Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

HROAD RACE World .~ Championshi~rbike Road Race'Series: Round 7 Texan Doug Polen was again uns toppable as he won both races in Anderstorp. Raymond Roche (1) leads Rob Phillis (4) in the second race; Phillis finished second. Polen pads points le din Sweden a By Bruce Newton P hoto by Johan Vanderkechove ANDERSTORP, SWEDEN, AUG. II n Sweden, the resurrection of the 1990 Diesel Jeans Superbike Championship as a contest continued, at least in some respects. After two more wins, Doug Po len 's position as champion-elect is becoming increasingly stronger, his lead over . Aus tra lia n Rob Phillis no w 56 points. Bu t th e Fast By' Ferracci Ducati rider's victories were not as emphatic as they have been. His challengers are getting closer. Or should that be challenger? For wh ile all the other Ducati factory pilots co n tin ue to stru ggle against the T exan , Aussie Phillis is ga ining in confidence just as the new Kawasaki I 8 ZXR 750R co n ti n u es to ga i n In strength. The championship is almos t certai nly beyond Phillis' reach but he deserves a race victory . And you can' t help bu t get th e feeling that it's Polen 's mental strength that gives him h is major edge these da ys. At Anderstorp , Pol en was not untroubled bu t nevertheless remained in charge with pol e position for th e third meeting in a row and fifth time this season. His win s were achieved despi te incorrect tire selection in race one, wh ich forced him to hang on and ride defen sively for more than half the race. In the second he controlled it from the front. It was again impressive, intelligent stu ff. He has now scored 10 wins in 12 starts and that means he his already broken Raymond Roche's record for victories in a season by two. And there's still 12races togo. Ph illis' ho ld on second strengthened greatly after the two 23-lappe rs. Stephane Mertens failed to take a point at a meetin g whi ch almost certainly ended h is cha mp ion sh ip as p iratio ns. H e crashed out of race one with a customary front -end loss whi le cha llenging Polen for the lead at the next to last comer and then the clutch failed on his T otal Wanty Ducati in race two. That elevated Fabrizio Pirovano into third in the championship, but he too posted a DNF in the .sha pe of a crash • in race two after third in race one. And what of Roche? The Worl d Cha mpion snapped a chai n on the line in race one and then had to give best to Phillis, the first time the latter has defeated one of the Italian twins in a straight fight, Believe it or not, Carl Fogarty was third hig hest poi nts scorer on the day, riding aggressively and confidently on the Silkolene Hon da to take two fourths and become the number one Hon da rider in the championship ah ead of Fred Merkel, who like T erry Rymer and Gia ncarlo Fa la ppa, h ad another troubled weekend. Q ualifying From the ridicul ous heat of Misan o the superbike teams dashed north ward to Sweden's sublimi nal beauty and wha t felt like sub-zero temperatures. This was the championship's first venture into Scandinavia and for most of the riders, their first experie nce of the Anderstorp circuit, notable for a series of heavilycambered turns and its runway straigh t which ends in a go-degree right called th e Norra Kurv an. But the track 's unique feature is that the start -finish line is halfway around the circui t from the pits and paddock. Some riders knew it well, Roch e finished second to Eddie Lawson here in 1984, the year he finished th ird in the.500cc GP title fight and last rode the Cagiva at the 2.5-mile track in 1989. Mertens had pl enty of experience here from his 250cc days wh ile Loctite Yam ah a's Rob McElnea returned to the World Championship Superbike Series at one of his favorite tracks. But, as has been custom ary, it was circui t rookie Polen who sat on the pole at the end of Saturday, for the third straight meeting, heading Mertens. And for the second meetin g in a row, Phillis was third. As is usual , Polen led both sessions and became the only man in the 1minute, 34-second bracket with his lastgasp effort at the end of session two. Polen ha d set the time on the Dunlop rear he inte nded to race on, the problem being for the Texan that the harder tire appeared ju st too hard to get the leftside working. However, would the soft rear last? "Tomorrow I'm boogyin g. I want those guys to settle for second," Polen exclaimed in his usual style. "My plan is to rip off two or three 33s and then as many 34s as possible. The tire is very good for 12 laps but I haven 't don e a race distan ce test and the right side is looking a little rough." Mertens wasn't as happy, understa n dab le co n sideri n g h e wa s 0.7 seconds slowe r tha n th e T exan on Pirelli qualifiers after a less than perfect last run: " If I had not missed a gear I would have had as good a time, if not bett er than Polen ," he cla imed. Merten s had su ffered a n electrica l problem and been forced onto h is spa re bi ke in th e mo rni ng, one of the side effects being th at he again decided I ' to stick with steel discs for the rest of the meeting. Phill is, boosted by th e supply of yet more new Micheli ns as the Fren ch tire giant gets its act going again and revelling in the consis tency of Brembo brakes also sho t up the board with hi s .09s slo wer than final lap to be on ly O Merten s: " One or two more laps on that tire and I would have had po le," he com p lain ed. "T hey sho wed me the pit sign three tim es before I saw it. It 's my fault , I'm bli nd, I can 't see." Roche had led the opening day and had been second beh ind Polen in th e first session only to enco un ter tire problems in the second sessio n , complaining of the 1991 Miche li n mal ady of tires warm ing too slow ly, as well as teammate Falappa who lan gu ished in II th , also unable to com e to gri ps wi th th e circuit's big sweeping turns. Pirovan o ro unde d o ut th e front row after a typically trouble-free two day s on th e GP Racing Yamaha. Merkel was sixth, Frida y being marred by wh at h e th o u gh t was th e Rumi H onda jump ing out of gear but was lat er found to be a violent and annoyingly repeti tive mid-throttle backfire. Polen obliged him wit h a big tow in th e final session, bui m uch to Merkel's disappointment, hi s 1:35.74 still left him three-tent hs of a second sho rt of the front row. But he was 0. 14 ahea d of Rymer on the Locti te Yam aha , wh o after being fifth in session one drifted back as he concentrated on tire testing, et al. The rej uvenated Carl Fogarty, now riding the '91 Silkolene Honda and leaving a trail of bloody skin from h is toes around the ban ked tu rn s was eigh th and th e Fi nn J ari Su ho nen, ro u nded out row two on the Arwi dso n Yamah a, despite strikin g a cu rious ma la dy, the fin gers on his left hand going numb while he rode. McElnea had a harm less front end crash on' Saturday mo rn ing at Atlas Kurva n , th e right- ha nder o nto th e start-fin ish straight on his way to 10th, a position which reflects th e increase in pace and amo u nt of development since he last appeared in th e cha mpi onship a t Donington on April I. Christer Lindholm , the race's on ly Swede, was 12th on th e T eam Yamaha Sweden aWO l , he also crashed on Saturday mornin g at th e left-ha nd Hansen Kurvan after a co unte rshaft sprocket seal popped off. The G erman U do Mark wa s a disappointin g 15th , but he had also been a cras her, top pling over softly in the afternoon avoiding Switzerland's Andreas Hofmann , who was havin g h is second crash of the day on the T eam Gree n Kawasaki. Another Germa n , Sven Seidel, was forced onto h is spa re Suzuki Deu tschl and GSXR af ter a sizable first sessio n tumble, also at Atlas . H ofma nn was the only one of those riders injured, brea king a bone in h is ha nd . Ra ce one The weather forecas t tacked on the wall in the press room read in part, " It will be ra in until noon. In the aftern oo n it will stop rai ni ng and th e sun will sh ine." It couldn 't have been more accurate unless the word torrential had been ins erted before rai n. It po ur ed down fro m shortly before th e end of the superbike warm-up u nt il the first race was du e to start a t noon. At 11:30 a.m . it wou ld have been hard to envisage it ceas ing, as a variety of vehicl es cruised aro und the co urse trying to remo ve pools of water fro m the bottom of the ba nked curves, while a he licopter hovered over th e main straigh t, as the rain cont inued to fall. But stop it did, and shortly after-

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