Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

r~ >ROAD', RACE':,:":"', ':",'.<: ' Round 1:D n tern n ayto aIn atio alSpeedway « »: ' U .Superbike,National Championship Siiries,·· ,S he was able to straighten up and avoid the fallen Merkel, although he couldn't sto p himself from hitting the spinning Kawasaki. Still, Crevier somehow man aged no t to crash and he wa s abl e to rejoin th e fra y, though down a few places. " It just came loose a n d sp u n around," Merkel said . "It burned up the clutch, so I wouldn't have finished any- way . He (Crevier) hit the bike. I felt sorry for him, but I was glad he didn 't hit me." "He too k up so much of the track," said Crevier of the fallen Merkel. "I had , to hit somet hing . It wouldn't be a full da y if I didn't hit some thing. I backed up and go t going again. Fred's okay that's the main thing." James was forced in for an unsched- (Above) Jamie James (2) finished fourth after an early battle with Dale Quarterley (32) and Fred Merkel (27). (Right) Merkel's day came to an end with his crash In the International Horseshoe. Steve Crevier actually saved this and went on to finish sixth. AD ll ucatida inT in50s w '1 t would have been very difficult to remove the smile from the face of Eraldo Ferracci (right) on Thursday afternoon. The well-respected Ducati tuner may have lost Doug Polen to Honda in the offseason, but it didn't stop the Fast By Ferracci team from sweeping to wins in both Twin 50 qua lifying races at Daytona International Speedway, French Canadian Pascal Picotte came away with a stunning victory over Yamaha's Eddie Lawson in the first of th e two 5D-milers, and new Ferracci recruit Troy Corser did likewise to Polen and the factory Honda .RC45 in the second Twin 50. The three protagonists, Ferracci, Picotte and Corser, sat together during a press conference held at the ' end of the day and all'three were smiling proudly. They had every reason, tobe happy as their race results would put the two riders on the front row for the start of the 53rd running ofthe Daytona 200 by Arai. . Picotte's victory washis third straight in a Twin 50 qualifying race at Daytona, tying him with Russell for the most wins in the nine-year history of the qualifying races. The first of the two races - which would determine the grid positions for the Daytona 200 by Arai - began under cloudy skies with Picotte grabbing the lead as the pack emerged from tum one. James was in tow with Lawson following. New Muzzy Kawasaki recruit Steve Crevier was next, just ahead of former Daytona 200 winner David Sadowski and his DESMa-backed Ducati. At the end of the first lap, Picotte led Lawson and James by' a full second, with another gap back to Crevier, Sadowski, Donald Jacks, Dale Quarterley, Tom Kipp and Mike Smith. Australian Kevin Magee was even further back on the Smokin' Joe's Racing Honda RC45. Lawson started to make gains on Picotte's lead on the second lap, and pulled right up on the French Canadian's rear wheel on lap four . A lap later, Lawson was in the lead. By this time, James had dropped back and there was now four seconds separating the top two from the Vance &: Hines Yamaha. The race was stopped on the seventh lap when Crevier's Kawasaki "lost a water hose" on the front straight and Rick Shaw's Yamaha blew up, spi1ling fluids and causing some panic in the turn-one area. By this point, German Martin Wimmer had already taken himself out of the race with a crash in the chicane. Crevier would not make the restart andwould thus be forced to start the Daytona 200 from the last row of the grid. ' With the temperatures dropping as the cloud cover increased, the restart got underway with Picotte agairi teadingthe way into the .Intem ationalHorseshoe. This time , QtIarterleywas tucked in behind, leading Lawson, James, Kipp;Smith and Jacks. Sadowski was back in 12 d later retire when his Ducati blew up on the second p. . ',''', . ... " c sec?nda.c;lvantage , l'icotte pu . '. . .. tly openedupa 2.2 over "w si>n on th . nd lap: HisJeadwould stay in"tlUi two-sec0ndraI\ge for the rest of , the Fienfh Canadian cruising to victory over LawSon; JaCks got the better of 1th ane! QtIarl'erley in',a 1aSt lap draft to the flag. James, who had earlier blown the . , ended up sixth ~thKippl Jacques Guenette Jr., Magee and dirt track legend Jay Springsteen rounding out the top 10. . "I was really feelirig good," PiCOtte said. "I did the best I was able to ride the bike, but the bike did the job for me. yve probably can go a little bit faster than that. Some- times it's scary when you try and go over the limits. It's better if you can stay just inside the limits. I think I had more power than Eddie (Lawson). I drafted him a couple of times and could pass him . It's not easy, but I know I can (pass him). He has some problems catching my draft. Definitely, we have some really good horsepower." Lawson seemed content with his finish: "It wasn't enough," he said. "He (Picotte) was going real good . That twin of his was running pretty hard. I was a little paranoid of that oil out there and I was taking it a little easy. I want to concentrate on the 200. I'll tell you - no excuses - Picotte just ran away with that one. I could n't do anything about it." Magee's ninth-place finish wa s unexpected, even though the Smokin' Joe's team was struggling to get the brand-new Honda RC45sset up correctly. "It's just mainly getting the chassis to where I feel comfortable with it," explained Magee, the Australian who now lives in Monterey, California. "If I get comfortable, I can push it. If you push it wh en you're notcomfortable, there's only one ' place you'll end up . We don 't know what it really likes just yet. We're making progress. I'm just . having problems when the track goes left or right and I'm going straight. We did 55s in December with a sore arm (on the old ~C30) c a~d that's all we'v e done with this (the . , % RC45). It's a compromise of settings - wiNejustgottd~d .where that is." The second Twin 50 saw Doug Polen and the neW Honda RC45 take the lead from , the start. He led Muzzy Kawasaki's Fred Merkel and his teammate Scott Russell, Corser and Lucky Strike Suzuki's Thomas Stevens. . , Russell took control at the end of the opening la ading Polen, Merkel and Corser, and he instantly started pulling away from the pack.'At the end of the third lap, Russell had nearly a second on Corser, who had moved by Polen and into second place. The third lap also saw the demise of the Harley-Davidson VRlOOO, with French Canadian Miguel DuHamel pulling off the race track in the kink after having the bike up to eighth place, despite starting from the fourth row of the grid . DuHamel later said the problem had been diagnosed as a faulty fuel pump. On the sixth lap, Muzzy Kawasaki had their second problem of the day when Russell's race ended in the chicane. "We had a bearing seize in the rear wheel," Russell said . "I was really lucky the whole thing didn't seize and that it only broke the chain; I was able to coast it. I knew I had a problem going down the backstraight because it was vibrating pretty bad. Going into the Chicane, everything just broke. Hey, we're going to still be in there. Well probably start about the middle of the second wave. We're going to make a race of it. It will be exciting." Polen was able to stay close to Corser fur the duration, but this was the Australian's race to win. At the finish, he'd opened up a 3.~nd lead on the Texan and the Honda. Merkel finished third in his first race on the Muzzy Kawasaki, with Stevens fourth for Lucky Strike Suzuki, whose Akira Yanagaw3 also took fifth. Colin Edwards II came in sixth on the Vance & Hines Yamaha. "It's important to do well here for Horidaand our racing team:'Polen said . "We needed to get up front and start in the front row. ,It's gob,tgto be really good to be starting there . Last time I won one of these heat races, I wound up 4&11. Our team went to work. We had il gqxi race all through to the end''!'hat'swhat we needed.We got al of infomation today. Now we'll go to work and . " ether an even more 0 petitive machinefor Sunday," f Corser, another ina long Iine of laid- a ..,.. ,... ' , ,was expected c win: "It's great coming over here and gettin8 o.ii)1g~ bike straight away. The is working fine as are the Dunlop tires. It's a good package overall. I've got a strong team behind me and I think that's a bonus. In the middle of the race, Doug (Polen) was charging pretty hard and I was trying PrettY h.8i'd.Then we both slowed down; Ijust dropped back a bit and had a bit of a look, At ,the erid .1 had a bit of a go and pulled away." '· ; :: :,;~ 1T . · . .. .

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