Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

F:'i 8 ~ 00 00 0') ...... British rider Trevor Nation (5). riding a Norton Rotary. had a terrible time at Brands Hatch , Top scoring Brit Roger Burnett leads Gary Goodfellow. Anders Andersson and Roger Marshall through Druids Bend hairpin at Brands Hatch. Goodfellow got a sligh t lead. Burn ett too k second off Ma rsh all , and then th in gs got rea lly fra n tic. Goodfellow, Burnett and Andersson were in line goi ng in to Paddock, Burnett hold in g off a spiri ted a ttack from Ande rsson whi le Goodfellow bided his tim e. . Sudden ly Pol en burst o n the scene from nowhere, ta king second on lap II as Goodfellow retook the lead. . Sho bert and Gray were u p to fifth a nd sixth , respecti vely, a t thi s po in t. Once he'd go tten among th e leaders, Po len was n't a bo ut to waste tim e, He took"th e lead o n la p 12 at Paddock and immediat ely pulled out over a second o n wh a t.was now a nine-man battle for seco nd. Goodfellow had to deal with another cha llenge from Burnett, who also found him self under attac k from Gray a nd Shob ert , who challe nged Goodfell ow in th e last la p a nd a half but was held off. With the first four p laces - Polen , G oodfello w , Shobe rt a n d Gra y, T eam U.S.A. agai n scored well , helped by And ersson 's fifth in front o f four Brits, Burnett, Ma rsh all , Phill ips and Haslam. Polen o nce aga in logged th e fastest lap, a t 48.6 seconds it was two-tenths of a seco nd faster than hi s first race fast lap. It was clear th a t this ed ition of the Mat ch Races would agai n be a co n test between the two traditional rivals, the U.S.A. team a nd the number one V .K. sq uad as th e V.S. scored 108 poi nt s a nd no w had a tota l of 193, while th e V .K. scored 91 po in ts to give th em a tota l of 182. The privatee r V .K. sq ua d was a distant thi rd wit h 11 9 points and th e European had but 90. . Ro und 3 : Brands Hatch T he h om e co u n try fan s were already ex periencing the nasty Ieelings of deja vu, Was their team in for ano ther America n wh itewash in g like Kevin Schw a nt z, Wa yne Rain ey a nd Co. dea lt out last tim e?T he thi rd leg didn 't mak e the m feel a ny better, but it did set th e patt ern for th e rest of the weekend. T he infig ht ing a t the start of the last race a t Brands sa w McMuner a nd Mich ael Galinski go do wn a t the hairpin on the first lap a nd Da rren Dixon a nd Mercier do the sam e thi ng go ing into Clearways on the second la p. Dixon's a nkle was badl y brui sed , effectively putti ng hi m out of the series. Dixon blamed Mercier for the incident. V p front Shobert was leading G o odfell o w a nd Marsh all w ith Pol en carving his wa y th ough th e pa ck to fourth. At the en d of lap fou r Polen po wered past Ma rshall 's very s ta n dard G SX R co mi ng o u t o f Clearways onto the stra ight o nly to go back to sixth when he got into Padd ock wa y too hot. Haslam, wh o co uld on ly ha ve looked more sick if he'd passed away, was ho lding a heroi c third in a hect ic tu ssle also in volving Po len , Gra y, Burn ett , Whitham a nd Marsha ll. Po len took the lead o n lap eig h t, a nd a t th e sa me tim e Goodfell ow 's Suzuki started losing power a nd he started losing touch with th e fron trunners. It look ed as if the Wh ith am / And er sson v Ph i ll ips dice wo uld ca tch him before the flag. As Pol en a nd Sh ob ert pulled o ut a slight lead , Haslam a nd Burnett set th eir sig h ts o n Gra y's third pl ace. With three laps to go it looked as if they'd ca tch him . Shobert mad e h is move two la ps from th e end, edging to th e fro m a t Clea rways. Pol en 's co unt er-a ttack was h in dered first by a backmarker a nd then by a big slide a t th e to p of Paddock . Although he go t it a bit side wa ys aga in a t Bottom Bend comi ng down th e hill from Druids, Shobert 's ma rg in atthe flag was j ust o ne-h und red th of a second. Gray held o n to third, finish ing just over two seconds beh in d th e lead ers, a nd Burnett a nd H asla m were given exactly th e same time in fou rth a nd fifth , resp ect ivel y. And ersso n d id tak e ad va ntage o f G oodf ell ow 's machinery prob lem a nd took sixth, bu t Goodfellow ma naged to ho ld off th e rest. Marsha ll did a fair impression of Ran dy Ma rnola 's fam ous rodeo rid e when he h ighsided at Clea rways o n th e last lar. . It was a spectacula r, 1I0t to say terrif ying get-off, but Ma rsh all wa lked away from it. T he happ ies t m an aro u n d, th ou gh , was SC Ott Gray. H is 3-4-3 day had the fan s chec king the ir progra ms to see j ust wh o th is new gu y wa s. Wh en h e cas ua lly a n nounced over the public address system th a t thi s was the first ti me he'd ridden tha t close with so many good riders, the Brit ish fans reall y started worrying a bo ut th e Ameri ca n 's poi nts lead wh ich now stood at 16,297 to 281, over the V. K. team. For the th ird straigh t time, Pol en had fast lap, th is one iden tical to hi s race two o ne in time a nd speed. Round '4 : Donington Park Easter Monday dawned damp and d ism al , and the American team was in trouble. The previous da y's World Champ ionship Superbike Series ro und had robbed them of Merkel wh o had cra nkshaft problems on both his engines and Goodfell ow who 'd bro ken three toes when he tangl ed with tea m m a te Mercier. Mercier's bike had ea ten some debri s wh en he ra n off the tra ck, so he was riding Goodfellow's bike. The Canadi an had th e addi tional handicap of a very sore sho u lder. . The British team was happier. Haslam looked a lo t hea lthier a nd set fastest tim e in qualifyin g o n what is effectively hi s home circui t. Keith Huewen wa s replaced by reserve T erry Rymer, while Mark L in scott was drafted into the Eu ropean team 10 replace H ans Linder, a nothe r Su perb ike ro und casua lty. The Americans had . a l6-point I ~a ~ , eq u ivalent. to a ninth pl ace finis h, but they fielded just six ri ders at Doningt on after team ca p tain Sho bert declined the offer of o ne of the British reserves. If the Americans ~ere to hang on to that lead , all six riders wo u ld hav e to fini sh a nd all six would have to beat som e of th e U. K. riders who'd been packin g th e midfield pos itions. The track was damp in pat ch es a nd co ld as th e fourt h ro und got underw a y, but th at didn 't a lter a nyt hi ng a t th e from of th e field . Shobert go t to th e first corner in the lead , but Burnett ga ve the loca l fan s som ething to sho ut a bo ut as he led a t the end of the first lap with a su bstant ial adva n tage over Sho bert wh o was co m ing un der' p ressur e from H aslam . Ph ill ips, who was getti ng to kno w hi s new Bim o ta YB4 bett er all the tim e, was next th rough . - sho ulder-to-sho ulder wi th Polen. T he No rton Rotary, ridden by T revor Nati on wh o'd had a mi serable Brands meeting, was a mong th e fro nt part of the field and loo king quick. Maybe the re wo uld be som e joy th ere for the British fans . Burnett a nd H asla m had towed th e two Amer icans, Polen and Sho bert , away from Phillips, but as th e 10lap sprint progressed the Americans reel ed in Burnett a nd Hasl am 's RC30s. Po len looked to be a ble 10 blast past the o pposti tio n a t will down th e straigh t, but Shobert was do in g hi s passin g o n the brakes into the ri gh t/ left chica ne a t th e end of ' th e back stra igh t. ' Su re eno ug h , the two Americans closed Burnett down a nd Pol en took th e two Bri ts on the stra igh t in successive laps. Sh obert waited until th e chica ne on th e last lap wh ere he ou tbraked Haslam a nd took second. Burnett got fourth, but th ere wasjust over half a second betw een firs t and . fou rth at the chec kered flag. Andesson was next , ah ead of Gray and Phill ips. Nation a nd the Norton Ro tary ca me in 11tho T he V .K. team had ou tscored the Yank s, 105 to 91, and cut their points lead down 10 5, with th e U.S. still leading, 391 to 386. Nothing was new in th e fast lap of the race department as once again it was Polen with a I mi n u te, 14.48 seco n d /94.59 mph tour of Donington, Round 5 : Donington Park With th e U.K; team closing in on th em, it was vital that th e Ameri cans got all th eir men to fini sh th e fifth race, but whe n Mercier p ulled in a t the end of the first lap with the clutch on his Suzuki coo ked , th e Americans had as good as lost th e team race. Haslam a nd Burnett were the early lead ers with Sh obert in close attenda nce and Polen closing o mino usly in th e opening co up le of laps. Gray was holding six th a nd looking better with each la p. . Fi r st Sho be rt a nd th en Pol en overha uled H asl am as th e leading trio pulled awa y from Burnett and P hi llips. The Euro pea n team lost th eir o nly big points scor er when · Ande rsson's Suzu ki popped a gea rbox o il seal 'a nd lubricat ed the back tire. He went do wn a t th e chica ne, aggra va t ing a n o ld co lla rbo ne inj ury, and took no fu rt her part in th e meetin g. Po len a nd Shobert were now embroiled in a privat e argument a (Con ti n ued to pag e 25)

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