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eROAD RACE AMA NationalChampionship oa_ _a_ Seri_ R~ nd 9 _R_ d R c e__ es:_ o u__ ~ Dale Quarterley (32) overtoo k Jamie James (2) and went on to win his first-ever AMA National Superbike race. James finished second. . , Quarterley surprises, Polen takestitle at Mid-Ohio By Paul Carruthers Photos b y Henny Ray Abrams LEXINGTON, OH, AUG. 8 it h w ha t was arguably the most p opular victory of the season even in the eyes of his peers - Dale Quarterley was rewarded for 10 years of pers everance today at the Mid -Ohio __ Sports Car Course. Almost 10 years ago to the d ay, a 22-year-old named Dale Qu arterley finished fifth on a Kaw asaki GPz750 in his AMA Superbike debut at Mid-Ohio. Te n s olid yea rs of tenacity later, the career-long privateer made good on a dream. And the tears flowed fr eel y after Quarterley , his family a n d h is Tea m Mirage Kawasaki crew tried to keep their emotions in check following his stunning first-ever AMA Superbike Na tional victory in the Holland Oil-sponsored race. It wasn't possible. O nly somethi ng as un li kel y as Q uarterley's popular win cou ld have overshadowed the crowning of a new AMA Superbike National Champion but it did just that. Still, Quarterley had W 4 to share the day with Fast By Ferracci's Doug Polen, the Texan p ut ting an exclamation mark on his stunning season by wrapping up h is fir st-e v er Na tional Championship with a race rem aining in the series. Polen did so by fini shing ' fourth in the race after bein g slow ed toward the end with a broke n motor mount on the Oucati 888. Polen's championship is the fir st in th e A MA Superbike class for Duca ti and their Vtwin, the first for a non-Japanese manufactur er since BMW (also a twin-eylinder mo to rc y cle) won th e title with Reg Pridmore in 1976 and, of course, the first for Polen. What made Quart erley 's victory so special was th at it was in no w ay a gimme. The factory stars didn't fall by the wayside, or retire with mech anical problems - they were just flat bea ten . They were beaten by a privateer who deserves to be taken seriously. Quarterley beat Jamie James, he beat Mike Smith , he beat Polen, he beat Thomas Stevens, he beat Colin Edwards... he beat them all. Second p lace ended up going to the Van ce & Hines Yamaha of Jamie Jam es, the Louisianan turning in his best result of the season to finish 5585 seconds behind Qua rt erley, and just in fron t of Mike Smith's Camel Honda. N ext came Polen, well clear of Yoshimura Suzuki's Thomas Stevens, w ho in tu rn had a gap over Vance & Hines Yamaha's Colin Edwards II. Three Cana dians and a New Zealander filled the to p 10 as Steve Crevier, Pascal Picotte, Andrew Stroud and Miguel DuHamel finished seven th, eighth, ninth and LOth, respectively. For his efforts, Quarterley took home the $7000 winner's share of the $40,000 Superb ike purse. The rid e r from Rockland, Massachussetts, averaged 61560 mph in the red-flag interrupted, 27lap race. Quarterley's win alsomarked the first AMA Superbike victory of the season ~ by a rider using Michelin tires; Michelin's last win came in the rain at Texas World Speedway in 1992 with Freddie Spencer, Parity amongst the manufactur ers was again evide nt as five di fferen t brand s of mo torcycles filled the top five finish ing positions - Kawasaki, Yamaha, Honda, Ducati and Suzuki. The champio nship, though, belon ged to Polen and Ducati, With on e round remain ing in the 10-race series, Polen 's 293 points are unreachable. Quarterley, though, moved int o second pla ce in the series point standings with 237 points, 11 points better than DuHamel, wh o srnigg le d to fi nis h 10th a fte r h is Mu zz y Kawasaki de veloped an oil leak midway th rou gh the race. James is fourth in the seri es p oint s ta nd ings with 202 points with Taka hiro Schwa, 11th at Mid-Ohio, fifth'with 167 points. Sunny skies and a large gathering of spec tators (estima ted by track officials as a pp roxi ma tely 50,000 for th e tw o-day event) greeted the riders as they headed down the back s traigh t and in to turns seven and eight for the first time. James led on the first go-around, followed , qu ite remarkably, by his teammate Edwards who had started from the second row of the grid. Stevens wa s thi rd, Quarterley fo u r th , Polen fi fth , Smith six th a nd DuHamel seventh. The order held true for the next time around, excep t at the front, where Edwards ha d d isposed of James. The eight-rider train at the front started to pull clear from the rest - but it was all for nau ght as Michael Fitzpatrick's cr ash brought ou t the red flag after three laps. What followed wa s a dela y as workers scurried to clean up fluids from the race track. The restart saw James nail the holeshot with Edwards tucked in behind as they entered the left-hand turn one and headed for the esses . Wh en they arrived at the Keyhole, Edwards suddenly was knocked back a few places. "Quarterley barged in to the Keyhole and pushed me off-line," Edwards explained later. "Stevens came by, and ..." Edwards was fifth at the end of the backstraight, chasing James, Quarterley, ·Stevens and Picotte, but leading Polen, Smi th , DuHamel, Jacques Guenette [r., and Stroud. For any doubting Tho mas' out there, Stevens showed his mettle on the second lap by barging u n d e r the fearsome Quarterley at the end of the back straight to move into second place behind James. The top two spots would stay the same u ntil the seventh lap when Quarterley went back past Stevens on the entrance to tum one to give chase to James, who was lapping in the high one-minute, 3O-second rang e. The man on the move at this point in , the race was DuHamel. Sixth on lap ' seven, fifth on lap eight, third on lap nine, second on lap 10 and leading on lap 11, DuHamel looked to be the man most likely to stop Polen and his two-race wi n streak. On the 12th lap, DuHame l even had the audacity to lead Quarterley by 1.5 seconds. But as quickly as the lead came, it vanished . On the 16th lap the French Canadian led, on lap 17 he was third , on lap 19 he was fourth, on lap 20 he was seven th, on lap 21 he was nin th. He would finally finish 10th, the victim of an oil leak. "There was no need to' rub their noses in it," DuHamel joked later . "I had an oil leak on the rear tire; it just started to slide and slide. I was being cautious. I knew I could click off some 29s and that was my goal. The bike was working real good. It was a demonstration of what we can do eighth to first and pulling away. Then it started sliding; it would go to the lock. I though t, 'tha t's no t normal.' I though t it (the tire) was chunking, but it wo uld spin when it was straight up and there was no vibration. Then it got really bad . I was 100