Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

GROADRACE World Championshi~_rb _Se_rie_s:_Fl_'na_l_ro_UD_d _ik_e _ . :~ e -e '" -e "' >- ;2 >- z z '" Australian Kevin Magee won the first of two legs in his homeland. Doug Polen won one race at P hill ip Island an d finished second in th e other. Polen, Magee stage thriller Down Under By Bruce Newton 24 PHILUP ISLAND, AUSTRAUA, ocr. 20 t just doesn't get better than this . The final round of the 1991 Diesel Jeans Superbike World Championship at Phillip Island made I up for much of what had gone before it. The best racing of the year? Without a doubt. According to some observers who can remember back to 1988, it could hav e been the greatest racing ever seen in th e series. The stars were new World Champi on Doug Polen and Aussie hero Kevin Magee. Po len earned the crowd's resp ect for giving his all rather than just riding around. Magee earned their ador ati on by beating him in race on e by an impossibly close margin and then nearl y doing the same in race two . Their battle culminated on the last lap of the second race when they twice traded the lead in breath-taking style, Magee's superb, ballsy, move to outbrake Polen at Honda Corner repaid by the Texan 's spine-tingling dive up the inside as they accelerated through a fast sweeping right-hand turn, This was proof of wha t the World Championship Superbike Series can be. We had two of the best riders in the world - surely both must rank somewhere in or very close to the top 10 - riding finely-tuned factory motorcycles at or close to the ir limit. Afterwards, the crowd spilled onto the circuit to salute their hero and applaud his tormentor. It was a scene reminiscent of Phillip Island's GP glory days and sent a shiver of excitement through anyone who believes in the four-stroke World Championship and its potential. Both men rich Iy deserved their accolades. Magee's best ride since he began his laborious comeback from injury earned him the distinction of being the only non-Ducati rider to win a race this year (bar the Canadian round where the vast majority of frontrunners did not compete). Polen became the first foreigner to win a race in the history of the Australian round of the series and he did it at a difficult and subtlety intricate race track after just three hours practice, The rest were reduced to a support cast in the end, although New Zealander Aaron Slight had demanded star status in race one by battling with Polen and Magee throughout. A crash after a clash with Stephane Mertens eliminated him in race two . His Team Kawasaki teammate, Rob Phillis, with third in the championship secured already, had a strange and disappointing weekend on home soil. Nevertheless, he still managed to finish third highest points scorer on the da y. He just defeated fellow-Australian Malcolm Campbell, who rode like the wind on the Rothmans Honda , Mertens, by contrast, concluded a depressing season with an ordinary da y. Despite being staged on a Saturday, the race attracted a solid 10,500 crowd on a perfect Phillip Island day and became a triumph for the circuit owners and the much maligned Auto Cycle Council of Australia, who had jointly taken the reins to continue with the meeting after form er promoter Bob Barnard' s financial probl em s had nearly forced its cancella tio n. There were som e problems. The race was not supported by the intern ationals , with just three making the long, expe nsive trip. Controversially, 1990 World Champion Raymond Roche ga ve up hi s last cha nce to wear th e number one pl ate by pulling ou t at the last minute. Then there was th e finish of race o ne. It was officially given to Magee by 0.05 seconds, but Polen protested the result, honestly believing that he had won or it had at least been a dead heat. His protest was rejected by the FIM International Jury, but the situation exposed the question marks that ca n be raised when hard-actuated timing rath er than beam-tripped sensors are used. Qualifying Phillip Island can be motorcycling heaven wh en the weather is right and for practice and qualifying it was. Blue skies, gentle seasid e breezes and the normal stunning views greeted the few internationals who made the . long, expensive trip from Europe and Ameri ca. Pol en , Mertens and Dutchman Jeff De Vries were the sum total. As it turned out, all three made an impact, the two Ducati riders by qualifying on the front row and the Yamaha rider with a spectacular crash on Saturday afternoon. Polen took pole number 10 on the Fast By Ferracci Ducati after an intense battle with Slight, the latter fastest on Friday and Saturday morning, the former securing the number one spot with a single flier on Dunlop race tires in the final session. Polen 's fastest la p was I minute , 37.94 seconds - 1.14 seconds under the la p record - an d it came after a typical two days of data gathering and consistently dropping times at yet another circuit he 'd never ridden at previously. His only hiccup came in the first qualifying session when he went out for a quick time only to find the bike refusing to pull cleanly off the corners because there was virtually no fue l in the tank. He was also using the 6.5-inch rear rim for the second conse cutive meeting and lau ded the improvments it made in tire wear, side gr ip and contact patch. Slight lost the plot in the fina' session after making consistent pro gress, by tryi ng a trick rear tire tha never wanted to work: "I stayed ,ou there too long and by the time thej called me in and I changed tires it wa: too late." Nevertheless, the Kiwi still clockec a 1:38.16 and remained undaunted b) Po len's pace, altho ug h the Ducati's power to weight adva ntage concerned him: ''I'll have to get the start because they're so difficult to pass ," he said. Campbell, riding for the first time this year without a splint on the leg he's broken twice in the last II months, did a magnificent job to take third on the grid on the Rot hmans Honda. "We've had no help from the factory this year so we've done a pretty good job on old stuff," Campbell explained, adding that he was not confident of victory against the Ducatis and Kawasakis: ' 'I'd say if I can finish third I've done a bloody good job."

• Cover