Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/127271
The Miami skyline serves as the backdrop while Doug Chandler (10) leads the pack in the Superbike National. Georgia 's Scott Russell finished second in the National behind Chandler on Saturday and then won the Superbike Challenge held on Sunday. Chandler runs wild in Miami streets By P au l Carruthers P h otos by Henny Ray Abrams MIAMI, FL, JULY 21 oug Chandler took a high -speed stroll through the park today to win the inaugural Miami GP, held on a street circuit that wound its way through Bicentennial Park in downtown Miam i. The Team Muzzy Kawasaki rider dominated the nationally-televised race, further increasing his stranglehold on the 1990 Superbike National Cham- D 6 pionship as he easily beat team mate Scott Ru ssell and Commonweath Hon da' s Randy Renfro w in the red-nag sho rtened race. The win was Chandler's thi rd straight in 1990;he now leads Ren. frow in the point standings by 23, 8966. Russell and David Sadowski are tied for third in the standings with 41poi nts. Yoshimura Suzu ki's Rick Kirk fin ished fourth wi th Van ce &: Hines Yam aha 's Sadows ki ro und ing out the top- five finishers. Sixth p lace went to Q uart erley Racin g's Dal e Quarterley, even though the New Englander crashed on the lap pri or to the red nag. Sadowski's Vance &: Hines team mate Thomas Stevens finished sevent h after running off the race track whil e holding down second pla ce on the 27th lap. Muzzy Kawasaki' s John Ashmead, Ducati 851-mounted Jimmy Adamo, and Mad Dog Racing's Michael Barnes rou nded out the top-10 finishers. An estimated 15,000-20,000 race fans atte nded the ina ugural race despite sizzling tempera tures in the mid-90s. They were treated to a Chandler runaway, and cheated out of seeing a complete race when a breakdown in radio communications between comerworkers forced the AMA to red-na g the race with ni ne laps remaining. The communications problem was discovered when Quarterley crashed on the 30th lap. The AMA originally called for a restart that wou ld have seen a nine-la p sprint race to the finish, but Chandler, Russell and Sadowski confronted race promoter Ralph San chez of Miam i Motorsports and AMA race director Roger Edmondson . an d a decision was made to call the race complete at that po int, The sprint race may have made for good TV, bu t the majority of the riders were in no shape to con tinue as the heat had taken its toll. For Freddie Spencer fan s, the Miam i G P was ano ther in a long list of disappoin tments as the three-time World Champion again failed miserably in his attempt to rekindle the Fast Freddie of old. Spencer was reportedl y paid a large sum of start money by Sanch ez to add his marquee value to this first-time event, and the former Rothmans Honda and Marlboro Yamaha rider ob liged, but sadly showed up unprepared for racing. Only two weeks prior to the race, Spencer underwent an appendectomy, and he arrived at the Miami venue overweight and poorly conditioned. Having not thrown his leg over a race bike in a year, Spencer prepared for Miami by ridi ng a Hon da RC30 street- bike in his hometown of Shreveport, Louisiana. in addition to "riding a dirt bike a couple of times." It wasn' t enough. Riding a Two Brothers Ra ci n g Honda RC30 with additional backing from RC Cola, Spencer finished ninth in his heat race and was running 15th in the Nati onal when he pulled to. a stop on the back portion of the circuit with a fault y transmission. Spencer's p er forman ce was d isappointing enough to cause CBS to edit out its prerace feature on the former champion durin g th e Sa turday ni gh t postproduction of the Sunday television show. If Sanchez wanted a better show for the nationally-televised Miami GP, he should have paid Cha ndler slow-up mo ney rather than Spencer show-up m oney. Close rac ing was n' t in Chandler's scrip t, and he rode to a convincing win. T he Sali nas, Californ ia, residen t earned $6995 of the $50.000 Superbike purse for his efforts. No average speed was given due to the redna g stoppa ge of the race, but Chandler was turnin g times in the high I:15s to low 1:16s, which translates to rou gh ly a 70 mph average. The controversial made-for-TV pit stops that all Superbike riders were scheduled to make in Miami never materialized - at least in the fashion they were intended to. A first-comer, five-bike pileup of second-wave riders that included two-time AMA Superbike Champion Wes Cooley brought out the red-nag before the completion of a single lap. Thus, riders used the rednag period to refuel their motorcycl es, and the drama of a mid-race pit stop was eliminated. Cooley, who was wearing on e of two on-board CBS cameras when the crash occu rred, suffered abroken collarbone and five broken ribs when he went down and was run over in the melee. Another of the fallen riders, Rick Herndon. 1 suffered a separa ted left shoulder. Street circuits are rarely safe, and Miami was no exception. Alth ough three quarters of the l l-turn, L51-mile road course is situated in Bicentennial Park in downtown Miami on near -race track condi tions, the fastest portion of the track was on public roads, notably Biscayne Boulevard. Chandler, defending Superbike Champion Jamie James, Sadowski and Renfrow went to work with track builders to help design and position two chicanes pri or to what would have been a high-speed left-! bander onto Biscayne Blvd. I Other than an expected dirty surface that lacked grip in the first pra ctice session and a lack of run-off room , most of the riders liked the layout and were ha ppy with the facility. The chance to race in the limel ight on national TV was perh aps the biggest contributor to their relaxed outlook about racing on a street circui t, Since the race would be held on city streets, practice, heat races and the Nati on al would all take place on on e day (Saturday - to allow for next-da y coverage on CBS) and riders were given three 25-minute sessions to familiarize themselves with the circuit, Yoshimura Suzuki's Scott Gray eliminated himself from the National after breaking his collarbone in a scary prac tice crash exiting the left-hand tum I I that led to the start/finish line. Heats It had been three years since Spencer had ridden a four-stroke race bike, and his first opportunity to race the Mike Velasco-prepped RC30 came in the first of two five-lap heat races. In practice, Spencer had surprised many long- time Spencer observers by staying out on the race track for the entire 25-minu te