Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

~ ROADRACE e England's Terry Rymer rode his Loetite Yama ha OWOI to a win and a second place at the final round of the World Superbike Championship in New Zealand. Rymer wins series finale in New Zealand By Bruce Newton MANFEILD, NEW ZEALAND, NOV. 1 8 err y Rymer, after an ,internatio na l seaso n of discontent, won the day at Manfeild in th e 13th and fina l ro und of th e 1990Superbi ke Worl d Ch ampionsh ip. J us t lik e he d id last year, Rymer a n d hi s Loctite Yamah a pro ved superior in race o ne - alt hou gh thankfull y run in th e dry unl ike last year - a nd th en back ed th at up.with second place in ra ce two behind Rob Phillis. Phillis and th e The T eam ShinEtsu Kawasaki qua lified fast est, but were unable to capitalize with a disappointing fifth in th e first and ca me back for a fortune-assisted if not Iucky win in race two. Newly-crowned World Champion Ra ymond Roch e had burst through the field after finishing second in rac e on e to lead bya sa fe margin on lap 22 only to have th e Ducati 's oil filter f all off and put him ou t. At th e sam e time Rob McElnea did hi s best to take out Rymer a nd all of a sudden Phillis was clea r. T 10 Phillis fi n ished second overa ll on the day, wi th team mat e Aaro n Slig h t in he r it ing third a ft er a troubl ed weeken d on hom e terr itor y. Sympathies to Stephane Mert ens wh o crashed twice in th e second race sente ncing himself to third in the cham p io nsh ip, wh ile Phillis took fourth. McEln ea was forced to settle for fifth overall and took a broken collarbone with h im back to England. ~ . Malcolm Campbell was an other in plaster on Sunday night after crashing in qualifying and breaking his left shin. Scot Brian Morris on crashed also, breaking his right thumb. Bad luck for some, but for Rymer it was a cha nge-o f lu ck after a terribl e sea son. The result hoi sted him into seventh in th e title, just li ke last year. Qual ifying For the final race of th e year th e international contingent co mp rised of those who had ra ced th e previous weekend in Australia, plus Honda riders Campbell, Daryl Beattie and Mark Fissenden, who had made the . tr ip fro m Tasma n. Fisse n de n, a Kiwi who now lives in Au stral ia , had ac tua lly sponsored Beattie's trip to New Zeal and , his HR C RC30 log o runnin g in th e colors of hi s co mpa ny MB&J Builders for th is meet in g. ' But it was another Aussie Phillis wh o dominated qualifying day with a s ~ pe rb burst of speed in the first' ses sio n. Using a soft Michelin rear he went .3 4 o f a secon d under teammate Sligh t's 1:08.17 su perb ike lap record for th e co mpact 1.94-mile circu it to be th e only man to break 1:08 in practice. ' He was unable to go faster in th e afte rnoo n sess io n whi ch wa s red flagged ea rl y-o n wh en Campbell cras hed th e Citizen Honda for th e seco nd time for th e weekend. McElnea was th e fast est man in sess io n two , hauling th e Loctite Yamaha OWOI to 1:08.1 at this his first visit to the cir cuit. It was a fine effort no doubt mot ivat ed by th e close battl e he is having with Phillis for fourth in th e cha m p io nsh ip . 1 Giving th e unlucky Loctite tea" m even more to cheer a bo u t was Rymer's third spot on th e grid a t 1:08.18. THe London er had to su rvive an other fraught couple of days though to do it, crashing in the esses on Frid~y when the left-hand bar broke off, tlie'n experiencin g severe front-end problems in th e afternoon which was found to be a nail in th e front tir e. l Beattie, another first time visi tor, grabbed fourth fastest after stead y improvem ents , hi s main con cern being finding a rear tire that would last th e 35-lap distance. Ro ch e, the new Wor ld Champion, rounded out row one. His improvement had come despite a basi c di sli ke for Manfeild, threatening on Frid ay to give up and go on holiday after the first' few laps. Roche had fou nd that the profile of a '91-development front Michelin he was using had upset the handling of the 888, bu t

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