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AMA/CCS Vance & Hines 750cc Supersporf Series: Roun d 7 .Po'en takes 750cc win at Road At'anta By M ike Church BRASELT ON, GA , AUG. 14 Yoshim ura Suzuki' s Doug Polen topped Scott Russell a n d Mik e Harth b y 5.82 se co n ds to win th e 750cc Doug Polen is all smiles after w inning the 750 Supersport race. Mike Smith (19) leads Scott Russell (22) and Doug Polen (23) at the start of the 750 Supersport race. Polen won and Smith crashed. Paul Bray used home track savvY t o win the 600 Supersport race . but Polen finished second and still leads the po in t standings in bo t h classes. AMA/CCS Vance & Hines' 600cc Supersport Series: Round 7 rc;lY beats·Polen at Road Atlanta . By M ike Church BRASELTON , GA , AUG . I4 Georgian P aul Bray used h is h o me track advantage to defeat Texan Doug P olen in the first -ever all-Supersport AMA/CCS National, h eld at Road Atlanta R aceway. Bra y, from Union City, Georgia, came from a fifth-row start ing p osition to pass Polen for th e lead on th e seco nd lap 32 of the 12-la p event. event ually topping th e Texan by two bike-len gths. Bray averaged 96.13 1 mph o n his Honda CBR 600 Hurricane. " Mr. Su p er sp o r t" Pole n still ha sn't won a 600cc Supersportrace at Ro ad Atlanta, bein g defea ted by Mik e Smi th thi s past Ma y, a nd sufferi ng hi s o n ly Supersport loss of 1987 here to Thomas Stevens . Flo ridian J ohn Ash mead, who's sponsored by Peter Brad y/Mich elin/RK/ Bel-Ra y, to ok third p lace aft er battl in g with David Sad ow ski. I Smith grabbed the hol esh ot a t th e sta rt , lead ing Pol en , Sadowski , Ash mea d and Mik e H arth into turn o ne. Pol en got a ro und Smith in turn two, but a lap later Bra y sna tched th e lead from Pol en and never let go. " Ge tting a good start made a big differen ce," sa id Bray afterwa rds. " Whe n th e .one-minute board went sideways, I nail ed it!" Sco tt Russell, who won th e 750cc Supersport race here in Ma y, parked hi s Suzu k i a fter ju st o ne la p . " Awww, my bike wasn' t run ning well a nd I felt I just cou ldn 't ma ke a good showing, so I decided to save m yself for th e 750 race ," sai d th e Georgian. Harth a lso su ffered problems, completing just six laps. Bra y a nd Po len bega n to pu t distance o n th e ensuing pac k. turning lap tim es in the high 1:33 to lo w 1:34-range. Bra y had switc hed to Mich elin H i-Spo rt ra dials for the race, and cu t a second off his previous best lap time. T he d uo eventually pulled o ut a n over IO-seco nd ma rgin o n third pl ace Ashmead, who'd found a way around both Sadowski , who never cou ld find th e righ t gearing for th e track, an d Smi th . Sadowski a nd Smith had a dogfight for fourth, passing each ot her fo ur or five tim es a lap, but in the end it was Sadowski leading Smi th by inc hes. • " I let the clutch o u t too fast and go t th e front end pretty high," said Sadowski. "T ha t made me back o ut of the start a little. I did have a grea t duel wi th Mike Smith. He would poi nt to Ash mead as if to say, 'Hey , we gotto go get him.' I was trying!" Larry Schwarzbach, David Cl yde, Britt Turkingto n, Douglas T osten a nd Russell Moffitt rou nded out th e top 10. . " Pa u l (Bray) ra n a very good race ," sa id Yoshimura Suzuki 's Po len. " I co u ld close o n him in the comers a little, but o the rwise onl y whe n he was off the gas. It was tough staying with him when h e got to t he straightaways." Abo ut m idwa y, th e tires began to slide," said Bray, who's spo nso red by Dunlop/Shoei/Fox/Cycle Nuts and . Bolts/Doug Kidd. "Since this was my fir st tim e o n th e Hi-Sport radials I was a little unsure. Wh en it started movin g aro u nd I backed off a little. I really want to thank my tuner, Rick Burn ett. H e h ad th at Honda humming." - Results 600 SS/ SPRT: , . Pau l Bray (Han); 2. Doug Polen (Suz); 3 . John A shmead (Han); 4 . David Sadow ski (Han); 5 . Mike Smith (Han); 6 . Larr y Schwarzbach (Hon); 7. David Clyde (Hon); 8 . Br itt Turki ngton (Suz); 9. Doug las Tost en (Henl; 10 . Russell Maffin (Hon l. POINT STANDINGS 600 S/SPRT; 1. Doug Polen (11 7); 2. J ohn As hm ead (95); 3 . David Sadowski ( B 2~ 4 . Paul Bray (4 7 ); 5 . M ike Smit h (44 ~ 6 . Britt Turkington (41); 39) 7. Scott Russell 1401; B. Larry 5chwarzbach 1 ; 9 . Gary Goodfellow (36); 10 . Doug Tosten (2 3). Supersport race a t Road Atlanta. Polen avera ged 98.557 mph for th e 12-laps. Just as he did in the 600cc race, it was Mike Sm ith leading into the first turn , chas ed by Russell , Polen, H arth a nd Cam Roos. With the excep tio n of T exan Pol en , the top . five were all Georgian s. Russell pa ssed Smith for th e lead to begin lap two , and Harth also got by Pol en for third: David Sadowski knocked Cam Roos out of th e top five. On lap three, Polen passed Smith for second and began closing on Russell. The Russell /Pol en duo started to leave th e rest of th e pack beh ind, turning lap tim es in th e 1:31 to I:32-ra nge. On lap six, Sm ith di sappeared from th e pl acings, victim of a turn seven crash. H arth moved up to third , with Sadowski fourth and Kevin Ren tzell fifth. Russell go t o u t of shape in the esses a t th e halfway point, allowing Pol en to ta ke th e lead and hold it to th e checkered flag. "Scott was running very stro ng but he wa s slid ing through th e esses badl y," said Pol en. " He nea rl y lost it o n lap six, a nd th e next lap he reall y go t side ways a n d al mos t hi ghsided. His on ly chance to save it was to stra igh ten o u t and run off the tra ck." H arth also passed Ru ssell and held seco nd for four laps, but Ru ssell got it back just in tim e for th e finish. Sad ow ski took fo urt h wi th Rentzell fifth. R oos, Russell Paulk , Bill Loomi s, Paul Bra y a nd Fabian Cortez rounded out th e top 10. The 22-bike field was made up almos t en tirely of Suzukis, 'with o nl y th e Yamaha of Mark Foster, who fini sh ed 12 th , break in g up the ' monopoly. " We rea lly didn ' t ge t eno ug h practice tim e on th e 750 Suzu ki and th at hurt my efforts, " sai dRussell after th e race. " We didn't have th e suspens io n dial ed in for the esses. In turn six I go t into a bad slide and had to run off the track. I kn ew I had bl own it for the win. That cou ld have been th e champions hi p. " Russell is spo nso red by Dunlop/ AG V/ Kal-Gard/Waggoner 's Cycle Works/ T eam H a m mer/RK Ch a in. " We wen t out for practice this morning and lost a rod bearing," sa id Sadowski. " We wo rked all morning swap p ing motor parts to get th e 750 legal for Supersport rules. " I feel fortunate to even make the race today and stay in th e race for th e cham p ionship ," Sado wski continued. " I want to say th anks to Al Ludington for th e ex tra effort in getting th e motor swap done this morning." • Results 7 50 S/SPRT: 1. Doug Polen (5 uzl; 2. Scon Ru ssell (5uz); 3 . M ik e Hart h ISuz); 4 . David Sadows ki (Suz); 5 . Kevin Renue ll (Suzl; 6. Cam Roes (Suz); 7 . Russell Paulk (Suz); 8 . Bill Loomis ISuz); 9 . Paul Bray ISuz); , O. Fabian Cortez (Suz). POINT STAN DINGS 750 S/5PRT: 1. Doug Polen 1 122 ~ 2. Scott Russell 1106); 3 . Dav id Sado"'(Ski (99); 4 . Russell Paulk (57); 5 . Mike Harth (34); 6. Mark Chin (27); 7 . Ricky Or la ndo (241; B. (TIE) Paul Bray/Steve Dick (22); 10 . (TIE) M ike Smil h/ J am ieJames (21) .