Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

By Henny Ray Abram s BRASalON, GA, ]ULY18 im my Filice w on his sixt h ra ce in seven tri es, bu t not in the runaway fash io n h e's ac customed to . Rich Oliver stuck with Filice for 14 of 19 laps before Filice used traffic to break clean and win the 250cc Grand Prix final on a sweltering day at Road Atlanta. J (From left to right) Jami e James, Doug Polen and Mike Smith spray the bubbly. 12 really good an d I' d come ou t of th ere with the thing hooked up. " Polen said the heat had played a role in what he coul d and coul dn 't do : "If I had tried to get away, I would have wore myself out and he would have just sat there an d waited . Everything was fine until I did those two last laps. And then carrying that flag (on a victory lap) about did me in." The. tw o do in g battle a t the fro nt qu ickly escaped fro m th e rest, pullin g out nearly three seconds on third-placed Quarterley by the second lap . Quarterley held third until the fourth lap when the flying Edwa rds moved by after starting the first lap outside the top 10. Stevens followed Edwards by Quarterley and that threesome became a foursome wh en James joined in after settling in with his wobblin g Yamaha. "The bike turned into a nightmare over night," James said of the Yamaha he had cr ashed during Saturday's final qu alifying sessi on . "My onl y hope wa s th at when the tires got hot I wouldn't have to fight it as bad. Five or six laps in it started getting rideable. I had to sit just right on it down the backstraight. I'd try and relax and it wo uld wo bble - I just never really got a. break. I took a good bike and messed it up with that crash." On th e eigh th la p, Edwards went from third to fifth wh en he ran off at the start of the esses, keeping his momentum despite running down the hill on the red Georgia day. Then James took a tum at mov in g in to third place, a position he would hold to the finish after Edwards removed himself from contention on the 11th lap when he ran into the back of a lap ped rider and crashed violently . "I ca me in to turn one and a lap ped ride r cu t me off at the apex," Edwards expla ined later. "I stayed on the outsi~e up the hilI. I couldn't power aro und hun so I outbraked him to pop in the inside. He moved over and I had about five mph on him. When I hit him the bike pivoted over and launched me, cata p ulting me forward. I must have been abou t 12-15 feet in the a ir. An ywa y, afte r m y Superman imp ression the bike hit me a coup le of times." Edwards escaped with scrapes and bruises and the p ro m ise of a pa in fu l wake-up call on Monday morning. "My foot hu rts, my knee hurts, my neck hu rts, my back h ur ts.:" Edwar ds said w ith a smile. James tried a late charge at the leadin g duo, b ut it was too mu ch work on the illhandling Yamaha: "I tho ug h t ma ybe I could ge t dose, but I hit some lapped traffic and lost ground. I just didn't have it in me to do it (catch up) all again." Stevens managed to keep the Suz uki in fourth place, desp ite complaining of a lack of horsepower: "The bike slowed down on the warm-up lap," Stevens said. "I told them (his crew) and they just said to do the best I could. I'd wav e those guys by on the straightaway. We just had a little m echanica l problem th at we couldn't do anything about. I could only do 1:245 an d 25s on the same tire I did 23s on in qualifying . But we've made such big gains. This is the best a Suzuki has done since 1990 and I think we're on the right track." Following his final run-in with Quarterley, DuHamel was able to secure fifth place w hich was quite an accomplishment considering he was clutch1ess for the entire race: "I'm really disappointed," DuHamel said. '1 t just spo iled my race. Even with the hea t, I wish it was another 10 laps. Considering not having a clutch, I guess I feel pretty good. I just feel sorry for the team because we should have had a podium finish." Jacks was also pleased with his eigh th place finish in his return to racing follo.wing a badly broken arm a t the serres opener in Phoenix back in February: "It's just abou t what I planned on," Jacks said. "I beat most of the privateers. I'm rusty and not in very good shape. I thought I was about to die after the halfway mark. I haven't been doing wha t I should be doing I guess." . Beh ind Ashmead and Guenette 10 11th place came Polen's te~t~ ~~I Picotte in his first race back sin ce mJurmg his back at Road Ame rica . The French Canadian suffered from the heat and his nagging back injury the en tire wee kend and continued to fade as the race wore on. C\' Resu lts S8 QUALlrnNG: I. Doug Polen (1:22.135/110.452 mph); 2. Mi ke Smith (1:22.253); 3 . Thomas St~vens (1:23.199); 4 . Jamie Jam.. (1 :23.287); 5 . Pascal P Icotte (1 :23 .546); 6. Miguel DuHamel (1 :23 .625); 7. Cohn Edwards n (1:23.767); 8. Da le Quarterley (1:23.843); 9. Takahiro So hwa (1:24.108); 10. Donald Jacks (1:24.401); 11. Jacques Guenette Jr. (1:25.253); 12. John ~hmead (1:26.299); 13. Pablo Real (1:26398); 14. Michael Taylor (1:27.292); 15 . Eric Moe (1 :27 .602); 16 . Scott Gr.ay (1:27.967); 17. Mkhael Fitzpatrick (1 :28.168) ; 18. RIck Shaw (1:29 .605) ; 19. Brad Hazen (1:29.664); 20. David Kieffer (1:30. 097); 21 . Jim Sabin (1:30.4JO) ; 22. Shawn Higbee (1030.656) 23. Anthony Faria (1030.814) 24. Mil«: ; ; Wal.h (1:30 .839) ; 25. Greg Kopp (1:3 1.845); 26. Robert Wal.h (1:31.895); 27. Ernie Kicklighter (1:32.774); 28. Steve Palella (1:32.775); 29. Scott Landis (1:33.029) ; JO. Brell Ray (1:35.729); 31. Rudolr.h Raab (1:38.560). SB FI NA L: 1. Doug Po en (Due); 2. Mike Smith (Hon); 3. Jamie James (Yam); 4. ThomasStevees (Suz); 5. Miguel DuHamel (!

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