Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

~ ROAD RACE 2nd Annual USA vs Canada Match Races ~ Dale Quarterley (32) and Scott Gray (73) were the top American individual scorers at the USA vs, Canada Match Races, winding up second and sixth, resp ectivel y. Second leg winner Yves Brisson showers fellow Canadian Michel Mercier with champagne as Gray looks on. Team Canada defeated Team USA. 135.3 to 86. 'Cn d n e tAmericans a a ia sba atso gy Shannonville g By John Armstrong Photos by Colin Fraser SHANNONVILLE, ONT, CANADA, MAY 20 ed by new Yamah a recruit Mich el Mercier , Team Ca nada defeated the strong American squad in the rai ny and in cident-fi lled seco n d annual Match Races at Shannonville Motorspo rt Park. Although Mercier was the top indi vidual points scorer with a to tal of 40 . points, lead in g the Canadia n riders to a 135.3 to 86-point victory over the American s. first leg winner H ondamou nt ed Dale Q uan erley almos t got LOp rider ho nors and the second an d fin al round was won by unranked, non- tea m mem ber Yres Brisso n of Mo ntreal o n a Honda CBR6001 Bad weather played havoc with the even t, heavy rai ns mea ni ng tha t lap records would no t fall at the 2.5-mile, I5-turn circuit the way they did in 1989. The cro wd favorite was undoubtedly J amie James o n th e ' Fast by Ferraccil Ara i/ Yo ko ha ma / Gonza lesl Bel- RayI T su ba ki/ Fero dolO h l in sbacked Ducati, a nd th e U. S team captain won the heat and set a new Formula RACE (the Canad ian equivalent of F-USA) trac k record at 1:48.17 seconds, less than a second off Can- L 28 ad ian Superbi ke cham p Steve Crevier 's overall mark. But th at was all the dry runni ng th e teams would get , and J am es cras hed out of the weekend whil e leadi ng in leg o ne. Canadian team cap tain Crevier took it easy in hi s " o ffic ia l " comeback ride for Yoshim ura Suzuk i (he won a club race on Ga ry Go od fell o w 's '89 GSXR750RR the week before at Westwood , B.C. ), gua rdi ng his still-sore ankle wi th n inth and eig h th in the two legs, altho ug h he did earn third p lace in his dry heat race. Heat race grids were determined by th e team captai ns, with th e U.S. gelling po le position, third. fifth and so o n wh ile the loca ls filled in the bl anks; non-team members sta r ted beh ind the Match Ra ce riders. James pu t him self on pole, with Quanerley's Gee Vee H onda RC30 in th ird , Sco tt G ra y on hi s Yo sh imura Suzu ki GSXRIIOO in fifth. T o m Kipp on his Wiseco Yamaha FZR750RR OWOl in seve nth a nd Mark Bou gas o n hi s privat eer Suzuki GSXR750 in n inth rounding out the redu ced-by-injury Team USA. Crevier set T eam Canada's gri d thi s way: Michel Mercier in second wit h the Sunoco OWOl he used to win first tim e o ut th e weekend befor e at a Sanair Cas tro l Region al ; Miguel DuHam el in fou n h on the Suzu ki Canada/Yoshi m- . ura GSX R 750 R R ; sixth-giidded Rueben McMuner, a practice crasher o n o ne of hi s pair of Action Ho nda R C30s; Cr ev ier in eig h th o n th e ' Yoshimura uzuk i ridden two weeks befor e at Road Atlanta by Dou g Polen; and Dayton a sta ndo ut J acques " Je t" Gueneue, Jr. starti ng 10th with the exAnders Andersso n 0 WOI. Mercier blazed off the line at the stan of the half points-pa yin g heat , whi le J am es dealt with McMuner and DuHamel to gi ve chase. Although it didn 't loo k like James would have tim e LO catch the twice-Canadian Superb ike champ, Mercier had his cha in break at the end of lap fou r, givi ng J ames a safe, two-tour ru n to the checkered flag. McMu n er placed second, Crevier came up throug h the field ni cely for th ird , wh ile so metimes- teamma te Du Hamel fin ished fou nh on a bike he said was understeeri ng , Gr ay strugg led manly with the big GSX RlIOO, winding u p fifth at th e finish after severa l big moments. " I think we'll try again wit h a 750cc motor tomo rrow, ' said the Will ow Springs F-USA win ner, afterwards . " T he bik e's ju st too mu ch for the tight turns! " Non- tea m member Beno it P ilo n was six th. two seconds beh ind Gray on the ex-Crevier title-wi n ning OWOI, just ho lding off Quan erley, who was suffering suspension sorting prob lems o n th e still new and mostly stock Honda , and Guenette. Rookie Pro Ca nadia n Kawasak i ride r Mich ael Taylor earn ed n inth o n hi s ZX7, while n ew Yam ah a T Z250 recruit Dav e Grummett ro unded o ut the top 10with two non -team memb ers. After a productive practice tryi ng inve rted forks , Kipp made it o nly two turns int o the heat before his mo tor let go . Solidly in the top l Oin the early going, Bougas go t into a wild slide before fall in g against Sha nno nville's o nly wa ll , but both bike and rid ers were physicall y undamaged. Going into Sunday, Team Cana da head ed T eam USA, 25.5 to 20. . Intermiuent sho wers pl agu ed the '90 Match Races, an d Sunday's condi tio ns evolved into a wo rsening down po ur , the tra ck becoming flooded in places late in the day. Befor e the race. J am es was u neasy , to say th e least: " We reall y shouldn't even ride th is bike in the rain , it's not set up for it," explained ' the star of last year's firs t-ever Mat ch Races. " It cou ld do a lot of da mage to the engine if it's anything more than a mist. But we' ll go out; we don' t want to di sappoint the crowd." When the green lig ht flashed LO stan th e first of two legs, Mercier grabbed anot her ho lesho t from ro w th ree, usin g his " schoo l track" advantage (Mercier teach es th e FAST Racing School at Sh annonvill e) to head James. Crevier. McMu ner and DuHam el at the end of a soggy lap o ne. But J ames was in a co nfident mood, tai li ng Merci er closely before making his move at the stan of lap three. drifting past Mercier. Fro m there, James seemed in a class of h is own, seemi ngly usin g flat-track technique to slide his Ducati everywh ich -way-but-loose into an increasing lead. Beh ind the awesome James, Mercier had hi s hands full with McMuner, Quanerl ey and DuHamel, positions cha ngi ng co ns ta ntly as riders struggled for traction. Kipp ended his m iserabl e week end ea rly ' due to another engine failure (po ssibly caused by wet-weather over-revving) and Guenette had to give up du e to a bad ly fogged visor , a commo n complaint on a cooling afternoon. By lap five Gray was mak in g his move' in th e second place war , now ridi ng Tommy Lynch 's Supersportspec Suzu ki , a bike chose n for its more us eab le power. " I wa s j u st past Du Ham el and worki ng o n Rueben ,' said Gray. " Instead of loo king where I was going, I was thinking about the pas s and drove through a puddl e I knew LO go aro und." Althou gh a ligh t get-o ff, Gray's ensuing fall p ut h im ou t of leg one. J am es' brilliant run ended with one corner to go o n lap eigh t of 10. when th e lead er got into a ta n kslapper coming o ut of the ch icane a nd had LO pump th e brakes for the next tight turn. "T here weren 't any brakes, and then they locked up," said J ames, wh o was obviously angry with hi mself. Althou gh rider and bike went for an easy slide, the 851 d ug in and tumbled, co m i ng to rest upside-d own and smas hed , in clear view of the main grandstands. " I can ' t tell you how ba d I feel when something lik e th is happen s," said James. " If this had been a special AMA non-paint s'race , I wou ldn' t have go ne to th e grid. But everybod y's treated us all so well, I wa nt ed to put o n a good show. Now I guess I'm go ing to have to come back and get it right." With J am es o ut for the rest of the weekend. Quanerl ey and Mercier go t clea r of McMuner to settle the first heat results. Ahead a t the sta n of th e last lap , Q uan erley didn 't know what to expect: " l\1y bike was running so rough in the mid-ra nge, I cou ld barel y sta y on. I just figured o n deal in g with. Mercier wh en he sho wed up. I tried in creasin g th e pace, but he wa s alw ays, th ere, showing me a wh eel. " At the ' crucia l h airpin before th e back straight, however, Mercier had a huge slide a nd ha nded the wi n to Quanerley. McMun er was two seco nds behind for third, ju st ahea d ~f DuHam el and Yves Brisson on the H onda CBR600 budget superbi ke th at he'd recentl y purchased from Two Brothers Ra cing tuner Mike Vela sco . . New Kawasaki recruit Linnley Clarke was happy with sixth in h is debut run o n th e " official " ZX7, just ahea d of T aylor's " u nofficia l" ZX7. Keith "Action" J ackson , a notori ous loca l wi th a ratty Yam aha YZ490 motocrosser-based race r, passed Crevier for eig h th as th e injuryco nscio us Yosh imu ra Suzuki rider slowed to ninth. Spooked by the condi tio ns foll ow in g hi s heat race fall , Bougas came in 16th , fighting various handlin g problems. By th e time the seco nd leg went to the grid, co nditio ns were dow nright misera ble and the rain refused to let up. Officials sho nened the fin al from th e sched u led 12 laps to eig h t, and the absence of J am es and Kipp meant that T eam Ca na da 's 30-point lead (80.5 (o 50) would p rob abl y get bigger. The Ameri can s did get a break , however; when Gueneue's OWOI refused to ru n after the first of two sighting laps, and he missed the stan. Pulling into a solid lead fro m the gr een . McMu rter looked determined to take leg two. challenged only by the Kawasaki of rookie Taylor. This pai r seemed confident wit h th e varia ble traction, as Quanerley , Gray, Brisson , Mercier and DuHam el diced for third I and experi mente d with th eir lin es. Although T aylor briefly took the lead on two occas ions by outbraking McMuner in the esses, McMuner led across th e start/finish line on every lap I until th e pack caught th e lead ers on lap six. The race then turned into a wide-open free -for-all, the rid ers

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