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nstrated Just
what great Superbike rid ers they are.
Schwantz winning four o f eig h t races
a nd Merkel winning two . Schwantz
a nd Merkel to p ped th e ind ivid ua l
series point s as well. Schwa ntz fin ishing with 84. foll ow ed by Merkel 's
79. But str ength in dep th la y very
••• • ':'l,l-t tl. ~vitl1 .tD~ . Brj tish team , even
c
though French Canadian Michel
Mercier (riding a Suzuki for the U.S.
tea m ) and American Da le Q u art eri ey
(on a Yamaha ) put in some good
rides.
O ther members of the American
team included John Ashmead, Glenn
Barry, John Bettencourt and Ricky
O r la n d o on Hondas; and Sam
McDonald. Dan Chivington . Lance
J ones and Canadian Rueben McMurter on Yamahas.
T he British team included Ro b
McElnea, Steve Parrish and Kenny
irons on Yamahas; Ron Haslam,
Roger Bu rn ett and Roger Marshall
on Hondas; and Keith H u ewen ,
Graeme McGregor, Trevor Nation,
Chris Martin , Pa u l Iddon a nd Gary
Lingharn on Suzu kis .
Although th e Americans theoretically had a machinery advantage with
fully developed Superbikes, neither
Schwantz nor Merkel wer e a llowed to
bring the works ma chines th ey raced
a t Daytona. Merk el co u ld not' bring
hi s 1986 VFR750F-based Superbike
because. acco rding to Steve McLaughlin . wh o wa s invo lved in organizing
th is year's event. H onda Britain T eam
Manager Barry .Sym m ons had demanded th at th e factory lean on
Am er ican H onda to send at least one
machine for hi s rid ers to use. Ameri . can Honda decided that no bike wou ld
go a nd Merkel was left without a
mount.
.The bike Merk el en ded up riding is
a full ra ce-killed 1985 VF750 owned
by wealthy California doctor Mac
Archer, wh o sponsored Jeff Haney'
on th e ma chine last vear and who
now uses th e ma chine as a road bike.
Some street bike it turned out to be as
th e Honda proved well up to the task.
allowing Merkel to beat everyone but
Schwantz in final series points.
Schwantz al so had to come up wit h
his own bike. Yoshimura R&D of
America kep t his Daytona bi ke in th e
U.S .• a nd the bike Schwantz had to
use was ridde n p reviously by English m an Tony Rutter , a S uzu ki
GSXR750 with a fu ll Yosh im ura
engine. It turn ed o ut to be very competitive with Schwantz aboard. although Schwantz missed some practice because th e bike was set u p to
shift o n the right-ha nd side when
Schwantz first arrived.
Neither Schwantz nor Merkel had
seen the Donington Park circuit before
arid their lack of practice led to both
crashing once in the first two days.
Schwantz fell after rocketin g into the
lead o f the first leg; his bike's fro nt
rain tire eventually gave out in the
drying conditions. Merkel came down
on the last corner of the fifth race
while running second b eh i n d
Schwantz and ahead o f McE lnea.
Although McElnea won the first
race on Eddie Lawson's Yamaha. he
suffered enough frustrations through
the weekend to keep him out of the
battle fo r the top points scoring position . His bike did not have th e Da yrona-winning engine and was noticeably down on speed. The wheel sizes
did not match the bes t wet -weather
tires avai lable and th e Marlboro
Yama ha rider had more than h is fair
sh are of excitemen t when h e a nd
Merkel clashed knee pads through
most of the fifth race.
T hat was th e most exciting round
of the series a n d halfwa y around th e
first lap both Merk el and Schwantz
virtuall y cra she d out of the lead o n
th e sa me co rner. a fas t. uphill lefthand sweeper. •.
