Duhamel a Double Winner

The most difficult job facing Miguel Duhamel on Sunday may have been how to get six or seven caps on his head, flash a thumbs up sign for photographers with each one, and create photo-opportunities for the AMA, his team sponsor, bike maker, tire company, race sponsor and so on before time ran out in the victory ceremony.

The little Canadian from Burbank had two opportunities after handily winning both the Los Angeles Superbike and 600 SuperSport races on a 2.1-mile track laid out on the parking lot of the L.A. County Fairgrounds in Pomona.

In both races, Duhamel and his garish purple and yellow Honda stalked the early leader--Larry Pegram’s Ducati in the Superbike and teammate Steve Crevier in the 600--for about half the race before slipping through on inside passes for the lead.

“I like to stay behind, follow the leader and let him set the pace,” Duhamel explained. “That way, if he tries to go too fast, he is the first one to make the mistake. You can also study his braking pattern and figure out where you want to make your pass.”

Duhamel was forced to stalk Pegram twice in the Superbike race, the first time for 12 laps and later for six laps after the race was halted for an injured rider. On the restart, Duhamel was shuffled back to third behind Pegram and Doug Chandler, but after two laps he was second and four laps later he was ahead to stay.

“I went into the chicane [on the west side of the track] a little too hot and Miguel cut inside me,” Pegram said. “Actually, I wanted him ahead of me. I knew he was sitting back there, too comfortable. I thought I could get by him later but just when I planned my move Miguel put two lapped riders between us. Before I could get past them, he was too far gone.”

It was a big improvement from the last time Pegram found himself being chased by Duhamel at Pomona. In last year’s 600 SuperSport race, the youngster from Baltimore, Ohio, was running third when Duhamel pressured him.

Pegram kept looking back and crashed on the final turn.

Duhamel averaged 85.337 mph on his 600cc bike, but no Superbike speed was announced because the race was stopped and restarted after about 10 minutes.

First prize was a silver belt buckle, the kind usually given out at rodeos, which Duhamel said was appropriate.

“This course was so bumpy it reminded me of a rodeo, lots of bucking and getting bounced around,” he said. “It keeps you on your toes. You can’t carry too much speed into the corners because you can lose traction on the bumps and slide out.”

That is what happened to Chris Carr, the surprise pole-sitter on a Harley-Davidson. Carr, after dropping to 10th by the second time around, crashed on the third lap at the end of the long front straightaway. “I missed a shift, got into neutral and was going way too fast to get through the left-hander and ended up out in the dirt,” the former dirt track champion told an AMA official.

Bill Marcel, co-promoter of the L.A. Motorcycle Weekend at Pomona, announced attendance of 35,124 for three days, of which about 27,000 were on hand Sunday.

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Scott Parker, six-time Grand National dirt track champion, was a wire-to-wire winner in the 25-lap national championship race on the half-mile horse racing track late Saturday night. Parker jumped to the front at the start and except for a mid-race challenge from Will Davis, who finished second, had clear sailing on his Harley-Davidson.