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AMA Lockhart-Phillips USA Formula Xtreme Series AMA FORMULA XTREME Briefly... Continued from poge 23 Miguel Duhamel (1) beat Jake Zemke (98) at VIR. Only five points separate them in the championship with one race remaining at Road Atlanta next weekend. TO THE WIRE MIGUEL DUHAMEL BARELY BESTS .JAKE ZEMKE. SETTING UP A TITLE SHOWDOWN By PAUL CARRUTHERS PHOTO BY HENNY RAy ABRAMS iguel Duhamel and Jake Zemke were at it again at Virginia International Raceway, the two American Honda riders battling for the duration of the 17-lap Formula Xtreme final. At one point, the two were separated at the start/finish line by just 0,00 I of a second - and the average lead was just .336 of a second, including the final one, with Duhamel inching away to win by 1.136 seconds. It was typical of how the season has gone, the two factory Hondas battling each other to the end. Now, with Duhamel winning for a third time on the season, it sets up a fight for the championship at Road Atlanta next weekend, with Zemke's points lead now cut to just five. But Duhamel still faces an uphill battle if he is to defend his title in the class. The French Canadian has to earn pole position, lead the most laps and win the race to beat Zemke by a Single point if Zemke finishes second. If Zemke takes pole, or leads the most laps and finishes second, he would win the title on a tie breaker, because he has more victories - six to four (the final tally if Duhamel were to win at Road Atlanta). The race was pretty much decided on the 13th lap when the two made contact. Duhamel got the better of the scuffle and ended that lap with half a second in hand. Half a second between these two is an M 24 SEPTEMBER 7,2005 • eternity, and he was able to stretch that lead little by little to the end, winning by 1.136 seconds. "It was really tight racing, and I did touch Jake [Zemke] up in turn 14, 14A, that right-hander going in," Duhamel explained. "We were both on the brakes, sliding. He started turning, which we had to do, and we just touched. I was happy that it wasn't too much of a big nudge to send him off or anything like that. And then, after that, I just said, 'C'mon, just get yourself together. Put some good laps down.' And that's what I did. I put some good laps down - 27.0s and 26.9, and nobody could do that before the race. So I was kind of hoping to pull away, but I just maybe got like a half-second gap and was probably helped a bit because we did have a little contact on top there. That was unfortunate. It was a great race besides that. It was really tight, really hard." Zemke had no hard feelings and was happy to have caught up as much as he did, since he'd missed the chance to test here earlier in the year. "It was pretty decent - all except for the finishing order, I think," Zemke said. "Other than that, it was good. We had to playa little bit of catch-up this weekend. I didn't have the opportunity to test here. I had a little something going on with my elbow at the time. So we were playing catch-up all weekend to Miguel. Hats off to him. He rode great, and his crew did a great job, and at the end of the day we just didn't have it for him today. But we'll come back swinging next week." CYCLE NEWS Behind those two, the race for third was just as good - at least until the ninth lap. With Topline Printing's Chris Peris leading Team M4 EMGO's Michael Barnes, Attack Kawasaki's Ben Attard, MPTracing.com's Danny Eslick and Kneedraggers.com's Robert Jensen, the race for the final spot on the podium was setting up to be a good one between the five riders. Then it got broken up, first with Peris going down and then a few turns later with Eslick crashing out. The melee left Barnes with a slight gap over Jensen, while Attard got the worst of it, dropping to fifth. Jensen, however, wasn't giving up, and he chased Barnes down, passing him on the 13th lap for his first-ever Formula Xtreme podium and the second podium finish of his AMA career. "It was just a blur," Jensen said. "I tried to get a good start and got off the line pretty good but missed a shift - second gear didn't want to go into gear, and I ended up losing some ground right there. I just maintained a steady pace, and these two guys had already checked out. Peris was up there, and Barnes and Eslick and Attard were just in front of me. I just worked at chipping the lead away, and Peris started coming back to us. Then he crashed, I think in seven, and then Eslick highsided right after that. It was me and Barnes left, that I could see. I just slowly worked away at it and got past him and kept my head down. I wasn't sure how close he was, because I didn't have a pit board - it was just, 'Run hard.''' Attard wasn't finished either, and he passed Barnes on the final lap to finish fourth by just three-tenths of a second, dropping Barnes to fifth. EMGO's Opie Caylor was well behind that group, all alone in sixth place. eN VIRGINIA INTERNATIONAL RACEWAY ALTON, VIRGINIA RESULTS: AUGUST 27, 2005 (ROUND 8) FORMULA XTREME: I. Miguel Duhamel (Han); 2. Jake Zemke (Hon); 3. Robert Jensen (Yam); 4. Ben Attard (Kaw); 5. Michael Barnes (Suz); 6. Opie Caylor (Suz); 7. Nicky Moore (Yam); 8. Ryan Andrews (Due); 9. Mike Hale (Hon): 10. Trey Yonce (Yam); II. Nathan Hester (Yam); 12. Taylor Knapp (Yam); 13. Vietor Chirinos (Yam); 14. Alex Gobert (Hon); IS.justin Filice (Hon); 16. Tim Rinaldi (Yam); 17. Scott Harwood (Hon); 18. Jeffrey Johnson (Bue); 19. Lance Yeager (Kaw); 20. Mark Kittel (Hon). Time: 24 min., 50.440 sec. Distance: 17 laps, 38.25 miles Average speed: 92.8 mph Margin of victory: 1.1]6 sec. AMA FORMULA XTREME C'SHIP POINTS STANDINGS (After 8 of 9 rounds): I. Jake Zemke (281/5 wins); 2. Miguel Duhamel (276/3 wins); 3. Danny Eslick (171); 4. Ben Attard (165); 5. Alex Goben (15]); 6. Nicky Moore (148); 7. Chris Pens (135); 8. Michael Barnes (131); 9. Taylor Knapp (121); 10. Nathan Hester (117); II. Opie Caylor (115); 12. Robert Jensen (III); 13. Ryan Andrews (108); 14. Armando Ferrer (106); 15. Vietor Chirinos (97). UPCOMING ROUND Round 9 . Braselton, Georgio, September 2 everything I can. There's only one race left now, and it ain't going to be no picnic at Road Atlanta, either." Mladin took exception to Neil Hodgson moving over on him at the start of the second race, but Hodgson had no idea what he was talking about. "Whereabouts?" Hodgson asked when told about the incident. "God almighty, I can't believe it. I never even saw him [Mladin]. Does he have any idea what it's like off the start? I swear on my mother's life I never even saw him. God almighty, has he got nothing to be happy about? If he just had a weekend tike me, then he could have something to be upset about." "I don't really understand the guy's deal, to be honest with you," Mladin said of the incident with Hodgson. "I don't know if he thinks the race is going to be won in the first corner or not, but it certainly isn't. It was quite dangerous, actually. I had to really get off the gas or I was going to go in the grass. He savagely cut me off, and I'll go and have a word with him after this, sort it out and go from there." The announcement that the American Honda factory team would be racing Superbike only in 2006 (see In The Wind) made Jake Zemke a happy man. "It's definitely something I'm looking forward to," he said. "There's a guy running around here with that number-one plate, and he's awfully tough to beat. And it's really hard to go and beat a guy like that riding two bikes, two classes. It's not so much at the racetrack, but at testing and stuff like that you're limiting yourself to half as much time as what he has, and he's already a step ahead of us right now. So we definitely need to close that gap back up. Hopefully, by being able to concentrate on one class, we'll be able to start putting a little dent in his win streak here." Graves Motorsports Yamaha's Damon Buckmaster admitted that he'd been slowed all year by carpal tunnel syndrome in his left wrist. "It's just an ongOing problem since the scaphoid injury last year [at the Barber round of the championship, early in the season]," Buckmaster said. Dr. Thomas Bryan is scheduled to perform corrective surgery on the Friday after the September 4 season finale at Road Atlanta. "They say a month," Buckmaster said of his expected recovery. "I'll be here for a few weeks after the surgery, so I'll get fairly intense therapy before Igo back to Australia." Buckmaster is scheduled to return to his native Australia on September 21 , but will stay in the United States if a ride develops. "I'll either be here or there; I have an opportunity to race in Australia next season," he said. "I mean, this would be my first choice, to stay here another couple of years at least. But it'd be a great opportunity, and I love Australia, of course."