Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

ROAD RACE Road RaceSeries: Round 1 ! Russell bests Polenin O"l ....... Daytona 200 thrille r By Paul Carruthers Photos by Henn y Ray Abrams DAITO:\ABEACH. Fl.•MAR. 8 fter suffering through a ra ther miserab le weekend fill ed wi th no t h in g bu t ba d lu ck , MUllY Kawasak i's Sco tt Ru ssell reversed his fort une in a big way by winn in g. the fas test-ever ' Da yton a 200 in a near photo fin ish wi th Fast By Ferr ucci's Dou g Polen . The Geo rg ia n ave raged a reco rd 110.669 mph in co mplet ing the 57-lap race in j ust over o ne hou r a nd 50 m inu tes, bar ely fast enough to beat Pol en by a sca nt . 182-of-a-second in a th rilling race tha t fea tured a litt le bit of everything - but no pace car. T hey really do n ' t ge t any better. After 200 miles the race came down to a thri lling last la p that saw Russell foll ow Po len th rou gh th e chicane before setti ng himself up' to slingshot past the World u perbike Ch ampion just before th e finis h lin e. The win was not onl y Russell 's first in the Dayto na . 200 By Ara i, but it a lso mark ed Ka wasaski's first triumph in the 200. And it all ca me during a week tha t didn 't a p pea r to be a good one for Ru ssell. It bega n in the T wi n 50 q ualifier o n Frida y, the Kawasak i ride r sufferi ng a flat tir e when he had the race in ha nd. It co nt in ued la ter tha t day wh en hi s 750cc Su persport-spec Kawasa ki ran into elec tr ical problems a nd he was again robbed of certai n victory. T he 200 'win , th ough, mor e than made up for it all. Third place went to Geor gi an Mike Smith in hi s debut rid e a boa rd the Cam el-ha cked Commonwealth Honda RC30. The former WERA Formula USA Ch am pion cou ldn ' t mat ch the pace set by Ru ssell a nd Pol en , hut he was the best of th e rest and was the fin al rider to finis h o n the same la p as the lead in g d uo. Fourth p lace went to th e Yosh imu ra Suzu ki of 1990 Da yton a 200 winner Da vid Sadowski , meaning the first fo ur places were filled by fo ur different brand s of A mot orcycles - Ka wa sa ki, Du cat i , Honda a nd Suzu ki. T wo Brothers Racing's Steve Crevier finished fifth a head of Japan 's Shoichi Tsuka moto o n the factory Kawasaki , J imm y Adam o o n th e Gi aCa Moto Du ca ti , defend in g AMA Superbike Cha m p io n Tho mas Steven s on the Muzzy Ka wasa ki, Van ce & Hines Larry Schwarzbac h a nd Yam a ha-m o unted Scot t Zampach as th e top 10 was filled. As is the norm in the Da yton a 200, ma ny of th e top stars had prob lems. T hree-time World Ch ampion Freddie Sp encer was a non-fini sher after th e rear sprocket on hi s T wo Bro th ers Raci ng H on da R C30 she a red off, following an ea rl y pit stop to rep lace a ch unked rear tire ; Va nce & Hines' J a mie James joined Spe ncer o n the sidelines aft er his Ya maha FZR750R R suffered a damaged exhaust system; Ca mel Honda 's T o m Kipp fried his clutch early in the race; a nd o ne-time leader Pasca l Pi cott e crashed his Fast By Ferracci Ducati . R ussell pocketed 16,500 of th e 175,000 Superbike purse fo r h is effo rts as a sun-dren ched cro wd estimated a t 40,000 look ed o n. Po len earned 11 ,100 wi th $7000 goi ng to Smith. Daytona ma rked th e opening ro und o f t he AMA Superbik e Nati o na l Cha m pionship, a nd R ussell too k th e first ste p toward winni ng th e titl e. T he Georgian , though , will co ntest the first three ro u nds of th e Worl d Championsh ip Su perbike Ser ies and if he produ ces results sim ila r to today's, he ma y end up spe nd ing his summer chasing the World titl e in Europe. As it sta nds now, Ru ssell leads Pol en , 20-17, with Smi th th ird a t 15. " I knew co mi ng into thi s race tha t I cou ld wi n it if everyth ing went well," Ru ssell said. " I'm glad we put o n a show like tha t for the fa ns and for the finis h to he tha t close. It was pr etty exciting." Polen smash laR record to earn Role es ast By Ferracci ' Doug Pol en (rig ht) mad e himself the odds-on favori te to win th e Daytona 200 by smashing the lap record ell route to the pol e position during Wednesday 's time quadifying for the 57-lap race at Dayt ona International Speedway. For the second straight year, Polen and the Ducat i emerged from tim ed qualifying as the fastest pairing. His one-minute. SO.388-second lap (116. 100 mph) on the 3.56-m ile road course was some three seconds under his qua lifying record set las t March , hut the Texan ended the session with a crash in turn one, escaping without injury. " I was bottoming out the front forks thro ug h a day and a ha lf of practice going in to turn one," Polen explained. " Finally the internals blew ou t and they gave in . The on ly thing left was for the tir e to mov e and it just slid F nut. " 6 Polen vowed that he could go quicker . if pushed: "T he bik e's been getti ng better all week, " he said. "And it 's still not at its best . With decent conditions I think I could do a high 48. low 49 if I had to. The bike wasn't really set up The flag dropped for the 51st run ning of the Da yton a 200 By Arai a t 1:30 p.m. with Ru ssell a nd Pol en q uick ly showing th eir su perio rity o ver the rest of th e field . It was Ru ssell leading the 70-rid er field into turn one a head of fas t qualifier a nd lap record ho lder P ol en, J apan ' s Ta ka h i ro Sohwa , Pico tte a nd J am es. Stevens , making his debut on th e Muzzy Kaw asak i, was forced to sta rt from the 15th row after crash ing out of his Twin 50 q ua li fier on Friday, and he was over 18 seco nds beh ind Ru ssell by th e time the pack too k to th e h igh ban ks for the first tim e. Stevens was wast ing little tim e ba rgi ng th rough the . rest of the rid ers fro m the second wave, whi le Spencer, also co rning from the back because of a heat -race DNF, didn 't seem to be in as much of a hurry. Kipp was the first of the top rid ers to make an early exit, the Honda RC 30 frying its clutch : " It was a tough br eak ," Kipp said. " We sta rted o n th e fourth ro w and I hammered the clutch to ge t a good start off th e lin e. That was it. It 's unfortunat e so me thi ng like th at happened, but tha t's Dayton a lu ck for you." By th e third la p Ru ssell and Pol en had already made th eir .break , the du o lead in g Sohwa by o ver six seconds, wit h a six-rider pack of J ames, Smith, the way I wanted it during qualifying. But at this point, I don't think it will be necessar y to run that fast. Right now we're more concerned with getting the bik e set up to run a long distance, than we are with running those fast laps. " Second quickest from Wedn esday's qualifying session was Georgian Scott Russell o n the Muzzy Kawasaki a t 1:50.743. He led a surprise front-row pairing of Japan's T aka hi ro Sohwa and Shoi chi Tsukamoto , both Kawasaki mounted, with tim es " I 1:52.20 I a nd I:52.619. respectively. " It's th e fastest I've gone here," Russell said. "I would think the race pace will be as fast as we - Doug (Po len) and myself - make it. But I don't think the pace will be faster than 52s. If he decides to make a break, I'll let him go. I' ll ca tch back up to him . I'm going to ride a pace I'm co mforta ble with and if at th e end I have to sprint then I'll know how fast 1 can go. I just want to maintain a good pace and not waste the equipment. 1 think he (Po len) was trying hard, no matter what he says. 1 think I can stick in ther e with him in the race. Of co urse, things can change, but I'll be right there." With the fro m four qualifiers lock ed in to the front row. and ' the rest to be gri dded based o n results from Friday's Twin 50 qualifiers, it was defending National Superbike Cha m pion Thomas Stevens who was bumped off the front row by T sukamoto. The two Japanese riders had benefitted greatly from taking part in th e AMA/ CCS Endurance race the weekend prior to Camel Motorcycle Week. " I' m disappointed I didn't make the from row," Stevens said. " I knew I was on the bubble. I'm just trying to get fami liar with what the bike does and doesn't do , a nd it 's taken me a Iitrle more time to get my setup right. I've swapped it all aro und for tomorrow's practice and we'll see how it compares to what we had ."

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