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/1139968
VOLUME 56 ISSUE 27 JULY 9, 2019 P113 it work, Polen stuffed a piece of foam rubber into the front of his boot to give enough volume and support to be able to shift in spite of his missing toes. As the week- end wore on a problem cropped up with skin grafts on Polen's foot being rubbed raw by the foam rubber, yet he refused to give up. Polen qualified third behind Saturday's heat-race winners David Sadowski on the Vance & Hines Yamaha and Muzzy Kawa- saki's Doug Chandler, who beat Polen in the other qualifying heat. On Sunday, it was Chandler who got a great start and led the pack into the first turn at the beginning of the national. On the opening lap of the 24-lap race, Polen ran sixth behind Chandler, Jamie James (Ferracci Ducati), Paul Bray (Team Mad Dog Yamaha), Dave Sadowski and Miguel Duhamel (Yoshimura Suzuki). As the race progressed, Polen gradually made his way to- wards the front. By the fourth lap, Chandler, James, and Sadowski had gapped the field. Polen finally made his way up to fourth but had a margin of almost three seconds to make up to catch the leading trio. An additional problem for Polen was Thomas Stevens. Stevens was also surg- ing on another V&H Yamaha and came up to pass Polen, putting him back to fifth. Up front Sadowski took over the lead and had his head down and was trying to make a break when he went a little too deep into turn five trying to overtake flat tracker Don Estep and crashed, unfortunately taking Estep with him. Then a lap later, Michael Barnes crashed the Mad Dog Yamaha in turn 12 bringing out the red flag. It was the break Polen needed. During the red-flag stoppage, the Yoshimura squad (which interestingly was sponsored by Michelin) mounted a softer-com- pound Dunlop (the tire company Polen was contracted to) front and made rear-suspension adjust- ments. The new set up worked. On the restart, he was right there tucked into the lead group with James and Chandler. As the race progressed, the Yokohama tires James ran on his Ferracci Ducati began to fade. That allowed Chan- dler and Polen to get around and break away, making it a two-rider battle for the win. It came down to the final lap. Polen made a daring pass on a group of lapped riders at the bot- tom of Road Atlanta's infamous Gravity Cavity—a sharp dip in the back straightway taken at top speed. "He showed big hair on the back straight," Chandler said of Polen's bold move. "They were three and four abreast, and I'd worked too hard to risk throwing it away." It was a celebratory scene at the podium. Polen was pumped about finding out he could still win post foot injury. The Yoshimu- ra Suzuki crew basked in the glory of a much-needed victory. "I'm riding better than I've ever ridden," Polen said after the race. "I knew the tires would go away late in the race, so I wasn't that worried about not being at the front early in the race. These guys know I can run with anybody as far as superbikes go. I've won in World Superbike, so these guys know they are headed in the right direction." Home-state hero Scott Rus- sell, who was a pre-race favorite, had an off race and finished sixth, complaining of getting tired at the end and frustratingly said, "I guess Doug showed us again, didn't he?" After Road Atlanta, Polen would head back to Japan to continue racing in the All-Japan Championships. Without Polen, Yoshimura Suzuki here in Ameri- ca would have a sub-par season, with one notable exception, when Miguel Duhamel unexpectedly scored his first AMA Superbike win at Heartland Park Topeka later that summer. Kawasaki's Chandler would go on to win his first AMA Superbike Champion- ship at the end of the season. Polen's one-off appearance and victory at Road Atlanta in 1990 was not only a triumphant return from serious injury for Polen, but it was also one of those races where something totally unexpected happened, which made AMA national road racing so interesting during that period. CN Subscribe to nearly 50 years of Cycle News Archive issues: www.CycleNews.com/Archives