Pascal Picotte winning a CCS race at Daytona in 1990 on the Yamaha Canada OW01. (Larry Lawrence photo)

Pascal Picotte was amazing at Daytona in 1990. The Canadian 600 Supersport Champion, who had just turned 20, was the breakout performer that year during Bike Week. This photo is of Picotte winning a runaway victory in the CCS Expert Heavyweight Superbike on his Yamaha Canada OW01. He was even more impressive when the AMA Pro events started later in the week.

In the AMA 600 Supersport Series race he had to start from the back of the grid after crashing in his Heat race. From the back of the field Picotte and his Fast Performance Racing School Yamaha was a blaze of white, cutting through the field at a pace faster than the leading trio of Thomas Stevens, Dave Sadowski and Jeff Farmer.

Inexperience cost Pascal that day. He was just about to crack into the top five after only about 10 laps, after working past maybe 60 riders, when he pitched it away. From my perspective it appeared to be the classic racing mistake of getting used to passing riders at a certain pace and then not adjusting when you get up to the faster riders near the front of the field. He was trying to pass talented riders like John Hopperstad, David Leach and Michael Barnes just as he’d done to the 35th place guy two laps before and it just wasn’t going to happen. He got back on his battered bike and still managed 16th. Regardless of the crash, the announcers had tracked Pascal’s progress with considerable enthusiams and his reputaiton in America was launched that day.