Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

BROIDUcrhW~~~_~_~_S_~_~:_b_oo_d_12_~ ~ Raymond Roche (I) and Doug Polen (23) battled in Italy; Polen won th e first leg, but Roche turned the tables in the second . Polen,Roche share glor Italy yin By Bruce N ew to n Photos by Johan Va n de ckerkh ove M UGELLO, ITALY ocr. 6 , hether it's good or bad, a rac e in Italy alway s inspires strong emotions . Unfortunately in the case of the Diesel J ea ns Superbike World C ha m pio ns hip rou n d a t Mu gell o, th e feeli ngs were overwhelmingly weighted toward the negative. The new Wor ld Ch a mpion , Doug P ol en , and his predecesso r, Ra ym ond Roch e, shared th e wins and seconds . T he T exan qualified on pol e, nipped th e factory Ducati rider on the last lap o f th e dry fir st race, and set a new lap record, while Ro ch e brok e a way to a clear wi n later in th e afternoon in the first wet race of th e year, exp lo iting a rare tire advan tage. But th eir resul ts, while pe rso nally pl easing, were over-shadowed by th e dramas a nd injuries su ffered by others. Italian Du caLi rid er Davide Tardozzi was ru sh ed to th e ho spital Saturda y even ing with severe head injuries after a sick ening collison , while Rob Phillis suffered a co ncu ssion Sunday morning wh en he crashed the Team Kawasaki ZXR750R o n another bike's oil. Sunda y even ing, Tardozzi was reported to be in a n impro ving co n d i tio n in Floren ce H ospital while Phillis was alread y heading for Mil an and flight home, all cha nces of co llecti ng second ' in th e ch a m p ionsh ip gon e. T ra gedy of a different kind struck Roche's teammate Gi ancarlo Falappa, who led th e second race by a n enormous margin only to ha ve his ep ic rid e cu t from under him by a n electr ica l problem. But th ere were some good points th rough all th is. T erry Rymer co llected two thi rd s o n th e Loctite Yamaha , while. th e likes of Pi ergiorgio Bon tempi, J eff De Vri es, Edwin Weib el and Steve Manley ga ined more points th an usual by dar ing th e cond itions in race two. W a 14 Fred Merk el 's year ended as he'd travell ed th rough most of it, withou t success. Hi s o nly consol a tio n was th at th is was his last SWC ro und of the year. Qualifying A curious sor t of cal m hung over th e pits Friday a nd Saturday , maybe it was that th e championship fig h t was over - suc h as that fig ht ha d been mayb e th at the vast spaces of.Mugello dissipa ted wh at a tmo sp here there was . Vast is indeed th e right wo rd for this i m p re ss ive co m p lex. Red evel oped with Fiat money, it lies in the hear t o f spectac u lar Tuscany, mou ntai n ranges ringing th e horizon , forests of olive trees speckli ng the surrou nds o f the 3.24-m ile circui t. In a ra re ac hieveme nt - a nd you needed on ly to thi nk back to Magny Cours to realize that - whoever was responsibl e' for the develo pment o f Mugell o had done a fin e job , com plete safety without doomin g th e pl ace to mediocrity. The o n ly real co mp lai n t was about the bumps: " If th e GP g uys had to co me here and race next week th ey'd boycott this pl ace," sai d Merk el. " I last rod e here five months ago and it was smooth. Now it's lik e th ey've been running 24- ho u r tru c k races co ntin uo us ly." _ Wh ether it was th e b umps, the undulating nature of the circuit which tested o u t th e front end, or sheer bad fortune as in T ardozzi's case, th ere were p lenty of accidents. Dani Am atriain started it off o n Friday , losing the fro nt end o f the Marlboro H on da in th e downhill left Save ll i tu rn, d islocat ing hi s le ft shoulder for th e third time th is year a nd endi ng h is inv ol vem ent in th e 1991 cham pio nship . On Saturday, Phillis and Merk el had bo th crashed in th e first sessio n o n th e last lap a fter losing th e front end. In the afternoon, Rym er and Morrison ha d both cras hed as well, th e former mysti fied to find himself sitt ing o n th e gro u nd on a slow down la p, th e latter yet a nother to lose th e front end. The wors t cras h in volved Tardozzi and De Vries.The Ital ian, abo u t to set o ff o n a qual ifying tir e run, h igh-sided righ t in front of the poor Dutchman . in th e fin al turn, Bucine, and th e Yamaha rider ran over T ardozzzi 's neck before tumbling to th e ground him self. DeVr ies was okay, but Tardozzi d idn't mov e until a fter he'd been scoo ped up in th e ambulance. Once he go t back to th e Clinica Mobili, he was in iti ally judged to be o ka y, barring a co ncuss io n and a cu t under hi s chi n wh ich required six sti tches. But it got mu ch more serio us very quick ly and he was rushed to Florence Hospi tal for a CAT scan a n d th en em er ge n cy su rgery. The next morning the news was good , h e was aw ak e, off the respirator and ta lking to hi s wife. The en tire paddock br eathed a sigh o f relief. Through all this, the normal process of practice and qualifying had been proceed ing and th at meant Po len on pole a t one-minute, 58.336-seconds (98.928 mph), his ninth of th e season an d achieved despi te ' so m e hairy mo ments on th e bumps and depressio ns : " I got into the biggest o u t of shape th in g of the year," he exclaime d. " It was quite in teresting, it went all th e way to th e locks, I think I moved th e clip -e ns!" There was one o the r problem which he didn' t choose to mention ' at th e tim e. The to ta l-loss battery system was losing pow er too quick ly and after he pulled in after setting his fastest time, Ferracci was unable to restart .it. The _ problem was tra ced to the electro n ic fuel pump, a similar affliction striking th e facto ry bike in th e Bol d 'Or two weeks before. Pol en al so had one new advantage, Mar chesini p ro viding him wi th a specially-comm issio ned 6.5-in ch rear ri m: "I've Ioundsomething th at really works," he ent h used. " It's lik e ni ght and da y," ' Merk el was seco n d, albei t 1.267 seconds sl ow er , putting h is s peed down to a willi ngness to push hard th rough th e ro ugher fast stuff, a Pi rell i qu alifier a n d ge tt i ng hi s " b lood p u rnp in ' " by chasing Pol en on his quickest lap. Roch e was third, only jumping from 2:0 1s to 1:59.651 in the last co u ple of m inutes as he tried yet another Mich el in rear tire and found th at it worked. An o th er P ir ell i r id er , Ste p ha ne Merten s, wa s fourth o n th e Tota l Wanty Ducati, a head of Pirovan o o n th e o u tside o f row on e, still battling with hi s sore ba ck from hi s Misano accid ent. Tardozzi set sixth fastest time but would not start. Rymer was next, hi s time from session one - when he'd been second to Po len - was good eno ugh to keep him o n row two a head of th e unhappy Phillis, who was very much lost. . Rounding o u t th e top 10 qualifiers were Falappa a nd Morri son on th e Drambuie Yamaha. Back in 14th was Virginio Ferrarri, having hi s first World Ch am pi onsh ip Su perbike rid e on a Mich el in -sh od , factory-en gined Du cat i, hav in g escaped' the RB Kaw asaki team. In th e Su nday mornin g warm -u p, things got much wo rse for Phillis wh en he crashed on oi l left by the H onda of 12th qualifi er Fab r izio Fu ria n a t th e righ t-hand Sca rperia turn. Swiss Bruno Bammert also fell foul of th e oi l a nd Phillis, lyin g face up, was lu cky no t to be hit by the flyin g Yamaha. . Fo rtunatel y, Phill is s u ffered nothing wors e tha n co ncussio n but it put h im o u t for the meeting: " He doesn' t kn ow wha t da y it is," said T eam Manager Peter Doyle. " It's a danger for himself and everybody else if he goes o u t there." Race one The weather was a t its dullest since th e meeting began, but the racing was bright th roughout. It was Pirovano from the start, leading Falappa, Roch e, Rym er , Merkel, Fogarty and Polen , with Falappa assert ing himself at th e front before th e end of th e lap. Behind h im Roche o ut-m uscled P iro va no after a brief struggle a nd set off after h is teammat e, and by lap three Pol en had co me through to third, th e three factory Du catis quickly establishing a ga p to P irovano, who was fourth until he went sliding off o n lap three, blaming his so re back for being u nable to m uscl e th e bik e back into line when it got unruly. There was pl enty of d isorderly behavior up front in these early laps as well as Roche took th e lead on lap four and Falappa returned the com p liment on la p seven , out-braking his tea m ma te a t th e end of the lo ng fro nt straight. Bu t almost , immediately Falappa 's cha llenge faded , but not because of hi s fitness problems. His rear tire, actually a harder co m pou nd than th e one Roch e had selected, was alread y past its best. So Polen mad e hi s mo ve into secon d on lap eight a nd that was th e way it set u p for th e remainder of th e race, th e new and th e o ld World Ch ampion in co m ma nd o f th e race and gradually pu lling away from the rest. Merte ns ha d assumed the lead o f the

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