Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

Rou 6:NewHampsh InternationalSpeedway nd ire orser! By Paul Carruthers Photos by Henny Ray Abrams WUDON, NH,JUNE 19 o much for monumental momentum shifts. Just as it appeared as though the pendulum in the AMA U.S. Superbike National Championship was starting to swing away from Australian Troy Corser, he rea ched ou t and pulled it back wi th a crucial win at New Hampshire International Speedway. The Fast By Ferracci rider again turned in a stellar performance when he needed it most, winning his third Superbike National of the season at a race track he 'd never seen before to extend his lead in the championship point standings to a whopping 43 points. Annually one of the toughest races of the season because of the tight, tw isty and bumpy nature of the 1.6-mile layout, 40 laps around New Hampshire International Speedway on a no rmal day is ~ tough enough. Throw in a record-setting 0\ heat wave and the conditions became ,..-I nearly unbearable. Still, Corser and his Ray Farrow -fettled Ducati 955 was up to the challenge, and not even an intrusion of lapped traffic could stop his charge. But one man came very close. Muzzy Kawasaki's Fred Merkel had perhaps his best ride of the season to finish second, 4.147 seconds behind Corser. It was s 8 much closer than that as the for mer World Superbike Champion actually led as late as the 33rd lap, only to lose out badly in traffic. It was Merkel' s third runner-up finish of the seas o n as he struggles to make up ground in the championship after failing to score points at the opening round in Daytona . Third place went to Vance & Hines Yamaha's Jamie James. Ever the charger, James shared the lead position early in the race with his teammate Colin Edwards II befo re both Corser and Merkel turned up the pace. At that point, James - who was still smarting from his Road America result where he finished second on the race track bu t 17th in the results after being docked a lap for passing under a waving yellow flag - realized the pace was too hot and settled in for a lonely ride to third place. Fourth place went to the hard-riding Mike Smith and - believe it or not - the Honda RC45. Smith rode the wheels off the Smokin' Joe's Racing Hond a to give the team their best result of the season with the new and still-d isappointing RC45 . Edward s w as next acr os s the stripe, the Texan ba tt ling wit h front brake problems after setting the early pace . It was only the second time since the second round of the series in Phoenix tha t Edwards has finished a race. Yoshimura Suzuki's Thom as Stevens finished sixth. After running fifth for most of the race, the Floridian looked set to finish there, but he slowed to assess what he thought was an oil leak. Stevens was pushed back a few spots, but after figuring out he was okay, eventually climbed back to finish sixth . Muzzy Kawasaki's Takahiro Sohwa finished seventh, bu t he deserved much better. The Japa nese rider ran wit h the lead pack early on before settling into a coinfortable four th place. Then the sole of his right boot separated from the boot itself, causing him imme nse problems and dropping him back in the closing stages of the race. The w inner of the last two events, Pascal Picotte, had a da y he'd rather forget. Instead of carrying the momentum he'd bu ilt over the last two events, the Fas t by Ferr acci rider simply couldn't come to gr asp with the conditions on race d a y. A qualifying crash that destroyed his number one motorcycle did little to boost his confidence and also le ft h im without his favorite bike. Smok in ' Joe' s Racing's Mike Hale had the best outing of his two-race-young Superbike career with a ninth-place finish. Though it didn't match his stunning front-ro w qualifying effort, ·it was impressive nonetheless. Birthday boy Steve Crevier completed the top 10 on the third Muzzy Kawasaki after starting slowly from the fourth row of the grid. So with six of the 10 rounds in the Jamie James (2) led his teammate Colin Edward s \I (45), Fred Merkel (27) and Troy Corse r (19) on t he fir st lap of th e Superbike Natio nal at New Hampshire Internati onal Speedway. books, Corser leads James in the championship, 199-156. Surprisingly, Crevier still holds down third with 150 points, just one clear of a tie between Picotte and Sohwa. Merkel is only five points behind that duo with 144 points. This one, though, appears to be Corser's to lose. A quality event was marr ed by the critical injuries suffe red by 31-year-old Aaron Lanningham . The Sandy , Utah, residen t was in listed as being in critical condition at the Corcord Hospital in Corcord, New Hampshire, with head, neck and internal injuries after cras hing his Kawasaki into a wall on the 20th lap. Notables who d idn't finish the race were Smokin' Joe's Racing's Kevin Magee, who continued through his disastrous rookie season of AMA racing by pulling into the pits after the warm-up lap when a fuel-management system "gremlin" that was found on Sunday morning wasn't remedied. "It was making noises like it was going to blow up," Magee explained . "It had no top end and I would've got run over if I'd tried to go. There was no point in riding it like it was." David Sadowski also didn't finish as he pitted the Desmo-backed Ducati after only four laps wi th mecha n ical ills; Harley-Davidson's Miguel DuHamel was also forced ou t of the race early on . when a rock put a hole in the radiator of

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