Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

Chandler, after starting in th e mid I:29s, dipped into the I:27s and turned ,his fastest lap on the final go-around as he held Polen at bay, Pol en was sho wing no ill -effects of hi s preseason inj ury; he had finished fourth in hi s first race back in the Japanese championsh ip two weeks prior in Suzuka, It was th ere that Pol en un successfully experimented with a heel/toe shift mechanism, "I ki cked it into neutral wh il e changing my foot positi on," Pol en said. " I told them to take it off, and I'd figure out an other way." After disp osing o f Kip p on the second lap, James held o n to fin ish third wi th DuHamel fourth and Renfrow , after a disa strous sta rt from the back row o n th e RC30, fifth. " I was second to last in the first co rner," Renfrow sa id. ' "The bike doesn 't handle as well here as I thought it would. Maybe it 's partially me. Maybe I'm pushing and pull ing on the bars too mu ch ." The Commonwealth Ho nda RC30 was us ing a total-loss ignitio n for the firs t time at Road Atlanta, and Renfrow felt the change had he lped the bike under acceleration. Kipp , who had seen fire destroy his Yamaha FZR600 Supersport entry aft er he crashed in oil during Friday's practice sessio n, ended up sixth. Q uarterley, who crashed his new Geo rge Vincensi-tuned Hond a R C30 I o n o n ly the second lap of practice o n T hursday, finished a disappointin g ninth in the second heat race. Chandler averaged 102.135 mph o n the Kawasaki as hi s hea t was .620-of, a-seco nd slower th an Sado wski's effort. Su nday morn in g 's practice session saw J a mes 's Du ca ti 851 crack its exhaust system: " I thi nk I had it set up a littl e soft and it was bottoming hard th rough th e esses," the Louisianna n said. " It did it twice in a row and I think tha t's wha t did it." T he Yoshimura sq uad ra ised a few eyebrows wh en it somehow go t Polen o n the g rid for the Monsterb ike Shoo tou t as a substitu te for Fastline MCM Racing, a five-lap with pit StOP ra ce for th e top finishers in th e previous day 's enduran ce race. Polen was supposed to pit and hand th e bike to teammate DuHam el, but wh en he pitted and j ust sat there it appeared as th ough th e team had pulled a quickie on the o thers and used the race to try a last-minute cha nge o n Polen 's Suzuki. " If it was (a test session), it wasn 't a very good one," Kawasaki's Rob Muzzy said. " He on ly did 29s." National At 3:30 p.m. the flag dropped to start th e National under partially sunny skies with tem peratures in the midsevent ies at th e scenic , 2.52-mile Road Atlan ta and it was Ch andler leading the way in to turn one, foll owed closely b y Bra y, Du H arn el , J am es a n d Sado wski. At th e end of the opening lap of th e 24-la p race, Chandler led J am es with Bra y, Sadowsk i, DuHamel, Pol en , Ru ssell , Stevens and Renfro w form ing a fr ei ght tra in o f hi gh-doll a r superbi kes. By th e third lap Ch andl er, J am es and Sad ow ski had distan ced them selves slightly from the pa ck, and a lap later Sad owski would pa ss th e Du catimo u nte d J am es. After four laps , 2.77 seconds sepa ra ted J ames from fourth placed Polen wit h Stevens on the mo ve and closi ng in on the T exan . J ames wo u ld displace Sadowski mo mentarily on lap five, but the Geo rgia resident would be bac k in second on the seventh lap . Stevens, meanwhile, had worked his way past Polen and had closed the The decisive moment in the National came on the final lap when the lead group encountered lapped traffic. (Above) Polen (23) makes it through cleanly while (below) Chandler (10), James (I) and Stevens (II) get balked. . ga p to the leading trio to under two seconds. On th e eig h th lap, Sadowski led for th e first time and th e order read: Sadowski, Cha ndler, James, Stevens, Polen and Ru ssell. Behi nd Russell ca me R en fr o w , fightin g a n ill handling RC30 with vicious wobbles in turn o ne a nd fri gh ten ing tan k sla p pers o n th e long back straight. It appeared J ames' da y was over as he entered pit road on the 10th lap : " T he engine cu t off in the dip and I th ought it had dropped a valve," he sai d later. "I grabbed the clutch an d go t off the track becau se I didn 't wa nt to put oi l everywhere. Wh en I go t to pit roa d I th ought I' d double check it an d whe n I dropped the clu tch it fired rig ht up." After his pit-road excu rsion, J ames re-entered the race mid pa ck. Moments later all he ll broke loose for Sadowski. Just when he'd put a sligh t ga p o n Cha ndler an d Stevens in tra ffic, the Daytona 200 win ner got a little greedy. " He tried to get one tOO man y guys in turn five," eyewitness Ch andler sai d later. " He go t it down onto th e ga tor bumps and lost the front." " I sa w a bi g o pe n ing in five," Sadow ski sai d. " But I could n' t get a whee l in for the last one to see and my brak e lever hi t hi s back. I feel bad that I too k th e guy (Do n Estep) o ut . H is dad came over and wan ts me to bu y him a new bik e. I told him I was in no posi tion to discuss it now , but I'll see if I ca n help him OUl. " A la p later and th e red flag was sho wn as Barnes was down in turn 12. While the o thers headed for p it roa d and subseq uent tire cha nges, Sadowski was fra ntically trying to get h is bike repaired. " I j umped on, wired the ignition and rode off wi th o ne handlebar ," Sadowski said. The Vance & H in es crew were able to get the bike fixed prior to th e restart , but Sadowski had lost a lap in the melee. He wo uld ride hard in the restarted race , but would end up 21st. "All th at for nothin g," he said lat er. john Ashmead was also o ut of the race at this poi nt after cras hing hi s Muzzy Kawasaki in turn seven o n the 10th lap . . With grid positions based on the running order a t the red flag, th e second portion of the race started wi th J ames nailing the start from the second row and leadin g th e fray by the time · they reached the esses. Ch andler was second with Pol en " th ird - both of them opting for softer compound Dunlo p fronts wi th Polen mak in g rear suspens io n adj us tme nt s and Cha ndler doing likewi se with the front for ks. By th e seven th lap of the restarted race, Polen and Chandler had asserted themselves as the favorites, although J am es and Stevens were still within striking distance. James, however, was su ffering with his Yosh imura slicks, tir es that are still in the developmental stage, and at this point are too soft. " I on ly changed th e rear tir e during the break," j am es said later. " And it . was a little mistake no t to cha nge the fro nt . But I kn ew going in tha t we wo uld n ' t have a superior tire, bu t Yoko hama are committed to me and to ma king a better tire. We'll get there. " The Polen / Ch an dler scra p wo uld go to the last lap , bu t Polen mustered th e courage to passa group of lapped riders th rough the dip s of the back straigh t and th at was a ll he needed to beat Chandler. " H e (Po len) sh owed big hair o n the backstraight," Ch andler said. " T hey (the lapped traffic) were three and four abreast, and I'd worked too hard to risk th row in g it away . Th e b ik e was working great. The guys did a hell of a job with it." Polen was ha ppy to have won at home, after a year of ma ny successful ou tings in j apa n. " It wor ked out real good," he .said. " I'm ridin g as good or bett er tha n I've ever ridd en . I knew the tires wouldn 't be nea r as good near the en d as they were in the begi nning, so I kn ew they'd slow down . So I wasn 't worried with wh ere I was in the beginning. These g uys kn ow I can ru n with anybody as far as th e supe rbi kes go . I've won a Wor ld Superbike race and q ual ified o n the po le, so it makes them real ize that they're going in th e right di rection. I' m sure the y're (the AMA riders) real happy with the way they raced. " James, meanwhile, after a disastrous start to th e seaso n at Daytona, was - - - - -- Continued on page 62 7

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