Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/127389
eROAD RACE AM! Superbike National Championship: Round 4 ; Miguel DuHamel (97) leads Scott Russell, Jamie James, Tom Kipp, T homas Stevens and Ri ch Arn aiz (20) in the Na tional. Stevens (II ) and Doug Polen (23) made up the second half of the lead quartet; Po len finished third, Stevens fourth. Russell, just brely, a in Charlotte return By Paul Carruthers CHA RLOTTE, NC, JULY6 he AMA brough t th eir road racing show back to NASCA R country, and provided spectators with a NASCA R-style finish in the Superbike National as Scott Russell barely bea t Miguel DuHamel and Do ug Po len to th e flag after 22 fast and furious laps at the Charlotte Motor Speedway. T 10 Fast and furious it was with Russell a nd the Muzzy Kawasak i avera ging 101.829 mph in the 49.5-mile race, yet only topping DuHam el and the Com mon wealth Honda by a mere .042-of-asecond. And Polen' s Fast Bv Ferracei Ducati was ju st as close i n third place as the three crossed the finish line together. For Russell the win was his second of the year a nd third of h is career. The Georgian was fast all weekend, qualifying o n the pole (see side bar), and leading the majorit y o f the 22 laps, including th e most im portant one. H e too k home $4600 o f th e $25,000 Superbike p u rse for his efforts. Vance & H in es Yam aha 's Thomas Stevens ma n aged to fin ish fourth despite a bl istered rea r tire, a nd left Charlotte wi th the championship points lead. The Floridian was with the lead group until the closing sta ges when he was forced to back off in order to finish the race. Stevens now leads an ever- tigh teni ng ch ampionship by six points over DuHamel, 60-54, with Russell third a t 51 and J a m ie J ames fourth a t 50. . Fifth pl acetoday went to Yoshim ura Suzuki's Tommy Lyn ch. The 19-year- ' old Californian hel d off veteran Jimm y Adamo and the G ia Ca Moto Du ca ti to post th e best Na tional finish of his you ng caree r. Cal ifornian Brad Hazen also had his best Na tional fin ish ever as he rode the Long Beach Yamaha-backed FZR 750 to a seventh place finish ahead of Joe Brett Willia ms' Honda RQlO. Da taTrac's John Hopperstad and Klaus Speedworks' Craig Gleason rounded ou t th e top IO finishers. Daytona International Speedway and Willow Springs International Racewa y have been giv ing tire tech nicians gray hair for years. Now Cha rlo tt e Motor Speedway can be ·added to their list of worries. Everyone was forced to use th e hardest comp o und tires a va il able because of Charlotte's relentless attack on rear rubber, and two o f th e top Superbike competitors sti ll had problems. The ch ampionship leader go ing into Charlotte, Vance & Hines' Jamie James, was forced out of the race on th e l Sth lap when his rear tire and Yamaha FZR750 engine called it quits almost sim ultaneously, and Stevens suffered the same tire fate , albeit not as seri ously as he was able to finish fourt h, in th e late stages of the race. , With AMA National Championship rac ing returning to Charlotte Motor Speedway for th e first time since the late '70s, spectator turnout was estimated at 38,000 for th e week-long, Interna tiona l Cycle Even ts-p romo ted Motorcycle Week tha t featured, in addition to roa d raci ng, motocross and dra g ra ci ng. T he so m ew h a t low attendance figure can be blamed on a numb er of things, incl udi n g the sameday ru n n ing of the na tionall y-televised Fi r ecracker 400 a t Daytona on Saturday. O ne notable was eliminated from the Na tional befo re it ever began, Russell 's Muzzy Kawasaki teamm at e Jacques Gu enette, Jr. Gue nett e crashed ear lier in the day in the 750cc Supersport final and had to undergo an operation th at saw the little finger on his ri ght hand amputated to the first joint. The next to go was The Boys' Honda R C30-m o u nted Dale Q uarterley. Q uarterley crashed in the first turn of the Na tional when he was squeezed of£ the track on the ins ide. H is crash brought out the red flag, but the New Englander failed to get h is footpeg repaired in time to restart th e rac e. The next to go was Freddie Spencer. T h e three-time World Champion lo wsided his Two Bro th ers Racing Honda RQlO after losing th e front end in the fou rth comer of the restart: " Short day, huh?" Spencer said aft picking him self up from the grass. Sp encer 's cras h eliminated an hopes Lynch had of sta ying in the lea group's draft as he was forced to ba off rather than run over the slidin former cham p. .By th is point, J am es already kn he wasn't go ing to finish this one: "I overheated on the start lin e and nev did cool down," James exp lained. " They've (the AMA) been doing tho for 20 years, you th ink th ey'd figur out that five minutes is too much tim for us to sit there. .The procedure jus does n ' t work a nymore. Nothin against them (the AMA), but som th ing needs to be done. I knew it fried right then, but I never look down a t th e temperature gauge again. Still , he was with a lead group tha had already separated itself from th rest. DuHamel headed it, with Russell J am es, Stevens, .Co m mon wealt h Rac ing's Ri ch Arnaiz, Wiseco Yamaha' Tom Kipp and Polen forming a seven bike gaggle as they hit the hig banking for the fir st tim e. The first to rem ove himself from th chase wa s Arnai z, the California