Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

~ ROAD RACE Su erbike Series: Round 1 e Colin Edwards II (45) led the second start of the Superbike final at PIR. Thomas Stevens, Miguel DuHamel, Mike Smith and the rest of the pack give chase. • • rl In oenix 0 ener to 0 en By Paul Carruthers Photos by Henny Ray Abrams GOODYEAR, AZ, FEB. 15 he AMA Superbike National Championship season opened a day late, thanks to an Arizona rainstorm that soaked Phoenix International Raceway on Sunday, but it also opened with a bang as Fast By Ferracci's Doug Polen edged his teammate Pascal Picotte by only .01O-of-a-second after a wild run to the flag with Muzzy Kawasaki's Scott Russell just as close in third place. Yes, it was a day late, but it definitely wasn't short on anything. This one had it all. An eight-rider freight train at the front of the pack and a final result that was in doubt until the three at the front crossed the finish line. With the good, also came the ugly. Donald Jacks' Yoshimura Suzuki suffered a blown motor on the banking portion of the 1.6-mile, combination oval/road course at PIR, causing a violent crash that also brought down dirt tracker Larry Pegram and Utah's Kel Davidson, prompting a red flag. While Jacks suffered a broken righ t arm, Pegram got the worst of it, suffering a compound fracture of his femur. Pegram was flown to Akron, Ohio, to undergo surgery. Davidson reportedly escaped with mild injuries. To add another twist to the plot, Camel Honda's Mike Smith and Tom Kipp, seventh and eighth, respectively, were both disqualified for using illegal fuel in .their Honda RC30s following a post-race check of fuel. The pair have appealed the disqualification and a hearing will be held at a later date. Still, nothing can take away the frantic final lap of the red-flag interrupted National. Russell led Ducati-mounted Polen and Picotte as they ventured out of the first-gear hairpin that leads to the banking for the final time, but Polen was able to get a better drive and squeezed under the Kawasaki in the oval's turn T 6 three. The Texan, though, was carrying too much s~d and he was forced high on the banking, allowing Russell to squeeze underneath. Polen then squared off the corner on the exit of the oval's turn four and came back under Russell before squeezing him back towards the wall on the front straight. Russell had to back off slightly and the race was Polen's. Picotte, meanwhile, sat and watched all of this, and then drafted cleanly by Russell at the finish line - all to the delight of a small (estimated at close to 3000), but vocal crowd. Only a few seconds behind all the excitement at the front came Vance & Hines Yamaha's Colin Edwards II, after a brilliant ride in his AMA Superbike debut. The 19-year-old was impressive from the beginning, but he only got better. In the first of the two-part race, Edwards started slowly but gained confidence and speed with every lap, moving into fourth place on the red-flag lap. On the restart, he led his first Superbike National for seven laps before giving way to Russell, and he held off a host of more experienced riders to finish fourth. Impressive stuff. Fifth place went to Muzzy Kawasaki's Miguel DuHamel in hi.s return to AMA Superbike racing following a season of SOOcc Grand Prix racing. Yoshimura Suzuki's Thomas Stevens finished sixth on the new Suzuki GSXR7S0, bringing new hope to a team that has struggled the past few years with old machinery. Following the disqualification of Smith and Kipp, Team Mirage's Dale Quarterley moved up to seventh place, followed by fellow Kawasaki rider Scott Gray. Gia Ca Moto Ducati's Jimmy Adamo rounded out the top 10 finishers. Polen's victory was even more impressive when you consider the fact that he was in a Phoenix hospital on Monday morning after waking up with a very sore back, the result of his Sunday morning crash in the' rain. X-rays showed no broken bones, but Polen was not so sure. He was short of breath and in obvious pain each and every time he stepped off the motorcycle, and he made plans to undergo an MRI examination upon his arrival in Texas on Tuesday. For his efforts, Polen took home the $4250 winner's share of the $25,000 Superbike purse and, more importantly, he controls the championship point standings. With the AMA's new pointspaying system, Polen received not only 35 points for taking the win, but also another point for being the fastest qualifier (see sidebar). Thus, he leads Picotte, 36-32. Russell is third with 30 points while Edwards lies fourth with 28. The Valley of the Sun definitely didn't live up to its billing as the AMA National Championship Road Race Series visited Phoenix International Raceway for the first time. A rainstorm drenched the area on Sunday, making racing next to impossible. The AMA and PIR officials made the appropriate decision to postpone Sunday's action to Monday, relieving a lot of stress from the majority of the riders who felt racing in such conditions would be iffy at best. Monday dawned sunny and clear and the 42-lap National went off without a hitch. Leading the way into the doubleapexed turn one for the first time was Russell, with Quarterley chasing hard. The top two remained the same for the first lap, but Kipp was able to move around Stevens to take over third. Polen, Muzzy Kawasaki's Takahiro Sohwa, Edwards, DuHamel, Smith, Picotte, Gardner and Larry Locklear followed. Kipp quickly displaced Quarterley for second place on the second lap, with Stevens doing likewise a lap later. Edwards, meanwhile, had moved around two-time World Superbike Champion Polen and Sohwa to take over fifth place. Russell, though, wilsn't waiting around for anyone. The Georgian put his head down and slowly but surely opened up a comfortable lead on the ensuing pack. His teammate Sohwa was the first of the front-runners to exit as he ran straight at the hairpin (surprisingly choosing to ride on the wet grass rather than the abundance of dry pavement) and toppled over. Stevens moved past Kipp on the 11th lap to take over second place; and Polen started to become a focal point after disposing of Edwards, who now had his hands full with DuHamel. Picotte was a much more lonely seventh.followed by a Smith/Quarterley duel. By the 15th lap, Polen had become a factor as he latched onto the rear of the of the Stevens/Kipp tussle. On the 18th lap, he moved by Kipp - three laps later he nailed Stevens. With the gap between Russell and Polen at six seconds and closing fast, all hell broke loose on the banking as Jacks, Pegram and lapped rider Davidson went down, exploding hay bales and oil all over the banking. While emergency workers tended to the fallen, the rest pitted and started making the necessary changes to their motorcycles. Polen, who used the race stoppage to change front fork settings and to fit a new Dunlop rear tire, was in obvious pain; "I would have caught him (Russell)," he said. "I was thinking about that about 25 percent of the time - the other 75 percent was going 'aahhgg' from the pain." Russell was still confident, though he

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