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/126960
(Left to right) Polen. Schwantz. Michel Mercier. Goodfellow. Rainey and Ottis Lance celebrate after dominating. the 17th annual series. Again the finish order was Schwantz, Rainey and Goodfellow, leaving the leaders tied with four wins each. The crowd was ready for a showdown, but it never came. In the finale, it was Schwantz' turn to blow the start and Rainey streaked away. "I ran three hard laps," Rainey later said, "then figured I'd see what I needed to do from there to the end. But he was no where in sight." "I didn't want to take any chances with the point lead," said Schwantz, who spent most of the race battling with Goodfellow. "Gary was braking real late so I'd just let him go in." Rainey claimed his fifth win to Schwantz' four, and went home the proud owner of the Superbike and two-wheeled track record at both circuits. Schwantz won the point battle 165-161.5 and took home the big money. "I'm glad it's over," Rainey said. "We won five, they won four. We won the battle, they won the war. But what really matters is that the team won." Gary Goodfellow. Kevin Schwantz and Wayne Rainey ham it up for photographers. 10 chased. Schwantz into turn one, broke the rear wheel loose and high-sided without major damage. Rainey got a bad start that grew much worse as the shower hit on lap two. Anticipating cool and damp weather, he'd soaked his face shield in fog-fighting dish soap Saturday night. He wiped it 0(( Sunday, but some residue obviously remained. "It was like riding through a dishwasher," Rainey said, as raindrops met soap and he struggled through the bubbles to a 10th-place finish. Schwantz won with ease, but the race was scored at half-points. O((icials threw the red-flag after five of the scheduled 10 laps as first Britain's Mark Phillips and then Ashmead crashed. Phillips broke his collarbone and wrist; Ashmead su((ered a chipped vertebra, a badly broken right thumb that required surgery to repair and a deep laceration of his right palm. He returned to the U.S. a couple of days behind the rest of the team. Round six brought retirement for McMurter, whose Yamaha pitched a rod through the cases 0(( the starting line. "You can see right down through the motor," he said sadly. "It's about a $3000 hole." Otherwise, the race followed a now-familiar pattern. The factory guns, Rainey and Schwantz, battled for the lead while the plucky Goodfellow, running stock wheels, biasply rather than radial slicks, stock brakes and stock forks, hung on like a bulldog for as long as possible, then surrendered to third. Through five events, Schwantz and Rainey had swapped wins; this time Schwantz blew the chance to win two-in-a-row as he overbraked into the next-to-Iast corner on the last lap. Rainey dove inside to even the win score at three each, and broke the motorcycle lap record in the process with a tour at 1:42.61. The Americans led 626.5-485.5 going into the final day. Monday Race seven was another Raineyl Schwantz lead-swapper. The passes were clean, tempers were cooler, and Rainey won by a few yards, the first man to claim two straight. He thus had a shot at finishing the series with more wins, even if Schwantz was destined to be high-point man. Also in_ race seven, Chivington avoided injury or major damage in his second crash of the series. Though the series was run under AMA minimum weight rules, Schwantz' crew removed ballast from his Suzuki for the next-to-hst race. Schwantz admitted to "10 or 12 pounds," and it was almost certainly more than that. "We could have protested," Rainey said later, "but there were no scales here to weigh the bikes so it wouldn't have mattered." Schwantz explained, "We just wanted to see how it would behave. We'd been having some suspension problems and we wanted to see how that wouLd af(ect it." Any weight advantage the Suzuki gained was unnecessary because Rainey blew the race-eight start. . "I shifted one too many times before tum one," he grumbled, "so I got in there in the wrong gear. Everybody just drove on by." Looking ahead to the fight for the U.S. Superbike title, Rainey added. "I'm real confideJ:lt. The Dunlops are working good and they (Suzuki) had to take weight 0(( to be able to run with us. I think we're in good shape." Schwantz, who left England for Spain and the first of four GP appearances this year, was also looking forward to the championship season. "Wayne and I each learned a lot here," he said. "We learned a lot about the other's weaknesses. Neither of us wants to hurt the other, but neither of us wants to lose to the other either. His bike's a little stronger on the bottom and I think I have a little more on top. Tires will be a big factor all season. I guess the biggest thing is that after the Daytona crash, I have a big point deficit to make up." U.S. team manager Bill Boyce, a veteran of all those American defeats in Transatlantic history, looked fondly at the 18S-point margin of victory and concluded, "I wish we could put about 50 of those points in the bank for next year!" • Results 1. United Stites 933.5; 2. Great Britain 745.5. INDMDUAL STANDINGS: 1. K8'rin SchwanlZ U.S. (165); 2. Wlyne Rliney U.S. (161.5); 3. Glry Goodfellow U.S. (146); 4. Richlrd Scott G.B (123.5); 5. Doug Polen U.S. (115.5); 6. Michel Mercier U.S (113); 7. Trevor Notion G.B. (104.5); B. Phil Mellor G.B. (104); 9. Keith Huewen G.B (85); 10. Din Chivington U.S. (84); 11. Ray Swon G.B. (61.5); 12. John Ashmeed U.S. (52.51; 13. Reuben MeNun., U.S (511; 14. Ottis ~nce U.S. (45t 15. Roger Hurst G.B. (45).