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Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/127985
end, I picked it up and I think I did a
55.6 right there," DuHamel said later.
"We were running a slow pace, which
was perfect for me, but it was perfect for
all of.us; we were all saving our tires
and all trying to outsmart each other.
One lap from the end, I wanted to throw
a monkey wrench in everybody's plan
and try to pick up the pace and see if
anyone would get rattled by that - especially with the tires being greasy and
everything. My bike was tracking really
good, so I was able to maybe shake
them up a little bit and maybe make
their game plan not as calm as they
wanted it. On the last lap, they came
back past me, so I figured they were
able to hang. So then I went to Plan B
and the draft."
As always, it came down to the last
lap - and, more aptly, the chicane. No
one wanted any part of the lead, though
Nicky Hayden was the one who had it.
"I was leading down the back
straight and nobody would go by,"
Hayden said. "I broke until somebody
finally went by and I was fourth, with a
Iapper in there as well. I thought it was
perfect. Then everybody was weaving
and stuff and a gap in front of me closed
up and I had to get out of the throttle that was pretty much it:'
Exit Hayden, enter DuHamel.
"We were coming off the banking
and were drafting good," DuHamel
said. '1 figured Jamie (Hacking) was in
Kurtis' (Roberts) draft, so he probably
had a bit more steam, but I just figured
the shortest way to get there was the
fastest way. I also figured if I went
high, I might get pushed out with the
wind and all that. I saw what happened
to Rich Oliver when he came by me one
time. I just decided to go low and
decided to do that line down on the
inside. It's also dirty down there, so if
anybody was going to follow me and
draft past me, they were going to get a
few rocks:'
It was perfect execution by ·the master and it gave him the victory: He was
aided by a last-second gearing change
that allowed his Honda to perform better in the draft.
"We had different gearing on the
bike the whole week and we decided to
switch back to a taller gearing to accommodate the draft," DuHamel explained.
"It really worked out well, obviously. It
was kind of funny going into the chicane, because nobody wanted to take
the lead. It's a good thing they took the
stands off the bikes because we probably would have kicked the stands down
and let somebody else go by. We were
all trying to get our best drives off that
last corner there, and for me it worked
out really good. That gearing was kind
of sensitive, because if I backed off too
much, I couldn't get back - it took me
too much time. In a race like this you've
got to have some luck, and I believe I
had some. The gearing change - in talking to AI (Ludington) and Ray (Plumb)
and those guys, we made a good decision."
Crossing the line in second was
Roberts, thinking he had a chance until
he saw the DuHamel streak go by.
"Last year was my first year on the
four-stroke, and I really liked the 600,'"
Roberts said. "I knew Honda was coming out with a new motorcycle, and this
is really a great testament to them. First
and second, first race: It shows how
good the motorcycle really is and how
good Hond