Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

in 1991, but Willow's schedule was kept in the original format with two qualifying heats on Saturday. The first heat race saw Chandler nailing his accustomed holeshot with his teammate Russell doing the opposite with a poor effort off the line. Stevens, meanwhile, was somewhere in between the green. The first lap ended with Stevens leading Chandler across the line. Jacques Guenette was third followed by Yoshimura Suzuki 's Miguel DuHamel and Russell. Stevens immediately began to open a slight gap on Chandler, who was suffering from brake problems that were later traced to a faulty master cyli nder. Steven s went on to win by 2.750 seconds over Chandler with Russell moving past DuHamel for th ird pl ace; John Ashmead rounded ou t th e topfive finishers. Stevens' heat race would be th e fastes t of th e day at 7 minutes, 18.390 seconds for an average speed of 102.648 mph, and he would sit o n the pole for th e National. . T he second heat race saw Kipp get a perfect start to lead the way into one , one of the few left-han d corners at Will ow. He was chased by Sadows ki and Da le Q ua rterley. The first lap ended wi th Sadowski lead ing the way wit h Kipp, Ren frow and Quarterley in tow. T he ba tt le for th e lead would whittle down to a two.rider d uel between Sadowski and Ren frow , with Renf ro w gelli ng by for good on the second lap. Yosh imura Suzuki-mounted Gra y, the Willow Springs lap record holder (1:25.9 set o n an llOOcc Yoshimura Suzuki Tornado), finished third with Kipp fourth and Quarterley fifth. Three-time World Champion Freddie Spencer finished eighth, his new Michelin tires not arriving at the race track until after the heat race. Renfrow avera ged 101.965 mph after completing the five laps in 7 minutes, 2l.330 seconds. On Sunday morning, reports filtered through the pits ' that Stevens had clocked a I:25.9 lap, tying the lap record, although others had him at a 1:26.0. Either way, he established himself as the one 10 beat in the ' National. tum National The notorious high desert wind had picked up when the 24-lap, 50-mile Superbike National gridded in near loo-degree temperatures. At the drop of the green, it was Chandler again powering the Kawasaki into the lead ahead of the rest of the 22-rider field . A dust cloud kicked up in tum two as Spencer and David Deveau took to the desert on the outside of the Iasr right-hander. "It wasn 't reall y' anybody's fault," Spencer said later. "Somebody clipped my handlebar and I followed him to the outside and ran orr." "If you 're going to get taken out, it might as well be by a three-time World Champion," Deveau said in jest. Both riders rejoined the fray at the back of the pack. Spencer would complete two laps and then pull in while Deveau soldiered on to eventually finish l Ith, . Meanwh ile, at the front of the pack, Chandler led Ren frow at the completion of the first lap with a small gap back to Steve ns, who in turn led DuHamel , Sadowski, Kipp, Quarterley , Gray and the slow-starting Russell. By the third lap Stevens had joined the battle for the lead, making it a Chandler/ Renfrow/Stevens , Kawasaki / H onda/Yamaha feud for the top spot. Those three had established themselves as the on es to beat, and a healthy gap was beginning to open back to the bailie for fourth between DuHamel and Sadowski. Kipp was holding off Quarterley, Gray and Ru ssell with Ashmead a lonely 10th. Stevens led across the line for th e first time on the seventh lap, but Chandler and Renfrow were right with him as th e trio circu lated in the lo w 1:27 range. The three would dip into th e 26s, befor e going back 10 27s for th e ma jority of the race. Seven seconds no w sepa ra ted them from the group beh ind wh ich wa s headed by th e chargi ng Russell over Sadowski and DuHam el wi th Gray making up tim e beh ind them. On th e eighth lap, Renfrow moved in to challenge Stevens , and Ch andler sta rted to lose gr ound - feelin g the effects of a tire go in g bad. " I started noticing a lillie hop o n th e fourth or fifth lap," Chandler said lat er. " I thought at first it was the shock , but th e mor e I rode the more I could feel it through the tir e. At that point I decided to m ilk it around and see what kind of fin ish we could get, " T he leading duo wasn 't milking any th i ng as th e battl e waged on. Renfro w never led, but he was staying close as both ride rs pushed hard. On the 17th lap, ho wever, Stevens started 10 pull a little bit on the diminutive Virgi nian. " I los t my line getting up to turn six," Renfrow explained later. " I knew I had to find th at line again beca use he was getting away. I worked real hard to get it ba ck and it ma de a big difference." Renfrow put himself back in the hunt and shortly thereafter took th e lead with three laps to go as Stevens slowed in turns eight and nine, the right side of his tire chunking badly. " Four laps from the end I felt it just a bit," Stevens said. " I decided just to hammer it and if it flew apart, it flew apart, I felt it shaking the whole bike. The lefts were okay, but the rights were bad." . On ' the final go-around the only question rhat , remained was if Chandler could ca tch the fast-fading Stevens. As the two entered turn eight Chandler was right on him, and he managed to pass before the start/finish line 10 finish second, relegating Stevens to third. The battle for fou rt h , meanwhile, diminished when Du Hamel, who had the foresight to ch oo se a hardcompound Michelin in the hopes th e others would en co u n ter tire-wear problems, suffered a blown motor on th e 13th lap. The next to go was Russell when his rear tire started shredding on th e 15th lap. " I think mine was the first to go because I was going hard to catch up," Russell said . "It's j ust o ne of those things. I don 't kn ow what the deal is with the starts. The clutch grabbed instead of slipping. I just don't know. It was a new clutch and maybe we overlooked something." Gray pitted on the 18th lap to change his rear tire; he reentered a lap down and went on to finish ISth, That left Sadowski to finish a comfortable fourth ahead of Kipp. " I was taking it easy, " Sadowski said. "I figured if I didn't abuse it (the tire) it would be right 10 the finish . I also wanted to conserve my energy to try and help my back. Bu t it didn't bother me. I tried some new therap y this week and it seemed to work well. " Kipp was pleased with his fifthplace finish: " I couldn 't bel ieve how fast the race went," he said . "When my board said it was the 18th lap, I thought it was about the eighth." Next up was Quarterley, who ran Sadowski (25), Stevens, Dale Quarterley, Jacques Guenette and Sco tt G ray in tight formation early in the National; Sadowski went on to finish fou rth. a Michelin rear with a Dunlop front, and also had a .mid- race excursio n down pit road. " I got ou t of sha pe comi ng ou t of tum nine and th e pit road was there so I took it," Quarterley exp lained. " I rode like a wu ss today, so th ere's no o ne to blame but myself. " This als o marked th e first time Quarteriey had ever fin ished a race at Willow, dating back to his first trip to the West Coast from Massachusetts wh en he arrived too late and wasn 't allowed to register. Ashmead finished seventh after a . good battle with northern Californian J oe Brett Williams, who finished a creditable eig hth on a Honda RC30. Mik e Harth and John Hopperstad rounded out the top 10, both Yamahamounted. Renfrow and his Commonwealth Honda crew spent th e rest of th e day celebra ting as a year of consistency finally ended with a win. "I think i t would have been a good race to the finish if he (Steven s) didn 't hav e hi s problem," Renfrow said. "The bike worked really well. I didn't think I cou ld go that fast in th e wind. " R en frow thanked h is sponsors H onda, Sh oei , Dunlop, RK Ch ain , Vance & Hines and Keihin. " Ra n dy (Re n fro w) deserved it," Ch andler said. " Those guys hav e tried hard all year." CN Results HEAT 1: 1. Thomas Stevens (Yam); 2. Doug Chandler (Ra w); 3. Scou RUS5<1I (Raw ); 4. Miguel DuHam el (SUl ); 5. John Ashmead (Raw); 6. J acques Guenette, J r. (Ya m); 7. Joe BrCH Williams (H on ); 8. Brad Hazen (Ya m); 9. Eric M"" (SUl); 10. John Hoppers tad (Yam); II. Tad Hebert (SUl ); 12. Jef l R h eaume:(Sur ), Time: 7 min .• 18.390 sec. DistanCC:~l s, 12.5 mil es. a A.era,K< 5 : 102.648 mph. Margan 0 Victory: 2.750 sec. HEAT 2: I. Randy Renfrow (Ho n); 2. David Sado wski (Yarn); 3. ScOIl Gra y (SUl) ; 4. Tom Kipp (Yam); 5. Dale Quarterley (Han ); 6. Jimm y Adamo (Duc); 7. Mike Harth (Yam); 8. Freddi e Spen cer (H on ); 9. Paul Vogel (Han ); 10. David DeVeau (SUl). Time: 7 min .• 21.550 sec. DistanCC:~la • 12.5 milo . Av...,K< 5 : 101.965 mph. Margm Victory: 1.330 sec. NATIONAL: I. Randy Renfrow (Hon ); 2. Dou g Cha ndler ( Kaw); 5. Thomas Stevens (Yam); 4. David Sado wski (Ya m); 5. T om Kipp (Yam ); 6. o-.Ie QuarlCrl~ (H o n); 7. John Ashmead (Raw); 8. J"" Broil Will iams (Hon); 9. Mike Harth (Yam ); 10. J ohn Randy Ren frow takes a victory lap following his first win of the year. Hoppcr szad (Yam); 11. David Deveau (Sw ); 12. Eri c M"" (SUl) ; 13. Scull Gray (SUl ); 14. Jell Rh eaume (Sw ); 15. Tad Hebert (SUl); 16. Scott RUS5<1I (Raw); 17. Paul Vogel (H o n); 18. Miguel DuHamel (Sw); 19. J acques Guenene, Jr. (Yam ); 20. Craig Glea son (Sw ); 21. J im my Adamo (Du e); 22. Freddie Spencer (Ha n ). Time 55 min.. 7.930 sec, Distance: 24: laps. 60 miles. A.... ge Speed: 102.470 mph. Margin o(Viaory: 15.990 sec. nSAL POIST STANDINGS: I. Doug Cha ndler (138); 2. Randy Renfrow (107); 3. Scull Ru ssell (73); 4. (TIE) Thom as Stevens / David Sadow ski (67); 6. T om Kipp (52); 7. Dale Q uarterley (44); 8. John Ash mead (42); 9. J amie James (39); 10. MIgu el DuHam el (35); 11. Mark Chin (28); 12. j acques Guenene (24); 13. Rick Kirk (19); 14. (TIE) John HopperstadlDonald Ja cks (14).

• Cover