Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

9ROAD RACE AMA National Championship Superbike Road Race Series: Round I e Yamaha's David Sadowski qualified secon d, avoided first -tum disaster and rode on ' to win the Daytona 200; the win was Sadowski's first AMA National victory. Sadowski nips Renfrow in Daytona 200 thriller By P au l Carruthers P hotos by HenDy Ray Abrams and co urtesy Daytona In terna tion al Speedway DAITONA~EACH, n, MAR. II esp ite being involved in th e firsttum melee that saw two of the top five q ua lifiers eli minated on the first lap, Vance & H ines Yamaha's David Sadowski managed to edge the Commonwealth Honda of Randy Renfrow to win the Daytona 200 by Arai , in the closest finish in th e history of th e prestigious race. Sadowski's victory was the first AMA National win of his career, but it was not without incident as he narrowly . escaped being taken out of the race in the very first comer. . As the 74-rider field began its assau lt on tum on e, third fastest qualifier Jamie James and fifth fastest qualifier Niall Mack enzie collided , causing them both to crash and others around them, including Sadowski, to scurry to safety. The New England native was able to recover, however, and started a charge that soon had him among the leaders. What followed was a thrilling battle that saw three-and-four-rider battles up front for the majority of the 200 miles. In the end it came down to the Van ce & Hines Yamaha of Sadowski vs. th e Commonwe alth Racing Honda of Renfrow wi th Sadowski winning by a scant .64 of a second. The 25-yearold pocketed $12,785 of th e $175,000 purse for his efforts with Renfrow earning $8,570. . Third pl ace went to Kawasaki's Doug Chandler, who also took to the grass in the first comer misha p, and D 8 wou ld lat er again use his dirt tracking skills as he came even closer to crashing after hitting oil in the fast dog-leg left section of the infield in the closing stages of the race. Chandler earned $2080 for his third place finish , plus an additional $5000 for finis hing the race as the top ranked . dirt tracker. Fourth place wen t to Yamaha mounted Donald Jacks wi th Dal e Quanerley riding a four -year-old GeeVee Performance-b a cked H onda VFR750 to a fifth place finish. The two Yamahas of Mark Ch in and T om Kipp led home the Yoshimura Suzuki of dirt track legend Jay Springsteen as the three fin ished seven th, eigh th and ninth, respectively. Canada's Jacques Guenette rounded ou t the top 10 finishers on his Mon ette Sportbacked Suzuki. Sadowski averaged on ly 100.101 mph due to th e fact tha t 10 laps of the 57-lap race were run under caution periods, and controlled by a pace car. The 200-mile event was comp leted in two hours, three minutes and 45.770 seconds. An estimated 30,000 race fans witnessed the 49th runnin g of the Dayto na 200. "When Jam ie (James) and (Niall ) Mackenzie bu mped in turn on e I eased it off and went on th e grass ," Sadowski said in victory lane. "T hen I let it hang out and I pulled it off." For Renfrow the race marked the closest he' d come to win ni ng a Superbike race. " It was a great race," Renfrow said. " I rode well, and the team did well. Dave (Sadowsk i) just did better. He did the last few corners fan tastic and that was the difference." Qualifying T he 1990 Daytona 200 marked th e beginning of a new decade of AMA Su per bike racing and with th e '90s ca me new ru les . Na me ly , dated Yama ha FZ750s and Honda VFR750s were replaced by exotic, but now legal, Yamaha OWOls and Honda RC30s to riva l Kawasaki's ZX7, Suzuki's GSX R750 and the Ducati 851. The new decade also saw new ride rs a n d new teams . Vance & Hin es unveil ed th eir two-man lineup of Sadowski and form er Team Roberts 250cc p ilot Thomas Stevens, armed with a legion o f un iformed crew members and two very fast OWOls prepped by four-stroke wizard Steve Johnson . Then the re was the semi-official Ducati sq uad of defending Superbike Champion Jamie James and one-race import Paul Lewis from Australia. The fuel-injected twins were immaculatel y pr epared by Eraldo Ferra cci. Kawasaki was well represented by the Rob Muzzy-run, three-rider team of Chandler, Scott Russell and defendin g Da ytona 200 ch ampion John Ashmead. The Yoshimura Suzuki squad was an all-Canadian affair with Steve Crevier and last-minute Doug Polen replacement Miguel Du Hamel. Toss in Honda's Commonwea lth Racing's effort of Renfrow, simila rly RC30mo u nted Rueben McMurter and th e vario us OWOls and RC30s ridden by the foreign conti nge nt, and you suddenly ha d a highly-qual ified, wellequipped field. With the first 10 q ualifying spots locked in on the first day of tim ed practice, Wednesday saw the Super- bikes at their best. When it was all said and don e, it was the two Van ce & Hines p ilots lead in g the way on their ultrafast OWOls. Fl o r id a 's o wn Thoma s St even s dominated th e day as he put his Yam ah a on the pole with a time of I minute, 54.561seconds for an average speed of 111.871 mph, setti ng a new lap record in the process. Close behind was Sadowski, who nipped pas t Jam es' Ducati in the final session with a time of 1:54.965. James ended up th ird with a lap of 1:55.214. Renfrow (1:55.790) and Sco tla n d 's Yama ha OWOImo unted Mackenzie (I:56.072) filled the front row of the grid. The entire front row of th e grid would be eq u ipped with Dunlop tires with th e excep tion of James. The defendin g cha mp used Yokohama slicks in qual ifying, bu t would switch to Michelin s for the 200 after encoun te ring wear prob le ms with the relatively-untested Yokohamas. Row two consisted of England's Carl Fogarty (RC30), Crevier, an other Brit Jamie Whitham (RC30), McMurter and Chandler, who se Kawasaki was nearl y 10 mp h slo wer through th e traps than the Vance & H in es Yamahas and J ames' Ducati. The Vance & Hines Yamah as were clocked at 175 mph through th e speed traps with James' Ducati on ly fractio ns slower. In all , 19 riders would circulate ' under the two-minute mark. The second of Ferracci's ultra-quick 851s was the first of the top bikes to be eliminated as Paul Lewis crashed in the west horseshoe, destroying the bike and injuring his hand. Stevens, a Dayto na 200 rookie, was q uie tly co nf ident after setti ng fast time. " Who else here do I have to worry abo u t?" he said . " I don ' t worry abo ut any bod y but myself. I' m the guy I have to beat. My teamma te, Da vid Sadowski, is the n um ber one rider on the team, I know tha t. I just go out and ride the bike as hard as I can." After seeing a chirop rac to r on

• Cover