Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

TransAtl antic Match Ra ce cha mpion Ra y Stringer was 32nd, unable to get hi s hi gh co m p ression Mobil I Yam aha to ca rb urate a nd des ti ned to hardly com p lete a raci ng lap, wh ile th e sensa tio n o f the Swedish round, Christer Lindholm, was all at sea on setu p a nd just made it into 35th position. The fin al q ual ifier was Vi tt o ria Sca rola. ridi ng a Yamaha ra ther tha n a Bim ota as he o nly has a co n tract to co ntest th e Ital ian cha m pionsh ip for th e lauer. He was better off tha n th e m an wh o repl aced him on the T esi, So uth African Russell Wood , w ho crashed hea vil y at th e seco nd chica ne o n Frid ay a nd brok e bon es in his left hand, putting him and th e team o ut for th e weekend a nd maybe o u t of superbike racing for good. The ca use of Wood 's crash was quite unusu al. The o il fill er ca p had sp lit, that blamed o n th e vibration of th e 1000cc V-tw in, and oil pumped o u t as he tipped th e bike in to the chi ca ne. N on -qual ifi er s in cluded R en e Delaby, who cras hed and broke his righ t th igh; Juan Lopez Mell a, who also crashed; and Piorg iorgio Bontempi, a no ther cra sher. In all, 58 riders attempted to qualify. Subtract the first two from th e equation and th e final 36 were separa ted by less than four seconds. Race one Pol en won it. Roche lost it. The sto ry vari ed according to wh o yo u spo ke to. From th e sta rt th e two fastest qualfiers had been in extricably linked. Roch e, aft er putting his arm in the ai r prior to th e sta rt to indicate his single cylinder problem which th en clea red u p, led lap one, Pol en two throu gh . eigh t, Roche fo r a la p , th en Pol en a nd Roch e again. Pol en hit back to lead on the 13th a nd pe n u lti ma te la p and was never head ed again : " I mad e a m istake a t th e second ch ica ne, my bik e was mov ing too much ," said Roche, unhappy with suspension again . " I thi n k I.can win if I stay with h im, bu t I lose th e slipstrea m." But as far as Pol en was concerned, th e fin al winnin g gap o f 1.37 seco nds was all down to him : " It just loo ked like it was going to be d ifficult to br eak aw ay from the start beca use hi s bike was as fast as m in e. But I was faster tha n h im in th e sta diu m and I cou ld dri ve away from h im o ff Os tk u rve whe n I did it right. " Whe n I was in from we went faster , whe n he led we slowed down. I j us t abo u t hit him two or th ree times in the stadi u m." For th e record, Roche set th e fastest la p a t 2:04.68, P ol en d id a 2:04.78. Roch e's time would stand as the new lap record a t the end of the day. Beh ind the m, Tardozzi ca me out on top of a similarly close ba ttle wi th Phill is for third. The Kawasaki rider ha d a poor sta rt and swept right through th e top group to be clea rly th ird after four la ps, bu t Tardozzi began peggi ng h im back slo wly as Phillis' rear Michelin faded and o n lap 12 he took third and held it to the end. Phill is had plan ned to a ttack but mi ssed th e pi t boa rd tell ing him that it was th e last la p : " I had hi m co ld, there was no wa y I was going to lose," he moaned afterwards. " T he b ike's so fast," he ad ded, cheering u p. " I go t a bad sta rt bu t I didn't have a ny trouble passing an yon e." Mert ens was a lucky fif th , after fighti ng false neutrals all through the race. In th e Sachskurve, with Falappa and P iro va no right beh ind h im, he found yet another one a nd th ought he would be passed by both of th em . Bu t Pi ro vano had tried to stuff under him on ly to go slid ing wid e; kn ocking Falappa off the road and cra sh ing to the ground h im self. The Du ca ti ride r some how managed to keep upright a nd o ut of the guard rail and got back o n th e track for sixth. • But Pi rovano wa s down on the edge of th e tra ck and fighting mad,lit erally. While he tried to p ick his bike up he too k sw ings at a nd connec ted with at least two marshalls and went after a nothe r. H e didn ' t ge t bac k in to the race a nd th e FIM too k a d im view of th e incide nt, fining him 500 Swi ss francs. " T he mar sha ll grabbed my hand a nd p u lled it a way from the bike." ex p lai ned a n a pologetic P irova n o la ter. " I was very nervous a nd I hi t him because I wanted to start m y bik e a nd make so me points. " Rymer had been looking good for better than sevent h, but he ra n o ff o n braking for the stadi u m on lap I I. He was by himself for the rest o f the race a nd co mforta bly ahead of a sim ilarly lonely Udo Mark, th e leading G erman. Fogarty led home th e "se cond class freight tra in " as he labeled it , ou tbra king Sch ny de r Du cati r id er Edwin Weibel into the stadium, with J ean Yves Mounier, Thomas Franz and J eff De Vries close behind aft er an exci ting ra ce, long battle. Notables to -miss o ut were Merk el, ' wh o had been as high as -fifth before a valve dropped and holed a piston. G erman T oni Heiler highsided ou t o f the "second- class pack " and to ok co mp a tr io t Bernd Caspers with him . McElnea brok e a spark plug, 15th fastest qualifier J ean-Mich el Mat tioli go t such a bad sta rt th a t he pulled in , S tri nger o ve r hea ted a n d Rub atto su ffered a n ele c tric fa i l u re wh il e cli m bing back th rough the pack aft er a bad start. Race two This was going to be anothe r patented Pol en runaw ay as he strove hard and succeeded to br eak th e draft back to Roch e a nd fast-sta rt ing Fa lappa whi le th e rest d isa p peared behind the ir booming twins. After three laps, Pol en had a 2.45seco nd cush io n on th e Roch e/Fal appa trai n whi le Phill is had fought through from hi s second successi ve bad start to lea d Mark, Pi ro vano (on his spare bi ke), Tardozzi, Rymer a nd Merte ns. The first hint th at things mi ght no t go smooth ly for Polen came o n la p eig h t when th e V-twi n sta rted vibrating excess ively. Three la ps lat er, with a co mfor ta ble six-seco nd lead , he had a big slide o ut o f Ostkurve, his foo t felt warm an d wh en he loo ked down he saw o il over his right boo t. As he head ed into th e stadium on la p 12. Roch e, now clear in seco nd, had close to within 2.3 seconds, a lap lat er he took the lead th ere, gesturing in sympathy with his rival as he did so. The Ferr acci 888 was now smo king heavi ly. La ter, Ferracci said that a line to the o il cooler had vibrated loose, but it was easy 'to suspect that it was so meth ing worse. Neve rt heless Pol en continued on. The way the oil vents u ndern ea th the Du ca ti mea ns tha t it doesn't tend to sp lash onto the rear wheel. " It was more o n me than anything," Po len said . " It wasn 't th a t m uch but it was enough for m y foo t to keep sliding off the peg." Wh ile Roch e took a win tha t he open ly admitted was "lucky ," and Polen came in fo r an equally lu cky second. T h ird was not so clear cu t, for Phillis had caught a nd passed Fa lappa on lap nine much to the a p precia tion o f th e cro wd. But Falappa came back at him a nd a lthough Phillis led on th e last lap th e Ital ian did a "desperate" a t th e Doug Polen extended his championship lead over.Rob Phillis to 108 points. Rob Phillis (4 ) leads Mertens (3) and Pirovano (2) in the battIe for third place. first ch ica ne to seal an em otiona l first rostrum of the year. Far more emotional as far as the crowd was co ncerned was Mar k winning the battle fo r fift h against Mertens , P i rova n o , Tardozzi a nd Rymer. The German had a ltered the EXUP for more bottom -end power in race two , ridden his heart ou t a nd earned mo re pl audits th an Roche as a reward. An equally fierce ba ttl e for 10th was won by Fogarty ahead of Weibel, Finn J ari Suhonen , Rubano, Caspers and Kellenberger. Merkel stopped again when th e o il began leaking from a breather pipe, a result, the team adm itted, of the hurried engine swa p . De Vries a nd Mounier both m issed out on points. the former after he o ut- braked him self at the chicane, th e la tter after crashing. Polen no w leads Phill is by 103 points and Roche by 107 and they ar e his o nly challengers, although only in theory. IC he leads them by more than 100 po ints after the first race of the French ro u nd on Sept ember 29, th en the battle for the cham pionshi p is ove'r. CN Giancarlo Falappa (2:06.76); 10. Pe ter R ub a n o (2:07.43); I I. Udo Mark (2:07.49); 12. Rob MeElnea (2:07.74); 13. T . H eiler (2:07.92); 11. J aTi Suhonen (2:07.98); 15. Jellry De Vries (2:08.09). RACE ONE: I. Doug Po len (Due); 2. Raymond Roch e (Due); 3. David e T ardozzi (Due ); 4. Ro b Ph illi s ( Ka w) ; 5. Stephane Mer ten s (Due) ; 6. Giancarlo Fa lappa (Due); 7. Terry Rymer (Yarn ); 8. Udo Mark (Yarn) ; 9. Carl Fogarty (Han); 10. Edwi n Weibel (Due); 11. J -Y Mounier (Yam); 12. T . Fra nz (H a n); 13. Je llry De Vries (Ya m); 14. J an Suhonen (Yam); 15. Daniel Ama tria in (H a n ). T im e.: 29 min. , 21.44 sec, Di.... nce: 14 laps. 58.937 mil es. Average Speed: 120.490 mph . F astes t La p: Raym on d Roch e, 2:04.68, Lap 8. RACE TWO: l. Ra ymond Roch e (Due); 2. Dou g Polen (Due); 3. Giancar lo Fa lappa (Due); 4. Rob Phillis (Kaw); 5. Udo Mar k (Yam) ; 6. Stephan e Merlen s (Du e); 7. Fab rizio Pirovano (Yam); 8. Da vide T ardozzi (Due); 9. T erry Rymer (Ya m ); 10. Carl Fogarty (H a n); II . Alex Weibel (Yarn ); 12. Jari Suho nen (Ya m); 13. Peter Rubano (Yam ); 14. B. Cas pers (Due); 15. M. Kellenb erger (Ya m). T ime : 29 min. , 27.79 sec. Dista nce: 14 la ps, 58.9:i7 miles, Avcrago Speed: 120.057 mph. Fures. Lap: Doug Polen. 2;04.8. Lap 3. WORLD C' SHIP POINT STANDINGS: l. Doug Polen (318); 2. Rob Phi lli s (2 15); 3. Ra ymond Roche (21I); 4. Fabrizi o Pirova no (175); 5. Step han e Mertens (159); 6. Carl Fogart y (118); 7. (TIE) Terry Rymer! David e Tardozzi (108); 9. (T IE) Fred Merk el! Gia ncar lo Falappa (95). Results Q UAUFYING : I. Doug Pole n (2:04.40/ 122.209 mph ); 2. Raymond Roch e (2:04.67); 3. Fred Merkel (2:06.09); 4. Fabriz io Pircv ano (2:06.32); 5. Davide T ardozzi (2:06.38); 6. Rob Ph ill is (2:06.71); 7. Terry Rymer (2:06.62); 8. Stephane Men ens (2:06.71); 9. 17

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