Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
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GROAD RACE Aeromexico Superbike Masters e Doug Polen's (2) first ride on the Ducati was a successful one; here he leads Tom Kipp (16), and the rest of the pack. West German Udo Mark (10)' finished second overall behind Polen in Mexico City after putting together a 2-2 tally in the two-leg race. Polen triumphs in Mexico City By Dennis Noyes MEXICO CITY, MEXICO, DEC. 9 O U g Pol en , fresh from a Dunlop tire testing session in Daytona th ree da ys earl ier, raced hi s Fast by Feracci Ducati for the first time at the H ermanos Rodrigu ez Circui t in Mexico Cit y. The ex-Yoshimura rider won both hea ts in front of some 20,000 Mexican fan s, slippi ng in front of Du cati-mounted Worl d Superbike Ch ampion Raymond Roch e du ring the last la p of th e first heat to win by a half second. In the second heat Polen came through from a slow start to second and was closi ng slowl y on French- Can ad ian Pascal Picotte, who was aboard theSunoco Go ld Yama ha, wh en Mic hel Mercier 's 21-year- old prot ege lost the front end and crashed in a cloud of du st. T he seco n d runni ng of ยท the Aero mexico -sp o nsored Superb ike Masters ha s firm ly established the . event on the in ternatio nal calendar and the promoters of th e event (Promomotor S.A,..,.de S.V.) hope to see the D 20 ,~'r."~:. December race eventually becom ing a kind of sou th-of-the-border Daytona. Ameri can Steve McLaughlin, the race coo rdinato r, put togeth er a n interesting field headed by the factory Ducat i entry and boastin g of no less than three cu rrent World Ch ampion s, all French (Roche from th e Superbike Series and Frenchmen Alex Viera and J.M. Mauioll from th e Endu rance Series), plus Na ti on al Su p erb ik e Champion s from Ger ma ny (Andreas H ofmann), Fra nce (Jea n -Yves Mounier) and Mexico (Oscar Castellanos). Also on board McLaughlin 's Noah 's Ark of racing talent were the ru nner ups in severa l cha mpionshi ps: Europ ean Superb ik e (Germa ny's Sven Seidel), Spai n (L uis Car los Maurel), Germ any (Udo Mark) and Canada (Pa scal Picotte), but the rider wh o sto le the show was AMA Enduran ce Champi on Tom Kipp (teamma te of Dale Quarterley on T eam Du tchman) who rode his Wiseco Yamaha OW31 to a brillant second place in the second heat and took th ird overall. The 2.49-mile circuit features a 4000-foo t sta rt-finis h stra ight which a llows fo r Hockenheim- typ e sli p .strea ming. At the en d of th e straigh t the bikes brake from over 160 mph for a set of right-left-right esses leading onto a 400 yard straigh t foll owed by a second-gear 180 degree hairpin. T he riders power out of th is bend through a wiggl ey bit (left-righ t-left-right-left) and onto the 400-yard back straigh t which runs up to the breathtaking 180 degree four th-gea r banked horseshoe tha t leads onto the long home stra igh t. Formu la One cars have rai sed som e bu mps in the surface but th e only real problem came from some painted lines left from th e Mexico Cit y Marathon whi ch were sli ppery eno ug h whe n they were whi te but whi ch are even more treacherous after bein g painted black. Maybe th e id ea was to m ake the slip pery lin es inv isible . .. not a very good idea . . . but the ri de rs soon learn ed 'exactly where the lin es were and on ly Wor ld Champi on Roch e talked of not ra cin g. Everyon e else was having too good a tim e to let a little black paint spoi l their racing holida y. Qualifying Practice was supposed to start on Friday morning bu t riders were told th at a demon stration by Indians on T h u rsda y h ad p rev ented ci rc u i t workers fro m getting the ha y bales in p lace. European rid ers looked nervous ly aroun d them when told that In dians had taken over the circui t. The o ld Tres Estrellas de Oro bu s, a big Dina, that took the rid ers from their hotel to th e circu it enco u nte red no Indians a t th e ga te on Friday morning wh ich left some doubtin g th e validity of the excuse for the bales being strew n all over the pl ace, bu t most o f th e mecha nics from the European teams were grateful for a ch ance to work on the bikes whi le th e tra ck was re adied for afternoon practice. The circui t altitude of 2400 meters sent most mechan ics in search of th eir smallest main jets. "The bikes never qu ite sound right here," said three- time Spa nish cha mp (500cc, Superbike and Endu ran ce), Toni Garcia. " And if you get th e carburation rig ht in the morning, you are sti ll too rich in the afternoon wh en the mist burns off and the sun hea ts the pl ace up." While most riders were feeling their way aro und and learning where th e slippery paint lines were, Roch e was al ready ru nning laps in the 26s and according to team tim e-keep in g he was already only a 10th of a second off Polen 's 1989 lap record (set with th e Yosh imura Suzuki) of I minute, 26.2 seco n ds when gatheri ng da rkness obliged an early end to the secon d free pra ctice period. Po le n missed the fi rst practi ce because his lugga ge was lost by Pan Am on the way down fro m Dal las .. . somethi ng that mad e Aeromexico officials smile. H e got ou t for the second session wearing a spare set of Ki pp 's lea th er s an d was so o n lapping in the mid 26s as were Picotte, Harmati and Lo pez Mella. When official practi ce got under way on Saturday Hungarian Arpad Harmati, fourth in th e European Superbike Ch ampion ship, was credi ted with a first- session tim e of 1:25.46 which caused some teams to suspect a timing error. Doubts over Harmati's time spread and as usually happens when rumors of timing problems are known, several opportunistic rid ers began showing up with their own tim ing sheets hoping to have themselves cre d ited with quicker times. In order to make sure that the times were correct the timing crew decided to double check the entire day's work,a laboriou s project that went on well into the late evening . Many riders went to- bed without knowing th eir grid positions for th e next day , . bu t whe n the checking was over no errors were found, leaving prote stors red-faced and a Hungarian on th e pole. Accordin g to Hungarian team coordi nator Jozsef Bo rocz kv, "T his is a most wonderful thing and a happy day for H ungary. Not even J arn os Drapal (H u ngarian winner of th e 1971 Czechoslovakia n GP , in case it slipped your memory) ever got a po le positio n in a major intern ati onal race." Harrnatei 's " wo nderful thi ng" prevente d Ohioan Kipp from slottin g hi s Wiseco Yam ah a into po le position. "T he Kip per" lapped in 1:25.61, th ree hundredth s of a second quicker th an Yamaha-m ounted Picot te. Polen was fou rth at I:25.85, the last rid er to dip under I:26. Filling out the front ro w was Ger ma n (you don 't have to say West German anymore) Thomas Franz on the im ma cu la te, black Team Ditter H onda CR 30. The second row was filled by the Yamahas of Germans Udo Mark and T oni H ieler (1:26.33 and 1:26.39) and the H ondas of Mounier and Spanaird Juan Lopez Mella. Way back in 16th place and on th e inside of th e fourth row was a glum Roch e who told rep orters that he was "j ust out for a Sunday drive." Polen was confident and very happy on the Du cati. " I rode it at Daytona, but thi s is a track where I can really app reciate how ligh t the Ducati is. It 's so easy to throw aro und and it reall y hauls down th e lon g stra igh t," he said . " I was with Su zuki a lon g tim e and it was time for a cha nge. I cou ldn ' t get them to go the way I wanted th em to go: This ' is a new start for me and I'm excited abo u t it. I'm trying to wi n both the AMA and World Superbike Championships in 1991 and I think this little bik e and I are going to get along real fine ." Polen will ride 14 World Superbike