Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

AMA Formula Xtreme Series Jake Zemke wins a seesaw battle over Miguel Duhamel By PAUL CARRUTHERS PHOTO BY HENNY RAy ABRAMS ake Zemke and Miguel Duhamel are teammates, but you wouldn't know it by watching the two battle for victory in the Formula Xtreme final at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, the two fighting tooth and nail for victory as every little point gets more meaningful as the series winds down. This one went to Zemke, his fifth of the season and I Ith of his Formula Xtreme career (a mark that puts him atop the alltime win list in the class), but Duhamel was a shadow second, the two trading the top spot for the duration of the 16-lap final. The margin of Victory? Just .374 of a second. Needing every championship point he can get, Duhamel was pleased to have earned a point for leading the most laps, but Zemke still managed to gain four points on his teammate. He now leads the championship by I I points with two rounds to go, 249-238. Despite a one-race hiatus (the Formula Xtreme class wasn't held at Laguna Seca), not much changed in Formula Xtreme, as it still carne down to Zemke and Duhamel, the American Honda duo still head and shoulders above the rest of the field, though the others continue to try to inch closer. This time it was Kurtis Roberts who fared the best of the rest, the Erion Honda rider returning to the class in his first Xtreme race since Daytona, where he finished second to Duhamel. Roberts stayed with the lead duo ever so briefly before fading back to a comfortable third. 42 Fourth place today went to Team M4 EMGO Suzuki's Michael Barnes, the Floridian riding hard to put himself up front with the Hondas in the early laps before a big slide slowed his progress. Still, he ended up well clear of the Attack Kawasaki of Ben Attard, the Australian holding on to finish fifth, a result that moved him ahead of countryman Alex Gobert in the championship points standings and into fourth place. Ty Howard rode his GP Tech Yamaha R6 to sixth, his best finish of the season. Robert Jensen and Kneedraggers.com's Chris Peris were next, followed by MPTracing.com's Danny Eslick and Opie Caylor, the Georgian rounding out the top lOon his EMGObacked Suzuki GSX-R600. As is usually the case in the Zemke/Duhamel battles, it all carne down to the final lap. This time, Duhamel led, though he knew the pass attempt would come under braking. He figured Zemke would try the move at the end of the back straight. Zemke anticipated that that was what Duhamel was thinking, so he pulled off a surprise: He passed him under braking for turn one. "On those last few laps, I was just trying to make it hard for Jake [Zemke] to stay with me, and I knew my bike had some speed on him," Duhamel said. "It was going to take a big outbraking maneuver. I was expecting it on the back straight, and he got me going into turn one. I was strong sometimes, but that time not strong enough. And he got me in tum one, and then it's so hard AUGUST 3, 2005 • CYCLE NEWS to find a place to go around and try to make a clean pass. And I just tried to put my wheel around him and tried to do the best I could. Down the back straight, he held tight. I was tight with him on the inside, and I noticed that we were pretty much on the dirt part of the track. I just tried to brake decent. And probably in nine, I would have been better to draft that, go to the outside of him, and have the inside in the next corner. So you know these are all the things that are going through your head when you're out there racing and trying to do the best you can." For Zemke, the plan worked to perfection. "Well, it was definitely a tough race, as I said on the podium," Zemke said. ''Any time you're racing with Miguel, it's tough. I'm not sure if I picked the wrong gearing or if my motor was just down a little bit on his or what the deal was. He definitely had a little bit of steam on me down the back straightaway. I had to ride a little bit harder than I wanted to to stay up there and even just to stay with him, really. I knew it was going to come down to the last lap, as usual. I made that pass going into tum one; that was probably about the only place I could pass him on the racetrack, besides going into the back straightaway. It's both areas where you're braking hard, and basically it's the only way I could get around him. He'd be looking for me to pass him on the back straightaway there, because I had passed him there. That's the only place I had passed him before. I wanted to try to catch him by surprise." Zemke not only made the pass, he made it stick, and he protected his line and broke deep enough at the end of the back straight to preserve his victory. They crossed the line just .374 of a second apart, the pair riding hard throughout - despite being teammates. "The season's winding down and the championship is real tight, so you can't give any quarter," Duhamel said. "We were riding really hard and, obviously, I led the absolute minimum, and I pulled that one off to get the most laps led. So at least Igot that point, so we're trying to limit the damage. It just makes it a little bit harder on ourselves - for my team. It's so great for Honda now to sweep the podium. It's not easy. It's not like we're giving each other a lap at the front. Every lap out there is earned." Roberts crossed the line some 14 seconds after the lead pair, happy to be back on the podium after a frustrating Superbike season. "It's just nice to not be as far back as we seem to be on the Superbike right now," Roberts said. "We're really struggling getting that thing to work for me. It's nice to be on something where we've got the chance to be competitive at least. Once we got around Barney [Michael Bames] , I kind of closed the gap on these guys in two or three laps. I realized it was going to be pretty tough to stay there, and they were really going at it. I didn't want to be a factor in taking both of them out or anything like that. Plus I've kind of been a little sick, as you guys probably hear in my voice. I can't talk real well, but this is probably the best I've been all week. We just held on to third and just kind of settled in and waited for these guys. They were racing so close. It looked like a good race to watch, for sure. I mean, the parts I saw, they were definitely going at it. You never know what could happen at that point. Who knows, I could've inherited first at any time. Jake rode a great race, and so did Miguel." Mlo-OHIO SPoRTs CAR COURSE WoNGTON, OHIO RESULTS: JULY 23, 2005 (ROUNO 7) FORMULA XTREME FINAl" I. Jake Zemke (Hen): 2. M;guel Duhamel (Hen): 3. Kuros il<>be'" (Hen): ~. MKhaei Barnes (Suz): 5. 8m Alwd (KAw): 6. lY Howarn (Yam): 7. Robert J"""'" (y",,): 8. Ch'" Peri, (y",,): 9. Carny E.lKk (Suz): 10. Ch'" Cay\oo' (Suz): II. R)' And.-e'M (Due): 12. Mike Hale (Hen): 13. NKky Moo<-e (y",,): I~. Taylor Knapp (Yam): 15. Heath S"",I (y",,): 16. R)' EI"by (Suz): 17. Annando Ferrer (Yam): 18. o...k Keyes (Suz): 19. Nathan Hester (Yam): 20. jonas McOuskey (Yam); 21. Shea Fouchek (Suz): 22. Daniel Doty (y",,): 23. Myron IleI1 (Suz): 24. Kev;n Pa'e (Suz): 25. Rage.- Bell (Suz): 26. Voctor Chirinos (Yam): 27. M.1van Garza (Suz): 28.l...ance Yeager (Kaw); 29. Marl< Hatten (Due). Time: 23 min., 57.970 sec. Distance: 16 laps. 38."1 miles Average speed: 96.1 mph Margin of victory: 0.373 sec. FORMULA XTREME C'SHIP POINTS STANDINGS (After 7 of 9 rounds): I. Jake Zemke (2"19/5 wins); 2. Miguel Duhamel (23W2 wn.): 3. Danny E.IKk (171): ~. Ben Alwd (138): S. Alex GoI>e« (136): 6. Ch'" Po'" (13S): 7. NKky Moo<-e (124): 8. MKhaei Same. (105): 9. Taylo< Knapp (102): 10. Armando Ferrer (98): I I. Nathan He'er (97): 12. Ch'" Ca}'lor (90): 13. Ryan And.-e'M (8S); I~. Robert jensen (82): 15. (TIE) VIet", Ch;rinos{l1m Knut>on (79). UPCOMING ROUNDS Round 8: August 27-28, Axton, Virginia Round 9: September 3-4, Braselton, Georgia

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