Cycle News

VOL. 55 ISSUE 9 MARCH 6, 2018 P125 38th in the Daytona 200 in his de- but just three months earlier and now a flabbergasted Metzger was standing on the podium alongside Picotte and Wilson. It was a day he wouldn't soon forget. Harley-Davidson launched its VR1000 Superbike in 1994 with factory riders Miguel Duhamel (hired away from the GP circuit with the biggest contract to date in AMA Superbike) and Fritz Kling. It was at Mid-Ohio in '94 where a sun-drenched crowd collectively came to their feet when Duhamel stormed to the lead in that year's superbike race on the Harley. In that precise moment, when Mid-Ohio sounded like a col- lege football stadium after the home team scored the winning touchdown, a truth was revealed. American sportbike enthusiasts for years had loved to make fun of Harley-Davidson, but when the American-made superbike actu- ally passed a slew of Japanese and Italian-made superbikes to lead an AMA Superbike race, national pride came bubbling up. Suddenly 30,000 screaming fans were all Harley enthusiasts! Unfortunately for Duhamel and Harley, the Mid-Ohio celebration was short-lived. The shifter broke. Fast forward two years to Mid- Ohio. In the time since Duhamel's moment of glory, there had not been many bright moments for the Harley team. In the two-and-a- half seasons since its inception, riders on Harley VR1000s only managed top-10 finishes just a handful of times. Wilson was brought on board at Harley after a couple of promis- ing seasons in AMA Supersport aboard a Kinko's Kawasaki. He was in the prime of his career and was eager to please and willing to take the risk of riding the often- failing VR1000 at 110 percent. Early in the '96 season the VR broke a couple of times, but then a ray of light when Wilson scored a solid ninth at Laguna Seca. But that ride gave no indication that Wilson would be contending for a victory a few weeks later at Mid- Ohio. Wilson knew Mid-Ohio well and had ridden it before in wet condi- tions. He showed he was even going to be a factor there in the dry when he qualified seventh on the Harley, ahead of a handful of other factory riders. In the race Picotte got off to a blazing start on the Yoshimura Su- zuki and appeared to be setting up a runaway win. But then he was black flagged for jumping the start and had to make a stop-and- go penalty stop on pit road. He'd opened up a big enough lead, that when he returned to the track he was still in second, behind Jamie James. Picotte enjoyed another stroke of luck when he crashed in the Keyhole trying to chase down James just as the red flag was coming out due to Mike Smith crashing in the final turn. The red flag allowed Picotte to get back to the pits and have repairs made to his bike. The race was restarted, but more drama was coming. Once again James got out front early. Mat Mladin crashed trying to stay with him. All of a sudden Wilson was charging hard com- ing up to challenge Picotte for second. Then came Metzger, Miguel Duhamel and Alessandro Gramigni in tight formation. Metzger, perhaps hyped up by racing with the series defend- ing champ Duhamel, had to tell himself to breathe. "I kept think- ing he's just a mortal like me and he also has the championship to worry about," Metzger said. "I also knew in the back of my mind that he didn't want to get beat by a privateer." Just about to complete the eighth lap, leader James high- sided coming out of the last turn and slammed into the Air Fence- covered guardrail. The race was stopped again, this time for good. Picotte was sitting in pitlane when officials told him he'd won. To his credit, the Canadian wasn't too proud to admit Wilson was the faster rider on this day. "I was really holding him back," Picotte said. "He was faster than me because I was really loose on the rear end." Today Wilson says people still occasional tell him they remem- ber the day he almost won on the Harley. He said then, as now, there are mixed feelings. "It was great to give Harley its best finish ever," Wilson said. "On the other, it sure would have been nice if that race had gone one more lap." CN Subscribe to nearly 50 years of Cycle News Archive issues: www.CycleNews.com/Archives

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