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/127662
Round 3: Pomona Fairplex By Paul Carruthers Photos by Joe Bonnello ..... - I-< ~ 10 POMONA, CA, APR. 10 r the majority of the weekend the talk at the inaugural L.A . Superb ike Championship at the Pomona Fairplex was not of rac ing, but o f no t racin g. Bu t when rhetoric turned to racing, it was Fast By Ferracci Du cati's Tr oy Corser w hos e actions spoke louder tha n words. The Australian w on his second successive AMA Superbike National of the youn g season, further emphasizing his and the Ducati's supremacy over the rest of the field with a victory on the highly controve rsial race track that weaved its way through the parking lot of the Pomona Fairplex. The return of road racing to Southern California after a three-year drought began in a somewhat bizarre and . perplexing manner as Friday's pra ctice sessions were boycotted by the riders and Saturday's qualifying was washed out by rain (see sidebar). The weekend ended on a good note , though, with the majo rity of the 28,700 sp ectators who turned out witnessing an exciting Superbike National. And the best news of all was that despite the race track's obvious inadequacies, the races concluded without anyone suffering serious injury. The Superbike National, however, was stopped prematurely when Colin Edwards II crashed his Vance & Hines Yamaha on the 25th lap while running third. The young Texan spun out in his own oil in the chicane at the end of the front stra ight, the Ya mah a YZ F750 spewing oil on th e race track before b ursting in to flames and forci ng the early stoppage of the race. By that point in the race, Corser had opened up a two-second gap on Muzzy Ka w as aki's Takahi r o Sohwa , w it h Edwards an other secon d or so behind the rider from Japan. Edwards had led early on and was h ound in g Corser when a lap ped rid er forced him into a h a y b al e on th e 17th lap; Edwar ds end ed up running off the track, allowin g both Corser and Sohwa to break away. Eight laps later and the Vance & Hines Yamaha rid er was sliding on his back in the chicane, bringing an early end to the Cycle World magazine-sponsored event. due to a se cond protest filed b y the Muzzy Kawasaki team aga inst the Fast By Ferra cci Duca tis of Corser and Picotte. This lime it was 11th-place finisher Fred Merkel wh o filed the protest on beha lf of team owner Muzzy. "Merkel has p rot ested Corser and Picotte's m achin es, " Rob M uzz y exp lained after the race. "It' s the same thing (as th e Phoenix protest) - just another da y. We wan t to establish again w hat it is (the Ducati 955 ), a n d go thr ough the process. The bottom line is that tw o-cylinder motorcycles have to be mad e in quantities of 50 units and be available through regular channels for stree t use. That motorcycle isn' t available: ' Corser's response to being protested Third place thus fell to th e Muzzy Kawasaki of Steve Crevier, the Canadian scoring his best finish of the season in his third race with the Rob Muzzyowned squad. Vance & Hines Yamaha's Jamie James finished fourth, well clear of Fast By Ferracci's Pascal Picotte and the dicing between Dale Quarterley on the Team Mirage Kawa saki and Yoshimura Suzuki's Thomas Ste vens. Sm okin ' Joe' s Racing's Mike Smith, Yoshimura Suzuki's Tom Kipp and Starsport-backed privateer Scott Gra y rounded out the top 10 finishers. For the second racein a row, the results will again be listed as unofficial, forthe seco nd straight race was succinct: "1 got it all last year in Australia," sai d Corser, who won the Australian Superbike National Championship despite protests regarding the legality of his Honda RC30. "It doesn't concern me . It's manufacturer against manufacturer. The bike is to the rules - it's eligible to run." Protest or no protest, it's hard to find fault with the talents of the youn g Australian - for the third race in a row, he , didn't put a wheel wrong all weekend. Corser kept the race close for most of the 25 laps, before clicking off lap times some 1.5 seconds faster to open a lead The Su pe rblke Natio nal get s underway with J ami e J ames (2) leading Steve Crevier (14) an d the rest of the pa c k around t u rn tw o In the pa rk i ng lo t of the Pom ona Falrplex. on Sohwa. and Edwa rd s - prompting many to accu se the Aussie of playing games sim ila r to the cat-and-mouse antics Doug Polen used a season ago on the factory Duca ti. With both the Phoenix results and the results from Pomona still unofficial, due to the protest/appeal from Phoenix and the latest protest at Pomona, the unofficial point standings have Corser in front of James by 21 points, 103-82. Crevier is thi rd in the championship with 80 points followed by Sohwa's 74 and Stevens' 70 points. Due to the problems with the race track, practice for most consisted of just a session on Sunday morning, and many began the race on setups with which they w eren't totally familar. Because there were no qualifying sessions held, the 28 riders were grid ded according to the number o f p oin ts they'd scored in the previous two rounds . Noticably absent from the sta rting grid was Australian Kevin Magee, the ' Smokin' Joe's Racing tea m member being one of the proponents of a rider boycott due to safety concerns, and he ended up being only one of two superbike riders to stick to his convictions despite ess en tia lly tossing away any