Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

R R~D AAaw~~~¢~_~_ad_~_eS_~~~:~~~d_7~~~~~~~~~_ ~ e Dou g Polen (23) and Mike Smith (68) lea d a trail of pursuers on the openi ng lap of the Superbike National at Road Atlanta. Polen pIa sit cool in Atlanta heat By Paul Carruthers Photos by Henny Ray Abrams BRASELTON, GA, JULY 18 quick lap around Roa d Atlanta requires a high-speed, handlebartugging downhill run through the esses towards turn five . According to Doug Polen, such a banzai run was a lot of work, bo th physically and mentally, but would ultimately result in a lap time in the one-minute, 22-seco nd range. Prior to the Superbike National, Polen said the searing heat that enveloped Georgia would only make matters wo rse, and he predicted tha t only two such laps woul d be possible d uring the race. Polen was right. With two laps to A 10 go the Fast By Ferracci Ducati rider passed Camel Honda's Mike Smith and promptly clicked off a 1:22.43 a nd a 1:22.51, earning his fifth win of the season in the process. Polen ave raged 107.740 mph on the recently resurfaced, 2.52-mile Road Atlanta race track to top Smith by 2.096 seconds as the AMA National Championship Road Race Series re turned to the facility for the first time since 1990. The majority of the race was much closer, though, as Smith led the bulk of the 25-1ap race. Texan Po len stalked the nati ve of Georgia for 23 laps before turning up the wick in the final two laps to take the win and the $4250 winner's share of the $25,000 superbike purse. Polen's average speed easily erased the AMA Superbike National race record at Road Atlanta of 102.383 mph se t by Wayne Rainey in 1987. The 1990 AMA Superbike National, also won by Polen, was red-flagged, thus negating any racerecord pace. "The difference between doing those 22s (1:22 lap times) and 245 is like night and day," Polen said . "1 waited until the last two laps and flicked it through the esses really hard. " For Smith and the Camel Honda their second successive second-place finish · continued their late run of strong finishes, and showed that on this day hewas the only rider capa ble of keeping Polen in sight. Smith had tried to shake loose from Polen in traffic late in the race, but the Texan managed to close back in for his final run to the flag. The final rostrum position went to Vance & Hines Yamaha's Jamie James, the Louisianan fighting a race-long wobble af te r bending his YZF750S P in a Saturday afternoon qualifying session to best Yoshimura Suzuki's Tho mas Stevens. For Stevens the result was a comple te ' turnaround to his otherwise subpar season on the brand new Suzu ki GSXR750. The Floridian was quick all weekend and he battled through to finish fourth despite the,motorcycle being substantially slower on race day than during quaIifying. Muzzy Kawasa ki's Miguel DuHamel was fifth after ending the first lap in 12th place following his run-in with Dale Quarterley in tum five on the first lap . The collision w ith the Team Mira ge Kawasaki rider left DuHamel without a clutch lever, but the French Canadian fough t back through the pack to ironical- , ly re-pass Quarterley late in the race to secure fifth. That late-race pass also led to some drama between the two riders . With DuHamel and the Kawasaki finishing fifth , five d ifferent brands of motorcycles - Ducati, Honda, Yamaha, Suzuki, Kawasaki - filled the top five for the first time in recent memory.· DuHamel's teammate Takahiro Sohwa, the ret urning Donald Jacks on the Yoshimura Suzuki, N2 Racing's John Ashmead and D.L.G .L. Software's Jacques Guenette Jr. rounded out the top 10 finishers in a race tha t featu red little attrition amongst the top-level riders. One of the factory stars wh o did fail to finis h was Vance & H in es Yamaha 's Colin Edwards II, the 19-year-old Texan crashing hard while ba tt ling for third pl ace w hen he ran into the back of a lapped ride r on the 11th lap. The result only fu rther inc reased Polen's cha mpionship points lead, and it wiIl take a small miracle for anyone to ca tch h im . The Texan now leads DuHa m e l by a who pping 44 po in ts, 228-184, with only th ree races left to run. Quarterley still holds do wn third with 176 po ints, 36 clear of Jam es and 43 p oints ahead of Ta ka h iro Soh w a. Smi th and Stevens mad e consi derable gains to move to wi thin three and four poi nts, respectively, of the absent Scott Russell. Guenette also moves into the top 10 for the first time this season with 112 points to 10th placed Pablo Real's 111 points. Edwards drops to 11th with 106 points. With temperatures actually reaching the century mark on a hot and sticky Georgia day, the 28-rider field stormed into tum one with Polen lead ing the way. The unmistakable fire-engine red V-twin continued to lead as the pack snaked its way through the esses en route to tum five. It was in turn five that DuHamel's race unraveled. When DuHamel flicked the Kawasaki into the left-bander, Quarterley collided with him, removing th e clutch .lever from the French Canadian's ZXR750. Both, of course, had different versions of what prompted the collision. "Going in to tum five, Dale T-boned me," DuHamel said later. " It ripped the clutch lever off. 1 had no momentum coming out of the comer. I had to think real qu ick to see w hethe r or not it was worth pullin g in to get it fixed. 1 decid ed not to and it took me five laps to ge t adapted to riding withou t a clu tch. It made it hard to pass; I really had to set 'em up because I had to be extra careful no t to catch a false neutral. I don' t understand what advantage he was trying to get on the firs t lap. He thinks this is a s tock ca r ra ce . It just m essed up m y wh ole race. I was rig ht there in a good position," Quarterley's view was somewha t dif-

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