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Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/127964
ROAD RACE A AIMBN M ASUPERBIKE NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP (Left) The race for th e 600cc Supersport win was foug ht out between Aaron Yates (20) and Nicky Hayden (69), but the championship went to Steve Crevier (above). AMAIPro H ondaOils600cc S upersport Series F l round:l a ega otor Speedway ina sV sM Suzuki sweeps By Henny Ray Abrams LAS VEGAS, NV, OCT. 4 t was a good day for the boys at Suzu ki. Not only d id Yoshimura Suzuki's Aaron Yates lead a Suzu ki sweep of the podium places afte r winning his second race of the seaso n, but class vetera n Steve Cre vier gave Suzuki its first Pro Honda Oils 600cc Super sport title since Dou g Po len w on th e ch am p ions hi p a decade ago . For Crevier, who was hospitalized with a bowel disorder until the race week end beg an, it was a long time com ing, making it all the mo re sweet. "This late, 33 yea rs old , jus t to get a cham p io ns h ip ," th e Canadian bega n . "I've been working so hard at it since 199 1 in the 600s , an d Mi gu el ' s (Du Ha me l) been pretty dominant , but he go t hurt this yea r. But jus t to have the cha mpionsh ip - I'm pretty stoked, really hap py." Crevier came in no t needing mu ch to earn his first AMA title. He only had to fini sh e ig h th , if Mu z z y Kaw asaki 's Dou g C ha ndler wo n . Chandler ha d been a threat to win earlier in the year he collected six wins, the mos t in class but hadn't been on the podium for the past tw o races. Crevier's wo rst finis hes w ere a pair of sixths , so the stage was set. Even so, it mad e for an interesting time for the Yoshimu ra Suz uki rider. "This is the most p ress ure I've ever had for jus t abou t any race ," he said. "I mean, I' ve wo n a lot of championships and stu ff in Canada. I've been under a lot of pressure-cooker situ a tions, but I haven't in five years been in conte ntion of a cha mp ions hip like thi s. Definit ely, fiv e years lat er, fiv e years ol der, you start thinking a little bit different : ' The thinking didn't involve winning. Th a twa s up to th e others, and they made quite a show of it. . . Yoshimura Su zuki' s Larry Pegram, I 00 Q"\ Q"\ ...... '<:1' ......" l-. (]J ..0 o ...... u o 12 ins tantly. He passed him the first tim e on th e 10th, though Hayden he ld th e spo t at the s tripe, but not on the 11tho "A bo ut three laps fro m th e end , I was figuring out where I was going to ge t N icky, becau se he' d go t back by me," Yates sa id . "I knew if I didn't get him on the back straight back there, that tha t was about the only pl a ce I was going to be ab le to ge t him . A nd I looked at that a couple of times:' "My 'p it board sa id ' p lus ze ro' th e whole race and, man, I wa s just tryin g to ge t a little bit of gap the whole race, but I n ever co u ld, " Hayden s a id. "Then Aaron came up there and, on ce he got by me, 1 thou gh t, 'Man, I ain 't going to b e abl e to s tay w it h him ,' beca u se through the infield he was going really fast. And the n I go t by him one tim e on th e brak es over ther e and th e last few laps was jus t kind of back and for th. I was pretty good in the fast , swee p ing stuff, bu t in the infield he was a little bit bett er tha n me:' Then on the 12th lap it was Hayden again for three laps, set ting up the fight lID the fina l tour. Using th e spot that had wo rk ed so well for him all race, Yates set up Ha yd en for a pass in the hard left a t the end of the back stra ight, bu t go t in a little too hot. "The last lap, going into the left-hander there at the end of the back straighta way, he kin d o f go t u p besi d e me, I guess, drafted u p besid e me and then, on th e b rakes, he was ins ide o f m e," Hayden ex plained . "I wa 9fjust lean ing on him, leani ng on him and thou ght he was goi ng to let me go, and he did n' t." "That lap I went in ther e and like he said, he was layi ng on me and tha t was kind of distracting me," Yat es sai d . "I was kind of looking a t him and I was look in g a t th e track . I w ent over th e pain t on the ins ide of the trac k there. So I had to let off the brake a little. 1 had to go straig ht and tried to cu t it hard and I d idn 't wan t to spi n too mu ch and he came u p und er me there: ' Hay de n waited for Yates to make his move, we nt under him and thought he was going to cru ise from there, but d iscove red too late that he had .made a mistake. "I left the door open," Hayden said, "and he took it." Th e mov e came a few tu rn s befor e the banking, and Yates hadwha t it took to stay ahead . "Tha t's th e only pl ace , because he had it nailed through the sweeper over ther e," Yates said. "I thought he was go ing to com e drafting by me and I was just tucked in as good as I co uld and had the thing abo u t to pull the cable ou t of the carburetors, ju st ho p ing th a t 1 could pull it .off:' Hayd en tried to chase him to the flag, but he spun the rear tire so hard that he go t sideways exiting the infield . "I thought ma yb e at th e line 1 was going to be able to draft up by him, but it didn't work out," Hayden sa id . "I really wanted to win the last race of the year, but it didn't happen." . Yates lowered the race record which he se t last year by nearl y a second per lap, co mpleting the IS- lap, 37.2-m ile race in 25 minutes, 9.940 seconds at an avera ge speed of 88.693 mph. His mar gin of victo ry wa s a scan t 0.055 seconds . This w ould be the la s t tim e they w ould rac e o n the sa me m achin ery. Yat es joins th e Mu zzy Kawasaki team n e xt y ear and H ayd en will rid e fo r Erion H onda. Th e future of the thirdplace rid er is up in the air, but his per forma nce in th e la st tw o races d id n't hurt his chan ces for catchi ng on somewh er e. . Pegram 's day d idn' t sta rt well. He crashed his 600 and had to rid e Yates' spare , thoug h with his own sus pension. So m e t h ing was n't qu ite ri ght in it, becau se he said it didn' t feel rig ht in the race. "The fro nt end felt like it was going to hop right off the track every lap, so I was really fighting it, especially in the rig ht-handers, which [ don ' t know if tha t means the right fork 's ben t or the left for k's bent," Pegram said . "I reall y felt like at the beginning of the race tha t [ was going to continue to fade to the back. [ kind of just tried to ad apt a d ifferen t line through th e corners where I'd go in and rea lly make a point ou t of them and dri ve ou t so 1 wasn 't leaned over on the front tire as long." Because of his handling problem, and running off the tra ck to dodge Roberts, he knew he couldn' t win . His im med iate concern was Bostrom, w ho he fig ured out early on.