Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

Dunlop's Daytona tire test ROAD RACE Ame H rican onda Still no Miguel' Q t' the seven teams taking part in the test, on ly tw o were at full strength when the tes t started and only one stayed that way to the end. Ame rican Ho nda .w asn' t .a mong them. Miguel DuHamel came to Daytona hopIng to ride, but instead he spent the time wa tching from the pit wa ll, hIS surg.,· cally repaired righ t leg an d knee still healing from the horr ific accident he suffered at Loudon last July. In his absence, Eric Bostrom, elevated from the Erion Honda team to full factory status, was left to carry .the flag, which he did wit h flying colors. Not on ly was he the fastest among the "EverYOl;e's pretty sly about not being ou t there. Ben (Bostrom) was never out there because he was having problems. He would gladly have shown me the way. Towards the end, this mo rni ng, I fina lly go t a line through there, 1:"I';It before, I -:ras bottoming ou t on the banking and then Jus t spIn mng the thing violently . A couple of times, the thing rea lly go t away. The rear end woUld just come around. I was thin king. ' Hey; am I suI;" posed to be doing this every lap?' And the n I thou ght tha ~ this isn't w hat people do every lap because you 'd end up cras hing. "Yesterday we were kind of slow an d today we Im proved some. I ha ven't go tten too mu ch time on .the 600. H o~efully, tomorrow we'll ge t so me more laps on It. It seems like we made kind of leaps and bounds today. I thi nk that there's more there , but I'm no t riding the thi n g perfectly yet and th ere' s probably more there in the bike, too. We ~a.ven't got everythin g right the way I wa nt it to be as far as riding position. Just injury . S till r e co v erin g fr om a mo tocross acciden t, Bostrom co uld n't cin ch th e g lo ve On hi s le ft h and u p tig h tly . When h e cras he d , the gl ove ca me loo se, and most o f th e d am age was to his left hand . Af ter Bostrom was tra nsp ort ed to H ali fa x Medi cal C enter, th e tr a ck r e lea s ed a s ta te me n t say ing th at Bostrom had su ffered an "u lcerated left hand from wrist to thumb, down to the bone, ten dons showing, left clavicle, left sho u lder-area abrasions and .contusions, and a possible concussion." He und erwent sk in-g ra ft surgery to repair the damage to his hand and was r- - - --- -·- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - . :.;..L- - ....-------- 600s, on the as seco n d fastest h e w Superbikes to his brother Ben , nearly be stin g Ben 's tim e afte r fit ting a n d th e n shre d d ing a qua lify ing tire. First DuHam el. " My kn ee' s ac tua lly pr etty goo d, " sai d DuHamel, who w al ked wi th a n oti ceabl e lim p a n d w i th th e ai d of a ca ne . "I impres s e d a ll the doctors. (Dr. Arth ur) Ting took the screws out a nd he looked in th ere a n d he said it lo o ke d good. The tend ons, th e meniscu s - no thi ng has been touched; the knee' s really good . It's still a littl e swo llen, bu t th a t ' s because th ey know the fract u re is still healin g . The leg itself, it' s taking quite a bit lon ger than I thought, but all the doctors ag ree tha t wit h the trau ma, having. the bone sc rape on th e asp h a lt, that it's normal that the leg was in high trau ma an d it 's jus t ta k in g a lo ng time to heal. Right now I know tha t if I had to rid e, I wo uld ge t on the bike and I could ride . But I'd rat her not righ t now because if my foo t slips off of the foot~eg, which is m y fear, and I caug ht feet some how or wh atever, I d be starting off at zero again . I feel pre tty confident after the races we did that I can ge t on the' bike an d go prett y fast immediately." DuHa me l sa id he' d bee n resti ng his leg some but al so putting time in on the exercise bike. . . . "I can do 20 to 40 minutes on the bicycle, Sp lll It up, try to balance both legs, because I've go t on ly one leg that' s pu shing," he said . "I' ve been hi tting the gym a bit. A lot of the tra vel I've bee n doing is to, like, see the doctor and stuff, so It really gets into the middle of m y training. I'm definitely planmng on going down to California. I' m going back u p to Mo ntreal to hav e a really good look a t it. Afte r tha t, I' m go ing to m ~ ve do wn to Californ ia for , like, the last two mont hs, because I ve got a lot of frien ds d own there." . His next opp ortu nity to ride w ill be dun ng a test at Lagu~a Seca in mid-Janua ry, "a nd I' m p retty sure I' ll be there," he said . "I' ll be really surprised if I'm not d oing tha t test. I had a CAT scan before coming here and then, w hen I came here, I tho ught I was going to ride. 1 thou ght for su re I wa s gomg to rid e, no p roblem. But my doct(:r sai d, 'Jus t ta ke an X-ray: an d , the,n 'Wi th the X-rav, he wasn t too happy WIth tha t, so he said, Let. tak e a CAT scan.' I had a CAT scan don e, which is a lot more precise, He said , 'You kno w how to rid e a bike, so I don:t think yo u sho uld be riding around there: But I came here ~ tlll WIth the int enti on of riding, and I really wa nted to n d e. It s a constan t fight every minute of every day f~r me not ge t on the bike. I get a lot of d ifferent argume n ts WIth mys elf. • DuHame l spent mu ch of the test along the pit wall, advising Bostro m whenever necessary. It must have helped . The twotime AMA Su pe rbike Nationa l ,; inner was cons Isten tly. fas t, thoug h he sa id ther e was a pe rio d of ad jus ting to ridi ng a Hond a RC45 at Davton a • quit e a leap from the Ho nda CBR600 he rode in March. • • "I spent all da y yes terday just tryin g to figure out ho w to get arou nd the banking," Bostrom said on Saturday aftern oon . • :? (Above) Eric Bos trom ended up be ing th e second quic kes t of the superbike men , lapping ju st a t enth of a second slower th an his brother. (Right) Bostrom was the lone Honda superbike rider at the test , as Migu el DuHame l was forced to sit it out wh il e he continues to recuperate from the devastat ing inj uries suffered in J un e at New Hampshire International Speedway. my style is kind of dif ferent from most people. Right now I can' t get over the fron.t of the bik e w ith th e hand le ba rs . We' re Just go ing to cha nge so me things and I think it'll be a lot better for the next test. Tomorrow I thin k w e'll dea l w i th w ha t w e' ve go t. I th in k it ' s goin g to b e good, b u t it ' s n ot going to be as good as it can be: ' . Bostrom was one of the few rid ers to try a qualifying tire. He di d it mostly becau se he ' d ne ver ru n on e a t Day ton a , and he wou ld h a v e to i f h e wa n ted to w in th e Rolex that goes w ith the pole p sition. After on e fast la p , the tire w as co ok ed , !Is it shou ld be. It was his fastest lap, bu t no t significantl y bet ter than w hat he ' d d one on race tires . After testing his 1997 machine, Bostrom said tha t the RC45 was going to be a bet ter bike in 1998. . "At least for noe, because we ' re getting to where I ca n tu r n it where I w a n t i t to , whereas last vear I struggled a bit ," he said . No t bad {or a guy who wo n in his first two outings on the bike . , J

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