Duhamel Dominates Road America, Campbell & Hengeveld Dominate the desert

AMA Chevrolet Superbike Series
Round 6: Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin
June 5, 2004

Duhamel Claims his 29th Superbike Victory at Road America

The lush, green 4.048-mile Road America circuit in Wisconsin played host to
round six of the AMA Superbike series, and for the Red Riders, it was an
historic event. After breaking the track record by nearly a second and a
half in qualifying, Miguel Duhamel would rocket to the lead on lap seven of
the race, and cross the finish line with a huge win margin to claim his
29th career Superbike victory. Erion Honda's Jake Zemke, who made a great
recovery after going wide in turn five, took third for the day ahead of Ben
Bostrom in fourth.

The super fast Road America circuit was perfectly suited to the mighty
CBR1000RR, and the Red Riders wasted no time establishing their dominance
on the front row. After claiming the provisional pole on Friday with a new
track record, Duhamel came back on Saturday and set an even faster pole
time of 2:13.346-more than a second quicker than the previous lap record.
"Basically, we just went back to the bike we had yesterday," said Duhamel
on Saturday morning. "It was definitely good enough and I'm really happy.
The CBR1000RR is working really well." Not far behind Duhamel was teammate
Zemke, who claimed the starting spot next to him with a lap time of
2:13.707, also well under the previous track record. "The only real lap I
did was that last lap and I think we'll be OK. I think what we've got will
be good enough for the race," said Zemke. Ben Bostrom filled in the third
spot on the front row. "I think we're ready to go," said Ben. "I'm not
going to gamble today. We set some good times this morning and we're just
going to try and run that in the race."

When the flag dropped it was Bostrom who got away with the best start.
Duhamel and Zemke started fifth and sixth respectively. Duhamel immediately
began picking off riders, with Zemke in tow. "When Miguel started going I
figured I better get going too," said Zemke. It took Miguel seven laps to
take the lead, and once he did he immediately dropped the hammer, peeling
off consecutive laps in the 2:14 range, and gapping the field but nearly
two seconds to establish a comfortable lead. Zemke made a minor mistake in
the closing stages of the race and overshot turn five. "I was starting to
make up some ground there on Miguel and I cooked it in there a little too
hot and missed the corner," said Jake. With less than three laps to go,
Zemke would work his way back up to finish third, one position ahead of
Bostrom.

After a masterful display of his race craft, Duhamel crossed the finish
line with a three second margin over second place Mat Mladin. "The bike was
working really great," said Miguel. "Those guys were running really good up
there and I said 'let's see if I can get up there and do something' and it
just worked out really good. The CBR1000RR is fast, turns good and we're
getting this bike dialed in now. I am pretty excited. The guys have been
doing a lot of hard work on it."

It was Miguel's third victory of the season, the 29th of his career, and
the 109th time a Honda has won an AMA Superbike race. It was also, as it
turned out, a mere prelude to what would be an historic second Superbike
race on Sunday.

AMA Superbike Overall Results
1. Miguel Duhamel - Honda
2. Mat Maldin-Suzuki
3. Jake Zemke-Honda
4. Ben Bostrom-Honda

AMA Superbike Point Standings
1. Mat Maldin-Suzuki-300
2. Miguel Duhamel-Honda-283
3. Jake Zemke-Honda-278
4. Eric Bostrom-Ducati-210
5. Geoff May-Suzuki-198
7. Ben Bostrom-Honda-158


AMA Chevrolet Superbike Championship
Round 7: Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin
June 6, 2004

Duhamel Makes History at Road America, Zemke takes Second

Team Honda's Miguel Duhamel re-wrote the history books at round seven of
the AMA Superbike Championship. Duhamel became the only rider in AMA
history to win both Superbike events and a support race on the same
weekend. After leading for 14 of 16 laps, Zemke finished second to Duhamel,
with teammate Ben Bostrom in fifth.

Duhamel's accomplishment was impressive for lots of reasons. Not since
1985, when Honda rider Freddie Spencer pulled off a hat-trick at Daytona by
winning the 250, 500 and Superbike races has any rider won three AMA
national races on a weekend. With his second Superbike win of the weekend,
Miguel also went to the top of the Superbike win list with 30 victories.
The win also put Duhamel even farther ahead of his rivals as the AMA's
winningest rider in history, with 75 overall career wins. For Honda, it
marked the 110th AMA Superbike win.

Unlike Saturday's race, however, where Duhamel clearly set the pace from
the early laps, Sunday's event was a nail-biter. This time, Zemke jumped to
an early lead with a much improved start from Saturday, while Duhamel again
had to claw his way up from a fifth place start. By the time Miguel broke
through, Zemke was gone, having built up a whopping four second lead in
only four laps. Then a multi-rider incident brought out the red flag, and
Jake's hard-earned lead was gone. To make matters worse, Zemke would head
back out with problems after the restart. "The red flag hurt us quite
badly," stated the solemn Zemke after the race. "Not just in the time, but
after we came back in for the restart we had a pretty serious problem with
our bike."

Regardless, Zemke once again took the lead at the restart, this time
followed by Duhamel. With less than two laps to go, a braking problem that
had hounded him all race forced him to go wide into turn one, opening the
door for Duhamel to take the lead. "He just got sideways," explained
Duhamel in the  post-race press conference. "He got into that drift mode,
the next thing you know he kept going wider and wider and that's where I
made the pass. I put my head down and I registered my fastest lap, a
2:14:00. I was just trying to ride as hard as I could."

"Miguel rode great and we got hurt pretty bad by that red flag," stated
Zemke. "I was just out there doing the best I could with it, I am just
happy to finish."

In the campaign for third, Bostrom had run a precise race and was in close
contention for the last podium spot, but ran out of grip in the closing
stages. On the last lap, both Mladin and Yates would move past, relegating
Bostrom to fifth.

It was Duhamel who had the last word on the weekend. "Very excellent
weekend," said Miguel. "Only my Dad would point out that I didn't get the
pole in the Xtreme race. Obviously for myself and my team, I am very happy.
I feel great about what we pulled off. You need a bit of luck to go your
way and a great team behind you to do it. This was just on of those
weekends where everything went well."

With his double-header win and additional point for pole position, Duhamel
now moves within 10 points of first place in the championship, followed by
Zemke in third as the battle for the 2004 AMA Superbike championship heats
up.

AMA Superbike race results
1. Miguel Duhamel-Honda
2. Jake Zemke-Honda
3. Mat Mladen-Suzuki
4. Aaron Yates-Suzuki
5. Ben Bostrom-Honda

AMA Superbike Overall Points
1. Mat Mladin-Suzuki-329
2. Miguel Duhamel-Honda-319
3. Jake Zemke-Honda-311
4. Eric Bostrom-Ducati-235
5. Geoff May-Suzuki-220
6. Ben Bostrom-Honda-184


AMA Formula Xtreme
Round 6: Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin
June 5, 2004

Duhamel, Zemke and Gobert Sweep FX at Road America

With barely any time to savor the 29th career Superbike race win he earned
on Saturday afternoon at Road America, Team Honda's Miguel Duhamel quickly
took to the track once again, this time aboard his Formula Xtreme CBR600RR.
And once again he took command of the race, which he won in yet another
heart-stopping photo finish, adding to the nonstop drama in 2004. At the
line, he just barely nipped past fellow Red Rider Jake Zemke, winning by
less than an eye blink, a margin of only 0.030 seconds. Zemke's Erion Honda
teammate, Alex Gobert, followed the two lead riders to the checkered flag,
thereby ensuring a full Honda podium.

Amidst the towering trees and abundance of green foliage surrounding the
picturesque Road America circuit, the action began early in round six of
the Lockhart-Phillips Formula Xtreme series. Jake Zemke seized the pole
position on Friday with a qualifying time of 2:18.851, while the canny
French-Canadian Duhamel qualified just a tick behind with a fast lap of
2:19.041-times that presaged the upcoming epic battle.

When the field waved off, everyone was in for a big surprise as young Alex
Gobert outfoxed his elders and immediately snared the lead. "I got a really
good start off the line and got the holeshot into turn one," a grinning
Gobert said after the race. "That's the first time I've seen clear track in
a long time."  But unfortunately for the rapidly improving Aussie, the
clear view would soon end as Duhamel steamed past to take over the lead,
followed closely by teammate Zemke.

Duhamel proceeded to lead the entire field for almost three-quarters of the
race despite Zemke's best efforts. Duhamel later said, "Jake was all over
me. He rode a great race. I was braking as deep as I could in the corners,
trying to give him fewer choices to get around me."

From the trailing seat, Zemke was taking stock of the #17 bike. "Early on I
could tell that Miguel definitely had power on us," Zemke said. "I'd be in
his draft and he was pulling away."

However, Jake Zemke is hardly one to roll over and give up. Instead, he
managed to close up on Duhamel, and on lap eight he pulled off an
unconventional pass in the area of the track known as the carousel. Zemke
made a masterful move to take the lead as he entered the carousel on the
outside and forcefully swooped around Duhamel.

As the laps counted down, the racing heated up between the two Honda riders
as they passed and re-passed each other, giving the appreciative fans more
than their money's worth. Clearly, yet another nail-biting finish would
soon be in the offing.

As the white flag flew and the final lap wound down the crafty Duhamel,
trailing Zemke, reached deep into his bag of tricks to find that one extra
edge that would make the winning difference. As he said after the race, "I
was on him and whatever I did, I had to make sure I got a decent drive to
the finish line. Once we started going up the hill, my bike was so strong,
I got in fast-forward, and got the draft." Instead of upshifting from fifth
to six gear, Duhamel took advantage of the CBR600RR's ultra-high rev limit
to gain an extra-strong drive to the finish line-a move that he timed with
masterful precision: "Just when I hit the line it hit the rev limiter," he
explained. Perfect timing for the perfect win, with a bare 0.030 of a
second to spare.

Meanwhile, young gun Alex Gobert found himself in his own tough battle for
third place with another knowledgeable veteran, Doug Chandler. "With about
three laps to go, Chandler came past on the brakes in turn one," Gobert
explained after the race.  "I knew if I pushed really hard and stayed on
him, by the time we got back to the front straight I figured I'd get him
again. Sure enough, I got past him there and never saw him again. It worked
out really good." From there, Gobert pushed forward to claim the final
podium position aboard his Erion Racing CBR600RR.

This year's event at Road America marked Honda's 43rd win in the Formula
Xtreme class, counting the former big-bore series as well as this new
revised 600cc format. The Red Riders head next to The Colonel's Brainerd
International Raceway, in Brainerd, Minnesota for round 7 of the Formula
Xtreme series.


AMA Formula Xtreme Results
1. Miguel Duhamel-Honda
2. Jake Zemke-Honda
3. Alex Gobert-Honda
4. Doug Chandler-Ducati
5. Steve Crevier-Suzuki

AMA Formula Xtreme Overall Points
1. Miguel Duhamel-Honda-213
2. Jake Zemke-Honda-202
3. Alex Gobert-Honda-166
4. Vincent Haskovec-Suzuki-133
5. Jacob Holden-Suzuki-121



SCORE Desert Series
Round 2: Tecate SCORE Baja 500
June 5, 2004


Johnny Campbell and Steve Hengeveld had to pull out all the stops and use

nearly every trick in the book before they were able to earn a historic

three-peat at the 36th annual Tecate SCORE Baja 500. That's because young

up-and-coming Red Riders Christopher Blais, Quinn Cody and Kendall Norman

hounded the dominant duo of Baja for nearly the entire race before

Hengeveld finally bagged the win with a flawless run to the finish to take

the overall victory in eight hours, 23 minutes and 36 seconds, a 51.05

mile-per-hour average for the 428.52-mile event.



This marked the third-consecutive Baja 500 victory for Campbell and

Hengeveld, but it was actually Hengeveld's fifth straight overall win; no

one has taken the overall so many times in a row on either two or four

wheels. It was also Campbell's fifth overall Baja 500 win, but "only" his

third in a row. (Coincidentally, Honda's Off-road Coordinator, Bruce

Ogilvie, has also collected five Baja 500 wins in his long career as a

racer.)



"We had about a three-minute lead when I got on the bike at mile 138,"

Campbell said. "We kept that through pit four, then after pit four the 5X

team put a new rider on the bike (Norman). He saw my dust trail, and I

think he just went for it. He caught up to my dust and was within 200 yards

or a minute back?depending on how bad the dust was?for my whole ride. It

really put a lot of pressure on me. Fortunately, I was able to keep it

upright, not make any mistakes and keep them behind me until I gave the

bike back to Steve."



Calling much of his section some of the most physically and mentally

demanding terrain he's raced in Baja, Campbell said, "I rode as fast as I

safely could without making mistakes." Ogilvie, who kept an eye on things

from his vantage point in a helicopter, could tell Campbell was at his safe

speed limit while Norman put in a wild ride in a nearly 150-mile attempt to

break through Campbell's dust and into the lead.



When the number 1X machine needed an unplanned front wheel replacement at

Valle de Trinidad about 320 miles into the race, that allowed Blais on the

5X Honda to pull alongside. Heading up the "Goat Trail" as they jumped off

Highway 3, though, Hengeveld blasted back by into the lead once more. From

there, he put his head down and tried to gap his pursuers as much as

possible in the run to the finish.



"That's when I just said, 'Okay, you've got 'em. Now just try to ride the

best and hardest that you can go and hang it out a little bit,' and that's

what I did," Hengeveld recalled. "I really wanted to win this race really

bad, and I'm just glad everything worked out."



Campbell added, "I think today Steve and I felt we were under pressure more

than at other races we've won in Baja. Each race we do, the odds are harder

against us, but?everything was right for us today; it was our day to win."



It was also Honda's day to win. As has proven almost customary since its

introduction as a 2000 model, the XR650R was the overwhelming choice of the

field and won all five of the classes it's eligible to compete in. The

first eight motorcycle finishers relied on the big XR, and even the second

bike to the finish beat the first four-wheeled vehicle by 35 minutes.



Baja 500 Official Results

1. Johnny Campbell/Steve Hengeveld?Honda XR650R?8:23:36

2. Christopher Blais/Quinn Cody/Kendall Norman?Honda XR650R?8:29:37

3. Chuck Dempsey/Andy Grider?Honda XR650R?9:14:25

4. Gerardo Rojas/Manuel Santana/Sergio Vega?Honda XR650R?9:32:02

5. Mike Barnhill/Francisco Real/Fred Willert?Honda XR650R?9:37:27