Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

eROAD RACE A ASuperbike National Championship_:_ou_nd_5_; M R _ ~ Freddie Spencer (19) finished fifth; here he leads Canadian J acques G uenett e. O hioan Tom Kipp (16) leads the pack on the opening lap of the Superbike National. Stevens wins his first in Mid-OhiosIngfest By Paul Carruthers LEXINGTON, OH, A 4 UG ance & Hines Yamaha 's Thomas Stevens has quietly gone about his bu sin ess in 1991 , t iptoe i ng thro ugh .a hi ghly successful seaso n while the likes of Scott Russell a nd Miguel DuHamel garnered mo st o f th e attention. But Stevens ca me ou t of h iding today at th e Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course and won the first AMA Nation a l o f his ca re er, ass erting himself as th e man to beat for th e Superbike Championship. The most impressive facet of Stevens ' first win is that it didn' t simply fall into h is hands. Instead , t he Floridian went out and earned it , reeling in the fast-starting Tom Kipp late in the race and holding off the advances of bo th DuHamel and R ussell for the duration. And he wasn 't the only winner as the Mid-Ohio motorcycle record crowd, estimated by track owners at 50,000, witnessed one of the best races of the season at what is arguably the finest facility on the AMA schedule. V 10 Stevens averaged 92.913 mph in the 25-lap ra ce around th e 2.5-m ile course, fini shing 2.588 seconds ah ead of th e Camel-b acked Commonwealth Honda of DuHamel. Stevens pocketed $6700 of th e $36,500 Superbike purse for his efforts in a race he kn ew he was going to win. " I knew all week ," said Stevens, who became th e fourth different winner in five rounds. "I kn ew it was time for us to win. I've been biding my time, getting my finishes. I' ve had a lot of good luck, but after last year I deserve to have luck in buckets. " It feels really good," he continued. "It (h is ability to win) has alwa ys been there, but there's been a lot of doubting Thomases. I wanted to beat those gu ys and show 'em I was for real. " Kipp, who led 21 of th e 25 laps before giving way to the hard-charging du o o f Stevens and DuHamel, finish ed th ird on his Wisec o Yamaha for th e best Superbike National result of his you ng career; fi ttin gl y, th e resul t came in front o f hi s home fans as Kipp hai ls from nea rby Kirtl and Hills, Ohio. Fourth place went to Muz zy Kawasa ki's Russell ; th e Georgi an running with , a nd a t times leading, Steven s a nd Du H amel before fading lat e in th e 62.5-mile race. Russell , wh o was truly beat en for only th e firs t time since Daytona, was obvious ly upset with his perfor ma nce a nd he vacated th e track sh o rt l y a ft e r th e checke re d fla g dropped. Two Broth er s R acing ' s Fr edd ie Spencer scored hi s fir st points of the 1991 seaso n, while recording h is best finish since restartin g hi s Su perbike career last yea r. Spe ncer started slowl y, but worked hi s way th rough th e pack before settli ng into fifth pl ace. T he Boys-backed Dal e Q ua rterl ey, Fast By Ferracci' s Pascal Pi cotte, H onda Ca nada's Rueben McMurter , Muzz y Kawasaki's Jacques Guen ette, jr., a nd Gi a Ca Mot e's J immy Adamo rounded o u t th e top 10 fini sh ers. Steven s is now firmly perch ed a to p th e cha mp io nshi p point sta ndings an d leads DuHamel by n in e points, 80-71, with three ro u nds remaining in th e eigh t-race series . Russell lost some grou nd in th e titl e chase, but still holds do wn th ird pl ace wi th 64 points. After rai n swept through th e area o n Sa turday, the re was some questi on as to th e weather co nditio ns for Sunday, but Mother Nature cooperated and su n ny skies brought warm weather to Mid-Ohio on Sunday. Tile grid for the Nationa l -was bolstered by the prese nce of Canadian non-regulars Pasca l Pico tte, subbing for Doug Pol en on th e Fast By Ferracci Du cati, R ueben McMurter, and Steve Crevier on a second Two Brothers Racing H onda RC30. In addition , Mid-Ohio marked th e Superbike debut of Van ce & Hines Yamaha's 600cc Supersport rider Larry Schwarzbach. But one factory bike was eliminated early as fast qualifier Jamie James crashed his Vance & Hines Yamaha spectacularly as the pack returned to the front straight for the first time. Rem arkabl y, J a mes was u n hurt . By this time, Kipp was already up front after grabbing the lead in turn one despite sta rting from the second ro w: "How abo u t that start?" Kipp said with a grin later. "I just laughed wh en I got in the re first ." As the O h ioan reached the esses at th e end o f the long back straight midway through th e second lap, he a lready led DuHam el by 1.9 seconds as he was helped in part by J ames thro win g the Yamaha down in fro nt of the pa ck. But Kipp wasn 't lettin g up; by th e third lap he led Stevens, wh o was by this tim e locked in a near- permanent duel with DuHamel and Russ ell , by 2.09 seconds. He stretched th at to 3.54 seco nds by th e seventh lap as the partisan cro wd screa med th eir a p p ro val ; a nd to a high of just over fou r seco nds on th e 12th lap. " I was ab le to bu ild u p a lead from two seco nds to four," Kipp said lat er. " I was pulling away a t a comfortable pace." Soo n th ereafter , Stevens sta rted to tu rn up th e heat , br in gin g DuHamel a nd Russell with him. " Fro m th e time I go t th e I(l-Iapsto-go signal , I sta rted going hard. I sa w T om (Kip p) o u t th ere th e wh ol e time." Steven s dropped hi s lap times from the l -rnin ut e, 33-second range to 1:32s a nd th en 1:31s; his fastest com ing fou r laps from th e end at I:31.3. Still, he had DuHamel in his shado w. Kipp, meanwhile, started to th ink co nse rvatively - in retrospe ct , too co nserva tively: " I was real timid in la p ped traffic," sai d Kipp, who had ea rl ier su ffered a crash in th e 600cc Supersport fin al whil e leading DuHamel. " I didn 't want to go down again . I ended up waiting an extra comer or two to pass th e traffic; that crash spooked me and I still had Suzuka in the back of my mind (Kipp crashed in the Suzu ka 8-Hour las t weekend while his tea m was third in th e seventh hour)." From th e ISthIap on, Stevens and DuHamel started to di stance th emselves from Russell. Suddenly, th e pair was with Kipp and Steven s wasted little time in taking the lead on the 21st lap; DuHamel followed suit a lap later, but nobody was going to take this one from Stevens and he pulled away to a 2.5-second win. ' Du H a mel, too , pulled clear of Kipp, who was happy to be on the podiu m for the first time in an AMA National: "I tried really hard out the re and I feel I rode a good race," Kipp tol d h is fans over the loudspeaker. " It feels good to be here in a National. " The race for the lead wasn 't the on ly one keeping the fans' attention as battles waged through the field . Guenette held fifth early on , but he gave way to Quarterley, who was actually keeping the leaders in sight:

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