Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

Tom Kipp - #16· Age: 26 Hometown: Mentor, Ohio Team: Vance & Hines Yamaha Best result.in 1994: 9th (Pomona, Mid-OhioandBrainerd) he past two seasons have been toug h . ones for Tom Kipp . In 1993, he suffered a broken leg in a horrific cra~ at Ch arlott e Motor Speedway, and at the end of the season he was without a ride after being replaced on the Camel Honda team by Kev in Magee. Suzuki stepped in at the last minute and hired Kipp for the '94 sea son, and he resp onded by winning the 750cc Supersport Championship for the Yoshimura crew. But his seaso n on the GSXR750Superbike wa s one he'd rather forget. He was nea rly always oversh adowed by team mate Thomas Stevens, and he ended the season 12th in the championship. Terry Van ce and Yamaha are banking that Kipp can kick-start his su perbike racing career, and they 've provided him the perfect team in which to do so. Kipp will ride a Yamaha YZF750 that is am ongst the best bikes on the grid and by season's end he will likely be a regular top-three finisher . T Doug Chandler - #10 - Age: 29 Hometown: Salinas, Ca lifornia Team: Team Harley-Davidson Best result in 1994: 2nd (Argentine 500cc Grand Prix) he return of the 1990 AMA Superbike . Cha mpion to U'S. road racing will add further interest to what is al ready an attractive series. To top it off, Chandler's return will be on the Ha rley-Davidson VRl 000. . After four yea rs of Grand Prix racing, Chand ler's skills have onl y furt her improved from when we last saw him dominate AMA Su perbike racing in 1990. In add ition, his expertis e wit h motorcycle setu p will go a long way in drastically speeding up the development of the VR1000, and he shou ld also be ab le to he lp develop the road racing talents of teammate Ch ris Ca rr. I look for Chandler to perhaps give Harley its first-ever superbike wi n in 1995. The only reason we don 't have him higher in the sta ndings is the VRl000 's propensity to break down during races. If the VR's reliability is better than it was in its rookie season, look for Cha ndler to finish in the top five. T Mike Hale - #23 - Age: 24 Hometown: Carrol~on , Texas Team: Smokin' Joe's Honda Best result in 1994: 7th (Mid-Ohio) ike Hale raced Srnokin ' Joe's an cient ROO three tim es during the 1994 season, and each time he impressed, the highlight com ing during qu alifyin g at the New Hampshire International Speedway when he placed the Ho nda on the front row . This yea r the you ng Texan steps up to the Superbike class full time while continu ing h is rampage in the 600cc Super spor t division . Simply put, Hale is the risin g star of u.s. roa d racing and he cou ld very well end up much higher in the standi ngs. Still, we expec t him to make mis takes, and with the competitiveness of this field, errors will prove costly. Too man y mistakes and he'll drop out of the Top 10 altoge ther. If preseason testing is an y ind ication, Hale already ' see ms up to spee d on the RC45 and he has been as fast, if no t faster, than his hig hly tou ted teammate Miguel DuHamel. Takahiro Sohwa - #60· Age: 29 Hometown: Bend, Oregon Team: Fast By Ferracci Ducati Bestresultin 1994: 2nd (Pomona) M lon gtime member of Kaw asaki racing teams in Jap an and for the past two seasons here in the Ll.S; Schwa's sw itch to Ducati for the 1995 season was a surprising one . The Japanese ace has shocke d us in the past tw o years as he has cons isten tly tu rn ed in top finishes (fifth in 1993 1 third in 1994) in the champion sh ip. Billed as a cras her, Sohwa has bee n anything but in his AMA yea rs. Rid ing a Muzzy Kawasaki , Sohwa finished each and every race last year, with his two rostru m finishes coming at Pom ona and Mid -Ohio. How he reacts to the Ducati V-twin remains to be see n, but the re' s no reason why he shouldn' t flouri sh on the Ferracci team . A Paseal Picotte - #21 - Age: 25 Hometown: Granby, Quebec, Canada Team: Muzzy Kawasaki Best result in 1994: 1st (Laguna Seca and Road America) tw o-time wi nner in 1994, Picott e has sw itched tearns for the coming season and that's why we've d rop ped him a few notches in our preseason predictions . It's not a case of the Kawasaki being an inferior motor cycle to the Du cati, or Muzzy's team no t measu ring up to Ferracci's - the bottom line is we jus t d on 't know how well the French Canadi an will adapt to the four-cylinder Kawasaki supe rbike after years on the Ducati V-twin. A man mu ch sma rter than I assessed Picotte's situa tion as thi s: "If he couldn' t beat the Kaw asakis consistently on a Du cati, how does he expect to beat the Ducatis on a Kaw asaki?" Stay tuned . Th omas Stevens - #11 - Age: 30 Hometown: Sanibel Island,Florida Team: Yoshimura Suzuki Best result in 1994: 6th (New Hampshi re International Speedway, Mid-Ohio) A ever before has ther e been such an im pressive list of rid er s who have failed to make it int o our To p 10. Heading that list is tw o-time World Ch ampion Fred Merkel. If he is truly ins pi red to push the Suzuki to new heights, Merkel cou ld very we ll ju m p we ll int o the Top 10. But if th ings don't go we ll, we expect Merkel to take things easy in an ticipa tion of a new Suz uki in 1996...It was very difficu lt to leave Muzzy Kawasaki's Steve Crevier out of the Top 10 for 1995. After all, he finishe d sixt h in last year's series after a very consisten t season of racing . Somebody had to go, and in the end it turned ou t to be Mer kel, Crevier and th ose lis ted below ...Dale Quart erley will have a Ducati at hi s d ispos- N ast season I dropped Stevens ou t of the Top 10 - not beca use of his ridi ng talen ts but because of the fact that the Suz uk i GSXR750 had simply run its cou rse as a su perbike. But Stevens hasn't given up, and he proved it with so me inspired racing in 1994. A crash in his own oil when the Suz uki blew up at Laguna Seca was his onl y setback ea rly in the season, and in the other races he put the Suzuki as high up as anyo ne can reasonably expect; his other non finish cam e in the final round at Road Atlanta with the Suzuki su ffering a mech anica l failur e, and he was a no n-starter at Brainerd when he opted to run the Suzuka 8-Hour ins tead . Steve ns is h op ing there is still more to be plu cked fro m the cu rren t cro p of Suzuki su perbikes, but he mu st be foaming at the mouth to get his h ands on the 1996-model GSXR. For his sake, we hope it' s wo rth the wait. L al in the comi ng season, and he's the one man who can make us look stupid by ru nning cons istently at the front of the superbike pack. He is also the one man who will let us kn ow week in and week ou t just how we're d oin g with ou r picks .. .Jason Pridmore wi ll finally make his way into the Superbike class in 1995 and he will d o so on a yea r-ol d Fas t By Ferracci Ducati . The key to his season may lay in his ability to bounce back fro m a preseason b roken leg suffe red in a mot ocro ss accident.. .Dav id Sadowski finishe d th ird in the Su perbike National at Road America last yea r, but fina ncial problems forced him to miss a few races. If Sad owsk i has the fun d ing to com pe te on fresh equipment at each and eve ry round, he will likely finish in the To p 10...Ch ris Carr w ill begin h is ro ok ie season of Superbike racing in the Da yton a 200 as the team mate to Doug Ch andler on factory Harl eyDav id sons. How qui ckly Carr is ab le to ge t u p to speed will obviously determ ine jus t how well he does in the cham pion ship. We think the speed w ill come , it' s jus t a matter of tim e. H B ~

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