Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

_ B~Dlicr~d~o~_~_e_~_'~_:R_OO_~_II ~ l-I V ,.0 o .... u o Fred Merkel (27) leads T erry Rymer (7), Giancarlo Falappa (9) an d Do ug Po len (23) at the start of the firs t race. T he resta rted race two saw Fabrizio Piro vano (2) at th e front of the pack. Polen's the champ! By Bruce Newton Photos by Johan Vandeckerkhove MAGNY COURS, FRANCE, SEPT. 29 o ug Polen and the Fast By Ferracci team deservedl y won the Diesel J eans Superb ike World Championship at Magny Cours with, a pp ro pri ately en o ugh, yet another display of dominance. Two wins here; the first in tri cky damp a n d slippery co n d i tio ns wrapped up the titl e, the seco nd on a dry tra ck enabled Pol en to show hi s co m plete mastery of the class as he ran away to win by 27.54 seconds while setti ng a new lap record. In the end it was all som ewhat anticlimactic, a feeling accentuated by th e grey venue, gr ey weather and small crowd. This had been coming for a long time so relentless and irr esista ble has been the Texan's effort right from the get-go when he qualified on pole for round on e of the championship back in April. Polen 's 14th and 15th wins of the season a lso ensured tha t the manufacturers' championship went to Ducati for . th e first tim e in the history of th e D 26 serres, Th e defeated World Champ ion Raymo nd Roche fought hard on hom e territory and sailed peril ously close to the edge mor e than once as he tri ed to halt the inevitable. Two secondplace fini shes and the move up from third into second place in the World Championship were the factory Ducati rider' s reward. The man he replaced in that position, Rob Phillis, qua lified on pole in the wet o n Saturday but ha d a difficult race da y in th e dry. He managed a fourth in race one desp ite a slip p ing handlebar and firth in race two on his spare Kawasaki ZXR750R af ter he highsided on lap two of race two and forced a restart. Fr ed Merkel (remem b er him ?) showed there was life in the Honda RC30 yet with third in race one, his first podium of the year. Like Yamah amounted Terry Rymer, who posted 54 results, the Californian was able to overcome the deficiencies of hi s motorcycle in the iffy conditio ns by some hard riding. Un fo rtuna tely, poor tir e choice in race two saw him back in the pa ck. But what a pack it wa s! Some of the mea nest, most vicious and su bseq ue nt ly entertaining ra cing of th e year was to be seen as some of th e hardest heads in raci ng - G ia ncar lo Falappa, Fabrizio Piro van o , Carl Fogarty and Rymer - bashed into each o ther. It was like superbike raci ng use d to be B.D. (Before Do ug). Qualifying Magny Cours may be a brand new multi-million franc development, but in the wet and cold whic h persisted th roughout Friday and Saturday it was ra ther bleak . At its best on Friday afternoon, the weather was only barely wort hy of trying slicks and then only for a lap or two .before the rain came again. It was fru strating, particularly considerin g that the 2.64-mile circu it was a total unknown for most of th e rid ers. And no one seemed enamoured with what they found. At least it was reasonab ly safe, although ha ving a hairpin at the end of the fastest stra ig ht drew genera l criticism, as did the last corner wh ich in its design and the close proximity o f co nc rete drew cl o se parall els with the fina l turn at Laguna Seca International Raceway, although th is was a right rather than left-hand corner. Organized by th e French FIM affiliate, the FFM , the meeting at tim es threaten ed to becom e shambo ll ick. On Friday, Saturday and Sunday there were long delays because of oil or lubricant lea ks that had fourd their way to the track su rface. As a result, the first qualifying sessio n on Saturday , originally due to start at 10:30 a.m ., did not get underway until well after noon. With th e bad weather, ot her irritants such as the refusal of gate marshalls to recognise th e official FIM superbike seaso n pass and general dislike of th e circu it layout, there was little affection felt for the meeting. The o ne point o n which the orga nizers, headed by former racer J acques Boll e, were lauded was their removal of dangerous, jagged, car -style ripple str ips from the outside of th at fin al corner and the placement of extra ha y bales there. The only bright spot for those on Japanese bikes was that the conditions helped to bri ng them level against the Ducatis, or a t least closer to them. In the case of Phill is it was pas t them , for he stuck th e factory Kawasaki ZXR750R on pole, th e first time a Duca ti has no t occu pied that position th is season and the first time the Australian has been in the number one start ing spot since Mansfeild, New Zea la nd, last November. It was Polen who go t closest to Ph illis' o ne- m in u te, 57.06 -second, 81.435 mph lap, cu tti ng near ly five seconds to 1:57.65 in sessio n two after findin g th at th e Duca ti's weight bias was not he lpi ng th e front wh eel to grip o n th e slippery surface, particularl y in th e few left-hand corners. A series of sus pension adjustments and a full fuel load did the tri ck, although he never headed Phillis. P h ill is had hi s own problems, with th e Kaw asaki m isfiring and ba ckfiring early in session two until th e water -l ogged ignit ion box wa s repl aced. H e h ad a lso tr ied a va rie ty o f different Michelin wets in both sessions befor e an experi menta l rear tire - in terms of bo th compound an d tread pa ttern - that had been sitting in the back of the tru ck for someti me was pulled ou t to ward the end of sessio n two as Polen attacked. Gi an carl o Fal appa had been th e Du cati rider who bri efl y kn ock ed P h ill is from pol e in sessio n two , setti ng a 1:58.77 lap, before T eam Manager Marco Lucchinell i decided enough was enough and pulled him in and told him he did a 56, a tim e Falappa swore he actually could have do ne: " Bu t if he was firs t (in q ual ifying) I don 't think he wou ld sleep tonight an d he wou ld make a mistak e' a t the firs t corner," smi led Lucchinelli. These three were the only o nes to improve their times amo ng the leading riders from session one, the afte rnoon actua lly bei n g somew hat wetter. Rymer was fourth: "I want it to rain every race next year ifI ride a Yamaha," he la ughed, ahea d of the more do lefu l Pirovan o, who di d a good jo b co nsidering he was sporting a bro ken right big toe and bad back from his cra sb at Misa no in the second round of th e Italian Championship the previous weekend. Next came some real surprises. First off wa s rain-loving Finn Jari Suhonen on the Arwidson Yam ah a who had been fourth after sessio n one, then Carl Fogarty on the Silkolen e Honda aft er to uc h i ng o ne o f th e incre di b Iy slippery painted lin es in a fast corner and being flicked off the highside in sessio n one. Merke l was a fogged up eighth on the Rum i Ho nda RC30 and, first Pirell i rid er, th en came Daniel Amatriai n, th e Spa ni ard riding a Honda espec ially set up for the wet on J ea n D' H ollan der's dyno, the ace tuner suspecti ng such condi tio ns might be encountered before ha nd. Roche was o n ly 10th , bu t with no rea l prob lems he wo u ld admit to , then Mertens p la cing th e Tota lWa nty Du cati II th af ter batt li ng to find th e right tire choice, even tually going' for the 17-inch Pirell i rear, whereas Merkel was sticki ng with th e 18 inc h. Notables furt her back were Sco t Brian Morrison in 16th o n the Dram bui e Yamaha, World Endurance Championship leader Alex Vierra 18th on the Kawasaki Fra nce ZXR750R, Jean Yves Mounier a disappointed 20th on th e Sona uto Yamaha, Jeff DeVri es 21st, 1988 World Endurance Champion and talented wet weather rider Thierry Crine 24th on a private Kawasaki, Juan Lopez Mella 30th after crashing the Nivea Honda yet again. Race One Predictably Sunday daw ned beautiful and bright wi th hardly a clo ud in the sky. T hat cha nged in sho rt order though, th e clouds closi ng in to prevent the sun from drying the track completely for the first of two 58-mi le races. . So altho ugh it never rained, the race wou ld start da mp, with p lenty of wet patches and ceme nt dust around much of th e circuit as well, thanks to oi l lai d during the French Superbike Championship race earlier in th e day. "There's dust everywhere," declared Pol en aft er co m p leti ng hi s warm -up lap. " T h is is going to be interesting.': Such ar e the lack of nerves of a man o n the edge of a World Championship

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