Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

; ROAD RACE~N~OO~~~_ R_W_dR_K_es_m_ '~_:R_OO_~_2~~~~~~~~ e" Geo rgi an Mike Smit h finished a strong third for the seco nd succ essive race. Eventual winner Doug Polen (23) gives chase to Scott Russell (17 ) in the National. Polen gets revenge at Laguna Seca By Paul Carruthers P h o tos by Henny R ay Abrams M ONTEREY, CA, APR. 26 ast By Ferracci Ducati's Doug Pol en pulled off a little role reversal as he avenged his Daytona 200 loss to Muzzy Kawasaki 's Scott Russell by bea ting the Georgian to the lin e by a scant 1.3 seconds to win the Toyota Gran d Prix of Laguna Seca. Un li ke Daytona, this tim e it was Polen who did the stalking, biding his time until two laps fro m th e end befor e fina lly mo vin g pa st the Kawasaki rider to take th e win , th e first-ever in an AMA Superbi ke National for Ducati, The race, though, was a th riller th rou ghout as a three-way battl e betw een Ru ssell , Pol en and Two Brothers Racing's Freddie Spencer lasted for nine of the 28 laps before Spencer' s brakes faded, causing him to run off th e track in th e famous Corkscrew. But the two-way duel went th e distance with th e cagey Polen wa iting until the final laps to make his move. The Texan, who completed the 60-mile race in 42 minutes, 25.361 seconds at an average speed of 87.678 F 6 mph, ended up earnin g $11,040 of th e $60,000 superbike purse for h is efforts. Third pla ce went to the somewha t surp rising Mike Smith. The Camelbacked Honda RC30 rid er ran wit h th e leaders earl y on before settli ng into a pa ce that saw him fini sh a lon ely third. Combined with his th ird -pl ace finish in the Daytona 200, Sm ith is really th e on ly other contender for th e AMA Superbike National Cham pionsh ip a t thi s point in the season. Polen , wh o will miss two AMA rounds in or der to defend hi s World Superbike Ch am pi onship, and Russell are tied with 37 points, and Smith is third with 30. A crowd estimated at between 2025 ,000 witnessed th e first AMA National in four years at the immaculate northern California facili ty, as this race served as a replacement for the defunct U.S. GP. Fourth place was garnered by Pol en 's teammate Pascal Pi cotte. th e French Canadian getting the best of a near race-long battle with Vance & Hines Yam ah a's J amie J ames and Muzzy Kawasaki's Thomas Steven s. Camel Honda's T om Kipp, Yosh imura Suzuki's David Sado wski, and th e T wo Brothers H ondas of Steve Crevier and Spencer ro unded out the top 10, the latter working hi s way th rough th e pac k after rejoining th e race just inside the top 20 after his off-trac k excursion. It was a race of fairl y lo w attrition wit h Scott Gray (chai n) and J im my Adamo (blown motor) the only top runners su ffering mechanical fail ures. Vance & H in es Yamaha, th ough, lost its number two rider Larry Schwarzb- . ach when he crashed in practice for the 600cc Supersport race af ter coll id ing with Dale Kieffer on the fro nt stra ig h ta wa y. H e rebroke the lef t co llarbone h e had inj ured during testin g at Laguna Seca, su ffered bad cuts and abrasio ns, and was for ced o u t of the Na tional. Brilliant su ns h i n e and wa r m temperatures greeted the start of th e 28-lap, 60-mile race, and it was the faststart ing Russell trying to make the break from the get-go. Russell timed th e flag perfectly, and jumped out to the lead as the 37-rider field blasted over the hill and into turn two. Polen and Spencer were in tow , and after a lap it was clear that Russell wasn 't go ing to get away. Sm ith moved into fourth as the first lap came to a completion, and he started to move in on the battle at the front. Meanwhile, J am es was holding o ff Pi cotte with defending seri es champion Stevens closing the gap after a dr eadful start. By the fifth go-around, the battle up fro nt involved Iour riders, though Russell was th e only rider to lead. Sm it h sta rted to lose touch with th e leading tri o o n th e eighth lap, settling into a pace that would see him fini sh a lon ely third. " If I kept try ing, I would have cras hed, " Smit h said. " I mad e a coup le of mistakes and I cau gh t back up, th en the tires went off a bit and I couldn ' t ca tch u p a ga in . You ca n' t make mistakes and ho pe to stay with Ru ssell and Polen ." On the 10th lap , th e three-way race beca me a two-way race with Spencer falling down in the sand trap on th e ou tside of th e Corkscrew. "The brakes were fading a little bit because that's where I was making time on them," Spencer said later. " It (the brake lever) came all the way back to my fingers.' I think I could have got it stopped if the lapped rider wa sn't th ere, but I got off in the sand and tipped over. It took some time to lift it up out of the sand. " Spence r, wh o was using one of two new Michelins - an SC I866 - that were shi pped over from th e World Superbike Series, soldiered on to fin ish 10th af ter rejo ining th e fray just in side the top 20. The battle up front, meanwhile, contin ued. Polen never led, bu t always whittled away at wh at ever lead Ru ssell would get in traffic. The T exan had ga mb led somew hat, at least in the eyes of Dunlop tire technician J im Allen, by choosing a softer rear tire (a Dunlop 624) than Russell (Dunlop 474), who ha d tried the same tire in practice but didn 't like it. Smith, too, went with Polen 's choice, bu t the rest of the Dunlo p runners used the trusty 474. Wit h Polen stuck to his rear tire, Russell kn ew he was in trouble. " I burned my tires up too qu ick, tryin g too h ard ," h e said lat er. " I wa s definitely havin g troubles. He just waited and made a show of it. I could hear h im sizin g me up. " Polen, too, kn ew he was in the catbird seat. H e co uld see Russ ell having problems, and he just sat and watched. Polen had moved by Russ ell earlier, but he hadn't intended to. Russell had mi ssed a sh ift, and Polen promptly let him back by. Two laps from th e end, th ough, and Pol en was read y to go. H e quickly upped the pace , clicking off a 1:29.78 on th e second to last lap, and then a 1:29.60 on th e final go-around. That was nearly a full second quicker than what the race pa ce had been , and it was enoug h to pull h im clear o f Russell at th e finish. "Scott and I were gauging the other gu ys ea rly o n," Pol en sai d. " We wanted to run a quick enough pace to get away but not burn up the tires. He (Russell) had a coup le of close calls, and I just kept following him. I was sq uari ng off the corne rs and wh ere he was pushing wide I cou ld hold a lin e and dri ve ou t on the in side. I stepped up the pace at the end. " Russell agreed: " He drov e away in a hu rry. I cou ld n' t do 29s fo r anything. " The win was not on ly Polen 's first in AMA action since his Road Atlanta victory in 1990, but it was Ducati 's first-ever AMA National victory. " Yo u co u ldn' t peel th e gri n off Eraldo's face with a pair of pliers," Polen said of his team owner and crew chief, Eraldo Ferracci. Behind the lonely Smith, came the battle for fourth. It was ultimatel y won by Pico tte, but not without some hard charging by James. The Vance & Hines Yamaha rider knew he was holding Picotte up in the corn ers, but when

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