Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

Peter Carroll leads Earl Roloff in 600Cc Superstreet. Earl Roloff was his usual consistent self at Willow, taking a win, a second and a third place finish on the day. Chris Steward dominated the Open Production class to take home his share of Suzuki's contingency money. AFM Suzuki GSXR Series: Round J Polen, Steward cash in at Willow opener By Pau.l Carruthers ROSAMOND, CA, FEB. 15 Texan.Doug Polen and California's Chris Steward became the first recipients of Suzuki contingency money in 1987 when they won the 750 and IIOOcc classes, respectively, during the AFM opener at Willow Springs International Raceway. P I hId' o en, w 0 ast. year ominated the Suzuki-sponsored GSXR Series, narrowly beat GSXR Series upstan Calvin Rayborn In in the75OccStockProductionclassona cold and blustery day in" southern California's high desert. Polen wasn't as fortunate, however, in the Open Stock Production class as he totally destroyed his brand new GSXRIIOO in a first-lap, turn-two crash. Steward took advantage of the Polen-less field and stomped his way to an easy win. Willow Springs regular Earl Roloff had his usual consistent day at the high-speed. desert track, taking a win, a second and a third-place finish. Roloff topped the field in the 600cc Modified Production c.la~s on hIS 600cc KawasakI NII1Ja, fll11sl~ed second 111 the 600cc Superstock behmd Peter Carroll and wound up third in the 250cc Modified Production class behind Whitney Blakeslee and Joe Solis. Steve Cardillo took home the Yamaha contingency check with his win over Peter Wensloff and Mike Graves in 600cc Stock Production. Cardillo also finished second behind Roloff in the600cc Modified Production class. Ducati-moumed Fred Eiker fought from behind to beat Camel Pro Series Battle of The Twins regular james Adamo in the overall Twins class result~, while Adamo took the-750cc Twins win. Three-time AMA Formula Two Champion Don Greene was also on hand at Willow and that was bad news for others in the class - . he totally demolished the field on his Honda RS250. Suzuki-moumed Many Siegal topped the Open Modified Production class and Kevin Clark did likewise to the 750cc Modified Production field. Eric johnson, Peter Christensen and Ken Nachman topped the Open GP, Formula One and Formula Two classes while Yamaha-moumed David Deveau was top gun in the 450cc Modified Production class. The 450cc Superstreet win went to Roddy Rolestein and his Yamaha while Rotax-moumed Denny Doherty took the'Singles class. jeff Hagan and Michael Minnig rode their Suzukis to the 750cc Superstreet and Open Superstreet wins. Polen howed up a little late in his new truck and trailer combination and his only practi<;e came during warm-up laps in other classes. The Texan, however, is no stranger to Willow Springs and was recently at the facility testing Dunlop tires. Polen had Dunlop's new K591s fitted to his Suzukis. "Believe me it works," Polen said while looking at the new rear tire prior to the race. But when the nagdropped to stan the 750cc Stock Production class, it was the hard-charging Rayborn out from with Polen fourth. James Demay held second with Ric1Jard Moore third. Polen quickly moved up a notch in turn nine and as the field marched imo tum one for the second time, Polen snuck under Demay to take over second. Rayborn turned a 1:32.4 on the second lap, but it wasn't enough as Polen closed the gap. On the third lap, Polen shot up the inside entering turn one and took over the lead. With. times still being turned in the 32range, Polen started to open a lead. On the final lap of the eight-lap sprim race, Rayborn put on a charge. , Polen was slowed by a lapped rider in turn five and suddenly Rayborn was on his rear wheel. The Elsinore, California, residem tried to pull even in the final two corners, but the Texan held him off at the line. Demay held on for third with Mike Summers and Moore rounding out the top fi ve. "That was bitch in," Rayborn said later. "But the wind ate my tires up from having to push it so hard coming out of the cornel's. 1 saved them until· the end, but 1 couldn't get around him (Polen)" Rayborn, although he recently tested the new Dunlops and is scheduled to do soagain, used MetzlerCompKs in, the race. '" didn't want to try something at the race track that 1 hadn't tried before," he said. "No problem," Polen said in describing the 750cc race. "At the end it was a little slick, but other than that it wa great. He (Rayborn) needs to be a lillie more con is tent, but that just comes with riding. He'll be good." As the pack swarmed into turn two at the stan of the 1l00cc race, a large dust cloud erupted as Polen and his new Suzuki slid to a stop in the dir~_ "They were cold, non-scrubbed in tires," Polen later said. "I went in as easy as , could and the front end just went away. It's a totalloss,J'll have to buy another one next week. The only thing that's good is the motor." As the pack came past the stan! . finish line for the first time, Steward already had a large lead over Moore,

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