Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

Former motocrosser Fabrizio Pirovano surprised the European road racing fraternity when he captured the 200 Miglia Superbike w in in Italy . American Fred Merkel topped the f irst leg of the 200 M ig lia on a factory Honda RC30, but failed to f in ish the second leg w hen his engine seized. Italian 5uperbike International Pirovano surprise winner of 200 Miglia By Robert Fawcett Photos by Phil Masters MISANO , ITALY, APR. 9-10 Bimota fa~(ory team leader Davide T ardozzi thought h e could win it after earn ing the pole p osition in qualifying with a new Superbike lap record; American Fred Merkel. felt sure he would be th e 'one after riding to victory in the Ii I f h I 200 lf~t . eg 0 ~ e two- eg Miglia o n hIS Honda RC30 22 with a fac tory-p repared engine; bu t tiny 5'4" for me r m o to cro ss s tar Fab rizio Pi ro vano o f Ital y was the surp rise overa ll wi n ner of th e Ital ian Superbi ke Internat ional a t th e Misano track beside th e Adriat ic Sea. Ridin g a privateer s ta n da rd fra med Yamaha FZR7 50 fitt ed with a 1987 factory race kit whil e he aw aits the arriva l of th e updat ed '88 version. P irovano took th e win in th e first ro u nd o f the six -ro u n d $ 75, 000 Itali an Superb ike Series. T he series is being run this year in p arallel with th e in augural World C ha m pions h ip Su perb ike Series, wh ose fi rst ro u n d to ok pl a ce a t Doningt on Park in En gl and just a week before th e Mi sano event. Promo ter Maurizio ~Iamm ini originally sched u led th e Mi sano race as a ro u nd of th e World Cha m pi onsh ip Series. bu t like Daytona wi thdrew it after a d isp ute w i th organizer Steve McL aughlin co ncerni ng televis io n an d promotio na l rights. Buildi ng on th e success o f h is in itial Supe rbike series rim a t Ital ian m eetin gs last seaso n. Flammini decid ed at th e la st moment to schedu le a sim ilar cha mpionship for '88. with eac h ro u nd tel evi sed a n d sponsorship from Marlboro. Ford, Agfa a nd Siemens Computers in hand. No tsurprisingl y, th e good money on offer persu ad ed severa l o f th e leading Eu ropean Su perbike stars to tak e part, th ough th ere were two notable absentees for th e first ro u nd, bo th It alian. Doning ton winner Mar co Lucch in ell i's factory 8-valve Bimota factory rider Davide Tardozzi set a one-lap qualifying, but had to settle for seventh in the race . Du cati 851S returned to home bas e too la te to be rebuilt in time for Misano, a rid reign ing FI World Champion Virginio Ferrari op ted to miss th e race in order to prepare his newly-acquired pair of factory-built Honda RC30s for th e second round of th e World Championship titl e chase in Hungary on May I. The fact . th a t th e two parallel seri es, one with a World Championship title tag and th e other hardly less prestigious, ca n both be run th is yea r in Europe indicates th e depth of interest in Superbike rac ing, a nd this wa s reflected by th e number o f riders entered for the Misano ra ce no less th an 83 in total , from eigh t diff erent co u nt ries, sp lit into two gr oups for separate qualifying sessio ns for th e 36 places available on th e start grid. The ra ce was billed as the 200 Miglia (200 miler) in memory o f th e " Eu ro pea n Daytona" race that used to be held at this time of year 60 miles up the road at Imola, but this year it wa s more of an ep ita p h: the event consisted of two 16-lap heats of the 2. I-mile Misano track, meaning riders had to go for it from the start, rather than concentrate on a longer race strategy. Having qua lified fastest with a new Superbike/T'T F I lap record, Bimota's Tardozzi seemed to have resolved the prob lems with the electronic fuel injection on his Yamaha FZ750-based YB4EI engine that he'd experienced at Donington the week before. But after completing th e warm-up lap safel y, there wa s drama at th e sta rt as T ardozzi 's bike sputtered o ff th e line, com p leti n g o ne slow lap before pulling into th e pits with a seem ing recurrence o f th e electro n ic blues. After ripping into th e bike with portable diagnostic un its a n d programmers, th e Bimota cre w eventua lly traced th e problem to a much more mundane so urce a broken spark plug electrode! This left th e first 16-lap race as a hotly co ntested four-bike punch-up bet ween th e d iminutive P irovano, whose MX experience makes h im one of Europe's ace hol esh ot specialists in cl utc h starts, Sw iss H on da RC30 rider Edw in Weibel (perha ps best kn own as the m an wh o took two bikes a ll th e way to Dayton a this year on ly to find ou t th at th e RC30 isn 't hom ol ogat ed in th e U.S. so co u ldn' t b e ra ced th er e!), sec o n d-s tr i n g Bim ota fa ct ory r ide r S te p ha ne Mert en s of Bel gium , an d Californian Merkel o n hi s RC30, wh o pulled a massive wh eeli e at th e sta rt a nd had to co me from midfield 10 run fourth after th e fir st lap. Running fifth in th e ea rly stages was th e co lorfu lly -mime d, Italian BoTT champ Tiziano Bombardi, having his first race on a cu sto rner- . spec vers ion of the Ducati 851S. But ' Bombardi soo n found the limitations of th e bike's ground clearance and fell off on lap five whi le trying to make up for the V-twin 's eviden t top sp eed disadvantage to the fourcylinder bikes around him. Spanish 500cc GP rider Dani Amatrain managed to borrow Lucchinelli 's Donington spare 8-valve, but this " rnuletto" 851S was to customer spe c and eq u a lly outclassed in sp ite of brave riding by th e yo u n g Spaniard, who held n inth pla ce until th e very last lap when h e was overha u led by Daytona Pro Twins runner-up Stefano Caracchi on hi s similar Ducati. U p fro nt, th e battle for th e lead ! was breath takingl y hard, with Merkel going from third to first on lap six to lead for th e first time a fter a particularly daring piece of outbraking around the horseshoe righthander to pass Mertens a nd Pirovano . in one go . Mertens counterattacked, though, and retook the lead as Weibel began to drop back slightly, towards the grasp of another fourway battle between Finland's jari Suhonen a nd Italy's Augusto Cleri ci, both o n Yama ha FZRs , German Peter R uba tto on a th ird Bimota YB4El , and reigning TT F I World -Ch am p io n Joey Du n lo p on h is Honda RC30. Bu t Dunlop and R u ba tto began to fall back, the Irish m an to conserve his engi n e and R u b a tt o with ,a recurrence of the Bimota electronic blues. "T h e en gine cu ts out dead in midrange at about 10,000 rpm, " explained Rubatto. " Wh en it does that, yo u have to flick the kill switch off and on again quickl y, and then the en~ine restarts and runs perfectl y. We think it 's a fault in th e program for th e rev limiter, which is supposed to ki ck in a t 13,200 rpm , but must be com in g in ea rly. I was ahead of Dunlop com i ng o u t o f th e last co rner, and th en it pl ayed th at trick o n me co m in g to th e flag, so he passed me. I'm start ing to think abo u t fittin g ca rbs a nd th e sta ndard igni tion agai n !" Merkel a n d Mertens 'h a d now open ed up a sma ll ga p on Pi rovano, but th e Am eri can was having his own problem s to o . " My en g in e started th e race OK , but th en it gra dually got slo wer unti l I cou ld only pull fifth g ear d own the stra ig h t," said Merk el who is now bas ed in Italy. " We a lready lost two en gines at Donington with a cranksha ft problem , th en I co u ld feel this one start 10 tighten up as well. We just made it to th e finish. " And wh at a finish l After contin ually trading the lead , the battle

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