Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

Round 1: Daytona International Speedway AMA/MBNA SUPERBIKE NA TIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP By Paul Carruthers Photos by Henny Ray Abrams and Gold & Goose DAYTONA BEACH, FL, MAR. 7 f life and racing were entirely fair, two men would have won the 58th running of the Daytona 200 by Ami. After one hour and 47 minutes of never being further apart than just a few seconds, American Honda's Miguel DuHamel crossed the finish line just .014 of a second ahead of Yoshimura Suzuki's Mat Mladin - and both were truly deserving of victory in what was the fastest Daytona 200 in the storied history of the race. From the flash of the green light to the checkered flag, DuHamel and Mladin were in a class of their own. They ran together throughout, and not even the two scheduled pit stops could split them up. And no one else in the 63rider field could come close to matching their pace. Their pace was such that by the end of the race, the pair had lapped all the way up to eighth place - and that was three-time AMA Superbike National Champion Doug Chandler. O The pace was fast, but it was the intensity of the racing that stood out. Rarely do Daytona 200s feature such vehement racing from beginning to end. This one did. In fact, the margin of victory was the second closest in history and DuHamel was in the closest, when he bea t Scott Russell in 1996. DuHamel and the Honda RC45 had the upper hand on the banking, Mladin and the Suzuki were quicker through the infield. He had to be to keep pace. "Mat (Mladin) and I were always together there," DuHamel said. "I was always hoping to get a little bit of a break. Every time [ saw that I had a little gap, I'd try to save myself and the bike a little bit. And then Mat would come by me. It was a hard race, and I give a lot of credit to Mat. He stayed there with me and [ think my bike was better - actually, I know my bike was faster. It was a great race. We were just going at it. I felt really comfortable out there with Mat, running close, and it just went well. The race pace was fast. I couldn't believe it. Every time [ came by and looked at my board, it was low SIs and stuff like that." ·Mr. Daytona I beaten u I III ~ ~ .. ., en en en ...- ~ ~ 6 scott "Mr. Daytona" Russell was already having a tough week by the time Thursday night rolled around. It got a lot tougher during the wee hours of Friday morning 'when Russell was assaulted in Razzles, a Daytona Beach nightclub. The five-time winner of the Daytona 200 suffered two facial fractures in the altercation, spent the night in the hospital and returned to his Georgia home on Friday afternoon to see his personal physician. "I can't believe I'm not out there for the Daytona 200," Russell said in a press release issued by Harley-Davidson on Sunday, March 7. "I'm sorry that this happened. 1 did not provoke it in any way. I'd like to thank all my fans and say I'm sorry you won't be able to see me try and win my sixth Daytona 200 today. I wish my teammate Pascal Picotte the best of luck, and I can't wait to get back on the track and win one for Harley-Davidson." The win was DuHamel's third in the Daytona 200, as he added this one to his 1991 and 1996 victories. It was also his 22nd career victory in AMA Superbike racing, and he averaged a record 113.469 mph for the 200-miIe race. The battle for third was equaJly as scintillating as the one for victory though it took p)ace more than a minute behind the DuHamel/Mladin scrap and it featured Yamaha's Rich Oliver and Vance & Hines Ducati's Ben Bostrom. The two were seemingly hooked together throughou t the 200 miles, and it came down to a typical Daytona drafting ba ttle - with Oliver beating Bostrom to the finish line by just .002 of a second. Fifth place went to Daytona 200 rookie Steve Rapp and the Yoshimura Suzuki, all alone some 26 seconds behind Bostrom. Rapp was surprisingly quick throughout and mana'ged to make up for a few rookie mistakes and a very close call with disaster. The mistakes stemmed mainly from pit stops. First, he missed his signboard caJling him into the pits; then, when he finally did pit, he Just when Russell will return to action was unknown at press time, though it's doubtful that he'll make the next round of the series in Phoenix, Arizona, on March 21. Rus ell had qualified 15th on Thursday_ but with the altercation talOng place on Friday morning, he was unable to try to improve on that time in Friday'S final session. This year's race marked the first time since 1987 that a Daytona 200 was run without Russell on its starting grid. "After talking to the doctor who examined him, I agreed with Scott that it was best for him to sit this one out'and begin his recovery," HarleyDa vidson team manager Steve Scheibe said. "Scott feels as badly as we do that he has to miss. the race and wants to return to action as soon as possible." [ronically, it was at Razzles that fellow Georgian Aaron Yates was assaulted last year and suffered a broken jaw. Yates, however, was able to race with the jaw wired, and he finished sixth. The first of the 63-rider field for the Daytona 200 enters turn one, led by Miguel DuHamel (17), Anthony Gobert (95), Aaron Yates (20), Mat Mladin (66) and Ben Bostrom (1). stalled the motor. Disaster almost came when he. lost the rear end through the high-speed kink, running off on the grass at more than 100 mph. Rapp managed to save it, then ran on the grass all the way to the apex of the second horseshoe. He managed to get the bike stopped-just before colliding with the rest of the pack trying to negotiate the corner. Rapp's teammate Jason Pridmore put his Suzuki GSX-R750 across the line in sixth place, happy in his first ride on the bike and on the team. It was a good day in all for Yoshimura, as they put three of their bikes in the top six. The first Kawa aki to cross the line was ridden by Aaron Yates, in his debut on the Muzzy Kawasaki. The Georgian led his teammate Chandler to the finish line, with both riders lacking the top speed to finish any higher. Behind the two Muzzy bikes came the two Fast By Ferracci Duca tis, wi th Larry Pegram and Matt Wait filling the top 10 on the fir t non-D\lnlop- hod motorcycles in the field. Pegram ran near the front until encountering brake problems, and Wait was llever a factor, as he battled a severe wobble for the entire 200 miles. Vance & Hines Ducati's Anthony Gobert had another miserable Daytona 200. The Australian qualified on pole position with a new lap record (see Qualifying sidebar), but his race was bad from the beginning. He blistered a tire early, and that put him out of pitstop sequence with the rest; then he thought he had a faulty tire later in the race and had to pit for a fourth time. When all was said and done, he finished a disappointing lIth. Behind Gobert came the first priva-

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