that they'd be okay. "I didn't think Doug had the speed to stay with them; that's why I was pushing Doug," DuHamel added. "r pushed him a bit and stayed behind him" but he wasn't making any ground. So I started getting more aggressive and I passed Doug. That was my big scare because there were about three laps there where I was on the bubble - in the buffer zone." And what of that final lap? DuHamel wasn't impressed with his braking ability in this one, though he more than made up for it. Bostrom was soiled and beaten after his high-speed tumble through the red Georgia clay, but he'd be back for more. "I'm all right," Bostrom said. "I knocked the wind out of my elf, and scared myself a bit because I didn't know if I had anything wrong with me. r probably have a couple of stretc.hed ligaments, but I'm fine. "I saw us all burning our tires pretty bad coming under the bridge," Bostrom added, "one guy trying to get the edge on 'the other guy. 1 saw them coming together and r thought, 'Maybe if r get a good sweep On the outside, I'll pull one of those lucky passes.' They were moving out and so was 1, with a lot of comer speed. As soon as 1 hit the mud, I thought, 'Aw, it'll be okay.' But the mud was real soft and ... I probably should have ju t settled for third." Though he wouldn't readily admit it, Gobert had been had. DuHamel had caught him by surprise with the pass - a pass no one else in the eries would likely have attempted. "I knew that it was on coming down the hill," Gobert said. "I didn't expect Miguel to do something so desperate, but I heard him and at the last minute he just grabbed a big handful of throttle. r hugged the inside as much as I thought 1 had to, but he got me then and he got me now. We were both on the limit - we were flat out. I did the best I could to try and tuck back up the inside." Oliver crossed the line in a careerbest fourth, ahead of Chandler, Mladin and Hacking. '1 got an awful start," Hacking said. "It locked up and I almost killed it. Both me'and Rich (Oliver) were way back there. Then r hooked up with Rich and we started moving up. Then 1 almost crashed and I couldn't get by Thomas (Stevens), I finally got by him, settled in and picked up the pace. r started running low 25s. Traffic worked to my advantage and to my disadvantage. Mat (Mladin) got traffic and I got by him, but then my chain started jumping on the sprocket. I was starting to run down Doug (<:;handJer), but it got to jumping really bad and I had to back off. Mat got by me and then Tjust nursed it home." Kipp, Yates and Stevens filled out the top 10. . "lvIy shock was completely gone when I came in," Yates said. "There was nothing but the spring. From lap one it was all over the place. I had no traction and I almost high-sided about six times. I'm sure it was a good show for

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