Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

GROAD RACE TransAtlantic SUI!! _ha_lle--",ng,--e _rb_ik_eC • e Rob McElnea (8), and Ron Haslam (20) lead Scott Russell (22) at Brands Hatch. Top scorer Ray Stringer (17) won all three races at his local track, Mallory Park. Scott Russell gives chase to Terry Rymer and a horde of Brits at Brands Hatch. amongst them. It was the only solace they had. Brits wllo a pYanks By Bruce Newton Photos hy Barrie Lynn MALLORYPARK, ENGlAND, MAY 5, BRANDS HA TCH, ENGlAND, MAY6 efore the TransAtlantic Superbike Ron H aslern , Rob McElnea , Carl Fogany and Terry Rymer. Challenge began no one could have The sheer strength in depth of the expected such a resul t Great Britain locals proved impossib le to overcome, 625, the U.S.A. 161. It was a total defeat The American team could manage particularly on the shon Mallory and Brands short circui ts, These were places only one podi um position in the six 15· where good starts were vital if you were lap races staged at Mallory Park and to get to the front, an d local knowledge Brands Hatch , all six wins goin g to a great help. The Americans couldn' t British riders. manage the former and lacked the latter. By the end of it the Americans were That Stringer and Reynolds were also beaten, battered, bruised, frustra ted and the top points scorers sh ows how in the case of Daytona 200winner Miguel DuHamel, in the hospital. Disgraced on seriously they took it all at both circuits paper certai nly, but on the track they - particularly Mallory - where you had were closer, but nevertheless behind for to be willing to swap pai nt if you wanted to be at the front While some of the the most part, Muzzy Kawasaki rider Scott Russell other riders were more conscious of was the only American who could truly season-long championships in which leave England with his head held high, they are involved, these .two rode with the rest had a weekend they would prefer their heart an d soul throughout the battles. to forget Even Russell cou ld man age only Not to suggest the U.S. team lacked seventh in the po ints with two riders the commitment But there were just too many insurmoun table factors for them Americarts had probably never heard of to cope with. In the end "revenge" was :.... Ray Strin ger and J ohn Reynolds a word being co mmon ly spoke n leading the way on points, ahead of B 10 Mallory Park - Qualifying Local kno wledge p roved a vital facto r at Ma llory Par k, with nine of the top 10 riders coming from the British sq uad. Oddly eno ug h, though, it was the British wh o had encoun tered the most problems. Mobi l I Yam ah a rider Ray Stringer, usin g a Yama ha FZR lOOOcc motor mated to an OWOI gearbox a n d chassis , led the way wi th a 49.5 I-second lap on hi s hom e circuit, nearl y 0.8 sec. under the outrigh t lap record. Hi s use of the big motor was per fectly legal under TransAtlan tic rul es and it was a loo p ho le no one else exp loited. T hen came Brit ish team cap tain Ron Hasla m on the JPS No rton, J amie Whitham doing great things on a refurbished '87 Suzu ki, Scott Russell , th e only American near th e front on the Muzzy Kawasaki , and John Reyno lds fifth o n the Team Green ZXR750. . Brian Morrison did well to snare seven th , despi te destro yin g his number one Drambuie Yam aha on Friday when a rod let go at fifth gear Gerard's an d it went cartwheeling for 80 meters down the track, He escaped injury. Carl Fogarty did in a big-end Sunday morning and had to go back to his spare Silkolene Honda to qualify eigh th while teammate Niall Mackenzie was only 17th and still not fully recovered from being knocked out in Spain. Rob McElnea was n inth on the Locti te Yam ah a despite losing the rear end at Gerard's and slidi ng off the track in the first sessio n on Sunday morning and being forced onto h is spare. He was somewha t better off th an teammate Terry Rymer wh o after three crashes in Spain the weekend before, high-sid ed on Friday at the hairpin and suffered further bru ising to h is lower back. Another Englishma n in trouble was Mar k Liscott. H e was first reserve until Reyn old 's teamm at e T im Bourn e inj ured h im self a week before and hi s Lenha m Bu ilders Yamaha OWOI celebra ted th e occasion by tying up the crank. H e borrowed Stringer's spare motor bu t didn' t get ou t until the th ird race. Second best of the " Americans" was Migu el DuHam el on the Commonwealth Honda in l l th place, the Canadian just ahead of his team 's skipper, Freddie Spencer, on the T wo Brothers ' H onda, J am es behind him wi th DuHam el' s teammate Richar Arna iz n ext, ahead o f Jacqu e Quen ette (Muzzy Kawasaki ) and Thomas Steven s. ' Steven s reflected the thoughts :0 several others when asked ju st ho significan t the races were to him: ''I' going to give it everythi ng bu t I' v been th inking about it and it doesn ' mean a whole lot. The (America Superb ike) champi on shi p means whole lot more." The 1.37-mil e circuit was in itsel a di scouraging factor. Basically a fas loop leading to a hairpin then wickedly tight chicane, it was lined fo much of its length by barriers. Time were certainly close though, Spence was 0.95 sec. off pole but still 12t despi te running out of revs using standard CDI. H e borrowed a bette one for the races. The top 18 were separated bv les than two seconds, but unfortunatel 18th fastest qualifier Roben Holde wasn 't to start. The New Zealander drafted into the American squad crashed at Devil 's Elbow at the begin ning of the third session and suffer crushed vertebrae. He was out for th weekend. That put the Americans right u against it as they were now down t 10 riders, the other honorary tea member. Spaniard Luis Carlo Maurel never showing. Considering that Mik Barnes, Marcello del Guidice an veteran John Long were th ree of th four slowest qualifiers and on bor rowed and somewhat uncotnpetitiv machinery, their task was made eve harder. . R ace on e The quick change from red to gree caught many of the North American napping while Fogarty, Reynolds an Stringer leapt to th e front , wit Haslam; Nation, Rymer and McElne all ah ead of Ru ssell . Whitha m wa s already out afte burning th e clutch on the line, whil Jami e J ames wen t do w n at th extremely tight first gear ha irpin firs time round, having to pull the c1ut in to get around the corn er in th traffi c: " I was scared to barely get 0 there at speed. As 1 was feeding th clutch in it hooked up all of a sudde and th e tire lit up." The bike turn right into the wall and tipped ov To the cheers of the crowd he got goi

• Cover