Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/100342
eROADRACE e 8 AMA National Championship Road Race S Round I eries: Pi cotte, J acques Guenett e, Sado wski a n d C revi er even furth er behind. Stevens, meanwh il e, was 18th a nd o n the move wi th Spencer j ust ou tside the top 30. Crevier was th e first of the top rid ers to make a pit stop, hi s ch un ki ng Brid gesto ne slick forci ng him in for an unplanned sto p on the l Oth lap. Pol en and Ru ssell contin ued to m ix . it up a t the fro n t, each tak in g turns' leadin g the way. O n the 18th lap , Ru ssell stop ped for fu el a mra new rear tir e. The crew ran into p robl em s with the quick fill and th ey doused the Georgian with gasoline , causi ng him to fret. " I thought abo ut it for a la p ," Rus sell said. " I had gas on my crot ch , on th e bike and o n the tires. 1just knew I'd be o n fire in a few laps." Pol en pitted a lap later, tem por aril y handing the lead to hi s tea m ma te Pi cotte. T he French Cana dia n would hold th e lead until pitting for fuel and a n ew rea r tire o n the 24 t h lap. Mom ents later, Pi cott e crashed at high speed in th e dog-leg left-bander and was lu cky to escape wit ho ut inj ury. " T he tire was co ld," a sub dued Pi cotte said lat er. That p ut Pol en back in contro l, but Ru ssell was right with him again. On the 30th lap, Pol en started to in ch away from Ru ssell a nd look ed to have the race under co n tro l. On the 34th lap,' Russell pitted for mor e fuel a nd a new rear tir e, but ma naged to hold down his spo t in seco nd pl ace. Pol en pi tted o n th e 41st lap. H e entered the p its with a 50seco nd lead, a nd exite d wi th a 10second cushio n over Ru ssell. That was q uickly whi tt led down to nothing as the T exan took hi s time, saying later that th e full tank of fuel was ca us ing him to lose the front end, a nd he had to slow until the rear tire heated up, By tha t time Russell was right wi th him , and a l 2-lap spri nt race to the finis h ensued. Both took turns lead ing the way , but it was Po len leading th e fina l lap, Wh en they exi ted th e ch ica ne, Pol en a p pea red to have a big eno ugh lead , but Ru ssell was able to use the draft of so me la p ped riders to get back in tou ch with the T exa n. . " I had been testing him, but if 1 wo u ldn 't have gotten a little bit of a tow off the backmark ers 1 m ight not have been able to pull it off," Ru ssell said. " It would hav e. been reall y close. My bike would com e o n reall y hard go ing on to th e ban king, a nd that last la p jus t really worked ou t in my favor." "We ra n as hard as we could there toward th e end a nd maybe if the si tua tio n was differ ent a n d t he re wasn't a nybody there coming o ut or' the chica ne, he may not have gott en by me," Pol en said. " He got a good .