Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

that he ca n have a casua l co nversatio n o n the gr id. While Pol en elec ted to stay with slicks, as did Pirovano, all arou nd was a sea of indecision and last-mi nute gambles. P hill is, Rymer, Roche a nd a host of o thers went for intermediate fronts , while Falappa chose intermediatesIroru a nd rear. Piro va no got the start but in the fast sweeper on the first lap his throttle cab le broke. Im med ia tely he shot his ha nd in the air and bik es somehow went flying past him o n both sides without ma king co n tac t: " I was afraid," reco unted the littl e Ita lia n la ter. " I stayed in the midd le of the trac k a nd hoped all the o thers would get past me. " Added Roche: " I prayed for h im because so ma n y rid ers came toward him (with their ) heads down." , The lead er was Merkel, Pirelli slicks at both ends, then Rymer, Falappa and Polen tog ether, with a gap back to ' Phillis, Fogarty, Roche, Swede Christer Lindholm, Arnatriain, P iergi orgio Bonternpi, De Vries and Swiss Bruno Barnrnert. , For five glorious laps the Rumi RC30 held its once rightful place at the front of the 'field and for four of them Rymer was a n equally distinguished second. But Polen was coming, although finding that the soft rear tire he had chosen was already wheelspinning excessivel y. But on lap six he moved through to the lead and within a lap and a haI£ had stretched hi s ad van tage to 2.85 seconds. r Phillis was second by the six th lap and it was a good effort considering h e'd discovered to his horror on the first lap that the right-hand handlebar was slipping. " It was co m ing back to the tank, the bike kept o n wanting to turn left, " he said lat er. But Phillis still managed to a tta ck Polen a little, cu tting the gap to 2.25 seconds on lap 14 as the Am erican tantal izingly slo wed. But it was back to 3.2 seco nds a lap later, and at the checkered flag a jubilant new World Ch ampion had secu red the win by 3.44 seconds. " It was pretty ten se out there leading the race knowing I ca n win the cha m p io nsh ip if I kept this position," Polen said. " By th e end th e rear tire was pretty worn - it was a soft com po und so I'll go harder for race two and it shou ld be a lot better. " Behind h im the battle raged for second, Rym er displaced Merk el for third o n lap nine a nd started pressing Phillis, whil e behind them all Roche was closing the gap. No matter how hard Rymer auacked Phillis he did not have th e to p-end to bea t the Ka wasak i a nd wh en Roche ra n him off th e dry line at the hairpin on . lap 19 while passing hi m for th ird ,' Merkel ni pped by for fourth as well . At the co mpletio n of that lap Roche du cked under Phillis wh ile brak ing for the last corner to take second. By th e end of th e foll owing lap, Merkel had di spatched the Kawasak i rid er back to fourth, again blocking Rymer. That was the way th ey finished, the four of them split by just 1.25 seconds. So the only three men ever to win the Superbike World Championship stood together on the rostrum after race one, and for Merk el it was his first such position of the year. His grin said it all. "I was using the softest front tire we've got, but it was too soft ," Merkel said later. " It was a real gamble because nobody's had any dry time at all, but I just hung in there riding as hard as I could and hoping to not fall down. " Fogarty came through for a typical fighting sixth, ruing his switch from slicks to intermediate front. He'd had to dodge Falappa's crashing Ducati at Doug Polen celebrates his first-ever World Championship on the rostrum. the hairpin on lap eight, the Italian losing the front end after hitting oil. Mertens, very critical of the start, fought back through a bevy of Yamaha privateers to finish seventh. He later launched a protest, demanding that riders who jumped the start be brought to justice. He received no joy despite a pre-race warning by the FIM Jury that anyone seen moving before the green would i ncu r a one-minute penalty. The rest were led by Morrison, wh o passed Suhonen with just three corners to go after the latter had fought back fr om a shocking st art. Bammert rounded o u t the top 10. DeVries had ris en as high as seven th , six seconds in front of eighth on lap nine only to have hi s soft rear Dunlop send him sliding backwards to 12th pl ace. Lindholm missed a gear , ran off , but managed to salvage a point for 15th. Amatriain too ran off after lock ing up the rear and he dumped it o n th e gr ass just as he was abo ut to rejoin. He eventually did get go ing again but finished 20th with no points. Race Two By this time the track was virtuall y dry. Sli cks were in order all round and vari ous su spension a nd gearing tweaks had been mad e by all after th e expe ri enc e of race one. Rym er gained the holeshot with Pi rov ano, Fog arty, Phillis, Fal appa, Pol en , Merkel, Mertens a nd Ro ch e forming the lead gr oup, while Amatria in led the rest. But it all came to a quick red-flagged end on lap two as Phillis dove inside Fo gart y at Adel aide hairp in a n d succeeded on ly in hi ghsiding in gra nd fashion from th e Kawasak i. Four o ther ri ders; Bonternpi, Suhonen, P et er Rubatto a nd Christophe Guyot got ca ug ht u p .i n th e co n fus io n a n d cras hed to the gr ound, while Falappa was run off the track. None of th e cras hers were serio us ly injured, but o n ly Phillis a n d Su ho ne n would restart, the latter requiring on ly a new gear lever. Phillis needed a new bike, riding the remnants of hi s ZXR back to the pits while his crew worked overtime to get th e spare - which had seen just three laps servic e all weekend - ready to go. "I gassed it up too much and high-sided, about 15 guys came down behind me," Phillis exclaimed as he limped into the garage: "My foot is killing me, I think I've broken about four toes." . But according to marshalls, a Belgian photographer, Polen and Falappa, some liquid leaked from Phillis' bike just before his crash so Polen showed his back to the field as he won both races and the World Championship. it may not have been simply a case of too much throttle. The bike was later inspected by team manager Peter Doyl e but no obvious signs of a leak were found: " It's destroyed though," he confirmed. " It ben t the frame, swing arm, forks , triple clamps, even th e engine probably, because the case protectors have been pushed in. It must have been quite a crash ." With the race restarted from zero laps, Phillis was entitled to take his pl ace back on pole, but he got a poor start - understandably - and Pirovano led R ym er , Fogarty, Pol en , Merkel, Roche, Amatrian , Phillis, Mertens, Suhonen, Lindholm, Edwin Weib el and Falappa th rough on th e first lap. Pol en was wasting no time, though, slicing into th e lead lap two, leading and by 2.75 seconds on lap three, 4.36 o n lap four and so on. H e just kept ex tending it in a World Champion 's display of utter dominance, setting th e lap record at 1:44.98, 2.4 seco nds bett er than th e record he 'd established in leg one a nd nearly a second faster than anyo ne else in race two. " I got a good start and I just decided how hard I cou ld ' go for as long as I co u ld," he exp la ined aft erwards. " At the end, just for fun , I decided to see just how fast I could go ." Hi s winn in g margin wa s 27.54 seconds, a n incredi ble su per iority by" superbike standards and th e biggest margin since Au stralian Peter Goddard's victory a t Oran Park in 1989. Theman who eventually came hom e seco nd again was Roch e, br eaking clear of the rest early on and pursu in g Pol en as har d as he co u ld a nd nearl y payin g the price a co u p le of times. H e encou ntered dramas ' wi th h is rear Michelin a nd he was not alone for once, use rs of th e Fren ch product generally struggling. T h ird was Mert ens, he a nd Phillis had co me right through the huge, ha ggl in g, ill-tempered pack together, a n d o nce th e Au stralian ' s fr ont Mich el in had faded away he pounced for th ird. Phill is' problem s were such in th e end that his fin e ride on ly netted him fifth, as Rymer broke a way from th e rest to pass him on lap 20 for fourth. Pirovano led the group, just defeating Fogarty, Falappa and Weibel's Ducati - the latter coming on stro ng in the last few laps - and Merkel, who had faded as his rear tire gave up. For most of the race Pirovano and Falappa had frustrated Rymer, Fogarty and Merkel: "T hey were so slow in the corners but they had so much grunt, " exclaimed Fogarty, in a typi cal comment. Rymer managed to break free of them only after intentionally Tboning Falappa to get past him and that was one of a seri es of "brain-inthe-toolbox" moves these combatants pulled on each other. Entertaining for the spectators for su re, but when ' Falappa hit Rymer on the helmet in the Parc Farme it wasn 't in good ' humored fun. Nothing further came of that incident th ankfully, althou gh ge tti ng his head thumped would be nothing new for Rymer, or the rest of them for th at matter. After all, Polen 's been making them bang their heads against a bri ck wall all year. Cl'I Results QUAUTYING: I. Rob Phillis (1:57.06/81.4'5 mph ); 2. Dou g Polen (I :57.65): , . G ianca rlo FaJall"" (1:58.77): 4. T erry Rymer (1:59.66): 5. Fab rizio Piro vano (2:00.0 1): 6. J ari Suho nen (2:00.28): 7. Carl Fogarty (2:00.'5); 8. Fred Merkel (2:00.40); 9. Dan iel Ama tnain (2:00.50); 10. Ra ymond Roch e (2:0 1.04); I I. Stepha ne Menens (2:01.04); 12. Chri sror lindholm (2:01.05); U . Bruno Hammen (2:01.52); 14. Piergiorgio Bontempi (2:0 1.35); 15. Brian Morrison (2:.0 1.44); 16. Roben Ghesaux (2:01.47); 17. Peter Rubano (2:01.54); 18. Alex VIerra (2:0 1.68); 19. Phili p pe Mouch et (2:0 1.86); 20. Yves Monnier (2:0 1.87); 21. Jelfry De Vries (2:01.96); 22. Michel Mattioli (2:02. 18); ~. Edwin Weibel (2:02.'7); 24. Thierry Crine (2:02.'9); 25. Serge David (2:02.5'); 26. Christophe Guyot (2:02.7 1); 27. Christian La vieilfe (2:03.11); 28. Bruno Bonhuil (2:03.32); 29. Sagardogui Ma (22:0' .5 1); 30. Juan Lopez Mella (2:03.55); 3 1. Pi erre Imstepf (2:03.62); 32. Florian Ferraci (2:03.65); 33. Marcel Kellenber ger (2:03.76); 34. Steve Manl ey (2: 0~.87 ); '5. Emmanuel Len taign e (2:03.90); 36. Lu e Romanens (2:03.92); 37. Yanmek Legauto (2:03.96); 38. Peter Krummenach er (2:04.08); 39. Andreas Meklau (2:04.25); 40. Urs Zwicker (2:06.04); 41. Amon &rgh ammer (2:07.06); 42. Marc Lo ngo (2:08.60); U Ern st Gsch wender (2:09.20); 44. Andre Lu saiana (2:10.16). RACE ONE: I. Dou g Pol en (Due); 2. Raym ond Roch e (Due); 3. Fred Mer kel (H on ); 4. Roben Phillis (Ka w); 5. Terry Rymer (Yam); 6. Carl Fogar ty (Hon); 7. Srepha ne Merten s (Duc); 8. Brian Morri son (Yam); 9. Jan Suhonm (Yam); 10. Bruno Bam mert (Yam); II. Piergi orgi o Bon temp i (KaW); 12. Jeffry De Vries (Yam); 13. Michel Manioli (Kaw); 14. Edwin Weibel (Due); 15. Christor Lindholm (Yam) ; 16. Jua n Mella Lopez (H on) ; 17. Marcel Kellenberger (Yam ); 18. Rob ert Cheba ux (Han ); 19. Christophe G UY OI (H on) ; 20. Daniel Amatriain (H a n); 21. Bruno Bonhui1 (Yam); 22. Da vid Berge (H a n): ~ . Peter R u ba n o (H o n); 24 . P ierr e I mst epf ( Due) ; 25. Sagardogui Ma (Yam ). Time: 40 m in ., 06.75 sec. Distance: 22 laps, 58.242 mil es. Average Speed: 87. U9 mph. Margin o( Victory: 3.44 sec. Fanest Lap: Doug Pol en. 1:47.38. RACE TWO: I. Dou g Polen (Due); 2. Ra ymond Roche (Due); ,. Stephane Mert ens (Due); 4. Terry Rymer (Yam) ; 5. Rob P hill is (Kaw); 6. Fabrizio Piro van c (Yam); 7. Carl Foganr (H on ); 8. Giancarlo Falappa (Due): 9. Edwin w elbet (Due); 10. Fred Merkel (Hon ); 11. Brian Morri son (Yam); 12. Jan Suhone n (Ya m); 13. Daniel Amatriain (Hen) : 14. J effry De Vries (Yam) ; 15. Philippe Mouehet (Yam); 16. Christor Lindholm (Yarnl ; 17. Bruno Bammert (Ya m); 18. Juan Lopez Mel a (Han); 19. Florian Ferra ci (Due); 20. Pierre Im stepf (Due); 21. Marcel Kellenberger (Yam); 22. Serge David (H on); 23. Sagardougui Ma (Yam ); 24. Steve Manley (Yam); 25. Lu c Romanens (Yam). Time: 38 min., 54.92 sec. Distance: 22 laps, 58.242 miles . Average Speed: 89.820 mph. Margin o(Vietory: 27.54 sec r...... Lap: Doug Polen, 1:44.98. . C'SHIP POIN T STANDINGS: I. Dou/l Polen (~58); 2. Raymond Roch e (245); s. Rob PhiIhs ( ~9); 4. Fabrizio Pirovano (I85 ); 5. Stephane Mertens (183); 6. Carl Fogany (137); 7. Terry Rymer (132); 8. Fred Merkel (116); 9. DavideTardozzi (108); 10. Giancarlo Falappa (10'); II. Udo Mark (68); 12. Jari Suhonen (57); I'. Jeffry De Vries (54); 14. Scou Russell (5~); 15. Juan Lopez Mella (5'). 27

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