Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

raced o n the short course except on , a 250. "I'm sure he would have broken it, but I've never raced a big bike on the .short course," Lawson said. ....Polen took the win by more than 10 seconds with Sadowski,and Minnmg trailing in second and third, respectively. The 750cc heats turned out to be more important than anyone could have imagined as they were later deemed the final. As the 22 starters of heat one completed the first lap, it was Sadowski with the lead fol lowed by Polen and John Eidenberger. Meanwhile, a four-way battle for fourth that included Gray was on the move. ' By the second lap, however: the race for the lead was down to two riders as Sadowski gamely hung onto Polen . The second lap was a I:29 flat for the Texan and Sadowski was hanging tough. , By the fourth lap, though, Polen had put a 3.2-second gap between himself and Sadowski and cruised in for the win. By the third lap, Gray had estab"lishcd himself in third spot with Eidenberger, James Dornay, Peter Carro ll and Minning remaining involved over the number four spot. Do may made his move to lead the group on the fourth lap, but it was carroll getting the nod on the fifth and final lap to finish fourth. Domay held on for fifth. Polen completed the five laps in 7:33.171, which wo uld end up giving him the overall WID. > The warm-up lap for the second heat saw Joe Pittman crash, causing a slight delay in the proceedings. When the race got the ' green flag it was Pero leading the fray of 750s. Harth was another casualty as he ' crashed in tum seven. 'At the end of the first lap it was Pero with the lea d over Heino, Orlando, Scott Zampach and Kurt Hall. By the end of lap two , Pero led Heino by almost two seconds; Orlando was a comfortable third , with Hall, Scott Cavness, Zampach and Steward fighting for fourth. Pero ended up more than three seconds ahead of Heino. Orlando finished third with Cavness, Hall, Steward, young Tommy Lynch and Zampach rounding ou t the top eight finishers. Pero's time was 7:40.466, slower than Polen 's but it would be good enough to earn the New Zea,lander second place in the results and $4000 in prize money. Following Saturday's heat races, Polen talked about his recently broken ankles. "I don 't 'no tice it when I'm riding. They just get a li ttle sore because they haven't been used. I'm just riding and it's rio problem on the track. I don 't have to do anything differently. It feels really great to be out here racing again." The AFM's Richard Moore was an unexpected absentee from heat race action on Saturday. Moore's mo ther passed away in Haiti on Wednesday and the Vance & Hines rider didn't get back to California until 12 a.m. on Sunday morning. He ' would, however, get to start the finals from the back row of the grid on Sunday. The death of his mother was the culmination of a bad cou p Ie of weeks for Moore. The Whittier, Ca lifornia, resident lives close to where California's recent earthquakes were centered. Then on Monday, October 5, Moore crashed while tire testing at Willow Springs and hurt his ankle. ''I'm trying to keep a positive attitude," Moore said on Sunday morning. "I didn't think I'd be at this race." Twenty-two starters lined up for the start of the GSXRllOO final under cloudy, but non-threatening skies. T im ing the flag perfectly was Richard Moore (83) leads Calvin Rayborn III (138X) during the Yamaha f inal; Rayborn won in heroic fashion. Steward, but it wasn 't long before a flying Trinder flew past, intent on leading lap number one. The Australian did just that as the pack roared out of the final comer and onto the front straight. Minning was next followed closely by Pero, Sadowski and Polen , who had spun the Suzuki's rear tire off the line leaving the tarmac with a big black mark and himself with a poor start. Polen was still in fifth p lace at the end of lap two with Trinder trying desperately to break free from the four-rider pack behind him. Orlando ran off the track through the esses, scaring Gray who was right behind him. As the pack completed lap three, Trinder was just over a second ahead of Sadowski, Pero and Polen; Minning was beginning to lose touch. Beginning lap five, Polen dove under Sadowski in tum one as the two pulled to within striking distance of Trinder. Polen then dove under Trinder in the kink and Sadowski followed suit. On the sixtlrIap, confusion was in abundance through the esses; the helicopter filming the race got a little low spraying hay all over the place. "I couldn't see and then I leaned over too far and went off the track," Sadowski said later. But he didn't lose any places as all the riders made it through the incident. Trinder then tried to pass Sadowski in seve n; : but almost crashed, going off the track and up to the tires . From then on Trinder started a steady decl ine that saw him end up sixth; a punctured rear tire was to blame, according to Trinder. ' "I had a puncture on about lap four ' or five," he said. ''The back •started going away and I almost pulled in because it was too dangerous. I was really h appy with the pace up till that point, but you can't ride 'em on the rim. It felt like the shock had totally gone away." Scott Gray (2 4) holds off John Eidenberger (4 5) and James Domay (18 ) during t he first 750cc heat race. Gray was credited with fifth place. After turning consistent I:28 lap times, Polen, by lap 10, was clear from Sadowski, who still had to contend with a charging Pero. Trinder, meanwhile, was trying to unsuccessfully hold off Gray, who would end up a lonely fourth. Next to nab Trinder was Steward, on lap 16. The rest stayed the same; Polen took a 3.89-second win over Sadowski with Pero third, Gray fourth and Steward fifth. Trinder held on for sixth. "Last year I ~ot second (in the 1100 class) and I didn't want to go out too fast," Polen said: "So I worked up slowly. My brother (James) has done a fine job all year long and for this race we used a Vance & Hines exhaust system which worked great." Sadowski, who drove 3300 miles to compete at Riverside, thanked 7

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