Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

Ro u nd 10 Sep.4,2004 ~ AMA SUPERBIKE Lockhart-Phillips USA Formula Xtreme Ser ies I DUHAMEL'!!!i # 7 MIGUEL DUHAMEL TAKES TITLE NUMBER SEVEN By H EN NY RAy ABRAMS P HOTOS BY BRIAN J. N ELSON A me r ica n Honda's Migue l Duhamel won the inaugural 600cc Lockhart-P hillips USA For mula Xtreme tit le, but his eaction to w inni ng an unprecedented seventh AMA road-race t itle was anyth ing bu t joyous. Inst ead , Duhamel was defiant and defensive abo ut his and Erion Ho nd a 's Jake Zemke 's domination of t he class instead of ce lebrati ng the most succe ssful career in AMA road-race history. "I welco me anybody that thinks that it's easy to w in this championship, just step right up," he said after beating Erion Hon da' s Jake Ze mke by .2 10 of a second . "Jake's been riding great all year and again today. [This was] definitely, not by any means, any kind of a blow -out." T he race began in earnest on the back straight on the ISth and final lap. They'd each led seven laps - Ze mke o ne th ro ugh five, Duh amel six t hro ugh 12, the n Zemke again for tw o more. O n the final run of the 2.52- mile road co urse, Duh amel went inside Zemke in the sixthgear, right-hand turn-nine kink. Zemke responded in th e 90.degree turn-I 0 left, with Duhamel blocking the inside line. Th at put Zemke in po sition to squ are the corner off and go brie fly up t he inside an d into t he lead, but it also gave Duhame l the inside line when t he y turned right in t he sec o nd part of t he chicane . O ve r the to p of t he hill t hey went, side by side on the edge of t he track, w ith Du ham el now o n the inside for the run to t he flag - and the win, his seve nth of the year: Zemke said he was just ahead of Duhamel w he n he start ed spinn ing "and he pulled up alongside and he had a bit of a drive and he alrea dy had th e inside . And to race do wn th e hill, I wasn't about to try and lean on him coming down th e outside of t he hill. I just backed her off a little bit co ming off t he hill and just sat t here in seco nd ." '" didn't need to w in the race," said Duhamel, w ho 'd come to Road Atlant a on ly needing to finish second if Zemke w o n to ta ke t he title . "I kind of forgot my game plan the re ." In the postrac e press confe rence, delayed hours until after the finish of th e Superbike race , Duh amel was anything but his usual witty and wisecracking se lf. He seemed subdued , partly from finishing second to Supe rb ike rival Mat Mladin in the ir race t hat was followed by a co ntentious postrace shoutdown (se e Briefly...). Asked abo ut winning his seventh title, and his first since 1997 , Duhame l respo nde d: "It' s been a while , and o bviou sly injurie s playe d a part , an d AI [Ludington] go ing away fo r a litt le w hile t here. There was a lot of little things t hat came into play. The hill wa s a little st eepe r tha n it co uld have been or shou ld have been. It feels great. I'm clicking really great wit h t he team. The team's clicking grea t w ith me , and AI and I are fitting like a glove again." t it le, 600cc Duh amel 's first Supersport, ca me in 199 I aboard a Hond a. Since beginning his AMA career w ith a limited schedule in 1989, Duham el has won a total of 79 races : 30 Superbike, 4 1 600cc Super spo rt , sev en Formula Xtreme, an d o ne 750c c Superstock. Th e titles came in Supe rsport; 199 1, '93, '95, '96, '97, th e 1995 Supe rb ike title , and this yea r 's FX cro w n. Th e o verwhelming ma jority of his w ins and tit les came aboard Hon das. Du hamel w on seven races and t he 1993 Supersport crown aboard a Muzzy Kawasaki. He also wo n o ne Superbike race t hat year. Th e Supersto ck w in was aboa rd a Suzu ki, as was on e Supe rb ike w in. Duh amel w e nt o n to challenge anyon e w ho thought th e champion ship w as a wal kover. "It was really tight and really hard , and eve ry race wi n was earned for Jake [Ze mke] and myse lf," he said , lat e r adding, "The re w as two facto ry guys, obviously Jake and I were riding up fro nt, but still t here's o nly on e place on t he podium , and it was really hard to get, and I feel that th is was a to ugh cham pionship to win t his year." Zemke's championship hop es took a hit w he n he fell at t he Mid-Ohio Sports C ar Course . That gave Duhame l the cus hion he needed. '~II in all, second place isn't wh er e I wan ted to be , but ultimat ely it's what w e got," said Ze mke, w ho se cured second place in t he champ ionship. With on ly the final round at Virginia Raceway re mai ning, International Duh amel has an insurmo unta ble 51- po int lead , 358-307, ove r Zemke . Erion Honda's Alex Gobert , a DNF today, is third w ith 254 points. Zemke is a highly-sought-after fre e agent for 2005 and was n't sure w ho he'd be riding for o r in which classes. Honda has made it clear it wo uld like him on the Superbike team. " It' s pre tty funny, t hes e Fo rmula Xtreme races , because o ne of us w ill ge t out in front of the ot her one, and if yo u can't pull away, you pretty muc h know it will come dow n to the last lap," he said . "Usually a check-out's not eve n an issue . Pre tty much you know after yo u get a few laps in, and if on e guy leads, the o ther guy take s a lead and sees if yo u can do anything different. The n you just kind of plan fo r th e last lap and see w hat yo u can make happe n." HMC Ducat i's Doug C handler took third fro m Sta r Motorcycle School 's Jason Pridm ore o n the final lap. C handle r 's pit board to ld him there were t hree laps to go w hen he saw the white flag, so his strategy changed . Now was t he t ime . "I figur ed I had a cha nce," C handle r said afte r beat ing Pridmo re to t he line by . 115 of a sec ond, the pair 25 sec onds beh ind t he lead e rs. "Luckily, we had a clea r trac k and no body to run up o n, and 1just sta yed as close as I co uld all through t he infie ld, and when we came o ut the back, that thing did its job ." Triangle Cycles ' Larry Pegram came amaha R6. ho me alo ne in fifth on his Y Behind him, Cycle C ity 's Mike Smith got t he bette r of Empire Racing's O pie Caylor eN in th eir race -lo ng d uel. ROAD ATLANTA BRASELTON GEORGIA , RESULTS: SEPTEMBER S, 2004 (ROUND 10) LOCKHART· PHILLIPS USA F· XTREME: I. Migue l Duhame l (Hon); 2. jake Ze mke (Hon); 3. Do ug Chandler m); 6. (Due); 4. jaso n Pridmore (5oz); 5. Larry Pegram (Ya arn); 7. Op ie Caylor (Sux) 8. Blake Young : Michael Smith (Y (Suz); 9. Heath Small (Yam); 10. Logan Young (Suz): I I. Nathan Hest er (Y am); 12. Nicky Moore (Hon); 13. Darin Eli Edward s (Suz); 14. Perry Melneduc (Y am); 15. joseph Arico (Y am); 16. Thomas Montano (Han) ; 17. Vincent Haskc vec (Suz); 18 . Eric Pinson (Suz); 19. Tim Knutson (Yam); 20. Jere miah johnson (Suz); 21. Alex Gobert (Hon); 22. jo hn Waters (Suz); 23. Jason Farre ll (Kaw); 24. Ca rlo Gagliardo (Y am); 2S. Mike Ciccott o (Bue); 26. Michael Barnes (Bue): 27. Ch ris Pens (Suz). lime : 2 1 min, 48.742 sec . Distance: 15 laps. 37.8 miles Average spe ed : 104.803 mph Margin of Yic tory: 0.2 10 sec . LOCKHART-PHILLIPS USA FORMULA XTREME SERIES POINTS STANDINGS (Afte r 10 of II ro unds): I. Miguel Duhamel (358/7 wins); 2. Jake Zemke (307/2 wins); 3. Alex Gobert (254); 4. Vincent Haskovec (23 1); S. Larry Pegram (2 IS); 6. Jason Pridmore (189); 7. Heat h Small ( 173); 8. Nathan Hester ( 165); 9. Perry Melneciuc ( 152); 10. Doug Chandler (137); I I. Danny Eslick (123); 12. Michael Barnes ( 122); 13. Jake Holden ( 12 1); 14. Nicky Moore ( 103); 15. Mike C iccott o (87). UPCOMING ROUND R ounds 11: Acton, Virginia, Seplember J 9 www.cyclenews.com Briefly... some of those guys off the racetrack, because they're spoiling the racing. The spectators are not here to see the guy coming 20th; they're here to see the top few guys pushingeach othe r, passing each other for the lead and see who can win." In a recent roundtable discussion with Cycle News, AMAPro Racingofficials vigorously con tested the notion of furt her re strict ions on the fiel d. Yamaha's Damon Buckmaster was back afte r a one-race abse nce , the Austra lian having sat out the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course round following his difficult return , at Mazda Raceway LagunaSeca, from wrist injuries suffered earlier in the year. Buck- master suffered a nondisplaced fracture of the scaphoid during Pro Honda Oils Supersport practice at Barber Motorsports Park in mid-May. Buckmaster 's docto r was of the opinion that the wrist was healing, but hadn't healed. "It's definitelygetting better," he said. A test the previous week at Virginia Internat ional Raceway was pain-free . But there were problems with handling the Graves Motorsports Superstock Yamaha RI on the up-and-down, heavy-braking Road Atlanta road course. "It's tough on the hand," he said. "It gave me a bit of a workout on the big bike." The problem was most prevalent in the left-handers, especially the hard-brakingdownhill left at the end of the long back straight. "I seem to be puttingallmy weight on my left hand." With the 1000giving him more trou ble, he dropped out. The only reason to stay in would have been to boost the championship hopes of teammates Jamie Hacking, tops in points; Aaron Gobert , second overall; and fourth-placed Jason DiS alvo. "Realistically, that would be the right thing to do, but they've been faster yeste rday and today. 1don't know if I can help them." In the end, Buckmaster opt ed out of Superstock and raced to a sixth in Supersport . And Gobert made his way to the top of the point standings. Kawasaki team manager Mike Preston confirmed that Tommy Hayden had made his first-ever tr ip to japan to test the 2005 Kawasaki ZX-6R. Hayden, Preston and crew chief Dan Fahie made the trip to the Autopolis International Racing Course in the to wn of Kamit-sue-mu ra in the moun- tainous region of K yushu, the southern japanese island. The 2.904-mile track was built with no expense spared in 1992 and made the provisional FI calendar, but the n went bankrupt. It's now used for japanese national championships. The trip was made soon after the Mid-Ohio round of the AMA Chevrolet Superbike Championship. The trio flew to Tokyoand then south for three days of test ing before visiting the Kawasaki factory in Kobe, japan. The news that Kawasaki had a new 600 the year after the debut of an all-new ZX-6R was somet hing of a surprise, but spoke to the competitive nature of the class; Because the Hayden brothers owned the top two spots after Sunday's Supersport race at RoadAtlanta, it Contin ued on page 39 CYCLE NEWS • SEPTEMBER 15, 2004 37

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