Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

eROADRACE w~d C~~~W~__~_R_oa_d___&__:s R_o__d3~~~~~~~~ ~ e hu ~ ~ ~ Texan Doug Polen (1) leads Fabrizio Pirovano (5) and Scott Russell (17) en ro ute to wi nn ing at the Hockenheimring. P ngets h firstin Germany ole is By Gary Pinchin Photos by Johan Vandeckerhove HOCKENHEIM, GERMANY, MAY 10 he Doug Pol en road sho w is back a n d roll in g I T he def ending World Ch a mpion fin ally hit to p form in front of 25,000 cheering fans at Hockenheim, ea rni ng the pol e position a nd scor ing win s in both races for his fir st victor ies of the 1992 cha mpionship seaso n on the T eam Poli ce Ducati. The T exan now sha res th e champions h ip po int sta nd ings lead with Ra ymond Roche , both 10 points clear of their nearest rival , Rob Phillis. Roche had a disappointing da y with a fifth and fourth place in the two legs; he was hampered by a lost footpeg from th e first lap on in race one and by overhea ting in the seco nd leg. Scott Russell promised so much with h is rapid Muzzy Kawasaki, but in the end came awa y with little. In the first race, he o nce again ran am on g th e leading quartet but overshot the first chicane three laps from the en d a nd fin ished fourth. In th e second leg, running just over a second and a half behind Polen a t middle distance, he mad e the same erro r a nd finish ed seven th. T eam Moving Kawasaki, though, had a great da y despit e being short on hor sepower com pared to the Du catis and Ru ssell 's Mu zzy Kawasak i on this hi gh -speed circui t. Phillis took two bitterly fough t second p laces to strengthen h is gr ip on third p lace in th e championship while his Kiwi teammate, Aaron Sligh t, ba ttled through to th ird in the first leg and too k a hard earned fifth place in race two after bei ng held up by Ita lian Fabrizio P iro vano ea rly on . Slight remains fourth in th e points, o ne up o n Pi ro vano, who crashed in race on e wh en his mot or let go while battling Polen for the lead . T 14 Qualifying Even though his shoulder was still sore and bruised from his cras h in the AMA N a ti onal Superbike race at Charl otte Motor Speedway the weekend bef ore, P ol en to ok pol e in q ua lifying wi th a two-min ute, 6.27second lap durin g the second timed sessio n of the weekend. When the rain came down in the fin al sessio n, Pol en didn 't even bother to take the facto ry Po lice. Ducat i out. " I' m happy," he smi led. " I don 't see anyone going quicker now and we've done all the wet tir e testing we need to. Besides, they are changing th e engine over on my n umber two bike and th at 's the only bik e I wo uld have gone ou t o n in the wet." Ro che was second q uickest , jus t .54of-a-second down wi th his Ducati. It was an impressive second timed sessio n for Roche who had lost the cha nce of getting his number one bike set up to hi s liking in Friday's first tim ed sessio n when he was sidelined wi th a faulty thermostat. The quickest Kawasaki rider was Russell , who had the third fastest time on the Muzzy machine - a 2:06.93. He had been forced to run hi s backup bike in the first timed sessio n after th e gearbox made ominous noises as hi s crew warmed up the mo to r. That was rebuilt for Saturday and Ru ssell was ha u lin g, even though the suspensio n wasn 't to his liking - as could be seen when he drove hard ou t of the first chicane, the rear end of the Muzzy ZXR750 sna king across the track. Ru ssell commented: " We tri ed a new su spension setu p bu t I wen t ou t too q uick before we had time to dial it in. It was moving around a fair bit out there but I wanted to cu tsome fast laps. It worked out okay ." Russell ventured out in the final da mp session, simply to check ou t a setup in case Sunday , brought more rain. " It was real slick in the stadium area, even though it was wetter out the back. I didn 't really push it too much, but I will tomorrow if I have to." Russell 's Kaw asaki was eq ua l fastest through the Mot orrad magazine speed trap a t 174.22 mph, the same speed as Aldeo Narducci's priva teer Du cat i a ma n with close connectio ns at the factory it is said. Pol en 's Du cat i and Takahiro Schwa's works Kawasaki were credited wit h 172, Mark also went 172 on h is wor ks Yama ha, Mert ens and Bo n temp i (Kawasaki) clocked 171 a nd P irovano's Yamaha also di d 171. Gi an carl o Fala ppa was fourth overall with the second Pol ice Ducati, .02of -seco nd slo we r t han the Muzz y Ka wasaki rider . Soh wa, in his last European rid e befor e returning to j a pan for an all -im portant race in th e Na tional Cha mpionsh ips at Suzuka a prelude to the Suzuka Eight H our later in the year - was fifth quickest wi th a 2:07.38. T hen came Rob Phillis, sixth overall with a 2:07.59 on the Team Moving Kawasaki. " I went as fast as I felt safe," said Phillis. " I can go faster o n Sunday if I have to. The bik e is really good. Tha t new' chica ne is gr eat, you know if you go in too fast you won't make it so you tend to brake with pl enty of safety. Bu t a t the same time, you kn ow if you crash th ere yo u 're not going so q u ick so the chances of getting badly hurt ar e less than before . All the same, I don 't like parts of th is track the Ostkurve is really dangerous flat o ut a nd no t enough run-off." P iro vano was the fastest Yam aha rider. H e looked dramatic, cu ttin g aggressively through the same chica ne Phillis looked so stable through. H e clocked a 2:08.19. Aaron Sligh t and Herve Moineau posted id entical 2:08.62 and Stephane Mertens put in hi s stro nges t qual ifying effo rt of the seaso n with a 2:08.63. Sligh t was not wi thout problem s on the second Moving Kawasak i. "One bike has a really fast mot or but seems to be wobbling down the straights while the o ther is slower bu t is mor e stable," he offered. The crew switched th e fast motor into the good chassis but it was wet in th e final sessio n, robbing the Kiwi of a cha nce to im prove on his time. Moineau's time was by far the most im pressive of the Suzukis . Th Dominique Meliand's French . endurance team SERT (Suzuki Endurance Rae- ing T eam ) ente red bike sported factory endura nce suspension front and rear and several other trick parts, includ ing th e car bo n airbox, from the official works bi kes. The o ther Su zuk is in the field were str uggling. Ge rman Sven Seidel jus t brok e the 2: 10 barrier wi th a still not full y sorted bik e while teammate, a nd former GP250 racer , Mar tin Wimmer, failed to qualify afte r breaking a crankpin o n Fri day, then only completing two laps on Saturday thanks to an oil leak with th e hastily rebuilt motor. Brit james Whitham also fail ed to qualify his team Grant Suzuki. He missed the cu t by .06-of-a-seco nd. Hi s crew switched . engines for the last session and were anticipa ting a good time until the rains came down. Carl Fogarty had a di sastrous time with his private Du cati - but at least h e qualified with a 2:09. 11 o n a sluggi sh privateer mach in e th at only clocked a best of 166 mph through the speed trap. " We' ve had two engines blow up, two fuel pump failures and a broken fairing br acket. I don't know why we don 't pack up a nd go home now," Fogarty sai d g lu mly, moments after th e final blow - a broken valve wh ich left h im stra nded .a t the first ch icane in a plume of oil sm oke. His pit crew had other ideas a nd set abo u t building one good motor fro m two not so good ones. Another tal e of woe came from the Terry Rym er camp . In what looks lik e being h is final Wor ld Su perbike rid e of th e season, he only com p leted two IullIaps all weekend. A blown head ga sket meant he on ly did two half laps on Friday and Saturday he went out with a suspected seized gea rbox in the first session. With no spares Rymer packed up and headed home to consider a works JPS Norton ride in British Na tionals. Race one Sohwa, who had been quickest in the morning warm-up, led from the sta rt from Pi ro vano and Russell. Then a few yards back were Po len and Phillis fo llowed b y Slight, Gschwender , Roche, who was struggli ng without a left footpeg, Falappa, Fogarty and the rest of the bunch. Pirovano took a loo k u p the inside a t the Sachskurve on the second lap, and was leadi ng as the field burst into the stadiu m to co m plete the third lap. Sohwa went back ahead a lap later of the five-man breakaway including Pirovano, Russell, Polen and Phillis. Slight had lost the draft when Pol en started hauling. " I got away good," said Slight, "and was dicing with Po len. I don't know what he was pl aying a t, warming hi s tires up maybe, but he sudden ly took off com ing out of one of the chicanes. I wasn 't ready for it a nd cou ldn 't hold his slipstream." Polen wa s on a charge, going from fou rth to first on th e fifth lap. How did he do it? " Drafted by o n the stra igh ts," came the typ ical matter-offact o ne-liner. Amazi ngly, Sligh t managed to get back with the group by the six th lap, even th ou gh hi s bi ke wa s not the quickest of the gr oup. " I caught u p with Sohwa. His bi ke was too fast for me to pass , tho ugh. His seemed to be stronger in third and fourt h gear so he was p ull ing away on the straights and then holding me up." Midway through th e 14 lapper, there was a six-bi ke pack u p front, with Roche off th e pace in seventh, coping without a foot peg, a nd with hi s form er; teamm ate Falappa catch ing h im fast.

• Cover