Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

Doug Polen continued his dominance of th e World Championship Superbike Series with two wins in Japan. Polen marches on By Bruce Newton Fil e pho to s by Jolian Vandedcerchove SUGO, JAPAN, AUG, 25 o ug Polen continued one of th e most brilliant runs in modem motorsport history when he took the Fast By Ferracci Ducati to two wins ' a t Sugo in J apan. Polen has now amassed 257 points , from 12 wins in 14 starts. At a tra ck he kn ows well , he als o qualified o n th e pole a nd set a new su perbike lap record. ' H is clo sest challenger, Austral ian Rob Phillis, was second in th e firs t race o n the T eam Kaw asaki ZXR750R bu t fell while trying to p revent anothe r Texan ru naway in ra ce two. , Although a m aximum 200 points is sti ll ava ilable fro m the 10 races left, Po len 's 79-point gap will be im pos sible to bridge barr ing some unj ust d isaster. Phill is, too, is still in a strong posi tion, 44 poi nts a head of the d isappointing CP Yamaha rider Fabri- ' zio P irovano and defe nding champ Raymond Roch e, who had a typ ical 1991 day to finish wit h a sixth a nd a secon d. But pe rhaps th e hi ghl igh t o f the da y - a day wh ere th ere was plenty of good ra cing and th e usually temperamental Sugo weather 'didn 't interfere - was th e performance of Austra lian Kevin Magee. D 20 .Fifth in race one o n th e factory Yamaha and third in race two , th e former G P ace was second fastest to Po len in both races and di splayed ' plenty of hi s old skill a nd verve a nd new -found determination on a bike that wasn 't superfast, particu lary wh en compared to the Du catis, or even th e factory Kawasakis. , Stephane Merten s co ntin ued his shocking recent run, cras hing o u t of race on e and retiring fro m race two. He has now fail ed to score a point in five races and has dropped to fift h in th e champ ionship . Besides Pol en , American fort u nes were ordinary. Sco tt Russell co uldn't quite cl ick onto th e pace on the Muzzy Kawasa ki, Fred Merke l struggled with a new bike and Tom Kipp's forays on the Over Racing Yamaha left him disappointed. Qualifyi n g On ho me soil, th e Japanese manufact urers p u lled out some big guns in a n attempt to quell Polen, There were no less th a n four facto ry Yamahas three Hayashi bikes for Pe ter Godda rd, Niall Mackenzi e and Kenj i O hsa ka and one painted in th e official Yamaha ,Raci ng Team colors for Magee. Austr a lia n Su p erb ik e Cham p ion Aaro n Sligh t and Russell boosted th e G reen Meanie stocks a long with local riders Keiichi Kitagawa a nd Ryuki Ts uruta r id i n g fo r th e Kaw asaki factory satell ite tea m , T eam G reen . Honda had produced a new bike for Merk el, using th e twin pipe engine which ' first ap pea red at Misano for round seven of th e championship, while Yoshimura Suzuki had entered Masanao Oaki on th e familiar black Sieuo Suzuki GSXR. Du cati wasn't relaxing either, with Dav id e Tardozzi returning to the cha m p io nsh ip. In total, there were some 18 (or ' 19 if yo u cou nted the Muzzy Kawasaki) factory or a t least factory-supported m oto r cycles in the race. It was .u ndo ubted ly the best superb ike field ever assembled in terms of rid er and machine quality. Bu t you ca n gu ess what happen ed, ca n 't yo u? That man Pol en simp ly left the m all strugg ling in h is wa ke. Fastest in th e dry on Thursday, a lready under th e lap reco rd, fastest in th e wet o n Fri day after gett ing a last minute run o n slicks o n a narrow dry lin e a nd then do mi nant on Saturday. Wit h Dunlop's new qualifying tire - and that's official, no references to .sofr race rub ber or suc h camouflage at his dis posa l, the T ex an wa s untouchab le on q ualifyi ng day. H alfway through the first session he was out of his leath ers and rela xin g as the others batt led in vain to match h is 1minute, 33.255-seco nd time. In perfec t co ndi tions in sessio n two he locked i t up with a 1:32.859, 88.894 m ph lap. In a nyo ne's language that's a fast ti me at Su go. Daryl BeafJie q ualified on pol e in an All -Japan FI ro und a t th e 2.29-mi le circui t on a factory Honda RVF7 50 last Jul y with a 1:22.8, Niall Mackenzi e was do ing I:32.8 arou nd here last O ctober o n a Suzuki RG V500. ' 'I'm sure it will be closer to morrow," Pol en said. " If it's not, then it will be a big sur p rise to me. I wasn 't surprised abou t the tim e; I kn ew I'd go fast here ,because I've been here before. It wo ul d be ni ce to win he re because I raced in Japan for two years full time, it was m y home a way from home." . . Phillis was seco nd, but perhaps significantl y, setti ng his' time on race tires . Mertens was third and Kitagawa rounded o u t the four-rider front row on th e grid, although his time was suspect. Despite a crash in th e.damp o n th e new bike o n Frida y, Merke l was fifth. Th e ' H o n da p ro vide d fo r Merkel featured the new twin pi pes a nd very d ifferent carburetor a nd sus pensi on settings to what th e Rumi team runs, acco rding to Team Manag er Norris Farrow. T he team elected to perservere with t he new R &D-d eveloped machin e beca use radar trap times sho wed it to be faster tha n a ny of th e eq u ipme nt the team had bro ug ht from Bol ogna, despi te a sizab le carbu ra tio n flat -sp ot tha t pro ved di fficult to trace. Godda rd a nd Mackenz ie led Slig h t a nd Magee, the la tter never satisfied wi th th e suspensio n set up. He led ro w th ree a head of a similarly disconsolate Roch e, his prob lem rela tin g to a rear tir e wh ich lacked sidegr ip a nd his ri gh t forearm which kep t pumpi ng up. Ru ssell was I I th after bl owing h is number on e motor in qualifyin g. ) After two crashes, Roche's tea m mat e Fala ppa had eigh t stitches in his rig h t arm, a wrecked engi ne, a wrec ked bike a nd 14th grid posi tion. Overnight his a rm swelle d a nd he was on ly cleared to race after a chec k-u p on Sunday morning and he mi ssed th e warm -u p. A jet -lagged Tardo zzi was 12th, a si m ila rly affl icted Fab riz io P irovano cou ld manage o n ly 18th a nd -Terry Rymer 19t h after being unable to im prove in the afternoon sessio n after sett ing some promising times in th e morning. Kipp, was 29th and lacking tim e to set th e Yamaha OWOI up th e way he liked it. Spanish Honda rider Daniel Amatriain was forced out of the Sugo a nd Malaysian races after crashing and dis locating his left shoulder in th e fin a l qualifying session. Arnatriain, los t the front end of the Marl boro Honda RC 30 a t the dipping left-bander behind the paddock and with in 10 minu tes fellow -Spaniard Juan Lopez-Mella (Nivea Honda) and Fren chman J ean Yves Mou nier' (So na u to Yamaha) had also crashed . there, although there did not seem to ' be any single reason for th em all to go down in the sam e corner excep t tha t th ey were all o n new Michelin rears, which th is year have slow-warm ing I cha racte rist ics. Race one From the sta rt it was Kawasa ki s to th e fore, a, green sea su rrou ndi ng the sole red Du cat i of Pol en . Mertens ' race was over at the fourth turn, as he highsided a nd fast-sta rt ing Rym er crashed a voiding him . T he Bri ton esca ped u n injured but Merte ns went to the med ical cen ter for an X-R ay on hi s neck, but was fou nd to be okay. T wenty-five-year-old Slight led at th is ear ly stage as Pol en fought clear of Kitagaw a and fast-sta rt ing Ru ssell. Behind th em, Goddar d closed in a head o f Phillis, the latter frustra ted by a poor start. Up the straigh t on th e third lap, 888cc of V-twi n power drove Pol en into the lead . Sligh t br iefly repassed him around the back, but the American

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