Red Rider Weekend Report - Duhamel Triples at VIR

Red Rider Weekend Report
10 October 2004
Road Race: Virginia International Raceway
Supermoto: South Boston Raceway, South Boston VA
US Open: Las Vegas, NV

Honda riders win in Vegas, Virginia and South Boston.

The final round of the AMA Superbike Championship was held at the Virginia
International Raceway on October 9 and 10th. With the fall foliage setting
the backdrop for a colorful weekend, Team Honda's Miguel Duhamel broke the
track qualifying record on Saturday, setting the stage for the weekend.
Duhamel went on to make a clean sweep, raking in both wins in the Superbike
Championship and also winning the Formula Xtreme race. Team Honda's Ben
Bostrom joined his teammate on the podium, taking home two third place
finishes. Erion Honda's Jake Zemke took the pole in the Formula Xtreme
race, but would withdraw from the second Superbike race and the FX race due
to an injury suffered in practice on Saturday.

In other weekend race action, the AMA Supermoto Championship in South
Boston, VA, saw Troy Lee Honda's Doug Henry win his third race of the
season, and his teammate Jeff Ward take third. Both riders are CRF450R
mounted.  At the U.S Open, held at the MGM Grand Garden Arena, Chad Reed
took first overall in the 250 class followed by Honda's Nick Wey in second,
Amsoil/Chaparral Honda's Mike LaRocco in third and Team Honda's Ernesto
Fonseca taking home fifth. In 125 action, Amsoil/Chaparral Honda's Greg
Schnell took first, and his rookie teammate, Thomas Hahn, was in third.

AMA National, Virginia International Raceway
For Miguel Duhamel, the VIR weekend was another record breaker. His
victories in the Superbike class tied him with Mat Mladin for the most AMA
Superbike careers wins at 32. His Xtreme class win tied him with Eric
Bostrom for the most wins in a season at eight. Miguel's career total is
now 82 AMA road racing victories, far more than any other rider. By winning
three races at VIR, Miguel became the only rider in history to accomplish
that feat twice in one year (he did the same at the Road America national),
but his VIR victories were extra-special. Because the weekend schedule put
both Superbike races and the Xtreme event on the same day, Miguel became
the only rider in history to win three nationals in a single day.

Just for good measure, Duhamel also set a new Superbike track record on his
way to pole position, breaking the two-year old track record set by former
teammate Nicky Hayden with the blistering time of 1:24.404. "Until I got
back to pit lane I didn't know I had it," said the smiling Duhamel, "I knew
my lap timer gave me a 24.41, so I said, well it's going to be close."
In the first Superbike race of the weekend, the CBR1000RR of Zemke shot off
the line in fourth, followed by the #17 machine of Duhamel in fifth and the
#155 of Bostrom in sixth. As the Red Riders started closing the gap on the
field, Duhamel passed Aaron Yates on lap 8 for second. By lap 10, Bostrom
had moved up to fourth, but teammate Zemke was struggling. Jake had
suffered a wicked high-side crash in practice on Saturday morning, hitting
his head and injuring his arm. The lingering effects of this crash made it
difficult for Zemke to concentrate, and he wisely chose to pull out of the
Superbike race, ending his chances of winning the Superbike championship.

Up front, the battle for the lead came down to Yates and Duhamel, with
Yates taking the lead on lap 18. But with the checkers in site, Duhamel did
what he has done so many times in his career; sneak past the leader with a
perfectly timed pass to win by a slim margin-this time .0126 seconds.

"Everything worked out really well," said Duhamel, "Yeah, today was really
good and everything, but you've got to be humble. You still got to be able
to say your were lucky." Bostrom would take the last spot on the podium in
third. "We had a pretty bad start," said Bostrom. "We were up there and had
a lot of fun racing with these guys to get to the front."

Duhamel started off his weekend by meeting one of his biggest fans, Shawn
Hose from Danville, VA. Hose is a terminally ill cancer patient, and one of
her wishes was to meet Miguel. Duhamel dedicated the pole and the first
Superbike win to her. "I thought a bit about Shawn Hose," said Duhamel.
"And I was going, 'it would be great if I could get the pole and the win
for her.' And I really tried to get both out there." Hose presented the
first trophy of the day to Duhamel.

The last Superbike race of the 2005 season was a repeat of the first, but
this time Duhamel wasted no time taking command. He passed Yates for the
lead on lap 10 and never looked back, winning by a whopping 7.317 seconds.
"I just got a terrible start out there," said the Canadian Duhamel about
the second race. His win moved him to second in the 2004 Superbike
championship behind series champion Mat Mladin.

"The clutch is better, but I think I was just trying to put together a
mega-hero holeshot both times, and both times I messed it up." Bostrom rode
his CBR1000RR to a third place finish, and fourth overall for the season.
Zemke withdrew from the second race and the Formula Xtreme race due to the
effects of his Saturday crash.

The last round of the Formula Xtreme Championship saw pole-sitter Zemke
watching from the sidelines as Duhamel simply left the field behind on his
CBR600RR to take his eighth FX win of the 2004 season, and make a clean
sweep of the weekend.


AMA Supermoto, South Boston Speedway
Round five of the AMA Supermoto championship kicked off at South Boston
Speedway with Superpole qualifying, where Jeff Ward on his Honda CRF450R
claimed pole position with a 53.606, followed by Doug Henry qualifying with
a 53.753. "Getting the pole helps out a lot and it helps getting that point
too," said Ward. "Kuznel got it last week, so we've kind of broken even
again. I need to get out there tonight and have a good, clean race and try
to get back up on the podium."

In what would be one of the toughest races of the season, Henry took the
lead early on, but was soon challenged by Mark Burkhart, who took second
from Jeff Ward and started putting the pressure on Henry right away.
Burkhart started showing a wheel to Henry on lap 6, and did not let up.
Henry rode flawlessly throughout the 24 lap main to hold off Burkhart and
win his third race of the 2005 season.

"It was a really close race, and I was just trying to ride my own pace,"
said Henry. "I didn't know who was behind me but there was somebody
sticking a wheel in here and there. I was just trying to protect my line
and hope for a mistake by somebody back there. All I needed was a little
gap and then I could run more of my own lines. It worked out really good."

Point's leader Ward finished third for the night. "I'm just trying to
collect points," said Ward. "I didn't have the best of lines out there, and
its unfortunate a lapped rider got in the way of both me and Burkhart and
kind of ruined our race. But it's a tight track and it's the same for
everybody to get around. I'm pretty pumped to be up here."

AMA Superbike Overall Points
1. Mat Mladin-Suzuki-584
2. Miguel Duhamel-Honda-551
3. Jake Zemke-Honda-490
4. Ben Bostrom-Honda-422
5. Geoff May-Suzuki-388

AMA Superbike Round 1
1. Miguel Duhamel-Honda
2. Aaron Yates-Suzuki
3. Ben Bostrom-Honda
4. Lorenzo Lanzi-Ducati
5. Regis Laconi-Ducati

AMA Superbike Round 2
1. Miguel Duhamel-Honda
2. Aaron Yates-Suzuki
3. Ben Bostrom-Honda
4. Mat Mladin-Suzuki
5. Regis Laconi-Ducati

AMA Formula Xtreme Overall Points
1. Miguel Duhamel-Honda-395
2. Jake Zemke-Honda-308
3. Vincent Haskovec-Suzuki-263
4. Alex Gobert-Honda-254
5. Larry Pegram-Yamaha-215

AMA Formula Xtreme Results
1. Miguel Duhamel-Honda
2. Vincent Haskovec-Suzuki
3. Doug Chandler-Ducati
4. Mike Ciccotto-Buell
5. Opie Caylor-Suzuki

AMA Supermoto Results
1. Doug Henry-Honda
2. Mark Burkhart-Yamaha
3. Jeff Ward-Honda
4. Kurt Nicoll-KTM
5. Ben Carlson-KTM
9. Chris Fillmore-Honda

AMA Supermoto Points
1. Jeff Ward-Honda-114
2. Jurgen Kunzel-KTM-98
3. Doug Henry-Honda-91
4. Alexandre Thiebault-Honda-74
5. Chris Fillmore-Honda-71