Cycle News

VOL. 50 ISSUE 49 DECEMBER 10, 2013 worked hard at earning a factory ride the previous year, constantly hounding the factory riders in 600 Supersport in '93 with his aggressive riding. Now, with Muzzy Kawasaki, he was reaping the rewards of that hard work and he was anxious to prove his worth. "No time for excuses now," Crevier said. "All I have to worry about this year is riding, and that better translate into results." After crunching the numbers of both qualifying sessions, it was Crevier on the pole. Starting alongside Crevier on the front row would be Smith, James and Edwards. Edwards led the field through turn one at the start of the final. James, Smith, Crevier and the rest of the 75-rider field followed the young Texan. Once on the banking, the Kawasakis of Crevier and Nobles showed good top speed and led the pack at the end of the first lap. On the second lap it was Smith leading a nine-bike lead pack. The pace was scorching at two minutes flat for the leaders, faster than qualifying times. Most notably aggressive in the lead pack was James. He was a brute under braking, many times passing three or four riders into turn one and again at the back straight chicane. The only problem for him was his Yamaha was noticeably slower on the banking than the factory Hondas and Kawasakis. If James was to have any chance at all to win he would have to somehow try to break away from the crowd. Lap six featured a particularly exciting moment. Smith and Rothman came across the start-finish dead even. Both crossed the line weaving in an effort to keep the riders behind them from drafting. Their lines converged and they bounced off of each other at nearly 150 mph. To say the racing was intense would be an understatement. The leaders began getting into heavy lapped traffic. With 75 starters it was a very crowded racetrack. Crevier and Smith seemed to work through the lapped riders a bit better and the duo got away from the rest of the pack for the first time. P97 Over the next few laps Crevier and Smith cracked the two-minute lap time barrier. Smith looked content to follow the Crevier's Kawasaki around until the finish of the race. James, meanwhile, had gotten through the traffic and was riding incredibly hard to catch the leaders. "I kept talking to my bike," James recalled. "I was saying, "C'mon, baby, pull us up into the draft." With three laps to go James caught the leaders, turning the fastest laps of the race in the process. Realizing his Yamaha could not beat the Honda or Kawasaki in a drafting contest, James put his head down through the infield on the last lap. He took second at the west horseshoe and then took the lead as the trio headed up on the west banking. James still led through the chicane, but Crevier and Smith were too close. As the leaders sped around the east banking and closed in on the finish line, Smith, getting a double draft, whipped past Crevier and James to take the win by mere inches. Crevier was second, James third. It was one of the all-time great 600 Supersport races in the history of the series. Four Hondas, three Kawasakis and three Yamahas made up the top 10. "I'm just glad to be up here in Victory Lane for one more year," said Smith, who also won the race in '92. "There was a lot of traffic out there today. I want to commend every one of those guys for riding a real smart race. I just wanted to follow those guys [James and Crevier] and make a bid at the end. It just happened to work out for us today." James came back strong and went on to win the '94 championship in a memorable seasonlong battle with Smith, Crevier and Hale. CN Subscribe to nearly 50 years of Cycle News Archive issues: www.CycleNews.com/Archives

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