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/127279
~ ROAD RACE AMA Superbike National Cham~ionshi~_:F_ina_lr_ou_nd _ e .. - - - .... - Doug Chandler (10) leads Randy Ren fro w, Miguel Du H amel, Tom Kipp (16) and Dave Sadowski (25) on the first lap of the Superbike National at Willow Springs. Thomas Stevens leads Chandler and Renfrow thro ug h tu m five. Stevens was the hard-luck rider of th e day, leadi ng most of the race only to run into tire p roblems. Renfr wwins season finale o at Willow Springs By Paul Carruthers Pho tos by Kai Schwerdtfeger RO AMOND.CA, SEPT. 1 5 andy Renfrow ended a National race-w in dro ugh t for both himself and Honda as he ga lla nt ly survive d a tir e manufacturer 's worst nightmare by taking the win at Will ow Springs International Raceway. R In wh at became a ba ttle of tire a tt ri tio n , Renfrow sa ved h is bes t performance for la st as th e AMA Superbike season came t~ a close in the high desert of southern California . Renfrow rode the Ra y Plumb-tuned, Martin Adarns-owned Commonwealth Honda to a 13.990-second win over new ly-crowned Superbike Champion Doug Chandler and his Muuy Kawasaki ZX7. Renfrow averaged a blistering 102.470 mp h on the hig h-speed Willow Springs circuit in front of a sun-drenched crowd estimated at 8000-10,000. Renfrow pocket ed $2500 from the $20,000 Superbike purse for his efforts. The win was the first National road race victory for Renfro w, 34, since he won at Mid-Ohio in August of 1986on a Honda RS500. Renfrow's win also ended an 18-month winless streak for Honda in a roa d race Nati onal with the last one bei ng J ohn Ashmead's victo ry in the 1989 Da ytona 200; Renfro w 's win was the first AMA National win for a Honda RC30, however. T hird p lace went to sna ke-bi tten Thomas Stevens o n the Vance & H in es Yamaha. If it weren't for bad luck, Stevens wo uldn 't have any . The Cape Coral , Flor ida , resident was the fastest man for the maj ority of the weekend , lead in g the most laps of the Nat ional on ly to have victory snat ched away in the fi na l laps whe n his rea r ti re chunked. Stevens' teammate David Sadowski finis hed fourth with Wiseco's T om Kipp roundin g o u t the top -fiv e fini shers. Th e fin a l Superbike National Championship point standings saw Ch andler fini sh with 138 points as he ended the season with hi s eighth topth ree fin ish in eigh t starts. Ren fro w finis hed the seaso n second with 107 poin ts, with Muzzy Kawasaki 's Scott Ru ssell third a t 73. The two Van ce & H in es riders, Stevens and Sado wski, finis hed in a tie for fourth with 67 po ints apiece, and T o m Kip p ended up sixth with 52 points. _ Mo re tha n anything, th e 24-l ap Nati on al turned into a man vs. rubber battle. "It's worse (o n tire s) than Daytona," Dunlop tir e technician Jim Allen said of th e 2.5-mile Willow Springs layout. , But this wasn't o ne manufactu rer's ' problem; this was everybod y's problem. T he high speeds, grippy surface and scorch ing hea t has long ma de man y. ti re techn icians scratch their heads, and the National here was no excep tion . While Stevens, Cha ndler and Scott Russell had problems with th eir Dunlops, Yoshimura 's Scott Gray a lso suffered the same fate with his Michelins , pi ttin g on the 18th la p to change rear tires when hi s origina l tire chunked. Why Ren fro w didn't encounter problems is a mystery . The Virginian used th e same co m po u nd Dunlop as Stevens, Chandler and Russell, yet he had no probl em s. Alle n said this could have been caused by many things Renfrow 's ligh t weight, the power charac teristics of th e Honda, his riding style, etc. Or j ust good old luck. .Willow Springs has lon g been a breeding ground fo r up-and-comi ng southern Ca lifo rn ia road racers, and man y of th ose were hoping to make an impression at the Natio na l. T he series regu lars aren't too fond of " T he Fastest Road in th e West," and it often causes newcom ers problemsrespeci allv w.he n the wind blows . The fastest of the loca ls is ar guably Barry Burke, but the Agoura Hills, California, resident didn 't get to test his skills and track kno wledge against th e best when he crashed during practice on Friday in the fastest comer o n the race track . Burke lost the front end in tum eig h t and the spectacular cras h resulted in him losing one co m p lete toe on his right foot and half of two oth er toes. H is Yamaha FZR750RR was also destroyed. Another no tabl e missing from the Nati onal was J amie J ames , wh o was in Ital y testing Ducatis. HealS The AMA was back to its normal two hea t-race qualifyi ng format after experimenting with timed qualifying at the previous round in Kansas . The timed qualifying format wil lbe used .