Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

Canadian Pascal Pi cotte was impressive as he q ualified third and fini shed th ird in the first leg; he cras hed in the second leg wh ile racing for the lead with Polen. ro unds p lus the entire AMA series . He will ha ve bikes for the Ameri can races and a separate Fast by Ferracci set of bikes based in Ita ly for the World Superbike race. Many of th e riders at the H ermanos ROdriguez Circuit were testing each others tir es. Several rid ers, includi ng Pol en , went ou t with Dunlop fron ts and Michelin rears in timed p ractice and the genera l feeling is th at th e Dunlop choice of front tires is better but tha t the Mich elin rears give better drive and last longer before going off. Young ris in g star L uis Carlos Maurei of Spain was testing a set of prot ot ype Pirell i tires give n to him by the Italian factory to try in Mexico. H e was very happy with the rear, but concerned by th e excessive wear o n the right side of the front tire. "It looks like th e su rface of the moon o n th e ri ght side, bu t the left side is sto ne smooth," said the 22-year-old rider from Zaragoza. New En glander Quarterl ey agreed. "It seems lik e you 're a lways in righthanders. You really have to drive hard out of th e right-banders to make tim e around here." Heat One Riders who decided to observe th e starting procedure in th e Open class race for Mexi can - licen se holders (eventually won by an American by the name of Larry Walker on a Kawa sak i ) were horrified to see three consecu tive false starts and mass confusion on the grid as riders crept up from row to row until there were as man y as nine riders in the second and third rows . The starting lights failed and th e races were waved off by a flagman using a red flag . Most of the trouble was caused by the riders themselves, who were so anxious to get started that they couldn't wa it for th e starter. When the first heat of th e international Superbike race came to the grid, however, it was a diffe rent sto ry and all went as itshould with the Japanese fours on th e front row leaving the lone Ducati behind in th e drag race to th e first corner. The 25-lap, 52-mile race began under bright sunlight but the air was still crisp and cool in the high mountain valley of Mexico City. The young Hungarian, Harrnati, out to show any remaining doubters that his pole position was legit, led the first lap from Pi cotte with Seidel, Polen, Mark and Franz leading th e following pack. Harmati was still leading when he lost the front end on the horseshoe curve before the home straight as he neared the end of the second lap. Picotte, using a tighter line, was clear of the Harmati cras h and made a ru n for it, pu ll ing o u t a two second lead over Roche (who had come th rough fro m the fourth ro w), Polen , Fra nz and Mark. This grou p of four rid ers close d o n Picotte while a second group consisting of H ofmann, H eil er, Seidel, Moun ier, Kipp, and Lo pez Mella fought for p laces six th rough I I. By la p 10, Polen , Roche and Mark ha d caugh t Pico tte a nd on la p 13 the ve te ran Fr ench World Cham p io n slipped past o n th e bra king for the hairpin. It too k Polen another six la ps to move into second, bu t Picotte fough t back, pull in g ou t of th e Duca ti slipstream and retaking second at the start of la p 20. Franz Mark cras hed the Ditt er H on da in a big way a t th e ho rseshoe on lap seven and was taken away for X-rays to be taken of his left ank le after the race . Polen looked com fortab le, ho wever, and wou ld lat er say th at the race was " a pi ece of cake." The 30·yea r-old rider from Dall as moved into second again on lap 23 and moved close to th e rear wh eel of th e Fr enchman's Du ca ri, With two laps to go Pol en looked to be wait ing to pounce. Udo Mark, after a front wheel scare, had dropped ba ck to settle for fourth while the six-bike battle for fifth had broken up in to two separate dogfi gh ts. Moun ier , H o fmann, Heiler and Kipp fought for pl aces five thro ugh eight wh ile Seidel and Lopez Mella contested ninth place. When the leaders str eaked past th e start-fin ish grandstands to start th e last lap Pol en was up Roche's pipes and sligh tly clear of Picotte. Polen made his move half way round the last lap, slipp ing under Roche o n braking. Polen and Roche entered th e horsesh oe close but th e T exan ca me o nto the home straight drift in g and o n th e lim it. Roche was not close enough to be able to use Polen's slips tream at the flag and had to settl e for second behind the T exan. Picotte was third. Mark was a lonely fourth, but the battle for fifth was between four riders se p a ra ted by less than a second . H ofmann was fifth followed by Mounier, Heller and Kipp. The battle for ninth was decid ed when Lopez Mella overshot his brak- ' in g and ran wide in th e horseshoe in th e last lap when he was within striking distance of Sven Seidel. Heat Two Almost everybody was tell ing th e same story . T he bike had run lean and the gearing had been too sho rt in heat one. Kipp was not happy with h is pre- The Mexico Cit y Police displayed their daredevil riding techniques during the opening ceremonies of the Mexico 90 Superbike event. vious ride. " I didn't get the bi ke set up rig ht. I didn' t run close eno ug h to anybody in practice to get the gearing right for slipstrearni ng and I was ove rrevving when I was ru nning beh in d the faster bikes. I had it jetted too rich, too. I' m going to raise the fro n t end to try and get the ride height righ t." H is comments were echoed by Luis Carlos Maurel, who was also ri di ng a Yamah a. Polen was p leased with h is set u p , alt ho ug h ,he adm itted having problem s with hi s gearbox. "I had a bunch of trouble getti ng neutrals wh en I sh ifte d down at th e en d of th e stra igh t," said Polen . "Sometimes it took five or six tries to ca tch second, but the mechan ics have tha t fig ured o ut and the b ike sho uld be fin e for th e second heat." Pi cotte, unha ppy with h is third p lace, tho ug h t the trouble was with his riding. "The bike is very good. I cha ng ed noth ing fo r the seco nd heat. I wa nted to break a way bu t they caugh t me." Roche com pla ined th at th e bike was slow and tha t he was hav in g the same tro ub le as Polen sh ifting down to second for th e comer a t th e end of th e long straight. Roche was not pleased a t the end of the first heat. He came into th e pits revving th e mot or angr ily and disappea red into hi s half of th e Ducati pits. It was Mounier who led at th e end of la p o ne, chased by Pi cotte, Mattioli , Mark a nd Marrnati. Once again the Ducatis had been left behind on initial ac ce lera tio n off th e line. Roch e dropped back aft er cros sing the line sixth just in front of Polen on lap one. He was 10th on lap two and then pulled into th e pits at th e end of lap three with clutch problems. Pi cotte was pushing hard to get some air , but Mounier and Harmati were at hi s rear wh eel and on lap four the Hungarian took the lead on th e back section on ly to cras h in spec tacular fashi on on the exit of the last corner. H e was uninjured but h is H onda was badly bent. Pi cotte put his h ead down and pulled a slight lead over Mounier who in tum was being closed on by the Ducati of Pol en . The low gro wl of the Du cati along the lo ng straigh t was a sharp co nt ras t to the how l of Me unier 's big Honda, bu t there was nothing in it on speed. When Po len finally got past on lap six he was running abo ut two seco nds back of th e Fren ch Canadian on th e Team Sunoco Gold Yamaha. , By lap 13 Pol en was within striking distance and able to show a wheel to th e young Canadian on se vera l occas io ns. About seven seconds back of the Pi cotte-Polen scrap, four rid ers, Mark, Hofmann, Mounier and Kipp were locked into a slipstr eaming battle for th ird. Endurance racing World Champion and veteran 250cc Gran Pr ix racer Mattioli had been with th ese four during th e early running but had been dropped and was running alo ne a safe di stance ahead of the Spanish Civil War that was brewing between Toni Garcia and Juan Lopez Mella who were told by their pit boards that Luis Carlos Maurel was coming on hard after another terrible start. Seidel had al ready crashed trying to sta y with th e two Spanairds who were ' now very much aware that a third Spanaird was getting close. Maurel was at this point th e fastest man on the track, cutting laps in the mid 25s while Picotte and Pol en were in the high 25s. Many riders in Picotte's place would have let Polen past in order to have a look at the Ducati from the rear, but Picotte is o nly 20 years old. The young Canadian not only wouldn 't let Polen by, he actually stepped up the pace and pulled out a few more yards , but his race ended wh en the front wheel went away on the fast right-hander on the back section. With th e hard-riding Canadian sitting on the bales uninjured, the interest in the race now shifted to the battle for second between Kipp, Mark a n d Moun ier, th e battle for fifth

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