Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

Ea rl y action saw Randy Renfrow (5) leading a sliding Jamie James (I), Dale Quarterley (32), Miguel DuHamel (97), Thomas Stevens ( I I) and Tom Kipp (16). Cha ndler, Ren frow and J am es led the roaring pack into turn o ne three abreast with Renfrow emerging from the fray with the imm edia te lead. It didn 't last lo ng, though , as Ch andler blasted pas t a t the end of the back straigh t , At the co mp letion of the first lap the order read : Chandl er, Renfrow, J ames, Quarterley, DuHamel, Stevens, Kipp, Guenette and Rueben McMurter; Russell was already up to 15th after having disposed of 23 riders. Cha ndler put his head down and quickly opened up a cons iderable margin on his foes. At the end of the second lap his lead stood at 2.66 seconds; after three laps it was 4.9; after four laps 'it was 6.5 and by the eigh th lap it was up to a full nine seconds. Chandler' s large lead stabilized at that point as he backed dow n to the pace of those behi nd him. With seven laps to go , however, Cha ndler came into heavy traffic and at th at po int he: " Sta rt ed rid i ng li ke a g ra n d ma ," a llowing 'ihe others behi nd to ga in consi dera ble gro und, cutting the lead to 7.79 seconds o n the 18th lap, before bringi ng it down to 4.2 on lap 21 and to as littl e as 1.2 on the 22nd lap. Cha ndler had do ne two la ps in the 1:35 ran ge. l At that poi nt , Cha ndler sensed thei r closeness and sped up to win by ju st over two seconds. T he race for second was a good on e. Initially it consis ted of Renfrow, James ~ n d DuHamel, bu t they were joi ned on the fourth lap by the slow-star ting Stevens. By the ninth lap, the pack grew to five riders with Russell joining in after his mad dash through the pack. _ "I told myself to go right by them like I had the rest," Russell said later. ' " But o nce [ go t there I had to calm down and think things out more. [ think if 1 had the bike set up a littl e different 1 co u ld have go tten to th e front quicker. " • Russell's first victim was Stevens, as th e Kawasak i rider dove under th e Yamaha pi lo t at the end of th e back straight under braki ng . T hen it was DuHamel 's tu rn to play the victim as Russell moved into fourt h place. Next lip was Ren frow and the n Russell encountered his to ugh est foe, J am es. » _ _ By this point, however, the Ducati rider had lost the use of his steering da mper, mak ing the V-twin somewha t of a handfu l. Lu ckil y, for James, the 851 had a hor sepower advantage over th e ZX7 down th e back straight as the two matched streng ths. Russell go t by J ames for the first tim e on the 22nd lap in the Keyhole as the two fough t th rou gh near rush-hour traffic. Jam es stayed close un til encounterin g a giant tanks lapper on the front straight o n the 23rd lap. And that was eno ugh to mak e th e defe nd in g Su pe r bike Champion settle for third place. " I looked back and there he was," J am es said later of Russell. " I held my own for six or seven laps, but after that ep isode o n the front stra ight [ figured that was eno ug h. It was sha king a lot, and he go t by me in traffic." T he Ru ssell / James battle pu lled them clear of the Renfrow/ Stevens/ DuHamel tussle. Renfrow ended up on top of tha t o ne, even tho ug h he wasn't very plea sed wit h his perfo rma nce. " I just didn't ride q ui te as well as I wanted to," he said later. " I wasn' t as aggressive in traffic as Jamie, and [ was feeling cautious before the race even sta rted . [ do n ' t like finish ing fourth." Du Hamel crossed the line ahead of Stevens, who had blistered a tire earlier in the race and was just trying to finish. " Maybe it hap pen ed when I was trying to makeup gro und at the start," Stevens said. " I thou ght it was leakin g oi l at first becau se it was sliding so bad on the left side. 1 was j ust holding o n. We fin ished the race and we' ll get 'em next time." Du Hamel said he'd chosena tire tha t was too soft, " Luckily the Michelins are steady when they do fall off," he said. " I had a reall y bad front end slide at o ne point, an d without that [ th in k I cou ld have caught up with Renfro w and J am es." Du Hamel was the top fini shin g rider to use Michelins as the to p four riders all used Dunlops, with James making the switch from Yokohama to Dun lop after the Miami National two weeks ago. In a rath er lon ely seventh place came Kipp , in his home race. The Ohioan had hoped for a better result in front of the local fan s, but was still pleased with a successful weekend. " I felt good and did consistent lap tim es," Kipp said. " We were a littl e off on the jetti ng and it felt a littl e slow toda y. We had some problems before the race with parts not showing up and our dyno blowi ng up, But I'm happy." Sado wski finis hed behind Kip p' in eighth p lace, a rather disappointing finish for the Vance & Hines rider. " We swapped motors last nig ht and i t had a di ffe re nt transm ission ," Sadows ki said. " First gear was too tall and 1 stalled it o n the lin e. 1 was trying to ride safely after tha t because 1 don' t want to fall on my shoulder again . My legs seized up , I don 't thin k they were getting any blood , We'll lower the pegs for the next one and make the bike more comfortable to ride," Sadowski also said he is contem plating getting back surgery to relieve a pinched nerve that's been bot herin g him for some time, (Fro m left to ri ght) Scott Russell , Doug Chandler and Jamie James celebrate their 1-2-3 finishes in the Wiseco 100 at the Mid -Ohio Sports Car Course. Renfrow (5) had his hands full with Canadian Miguel DuHamel . (97) for most of the Superbike National. Renfrow was able to shake th e Suzuki ride r. Q uarterley fin ished ni nt h after a near race-long battle with Guen ette that ended when the Canad ian 's tra nsmi ssion bro ke. Quarterley, meanwhile, had problems of his own as his R C30 Honda was mak ing expensive sounding noises at the end of the race. McMu rter rounded o ut the top 10 finis hers after riding alo ne for the majority of the race. H is injured left ankle far from healed, the Ca nadian champ ion was at least ab le to move his shi fter back to the left side after usin g it o n the righ t side in Miami. Chand ler was somewhat relieved after the race. " When it comes down to the champi onship, you just have to be so carefu l," the champion elect said, " I was sweat ing a littl e with three laps to go when I saw they were right there. There were so many thi ngs going through my mind, but I' m happy now." Ch andler's average speed of 92.908 mph was 3.45 1 mph faster than the race record set in 1988 by Bubba ShoberL l:'I Resu lts HEA T I: I. Dou~ Chandler [Ka w ); 2. Thom a' Steven s (Ya m ); 3. DaVId Sadowski (Ya m ); 4. T om Kipp (Yam); 5. J immy Adamo (Due); 6. Mark Olin (Yam ); 7. Mich a< Barn es (Yam ): 8. Barry Burke (Yam); 9. 1 John Hopperstad (Ya m); JO Paul Schwemmer (SUl); . 11. Mark Foster (Yam ): 12. Dale Robi nson (SUl) ; 13. Kevin Erion (Hon ): 14. David Kieffer (Ho n): 15. William Beesch (Sw); 16. T ommy Sloan (Yam ); 17. Mike Walsh (Suz): 18. Ku n Liebmann (Due); 19. Fra nklin Kn igh t (Sua), 20. Pab lo Rea l (Due): 21. Larry G rue n (Su, ): 22. Scot t Slu mp (Suz]. Time: 7 min.• 42.125 sec. DislanCC: ~ . 12 miles. la Ava . 1;"S : 9H81 mph. Margin 0 Victory : 8.362 sec. HEA T 2: I. Ra nd y Renfrow {He n]: 2. Jamie J am es (Due): 3. Miguel DuHamel (Su, ); 4. Dale Quancrley (H o n ): 5. Jacques Guen ette (Ya m) ; 6. R ueben MeM un er (Ha n); 7. Dona ld J aeks (Su,): 8. Li nnley Clar ke (Ha n): 9. David Smi th (Suz): 10. Ray Yoder, Jr. (Su, ); II. Joh n Jacob (Yam ); 12. Seen Zampach (Suz); 13. Erie Moe (Su,); 14. Tod Hebert (Suz): t5. Rick Shaw (Yam ); 16. Alan Ben a gn ol i (Suz); t7. Don va nce (Suzl: 18. Mike Karm (Su,) : 19. Fra nk Kinsey (Yam); 20. Ben Beasley (Ya m): 21. Scott R ussell (Kaw~ Time: 7 min., 50.846 sec. Dista nce: 5 laps. 12 miles. AveraJ!" S~: 91.750 mph. Margm of Victo ry: .54 1 seconds. SU PER BtKE NATIO NAL: I. Doug Cha nd ler ( Kaw); 2. Scott Ru ssell (Kaw); 3. Jamie James (Due); 4. Randy Renfro w {Hen ): 5. Miguel Du Hamel (S U1); 6. Tho mas Stevens (Yam ): 7. T om Kipp (Yam); 8. David Sadowski (Yam): 9. Dale Q uarterley (He n ): 10. Ru eben MeMu n er (Ha n ): 11. Lin nlev Clark e (Han): 12. Don ald j acks (Suz): 13. Mar k Chin (Yam ); 14. Ji mm y Adamo (Due): 15. Barry Burke (Yam) : 16. Kevin Erio n (Hon ): 17. Jo h n H opperstad (Ya m ): 18. Mark Foster (Yam ); 19. Paul Sch wem mer (SUl): 20. John Jacob (Ya m); 21. T od Hebert (Su,): 22. j:l~ ues Gu enet te (Yam ); 23. Eric Moe (S w ); 24. Wilham Beesch (Suz): 25. T om my Sloan (Ya m); 26. Mike Karm (Sua): 27. Da vid Kieffer (Ha n ); 28. Ala n Bertagnoli (Suz); 29. Kurt Lieb mann (Due); 30. Frank Kinsey (Ya m); 31. Don Van ce (Suz); 32. Riek Sha w (Yam); 33. Pabl o Real (Due ); 34. Dal e Rob in son (Sue): 35. David Smith (S w ); 36. Michael Barn es (Ya m); 37. Ben Beasley (Ya m); 38. Mik e w al sh (Suz). Time 38 min. , +1.88.2 5«. Distan ce: 25 laps. 60 mi les, AveraJ!" Speed; 92.908 mph. Ma rgtn of Vict ory: 2.280 sec. AMA SU PER BI KE SAT'L C'S Ht P POINT STAND!: ' GS: I. Dou g Oland!... ( t09); 2. Randy Ren frow (TI): 3. Scou Russell (57); 4. David Sadowski (48): 5. j am ie James (39); 6. T om Kip p (36): 7. Dale Quaner1ey (35): 8. John Ashmead (3t); 9. Mark Chi n (26): 10. Doug Pa lm (20); 11. J acques Oueneue (19); . 12. Mi ~e1 DuHamel ( t5~ t3. Donald J acks (14); 14. Riek Kirk (12); IS. Donald Wo nh (10).

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