Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

;·ROAO'RACE:l-/'··i'·'; >o,.;'.·::>..'::·..' Round 2:Phoenix International Raceway ·, ational ChampionshipSeries : : :U.S uperbike N ..S Pascal Picott e (21) gets the jump on the field at the star! of the AMA U.S. Superbike Series Nalional at Phoen ix Internationa l Raceway. Takahiro Sohwa (41), Colin Edwards II (45) and Jami e James (2) give chase. [OOSlO WINS HIS flOST By Paul Carru thers Photos by Henny Ray Abrams GOODYEAR, AZ, MAR. '1J . ollowing his impressive performance in the opening round of the series at Daytona International Speedway, it seemed only a matter of time before young Australian Troy Corser would win an AMA Superbike National on his Fast By Ferracci Ducati. Well, go ahead and check that off the list of things Corser will likely accomplish in 1994. It was also only a matter of time before the gru mbling abo ut the Ducati 's apparent advantage in AMA superbike racing tu rn ed into something more tha n ju st talk. Well, go ahead and check that off the list of com ing attractions as well. An official protest was filed by Muzzy Kawasaki team owner Rob Muzzy agains t Ducati through team rider Takahiro Sohwa, who finished seventh in the National - immediately after the race (see sidebar), throwing some doubt onto the results. Muzzy con tends that the Du cati 955 currently used by the Ferracci team should not have been homologated according to the current rule book. On the race track, howev er, AMA rookie and current Australian Superb ike Champion Corser blitzed the competition in onl y his second AMA Na tiona l en rou te to taking his first-ever U.s . victory . Chalk this up as Corser's weekend. Upon arriving in Arizona, the n -yearold quickly learned a race track h e 'd n e ver seen b efore, broke th e tr a ck record while secu ring the pole position (see si d eba r) and th en w en t ou t and won the race - all in a weekend's work. Originally hounded by his teamm ate Pascal Picotte, Corser found himself ou t front and alone when the French Canadia n's Ducati failed him for the second straigh t race. From th a t p oint on, the race for the lead wa s, for all p rac tical purposes, ove r and the Aussie cr uised home a winn er . Second p lace ' we n t to Muzzy Kawasaki 's Fred Merkel. The former AMA Champ ion and two-time World Superbike Champion wa s also imp ressive on a ra ce track he'd never se en befor e. Merkel started well and worked his way around Vance & Hines Yamaha 's Colin Edwards II to finish second, some six seconds behind Corser. Merk el took consolation in the fact that he was f A a ~ the first rider on a four-cy linder superbike to cross the finish line. Edwards quickly turned hi s somewhat lackluster Day tona fin ish (12th) into a positive outing in Phoenix as he rode the Yamaha YZF750 to a thirdplace finish , just ahead of his teammate Jamie James. Desmo-backed Dave Sadowski had his best finish in recent memory, finishing fifth a fter a soli d ride in his second outing on the Ducati V-twi n. The rest of the top 10 wa s filled with factory stars as Muzzy Kawasaki's Steve Crevier fought back from a poo r start to finish sixth, well clear of Yos h im u ra Suzuki's Thomas Stevens, Smokin' Joe's Racing 's Mike Smith and Team Mirage's Dale Quarterley . Surprisingly, the race didn't feature a high attrition rate, though some of the factor y s tars found th em selv es in the pits much earlier than they would have liked. Smokin' Joe 's Kevin Magee was the first to go when the gearbox on his H onda RC45 failed on th e 22nd lap; Picotte joined the Australian in the pits a lap later when the Ducati had wha t Eraldo Ferracci called, "some kind of problem wi th the head." Yoshimura Suzuki's Tom Kipp wa s another w ho d idn't mak e it to the finish after he ran int o Smith w hile racing for eigh th p lace . Whil e Sm it h narrowly escaped disaster, Kipp wen t do wn, ending his da y on the 38th lap . Also joining the relatively short list of non-fin ishers was Miguel DuHamel and the factory Harley-Davi d son VR I 000. Du Ha mel had the Harley up with the lead group u n til the fifth la p when the VRI000 encou n tere d the sa me p rob lem it h ad run into all weekend . "It just cut out ," DuHamel said later. "We've had a glitch at 8000 rp m all week. It's at exactly 8000 rpm and we can't get rid of it. We went leaner, richer...poo rer you name it. 1 don' t th ink it's the fu el injection - maybe the fuel p um p." Ah, but not all was lost in the Harley camp. The VRI 000 scored its first-ever AMA U.S. Superbike Se ries Ch a mp ion ship po ints when n u mber two rid er Fritz Kling brought the second bike home in 14th place after a solid ride. Kling. in his first race on the Harley, likely would have finished higher as he ran behind eventual 11th place finisher Scott Gray until running straight in tum one and losing several positions while re-entering the track. Corser's victory was the first in an AMA Superb ike National by a nonNorth American since New Zea lander Graeme Crosby won at Daytona in 1980. He also joined a list of 12 other one-time Superbike National winners - though with the superiority he showed at Pho enix, it' s hard to believe that this w ill be his last such victory . The w in ca m e in front of a much-improved crowd of 10,500 and it earned Corser the $5000 winner's share of the $29,000 superbike p urse . Corser's win also moves him into the lead in the championship with 67 points, 13 clear of James' 54-point total. Crevier holds down third with 50 points, one better than Edwards; Smith and Stevens are tied for fourth with 46 points each. It was Picotte who got the jump on the field as the 42-lap, 63-mile race started under a cloudless blue sky with temperatures in the mid 70s. The French Canadian and the thundering V-twin surged into tu rn one with Sohwa, Edwards and James hot on his heels. Corser was sixth as the pack sorted itself out on the run to the start/finish line for the first time. "I haven 't go t these Ducat is worked out yet - ge tting them off the line," Corser said later of his less-than-stellar start. "I wasn't too worried ." Picotte held a one-second lead ove r Ed w ards on the th ird lap, bu t by thi s p oint C o rser w a s r ig h t b e h in d th e Yamaha-moun ted Texan and was ready to po unce. With Picotte alm ost two seconds ahead . Corser moved by Edwards on the fourth lap an d quickly cut his teammate's lead down to nothing. For the next 18 laps, the Ferracci Ducatis flew in formati on out front leading the res t by so me five seco nds. Picotte led until the 12th lap, at which point the French Canadian encountered a lapped rider in tum one. He elected to go outside, and Corser went inside, passing both Picotte and the lapper. For seven more laps, the trend continued before Picotte again moved to the front. "I let him go by," Corser said later. "I wasn't too worried about leading the race" Sohwa protests D~cati S even th.place finis her Takahiro Sohw a.fiIed a written protes t with AM .O..f•. .ficials . . .... . . .A. 'es round at Phoenix interimmEkiiately following the AMA U.S. national Raceway. The protest is in MA's homologation of the Ducati 955 on whi ch Troy Corser won the Ph~f,I1?C '.. ational. Sohwa's p ro test questioned the process used by the AMA in approving the Ducati us ed by the Fast By Ferracci team . The following is from a press relea se issued inunediately after the event by Muz zy Kawa saki team owner Rob Muzzy. "TheAMA rul e book specifi cally sta tes that motorcycles must be ap proved for competition and tha t the approved motorcycles are restricted in the types of modifications tha t can be mad e," Muzzy said . "The 955 Ducati is not a new motorcycle. It is the 888 motorcycle from las t year with a stroked motor. That's illegal accord ing to the rules an d we're just trying to get the AMA to explain why the y let it be here." Muzzy said that team manager Steve Johnson had ap proached AMA technical d irector Merrill Vanderslice earlier and was told tha t the AMA had approved an engine kit as a legal mod ification to the 1993 model. Accordi ng to Muzzy, when Johnson as ked how that wa s justified by the ru le boo k, he wasn't given an answer. Johnson asked Vanderslice to present a copy of the hom ologation application form for the machine and was told that the paperwork w as not available. "This is not a question of any competitor cheating," Muzz y said. "The problem see ms to be with the AMA. This is supposed to be a p rofessional sport. I know myself and the othe r team ow ners are making a big investment in our teams and the only thing we have to go on is the rule boo k printed by the AMA . If we can 't count on those rules being applied evenly and fairly, then how do we kno w what we can do? Does this mean 1 can make changes to my machines tha t the rul e book says are illegal? I' m just trying to get things clarified so tha t I .can go racing." The protest filed h Sohwa was based on the following passages from the AMA s: Rule Book: "Approval of Superbike AMA will consider for homologation Superbike motorcycles submittedfor approval by manufacturers D distributors. Only approved motorr cycles may be used in Superbike competition. "In order to be digiblefor approval, a motorcycle must be a four-stroke production model produced withinthelastfiveyaJrS, sold forstreet useandcomplete withfull lighting equipment. "Production and Importation: Manufacturers of tUJin-cylinder motorcycles must construct a minimum of 50 motorcycles worldwide a each ear mOdel requested for approval, with at least 7 delivered to the u.s. . ed from theorigiitally approved "Superbike Equipment: TIle following IlIa f model - cranks/laft configuration and stroke; ateria and castings o cylinders, cylinder heads andcrankshaft." The p ro test obviously th ro w s so me d oubt into the resu lts from the Ph oen ix su perb ike race an d the results remained unofficial as Cycle News went to press on Monday, March 28.

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