Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

G RACE AMA Circle Bell Pro Twins GPI Series: Round I ROAD ~ Doug 'Polen (23) won and Paul Lewis (87) finished second in the GPI race. Polen won by over 11 seconds, averaging 105.184 mph. He led the race from start-to-finish. Craig Shambaugh (7) was declared the winner of the GP2 race after Kevin Erion was disqualified. Robert Griffiths (99) was third and Scott Williams (72) second. seconds a lap faster ," Polen said afterwards. "It worked out good because 1 got to do some suspension changes o n the bike which we can now make on the superbike (for 'the Daytona 200) and that should improve the superbike a lot as far as making it easier to ride. Actually, I had the same p robl em on the GP Twins bike .that 1 had o n the superbike. It just didn't show up as bad because I wasn't riding as fast. " . Pol en averaged 105.184 mph in winning the 50-mile race in 30:27.050 minutes. Lewis had a lonely ride to second, never able to challenge for the lead but well in front of his pursuers, despite ' a fuel delivery problem. The Britten was cu tting out on braking and Lewis leaned ou t the fuel mixture from the ' saddl e during the race. He discovered aft erwards there was air in the fuel lines, though the bike ran out of gas on the cool-off lap and he had to push in from the east banking. "I was quite happy with th e race, even though the bike was sliding around a bit," said Lewis, who was given the Britten over New Zealander Chris Haldane at the last minute. His teammate Crevier went out early, with engine trouble while running in third place, leaving Italian Giorgio Cantalupo in third . Ca n talu po was a ' lonely third with Ow en Coles fourth on the hand-built Australian Vee-Two following the demise of Scott Zampach's Buell 1200 o n th e II th lap. Col es was riding the Vee-Two for the first time and thought it handled better than th e competition, but lacked top speed . " I like going through the ch icane because it's rough; I motocross it, " Coles said. " I could out-brake, outcorner, and out-accelerate the other guys, but as soon as they hooked up they were gone." . The battle for fifth lasted the entire ra ce, th e GiaCaMoto Ducati 851 Superbike of Warren Elliot getting the better of the Amol Precision Ducati 888 Sport of Kurt Liebmann. a Results P le o nperfect in Twins go PRO TWINS GP t : I.Doug Polen (Due); 2. Paul ' Lewis (Bri); 3. Giorgio Cantalupo (Due); 4; Owen Co les (Vee); 5. Warren Elliott (Due); 6. Kurt Liebmann (Due); 7. Ol lee Andersson (Due ); 8. John Lon g (Due); 10. Andrea s Geiger (BMW); II. Patrice Manon (MG); 12. J ohn Virgadamo (Due); 13. Perry Melneciu e (Due); 14. Volker Klett (Due); 15. Greg Kopp (Due); 16. SC Zampach (Bue); 17. -Ra ndy ali Shemwell (Due); 18. Steve Crevier (Bri): 19. Michel Raben (Due); 20. Malcolme Tunsta ll (Due); 21. Pablo Real (Due). . Time: 30 minutes. 27.650 seconds. Margin or Victory: 0:11.050 seconds. Average Speed: 105.184 mph. By Henny Ray Abrams DAYTONA BEACH, FL, MAR 8 f there was any doubt th at Fast by Ferracci's Doug Polen would win the Circle Bell Pro Twins GPI , they were dispelled by the end of the first hlp. . . The 29-year-old Ducati-mounted Texan took over the lead o n the east banking of Da ytona International Speedway on the opening lap and pulled away at such a rapid rate that he lapped up' to fourth place on . his way to winning the 15-lap race by an official margin of victory of 11.050 seconds. In reality it was never that ' close. Pol en qualified o n the pole with a lap of I minute, 0.211 seconds, nearly a second under the old lap record and mor e than three and a half seconds faster th an se cond-fastest Jimm y Adamo o n the T eam GiaCaMoto Ducati 888. Polen's tim e on the Pro Twins Ducati would have been th e fifth fastest in qu alifyin g for th e .Daytona 200 race for superbikes. T he I New Zealand import Britten V-Twin 1000squalified third and fourth fastest, both Australian Paul Lewis and Canadian Steve Crevier a seco n d slower than Adamo. When the flag fell for the final on a sunny Friday afternoon, Polen made it look like he was out for a Sunday ri~ . By the fifth lap he had a 3. I7-second lead on Lewis and had turned a lap of I:56.23. Exiting th e second horseshoe he was ent ertaining the crowd with one-handed wheelies and still pulling away . By th e halfwa y m ark he had dose to nin e seconds a nd, a few laps later , began to back off, lapping th e co u rse at around tw o minutes. It was an awesome displ ay and n ot an en couraging one for th e re st of th e field. " I gues s you could say th at I went into th e race with just a little bit of an advantage - th e bike wa s four AMA Circle Bell Pro Twins GP 2 Series: Roundl Erion DQ'ed, Shambaugh the winner By Henny Ray Abrams DAYTONA BEACH, FL, MAR 8 wo Brothers Racing's Kevin Erion won the Pro Twins GP 2 race on the track, but lost it in the rulebook when he was disqualified for racing on a Japanese license. Fast by Ferraccis Ducati 750mounted Craig Shambaugh was awarded the win with Production Tool Induction Research's Scott Williams , also Ducati 750-mounted, second, and Robert Griffiths was third on a Raceco /Vanson /Bell spo_nsored Moto-Guzzi 1000. The 10-lap race was red-flagged twi ce, once after the third lap, when T a complete restart was called for, and again on the 10th lap. Both times the race was stopped for crashes, though no one was hurt. Scoring reverted to the ninth lap with Erion in front, but after the victory lane celebra tion the bomb was dropped. Erion explained that he 'd taken out a Japanese license because he'd raced a twins race there in January. Since you can't ch ange federations in midseason, and can't hold two licenses, he had to ride Daytona with that license, which he didn't think would be a problem since he thought Daytona wa s FIM-sanctioned. But what Erion wasn 't aware of was that only three races, the Superbike, the Supersport 600, and the Pro Twins GP I wer e FIM-sanetioned. . " I entered the race with all good intentions," a disappointed Erion said after what he'd previously announced would be his last race. "They (the AMA) accepted my entry and let me race. I was not aware they pick and choose which races are FIMsanctioned. " According to an AMA official, no one at sign-in recognized the license problem and it wasn't discovered until there were two laps left in the race when it was spotted by Bill Boyce, the AMA Special Projects Manager. " T h ere was no way to black flag him or change the lead at that point because that would screw it up for spectators," said Roger Edmondsen, the AMA/CCS race director who was with Boyce when the problem was discovered. "We did what we had to do . Nobody 's happy. We're not happy, and he's not happy, but he handled it in a class way ." Because of the red flags, no margin of victory was given, although Erion was unofficially about 18 seconds ahead of .the tight trio of Shambaugh, Williams and Griffiths on the ninth ' lap. On the second start, Erion took off , gaining more than a second a lap, impervious to challenge. Second place, and what would become first . p lace , was up for grabs. Williams had the horsepower, but Shambaugh was better into turn one and through the infield with Griffiths just about a second off the pace after an 'off-track excursion in the chicane on the fifth lap. Shambaugh explained that Griffiths had tapped him on the back approaching the chicane at about 150 mph. "That distracted me a little," Shambaugh said, "And when I looked up, the 32-1 markers were coming up and.I sort of thought I was not going to handle the whole situation." "I drafted him into the chicane, but I picked u p more speed than I thought, and I couldn't get through the second right-hander," Griffiths said. " I had to do a li ttle cross country riding." Griffiths had just caught the lead trio when the red flag came out and the race was called. - Paul Kelly was fourth on a Duca ti 750 and Robert Meister fifth on a Two Brothers Honda Hawk 700. til R esul ts PRO TWINS GP 2: I. J. Craig Shambaugh (D ue); 2. Scott Williams (Due); 3. Robert Gri££i'hs (MG) ; 4. Paul Kelly (Due); 5. Roben Meister (Hon); 6. Kevin Sta sny (Duc); 7. Gus Denzler (MG ); 8. HiIton Von Siaden (Duc); 9. Timothy Seebo ld (Ka w ); 10. Doug PhillIps (Hon); 11. Trevor Dunne (Due ); 12. Nancy Delgado (Du e); 13. Marcus Day (Kaw); 14. James Whitaker\Kaw); 15. David Karten (BMW); 16. Kenny Phi l ips (Du e); 17. Mark Mercadante (Due ); 18. James McNulty (H on ); 19. Mark Cruz (Du e); 20. William Shanaman (Due); 21. Charles Burnett (Hon); 22. Mike Tiberio (MG) ; 23. Regan Shaw (H -D) ; 24. Joseph Santoro Jr .(Kaw) ; 25. Frank Shockley (Du e); 26. Micha el Redly (Hon ); 27. Ronald McGill (Han); 28. Roger Reiman (H- D); 29. Jusi Hautan iem i (Due); 30. Ed Sall ey (Yam ); 31. NIgel Gale (H -D).

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