Just How Good Is Miguel DuHamel's Smokin' Joe's CBR600F3 Champion?—From The Archives

This article was originally published in the April 1996 issue of Sport Rider.

In motorcycle roadracing, total domi­nance occurs only when bike, rider, team and circum­stance combine to become so powerful they completely destroy the competition. No single element above can accomplish this alone, but in 1995, Miguel DuHamel, his Smokin' Joe's tuners Al Ludington and Joey Lombardo, and Honda's CBR600F3 were the combination to beat, winning all but two of the 11 AMA 600 Super­Sport races. Only DuHamel's team­mate Mike Hale was able to break up an otherwise perfect win streak. Sport Rider wondered how a single team's 600 SuperSport bike could win every race in this extremely com­petitive series, and could think of only one way to find out—flat-out at our favorite proving ground, Willow Springs International Raceway.

It’s hard to know what to expect from a motorcycle that so completely dominated one of the most competitive classes in roadracing. AMA SuperSport rules stipulate only minor modifications to the chassis and engine, but with such a successful record you’d think the Smokin’ Joe’s 600 had pistons forged from kryptonite, titanium clip-ons and nitrous jets in the carburetors. Quite the contrary. The clip-ons are stock, as are the pistons. Fact is, other than a fancy paint job and a beautiful (and expensive) Yoshimura Duplex titanium exhaust, this F3 looks painfully stock. But looks can be deceiving—stock motorcycles don’t win SuperSport nationals.

When queried about engine modi-fications, tuner Al Ludington quipped, “It’s basically stock, just your average stuff.” That translates into a three-angle valve job after further prodding. Crew chief Ray Plumb tells us some subtle ways to help the F3 run better. “It’s important to run the engine once and then do the valve job,” Plumb offered. “The [valve] seats set and widen up, and we then narrow them down. We’re run­ning stock cam timing right now, and it doesn’t vary more than 0.5 to 0.75 degree.”

One critical component to maximize the engine's performance was the Yoshimura pipe. "We picked up 500 rpm at Daytona and had to take a tooth off the rear sprocket as soon as we put the [Yoshimura] pipe on," said Ludington. "We hit 161 mph on the banking." An HRC jetting kit meters fuel mixture in the otherwise stock carbs.

A thumb of the starter revealed a throaty growl from the Yosh exhaust, but the engine idled happily and seemed untemperamental sitting alongside the pit wall. A quick blip of the throttle provided both audible and visual evidence of a breathed-upon engine, as the tachometer’s eagerness to place the engine in its power zone became quickly apparent. And we were at the right place to do it—Willow Springs.

Nine blazing-fast turns awaited, but not before Ludington offered me this bit of wisdom: “I trust you completely—you’ve never crashed one of my bikes.” Then he smirked, adding, “But if you do and the crash don’t kill ya, you’d better run like hell.” Uh, OK.

The Smokin’ Joe’s 600 doesn’t feel like a hard-core racebike. Clip-ons are still located above the top triple clamp, and the RS250 footpegs are relocated only one inch back and a half-inch up from stock—well within most people’s comfort range. But once the tach rips past 10,000 rpm, you could really care less about comfort.

All preconceptions of a stock F3 were immediately erased—this is a strong- running 600 that carries more power everywhere in the rev range. At first the bike seemed undergeared, reaching the red zone quickly in top gear. When I returned to the pits to inquire about this, Ludington laughed and said, “Just rev it.”

Where before I thought it necessary to back out of the throttle on both of Willow’s straights, I kept the engine spinning my first lap out after Ludington’s talk, wincing in my helmet as I expected to hear a rod go through the case. But the only thing that exploded was the powerband. Above 13,000 was almost another 1000 rpm of hard-hitting power, with the engine protesting only after the tach hit an indicated 13,750 rpm.

Mated to the capable engine is a chassis that’s about as good as they come. DuHamel rides the front end hard and his setup reflects this. The F3 chassis is only slightly biased toward the front end, which is lowered in the triple clamps between 5–10mm, depending on the racetrack. The stock fork uses straight-rate springs and the team experiments with various shim-stack arrangements. Out back, a fully adjust­able Penske shock does an excellent job of keeping things under control. “From Pomona to the end, we only changed one click of rebound one way or the other in the rear,” said Ludington, though the team added approximately 15mm of rear ride height.

DuHamel’s setup took a little getting used to. The suspension needs to be very stiff since Miguel rushes into corners extremely hard, braking, shifting and cornering simultaneously. To compen­sate for this, the neutrality of the chassis makes the F3 somewhat slow-steering. If the team set it up to steer quickly, then trail figures would be further reduced when Miguel entered hard on the brakes, resulting in understeer (front-end push).

Once accustomed to the way the bike maneuvers, however, the F3 rewarded with amazing stability. Even through Willows intimidating turn eight, the F3 remained planted and stable. DuHamel’s setup encouraged getting in the throttle early, and the near-perfect suspension allowed it as the bike was ridden harder each lap.

As the laps wound down, it became evident that although the Smokin’ Joe’s CBR600F3 is an exceptional racebike, it’s only one of the ingredients. The human factor is a huge one. This team has the resources to keep this motorcycle in its absolute best condition. Every two races it’s stripped to the frame, the cylinder head redone, new rings installed and a fresh motorcycle rolls out of the trailer for the next race. Whereas a privateer may use the same engine all year, Smokin’ Joe’s racing may use five. Alongside the hard work of the team charges a determined Miguel DuHamel, constantly searching for that extra tenth on the stopwatch and pushing his tremendous riding ability beyond its limits. They formed the right combi­nation in 1995, and together they’ll strive to once again become The Untouchables in 1996.