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Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/128335
Lockhart-Phillips USA For mula Xtreme Series
MIGUEL
DUHAMEL
TOOK A GIANT
STEP
TOWARD THE
FORMULA
XTREME TITLE
AT MID-OHIO
a rr ing someth ing out of the
ordinary happening in the next
two races, this one is over. If
you add Miguel Duhamel's
sixth vict ory in the Fo rmula
Xtreme class here at the Mid-Ohio Sports
Car Course w ith a Jake Zemke cras h, it
almost tallies up to Duhamel's seve nt h
career AMA Championship.
Almost .
With two races left to run, Duhamel's
lead over his nearest rival seems o ut of
reach, at 45 points . Especiallygiven the fact
that Duhamel has yet to finish worse than
second all year.
At the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Cou rse,
Duhamel again stood on the to p rung of the
podium , the French -Canadian easily winning his sixth Xtreme race of the year. This
on e was easy, because Zemke wasn't
around at the end to challenge him.
With the two having their normal ep ic
battle at the fro nt of the field, it all went
wrong for Zemke on the ninth lap when he
crashed the Erion Honda CBR600RR in the
slippery Keyhole comer. Zemke was quickly back on his feet , uninjured , but his championship hopes had taken a severe beati ng.
"It's not on a seam," Zemke explained
of his crash. "What happened was , when
they filled in the concrete patches and redid them, they filled them and grooved
them and textured them. Well, there're
ce rtain parts of it that the concrete level
wasn't high enough, so it never got scraped
ove r, and so that concrete is superslic k.
When we tested here , we all went out
B
28
AUGUST 4,2004 •
there and checked it out, beca use three
guys crashed in the same exact spot. And
the stuff is just supe rslick. It's really bad
when there's moisture in the morning,
because you can't te ll, because that stuff
stays dark - even right now, you go out
there and look. 50 it's hard to tell if it's wet
or just a dark patch on the track or what.
Miguel [Duhamel] went a bit wide that lap .
I was do ing the best I could . We were a litt le bit down on power, for sure. Iwas making it all up going in and through the midd le
of the corner. That was the o nly way I had
a chance of staying with him. It was just a
little too much corner speed there and a little too much weight o n the fro nt end , and
down she goes. I had to definitely be there
to have a sho t at the championship, so I
co uldn't just let him run off."
But run off Duhamel did, the veteran
cru ising his way to victo ry with almost 13
seconds to spare over second place. The
w in was also the 78t h career AMA roadracing victory for Duhamel.
"Wh en I came around and saw plus 10,
plus IS, I loo ked back to make sure it was
.0 or .5," Duhamel said. "You don't want to
back off too much and give away what you
have . I didn't see Jake, but I didn't know if
he ran straight o r if his bike broke.
Unfortunately, he fell, but he 's not hurt, so
that is good. After that, it was hard . You
don't know how slow or how fast you wan t
to go . You're not paying attention, so you
go into a comer and you think you are
going slow becaus e you are, and then
you're don 't bra ke enough to make the
CYCLE NEWS
comer, and you hit a crack and there's
water seeping through the racetrack. I was
really biting down hard to make sure I
slowed down the pace a lot but stayed
focused enough to not make a mistake. It
was kind of tough."
Second in th is one went to Star
Motorcycle's Jason Pridmore, the racing
instructor having his best outing of the sea son at a racetrack on which he always pe rforms well. Pridmore had started slowly,
finishing the fi rst lap in seventh place , but he
methodically picked his way thro ugh the
field until he was hot on the heels of HMC
Ducati's Doug Chandler on the 10th lap. A
lap later, Pridmore was by, signaling to
Chandler that the Ducati was smo king
badly. Chand ler too k notice, and the next
lap he was ou t of the race , pulling the
Ducati safely off course.
"It was grea t for no other reas on than to
have all of my crew in the w inner's circle,
becau se we've all been working so hard
this year," Pridm ore said. "To get on the
podium... we had a third -place bike, and
Jake [Zemke] tossed it, and I was way
bummed for Jake, but we ended up getting
second. We got a good start, and then I got
pinched off in one and saw Doug
[Chandler] splitting. I started chasing him
down, and then his bike started smoking. I
was a little careful getting around him, and
once I got underneath him, I told him that
he had a problem: '
With both Zemke and C handler out of
the race , Valvoline EMGO Suzuki's Vincent
Haskovec was able to put his GSX-R600
40th Anniversary
into third place, the Califomia resident
match ing his season best in the class. He
wasn't completely happy with the way he 'd
gotten there , realizing that attrition had put
him on the podium.
"I wasn't really happy this moming ,
because the conditions changed very dras tically for us," Haskovec said. "I'm pretty
much the only guy in the field on Michelin
tires , and that cold weather in the moming
just shows me the things that I have to
address. I wasn't sure on the qualifying on
the previous day, and I wasn't happy with
my lap time. I qualified on the fron t row,
but the lap time was off those of the front
guys. Iwasn 't sure which d irection to go, so
we changed the bike a lot and threw the
dice and we'll see w hat happens. The bike
worked rea lly well, but it was a tire that I
never tried and it took me a few laps. We
pretty much lucked o ut with this podium ,
and I was n't really hap py with my pe rfo rmance . I rode as hard as I can , but the bike
and setup was n't bett er for here. Do ug
[Chand ler] and Jake [Zemke] went out, and
that's what put us o n the pod ium."
Triangle Cycle Yamaha's Larry Pegram
finished fourth after a near-race-Iong battle
with the Kosco Harley-Davidson Buell of
Michael Barnes. The pair was lo cked
together unt il Barnes ' Buell gave up the
fight on the 12th lap. That left Pegram
alone , well clear of fifth-placed Heath
Small, the Texan riding a Shogun
Motorsports-b ac ked Yamaha R6. Ty
Howard was hot on Small's heels but wasn't able to find a way past on the final lap ,
and he had to be content with sixth on the
GP Tech Suzuki GSX-R600 .
Erion Ho nda's Alex Gobert had an off
day, the young Australian end ing up seventh
- his worst outing of the seas on thus far.
Road rage Yamaha' s Giovanni Rojas,
Nasti Racing's O pie Caylor, and Players Bar
& Grill-backed Kawasaki rider Jason Farrell
eN
rounded out the top 10 finishers.
MID-OHIO SPORTS CAR COURSE
U XINGTON , OHIO
RESULTS J UL
:
Y
24, 2004
(ROUND
13-14)
FORM ULA XTREM E FINAL: I. Miguel Duhame l
(Han); 2. Jason Pridmore (Suz); 3. Vincent Haskovec (St.a.) 4.
;
lNry Pegram (Yam 5. Heath Small (Yam 6. 1Y Howard
):
):
(Suz): 7. Alex Gobert (Hen) : 8. G"""",," Rojas(Y
am): 9. 0 ,""
Cayloo- (Suz): 10. J""'" F..,..U(Kaw): II. Benjamin w..Jt~
(Yam) 12. Peny M _ (Yam) I l . p.onMalhWon (Yam):
;
:
14. Mike Shreve (Yam); IS. Nathan Hest er (Yam l b. Doug
);
Deere (Suz); 17. Randy Rega (Yam): 18. Robe