The seaso n opener in Daytona saw
hi m ridin g an unde r-d evel oped,
poorly-ca rb ureted, Kaw asak i ZX7 in
near Supersp ort tri m. H e rode on to
fin ish thi rd, and was still in the
shado ws of the others. Wh en Daytona
wi n ne r Dave Sadowski was interviewed in the months between ro unds
o ne a nd two, h e failed to even
mention Chan dl er as a cham pionshi p facto r.
But th e Muzzy Kaw a sak i crew
worked ha rd in the tw o m ont h s
between Dayton a a nd Road Atl anta ,
and it p aid off a t th e seco nd ro u nd.
Chandl er didn 't win , but he was right
th ere , beaten on ly by Doug Pol en , in
a one-off U.S. rid e.
From Loudon onward, how ever,
the seri es belon ged to Chandler a nd
his Kawasaki . Hi s cornerin g sp eed
was better than th e rest , his co n fidence was at a n a ll- time high, and
the ZX7 was suddenly th e best bike
on the race track. The combination
would prove to be th e best for the rest
of th e series as he went on to win
fo u r straight races, all but persuading
the rest of th e field io rac e for second
p lace. H e wrapped up th e cha mp ion sh i p in Kansas with a third place
fin ish and ended the season with
anothe r second a t Willow Springs.
" I kn ew the bike would be a lot
closer to everyone else's aft er Da yto na," Chandler said. " After Daytona
they had time to make th e bike better.
Ca rbu retion had something to do
with it , but th e bike just really wasn 't
dialed in there. It wasn 't set up as
a co mbinati on. It was wa y off. We
en ded up with different pipes and it
was just a combination of things that
ma de it work better. It felt good to
finall y have everything come
to ge th er, and eac h ra ce got better and
better as we gained momentum."
What was the difference between
Chandler and th e rest? Was it his
ab ility. to push th e front end with
m ore reckless abandon?
" T o a point 1 think it 's pushing
the front , bu t it ' s more of just
