Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

Team Honda's Bubba Shobert (67) should be a factor in the Superbike National at scenic Road Atlanta. Road Atlanta Preview The battle resumes By Brian Catterson ·T h e AMA National Championship Road Race Series returns from its annual twomonth sabbatical as Road Atlanta in Braselton, Georgia, hosts the second round of the seven-event series on May 14-15. Though the series tradition. . 11y b egrns at Daytona In a 10 March, it isn't until Road Atlanta that it really gets underway. Daytona is a test session, a grueling 2oo-mile endurance contest on a super speedway usually won by the rider with the fastest bike. Road Atlanta is a 2.5-mile, 12-turn up and downhill road course where ·horsepower is important, but rider skill is the .determining factor. . Last year 's Superbike Championship was a two-man war between the factory-backed heavy hitters - Honda's Wayne ' Rainey and Yoshimura Suzuki's Kevin Schwantz. Schwantz won more races, but Rainey took the titl~. Last year at Road Atlanta, Ramey beat Schwantz after a heated battle. Just this past March, Schwantz won the first race of 1988, giving Suzuki its first -ever victory in the Daytona 200. But both Rainey and Schwantz have since headed to Europe to . compete for the 500cc World Championship, leaving the door wide open for a win by another rider - probably one of only three factory-backed riders currently competing in American road racing .Bubba . Shobert, Doug Polen and Scott Gray. Grand .National Champion Shobert wants to road race full-time, and if his performance at Daytona was any indication, the other riders are in trouble. Shobert stalled his factory Honda VFR750 on the warm-up lap for the 200, but was push-started by Team Honda motocrosser Ricky Johnson and passed 75 riders to finish third. Shobert followed that ·up with a second place finish in the Eurolantic Challenge (formerly known as the Transatlantic Match Races) at England's Brands Hatch and Donington Park, racing headto-head with Polen in each of the six events and winning two. Shobert's efforts in the first round of the newly-formed World Championship Superbike Series, held at · Donington Park between the Brands and Donington Match Races , were hampered by an incorrect sprocket in the first leg, but he turned the ' fastest lap in the second. Shobert also served notice of his pavement racing intentions by placing fifth at Laguna Seca in the 250cc U.S. GP on a · Camel-backed 1987 Honda NSR250. Two years ago Polen made news as the up-and-coming club racer, winning nearly $100,000 in contingency prizes in the course of the year. Last year he proved his worth on the National circuit, winning all but one of the AMA 600cc Supersport races to claim the title, and finishing fourth in the Superbike series on a Kosar Racing Suzuki. This year, the new Yoshimura Suzuki recruit was runner-up at Daytona after leading the first five laps and winning the Camel Challenge. The Denton, Texas, rider then won four out of six races at the Match Races and set the fastest lap in all six, though he shared it once each with Shobert and Gray. Polen also qualified fastest at the first round of the World Championship Superbike Series, but withdrew before the race. AMA regulations permit a Imm overbore, but international rules state 750cc maximum, so Polen and teammate Gray's motors were 12cc over the limit. Gray has been competing in West Coast Nationals ' for the past few years, and claimed the championship in the premiere local series in the west - the Formula USA Series held at Southern California's Willow Springs Raceway- in which he rode a Yoshimura Suzuki Tornado. So far this year he's finished fourth at Daytona and third at the Match Races. Gray is anxious to prove that he can run with the best, and Road Atlanta is the type of course where he excels. Probably the top privateer in American road racing is Gary Goodfellow. Goodfellow has recovered from injuries suffered at a Canadian National late last year, and did well at the Eurolantic Challenge, beating Shobert and Gray on occasion. .Unfortunately, the New Zealander living in Canada will compete in Canadian Nationals only this year. Other riders who must be considered threats include dirt tracker Doug Chandler on the ex-Wayne Rainey Honda VFR750, Larry Shorts on a Rob Muzzy-tuned Kawasaki, Dale Quarterley and Doug Brauneck on Lockhart Suzukis, John Ashmead . on a privateer Honda and Canadians Rueben McMurter and Michel Mercier. . Last year 's AMA/Castrol 250cc Grand Prix race winner Randy Renfrow bounced back from a Superbike crash which occured just moments before the 250 final. The crash occured in one of the fastest portions of the track , between turns nine and 10. This year, Renfrow will give the 250cc class a miss in order to concentrate his efforts on Superbike racing. He'll be riding a Vance & Hines Suzuki. The favorite for this year's 250cc race has to be 1987 National Champion John Kocinski. The 20-year-ol d Team Nordica /Roberts rider shocked the world by running up front and eventually finishing fifth at the Japanese Grand Prix; he followed that up with a fourth place finish in the U.S round at Laguna Seca. He also ran away at Daytona on his Yamaha TZ250. Kocinski has taken up residence at three-time World Champ ion Kenny Roberts' northern Californian ranch and under Roberts' tutelage, he will be the man to beat at Road Atlanta. Kocinski is joined by .team mate Thomas Stevens. Last year, Stevens raced with WERA Endurance National Champions Team Suzuki and finished second in the AMA Supersports class. He was the only man to beat Polen in a Supersports race in 1987 and he did it at Road Atlanta. He obviously knows his way around this circuit. Joining those two at the front should be the John Lassak Racing duo of England's Alan Carter and Californian · Rich Oliver; both are Yamaha TZ250-mounted. Four-time World Champion Kork Ballington will return to do battle at Road Atlanta, riding a Bob MacLeanowned Honda RS250. Former National Champion Donnie Greene, Aprilia-mounted Andy Leisner, Rotax rider Danny Coe and Garry

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