Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

, Round 1: Daytona International Speedway AMAIPRO HONDA OILS 600cc SUPERSPORT SERIES By Paul Carruthers Photos by Henny Ray Abrams DAYTONA BEACH, FL, MAR. 5 f you were waiting for the results from the 600cc Supersport race to make your decision as to which 600cc sportbike to purchase, you're out of luck. With six riders on four different brands of motorcycles crossing the finish line less than half a second apart, you may still want to go with your favorite color. But if you're currently in rehabilitation from an injury and are looking for inspiration, look no further than Miguel DuHamel. In his first race since practically destroying his knee and femur last June at Loudon, DuHarnellimped to the bike with his cane, climbed aboard and did what nobody thought he could do: He not only ran at the front, he won. Already known for his toughness, DuHamel took that reputation to a new level with this gritty performance on a brilliantly sunny day in Daytona. With the Daytona round of the 600cc Supersport Series being the most important race of the year marketingwise for the manufacturers, Honda should just go ahead and make DuHamel its national sales manager. After all, each and every time Honda has introduced a new 600 at Daytona, DuHamel has won on it. He won on the F-2, he won on the F-3, and today he gave the F-4 a victory in its racing debut. In all, the victory was DuHamel's fifth in the 600cc Supersport class at Daytona and the 36th of his career, coming eight years after his first win at the Speedway in 1991. Even DuHamel se.emed a bit surprised by the quality of his performance. "1 don't know what to say," DuHamel said in the postrace press conference after getting a rousing ovation from those in the packed media center. "I'm really amazed. Coming in here, like I said, realistically, I was hoping for nothing more than a top 10, maybe a top five. I didn't know what to expect, but I did quite a bit of training the last two months pretty intensively in Las Vegas. That's what really paid off this weekend - all that training. Also, I think Honda provided me with some excellent motor- I ,..: ~ cycles, in both classes. This new F-4 - I knew I'd like this bike. I did a few laps on it in Monterey. 1 think I just wanted to prove to people that J was able to ride. It went pretty well and it just carried over to here." The race for the win was typical 600cc Supersport, and typical Daytona. Six riders steadily drew away from the field, and those six ran together to the flag, separated from front to back by less than half a second. In the end, it came down to a waiting game on the entrance to the chicane for the final time, with no one wanting to lead, knowing that they'd only get eaten up in the draft run to the flag. When it came to the final move, DuHamel's was the best, as he shot down the banking and crossed the line down low - with the victory. Second place went to Erion Racing's Kurtis Roberts, his career best in the class. Roberts and his CBR600 F-4 were among the fast guys all week, and in the race he showed maturity well beyond his racing years. At times he led, at times he trailed, but he was there for the duration and was beaten to the line only by the master himself, DuHamel. Third place went to the factory Yamaha of Jamie Hacking. The South Carolinian was also in position to win the. race; he just got outfoxed on the run to the flag. Still, he started his season on the new R6 in fine fashion and proved that he and the new bike will be a force to be reckoned wi th as the season matures. Behind Hacking came Erion Racing's Nicky Hayden (still just .145 of a econd behind DuHamel) in fourth, with the hard-riding Aaron Yates and the Muzzy Kawasaki just behind Hayden and just ahead of the impressive Josh Hayes on the Valvoline EMGO Suzuki GSX-R600. Seventh place went to Yamaha's Rich Oliver, the pole sitter for the race. Oliver was in the lead group until running off in turn one on the fourth lap. The miscue dropped him well out of the top 20, and he did well to climb back as high as he did. In the end, he was 17.779 seconds behind DuHamel after charging through hordes of inspired 600cc riders. Yoshimura Suzuki's Steve Rapp ended up eighth, just ahead of 4&6 (Above) Miguel DuHamel (left) signals victory with his left hand as he approaches the finish line of the 600cc Supersport race. Kurtis Roberts (center) beat Jamie Hacking (right) to the flag by about a wheel width. (Right) Miguel DuHamel sprays champagne after winning the 600cc SuperSport race by .066 seconds. Runnerup Kurtis Roberts looks on. Cycles' Todd Harrington's Kawasaki. Those two had ba ttled for the entire race, with Oliver coming through to nail both of them late in the IS-lap race. Graves Motorsports' Paul Harrell filled out.the top 10 on his brand-new Yamaha R6. In the battle for new-bike supremacy, Honda obviously drew first blood with DuHamel and Roberts' onetwo finish, but Yamaha seems to be on equal ground, as Hacking led the way with his thirdplace finish. The rest of the top 10 read: Honda, Kawasaki, Suzuki, Yamaha, Suzuki, Kawasaki, Yamaha, though Hayes' Suzuki was clearly the only one capable of running in the lead group. It's also worth noting that Yates had to ride mistake-free in order to keep the Kawasaki with the leaders. If he had lost the draft, he wouldn't have been able to make it back up. "1 think he had little ropes tied to us," DuHamel joked. "Aaron (Yates) was doing a good job out there." Notably absent from the race were Yoshimura Suzuki's Mat Mladin and American Honda's Eric Bostrom. MIadin and Suzuki had decided not to participa te (see "Briefly ... "), and Bostrom had suffered a broken ankle the day prior to the race during Superbike qualifying. The race began without those two favorites and with a Yates-and-Kawasaki holeshot. The Georgian knew what he had to do and he went about trying to do it. With his head down, Yates exited the infield with a .65-of-a-second lead on the pursuing pack. By the time they arrived at the chicane, the lead had evaporated. By the time he got to the start/ finish line, he was fourth. He was in for a figh t. Going into the International Horseshoe at the end of the first complete lap, Haeking led DuHamel, Hayes, Yates, Oliver, icky Hayden and Roberts. A gap had already been established between them and the rest, with the rest being led by Rapp. The top seven swapped the lead repeatedly through ·the opening laps, though that group would be whittled down to six with Oliver's off-track excursion at the start of lap four. He would fight back, setting the race's fastest lap times, to eventually finish seventh. The pack carried on without him, with DuHamel waiting until very late to try his hand at the front. "What I did was, two laps from the

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