Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

, Bu bba Shobert (middle) and Doug Polen (left) celebrate their first and ;sec o nd place finishes in the winner's circle with Miss Laguna' Seca. coming off the corners," Chandler said. " Bu t we'll hav e it working by tomorrow. " Chandler also had hi s fa th er inlaw, Jerry Griffith, helping him with the bikes for the fir st time in 1988, and Griffith was overheard promising more help in Mid-Ohi o if Chandler could win here. l Arnaiz, David Sadow ski and Bra y rounded out the top five in the 'second heat race. A non-starter in the second heat race was Sam McDonald, out the Yamaha FZR750-mounted Oklahoma rider was questionably placed'on the promoter 's option list and would start in the National. "I " I think we had a better combination yesterday (Friday)," Shobert said. " Bu t with six-minute sessions it's hard to get things figured out. ,We can go better tomorrow. " The holeshot in the first leg of the 'Nissan Superbike Challenge went to Chandler. Goodfellow was next with . Shobert, Gray, Polen, Ashmead and Bray following into the left-hand kink turn one and left-hand loop turn two on the opening go-around. Shobert was soon around Goodfellow and then took over from Chandler on the 'second lap. Polen, meanwhile, was stuck momentarily behind teammate Gray, who crashed in th e Sunday m orning prac tice session in - turn five, before ge tting past on the second lap. It th en took Pol en two laps to ge t Goodfell ow and th ree more lap s to get Chandler. By this time Shober t had ope ned u p a lead, albeit a small one, th at wo ul d hol d up to th e fin ish . -r Cha nd ler, in turn, had a lonely rather un eventful ride to finish thi rd, despite warping a set of ro tors on hIS VFR7 50, causi ng the fro n t end to shake du ring the closing laps. Goodfell ow held on to finish fou rth. 2 The only drama in th e first leg was Renfrow 's steady attack on Gray. The Virginian would close the gap slightly each lap, but co uldn' t quite get close enough in th e 28 laps. • Amaiz, Bray, Ashmead and Dick fo unded out the top lOin the first 2 segment. Quarterley was a n onfinish er whe n th e cam chain of his Su zu ki GSXR750 b roke on t h e seventh lap. Sadowski was another . who suffered mechanical ills , drop- . ping out on lap 15 a nd pushing his Suzuki back to the pits to ready it . for the second leg . Shobert completed th e 28 laps in 44 m inutes, 11.679 seconds for a n average speed of 83.478 mph. H e topped Polen by 4.43 seconds at th e flag and seemed to gain confiden ce with the win. " T he last few laps I pushed it to see how it would still work and i t felt good," Sh obert said. " We'll see what happens. I think he would have caught me if he could. I don 't think he was just waiting back th ere. Now I'm just going to go take a pow er nap." Shobert said he would leave his factory Honda alone, going with the same set-up that won the first segment. Polen, however, was understandably making changes in an effort to ~ain an edge, or at least be on par WIth his rival. " I stiffened the preload on the shock," he said. " It was like a pogo stick, making it difficult to ride. I'll us e lighter p reload a n d more rebound. That's (second place) kind of where I wanted to fini sh in th e first leg anyway. And with th e motorcycle no t worki ng th ere was no need to press it." G ray said his Suzuki was ru nning poorl y, and th e Yoshimura mec hanics wer e busy dur ing the break between segments cleaning th e carbureto rs to see if th ey had suc ked d irt in Gray's morning ge t-off. Arnaiz , meanw hi le, spe nt the brea k figuring ou t how to cure a gearing problem . " It's gea red too low for the in fiel d, but I don 't want to make it not wor k ou t of II ," he sai d. Renfrow was p leas ed wit h the result, but was trying to figure out why he couldn't go as fast earl y in th e race as he di d near the end. . Goodfellow was con tent with the Richard Arnaiz (27), Scott Gray (45) and John Asmead battle through the corkscrew; Arnaiz finished sixth, Gray fifth; Ashmead crashed. pe rformance of th e Gee Vee H o nda a nd " left it alo ne ; th ere was no th ing to do to it," he said. The second 28-lap affair started again wi th Chandler leading the fray into th e first turn. Shobert follow ed with Polen within striki ng distance, closely tailing the factory Honda. Goodfellow , a faster-starting Ren frow, Arnai z, Gray a nd Ashmead followed. Shobert wasted little time, diving under Chandler in turn fi ve o n th e second lap. It took Polen a no ther two laps to dispose of Chandler, but th is time Shobert hadn 't pulled clear. The two then swiftly pulled clear from Chandler, who lost touch with the leading duo after the fir st six laps. What foll owed was a two-way battle, although Pol en never led, until lap 23 when Shobert -again broke free, turning a I:32.56. and stre tching a lead that would end up being 6.04 seconds a t the finish . It wa s at this point that a sliding Polen figured the day belonged to Shobert and it was time to start thinking about fini shing. " I ran it as hard 'a s I could," Polen said later. " I didn't wan t to th ro w it a way. The bike was better but it was n 't good enough ." Meanwhile, Ch andler again rode a lonely race to thi rd, leading th e fou rt h p lace ba ttle b y ov er five seconds after on ly six lap s. A battle indeed. Ren frow, Goodfellow a nd Gray fough t for fourth p lace fro m la ps four through 19 when Goodfell ow mad e a break th at would carry h im to a lonely fourth place. Ren frow a nd Gray resumed the ba ttle for fifth wi th Renfro w pulling clear on th e 21st lap on ly to crash in turn four two laps later. G ra y's mo tor then we nt so ur, ca usi ng him to slo w rap idly, an d allowing Arnaiz to ta ke over fifth p lace. T he Yosh im ura rider, however, managed 'to hol d o n to sixth pl ace for fifth overa ll. Br a y, Di ck , McDo nald, and Sadowski ro unded ou t th e top IO in th e second segment. " Each race we ge t closer a nd closer," Cha nd ler said. " And . this was th e closest we've been . I'm prett y happy, but I'm kind of dis appointed th at I co uld n 't run up th ere with th em for longer. " " It was a com bina tion of bike setup a nd tires," Polen sa id. " I overw orked th e ti res and th e last five laps it started sliding aro u nd too much to be safe." Polen used medium-compound Dunlop ra dials. " Everytime I looked back he was still th ere," Shobert said. "T hen it was 'p lus one,' 'p lus two ,' but I never let up. On th e last lap it was 'p lus five' and I took my first breath. I used the same combination as in the first heat; the faster I rode the better it worked." Shobert used hard-compound Michel in radials. . Ashmead, after running off th e tra ck earlier, cras hed hard in turn IO aft er running the last several laps with no brakes. According to hi s mechanics, he suffered inj uries to hi s sid e and road rash , and was transported to th e hospital. . Gra y summed u p his prob lem as prob ably ign ition failure. H e said th e bike got p ro gressivel y worse th roughoutthe race. _ Arnaiz , six th o vera ll , sai d the changes he mad e d uring the break wor ked ou t for th e best. " We changed gea ring, for k height, a nd mad e the wheelbase shorte r," he sa id. " It was better. We also p u t 34 pounds of air pressure in the tir es ra ther than 36. I was o u t by myse lf for most of the time." • Results SUPERBIKE: 1. Bubba Shoben (Hon); 2. Doug Polen (Suz); 3. Doug Chand ler (Hon); 4. Gary Goodfellow (Hon); 5. Scon Gray (Hon); 6. Rich ard Arnaiz (Yam ); 7. Paul Br ay (Suz); 8 . St even Dick (Suz); 9. Sam McD onald (Yam); 1O. Tom Kipp (Yam). AMA SUPERBIKE POINT STANDINGS : 1. Doug Polen (88); 2. Bubba Shoben (85); 3 . Randy Renfrow (40); 4 . Doug Chandler (39); 5. Scon Gray (32); 6. John Ashmead (28); 7. Rueben McMuner (27); 8. (TIE) David Sadowski/Scon Russell (22); 10. Kevin Schwantz (20). 9

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