Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/127588
moved up to fourth place despite missing the first two rounds to injury with Takahiro Sohwa, 17th today, in fifth with 147 points. For his efforts, Polen won $4250 of the $25,000 superbike purse. The Texan averaged 105 mph in completing the 63mile race in 35 minutes, 57.115 seconds in front of a race-day crowd estimated to be 18,000. The race got underway with high winds chasing riders down the long front straight, and dark clouds looming overhead. As the pack entered tum six for the first time the leaders wen t through cleanly - not so for two riders further back. With Jack's motor exploding, the spewing oil caused the Floridian to crash; and Guenette followed suit. Those two quickly jumped up as corner workers hustled to remove the debris from the outside of the comer. Guenette, knowing the entrance to the comer was smeared with oil, had a heated discussion with a corner worker to get the oil flag out prior to the arrival of the front-runners. Whether or not oil flags actually were waved depends on who you talked to. The end result, though, was havoc in turn six when the lead pack finally arrived. James, who was leading, missed it completely: "I got a good drive out of the comer before it and it put me to the inside. Since I was already positioned there I didn't want to swing out. I missed the whole thing. It was right where you'd normally go." Polen: "I had my foot down; 1 was dam' it, man." Picotte: "I did a little bit of dirt track, but it wasn't so bad." Picotte was also one of the few who saw the oil flag displayed at the comer prior to the problem area. Edwards: "I was way sideways. I tried working my way off it. The rear went right, left, and right again. I was off in the grass and I looked back to see Polen having the same problem. After that half the field was missing. Jamie James, Miguel DuHamel, Doug Polen and Pascal Picotte at the height of their battle in the Superbike National. Stevens and Smith saw no flag, and both crashed out of the race. "As soon as I saw Doug's (polen) feet come off the pegs, I was on the ground," Stevens said. "I looked up and saw Jacques (Guenette) grab the oil flag and run to the track. I understand that the comer workers are trying to do the best they can do, but if the AMA wants it more professional - they have to look at the comer worker situation. I saw noth.ing as far as flags go." hough less than perfect conditions kept him from challenging his existing lap record, Fast By Ferracci's Doug Polen (right) continued his complete dominance of the ultra-fast Brainerd International Raceway with his fourth pole position of the season. Polen's supremacy at Brainerd began in 1991 when he dominated both legs of the World Championship Superbike Series race held here; last year Polen put an exclamation point on his Brainerd mastery with a lap record and a dominating win in the AMA Superbike National. Not many believed that this year's result would end up being much different, and for qualifying at least that theory held true. Polen lapped the three-mile race track at oneminute, 40.562-seconds for an average speed of 107.253 mph on what is the third fastest race track in the series behind Daytona International Speedway and Road Atlanta. Polen's lap record, set a season ago, remained intact at 1:39.858. It was somewhat surprising that the top riders could come as close to the record as they did with puddles lining much of the course and a wind kicking up down the long front straight. 'The weather was a little cooler and there was less wind (than Friday's session) and that helped the times," Polen said. "Tum three was still a little wet which probably kept me from setting a new record." Late in the session, Polen circulated with his teammate Pascal Picotte and Camel Honda's Mike Smith, and both benefitted from the experience. Smith ended up putting the Honda RC30 second on the grid, with Picotte third. Smith missed Friday's timed session after crashing hard in the morning and doing extensive damage to the RC30. On Saturday, Smith put it all together, clocking a 1:40.644,despite coming together with Muzzy Kawasaki's Miguel DuHamel. "I got in there, trying to get a fast lap, and he was holding me up in the two fast corners," Smith explained. 'There was some water on the inside and I lost the front. We just barely touched. We've made some changes, but the bike's working good. Me, Doug (polen) and Pascal (Picotte) are a second ahead of Miguel (DuHamel) and Jamie Games), but I don't know what's going to happen. I'd like to beat Doug and that's possible even still. His bike works good and he turns the throttle. This track's as good as T Smith was incensed at the situation arguing first with comer workers and later with AMA officials. This was the Georgian's third crash of the weekend, and each were blamed on fluids on the race track. "That's three times for me and there's no logical reason," Smith said. "These people are just not thinking:' What corner workers called an 80foot long oil spill caused a 40-minute delay in the program. When the race was restarted, it was restarted completely - meaning Smith, Stevens, Guenette and Jacks wouldn't be credited with even starting, thus they wouldn't earn any championship points despite the thinning field. When the race was restarted, the grid was actually anemic looking with 17 bikes heading down the front straight into tum one. James led again on the first lap as six bikes were locked together in the lead group. any to beat him on. It's fast, but maybe it'll wear that DlIcati out and it'll stop:' Picotte's time of 1:40.684 was only fractions slower than Smith's best, the French Canadian getting back up to speed after hurting his back in his Road America off-track excursion. ' . " "Doug definitely helped me improve my times," Picotte said. "I was able to follow his lines and catch a good draft off him down the front straight:' Filling the front row was Vance & Hines Yamaha's Jamie James at 1:41.740,his best coming on Friday after a myriad of carburetion problems plagued the team throughout qualifying and kept James pitside for most of the final session. The new Yamaha YZF750SP uses Keihin carburetors, a change from the aWOl's Mikunis. "It's difficult when you've worked with one carburetor for so long and then you have to switch to different ones," crew chief Jim Leonard explained. "We were way too fat on jetting," said V&H rider Colin Edwards, who qualified a lowly eighth after barely improving on Saturday to a 1:42.564. Leading the second row was DuHamel and the Muzzy Kawasaki with a lap of 1:41.764: "Well, I'm fifth," DuHamel said with a wry smile. "I just didn't put in a good lap. Mike (Smith) came up the inside and hit me in the leg on one lap. But he didn't take my lever out. It was just one of those things. Mike apologized. I'm not mad at him - I'm mad at my lap times. We're working on trying to kick up the front end. I'm just losing a tenth (of a second) here and a tenth there when I follow Polen and the fast guys. I feel pretty confident that we'll be okay tomorrow." Camel Honda's Tom Kipp put the second Honda RC30 in the sixth position, but the Ohioan wasn't planning on racing. Still recovering from the leg he broke at Charlotte Motor Speedway in May, Kipp was riding just to get his timing down and to help improve his physical strength with a goal of a full return to action at Mid-Ohio next week. Kipp was riding with a plastic cast fitted to his right leg to prevent further injury in case of a fall. Sadly, Kipp crashed during Sunday morning's warmup and suffered a broken foot. The plastic cast, though, prevented further injury to his leg. "I don't have any intention on racing," Kipp said. "We set a date and we're going to stick to it. We've developed a game plan around that date. The motors here aren't fresh and there's some pieces we don't have here for my bike. .Plus, I'm not really ready:' Yoshimura Suzuki's Thomas Stevens put the ever-improving new GSXR750 on the second row with his time of 1:42.537. "We kind of ran out of time in qualifying," Stevens explained. "We set our best time 01:\ the race tire and we dien't get enough good laps in with the qualifying tire to do a better time. We just rim out of time. 1told the crew after Road Atlanta that this would be more difficult because it has a lot of stop-and-go corners. Road Atlanta features a lot of momentum and not a lot of stop-and-go stuff. That's where we seem to run into a waIL" ' Team Mirage's Dale Quarterley was ninth, after Edwards, leading the factory Kawasaki of Takahiro Sohwa and the factory Suzuki of Donald Jacks. Quarterley, as usual, wasn't worried about his qualifying times and expected to go faster when the flag dropped. ---. 7 /