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Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/128096
AMAIPro Honda Oils BDDee Supersport Series Round 1 : Daytona International Speedway rche (Left) A rather grizzled-looking Miguel DuHamel cuts loose with the champagne following an eliciting victory In the 600cc Suponport race. It was the first-ever National win for the CBR600 F41. (Below) On the penultimate laP. Nick)' Hayden (69) leads Jamie Hacking (2), Anthony Gobert (16). Eric Bostrom (32) and Kurtis Roberts (1) as they approach the stripe to s1art the final circuit. DuHamel is in front, out of the picture. By PAUL CARRUTHERS PHOTOS BY HENNY RAY ABRAMS DAYTONA BEACH, FL, MAR. 9 .L')ike death and taxes, you can E5'...always count on Miguel DuHamel to win the big ones. With the 600cc Supersport race at Daytona International Speedway being the most important on the AMA calendar, naturally it was DuHamel who further added to his ever-growing legend by winning another classic battle. DuHamel was a factor throughout the red-flag-interrupted race, running in the lead pack in both parts. In the final portion, he was unstoppable, leading the final two laps - including the run from the chicane on the final 34 MARCH21,2001' cue I_ lap - to win his sixth 600cc Supersport final at Daytona and the 38th of his career. In addition, DuHamel continued his streak of winning Daytona each and every time Honda introduces a new model CBR600. This time DuHamel gave the brand-new CBR600 F4i its first-ever National victory, bringing huge smiles to the faces of the Honda brass. As always at Daytona, the lead pack ran tightly throughout with six n __ s riders taking turns to lead the fray across the finish line. DuHamel, though, led the most (and the most important) laps, crossing the stripe at the front nine times and ultimately winning the race - 10 years after winning the first of his six Daytona Supersport races. "Our bike was working really great," DuHamel said. "The thing is really fast so I felt confident that I could be up there. I just wanted to make sure that I was close enough to keep an eye on what was going on in case somebody could make a break. The pace was good, but there was always a little voice inside my head that said somebody may click off some 53s by themselves and that would do it. I tried it, but I could never quite get away." The race was a war that went full distance, with the top-eight riders crossing the finish line within .760 of a second of DuHamel. Some benefited from the red flag, others didn't. The man who made the most of a second chance, however, was runnerup Nicky Hayden, on another factory Honda CBR600 F4i. Hayden, in his only scheduled 600cc Supersport appearance of the season, had crashed in oil (ironically, his brother Roger Lee's oil) in tum one on the eighth lap, remounted and was running 13th when the red flag came out after Grant Lopez also crashed in tum one. On the restart, Hayden was able to get with the lead pack once again, and he took full advantage of the situation to finish second, just .205 of a second behind his teammate DuHamel. Yamaha's Anthony Gobert also took full advantage of the situation, getting a better start and riding more aggressively on the opening lap of the restart to get in with the lead pack. He then used the draft and the power of the R6 to finish third in what was his AMA 600cc Supers port debut, barely topping Erion Racing's Kurtis Roberts, Kawasaki's Eric