Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

• ROAD RACE . AMA S uperbike N ational Championship R u d1:Day n on to aInternationalSpeed ay w SuperbikeThe best race in the Daytona 200 was the one for third between Edwards (45) and Thomas Stevens (11); the duel went to the finis h line with Stevens gett ing the nod at the line. think it's a combination of a little determination and the bike is working really good. "The tires were really good . We had some problems last week, but Dunlop went back and they fixed it. We were hurtin' last week. We made a little history here last year (by coming from the back of the pack to win the race) and hopefully we made some today. This feels like home to me - I love it here:' co t t Russell Remarkably, Dunlop had built a completely new tire guaranteed himafter the NASB weekend on March 4-5, making the compound on Monday morning, March 6, in England, with self a spot in the Da ytona 200 history the tires com pie ted the following day and put on a books during qualifyplane. The tires arrived in Daytona at 3:30 a.m. on Thursday; and they were the tires that Russell would ultimatein g fo r the Daytona 200 when he did what ly use in the Daytona 200. many had perceived "Th is tire was so hard nobod y in their right mind a s being next t o wanted it," Dunlop's Jim Allen sa id . "But Russell wanthe i m p oss ib le ed it and Edwards also used it. It was just a best gu ess la pp ed th e 3.56-m ile thing, based on last year's tire. Ther e wer e a few educatDaytona International ed guesses on David' s (tire engineer David Watkins) Speedway under th e part. Youhad to reall y work it to mak e it wo rk and Ruson e - minu te and 50sell and Edwards we re able to do that :' According to Jim second bar rier on a Allen, others such as Fred Merk el tried the tire but didn't cold and blustery day like it. in Florida. Co rser and Fogarty, usin g Mic he li n tires, se t th eir Russell put together his q uick lap with less than io quick tim es while ru nning togeth er in the second sesminu tes rema ining in the first of two qualifying sessions, sion, but the Aussie an d Brit were .113-of-a-second and an d he pu lled off the feat onl y o ne lap prior to a sess ion- 1.186 seco nds slowe r th an Russell, respectively. The pair, stoppage cau se d by Engl and 's Mi ke Ed wards' crash . like most of the othe rs, wer e sufferi ng more than anyWhi le many loo ked upon his 1:49.852 lap (116.666 mph ) thing from a lack of track time compared to Russell ana as historic, the ever-confident Russell sm iled, shrugged Ed wards, w ho ra ced and practiced durin g th e North his sho u lders and went back out after the red flag to try American Super Bike Series opener last weekend. to go quicker. He didn't do so, but he was still confident " I ran with (Carl) Fogarty: ' Co rser said. " It was n' t that his time wouldn't be bettered by any of his rivals in planned, that's just how it turned out. I se t it up so I the se cond (riders with odd numbers) session - even could use him and it worked. I think it was a bit colder though that session featured racers such as AMA Super- , in the second session than in the first. Russell has three bike National Champion Troy Corser, former World days on us . We've got some more work to do on setup; I Champion Freddie Spencer and current World Super- hope now that I can use tomorrow's session as a setup session. Now I've got an extra session to do that. We're a bike Champion Carl Fogarty. In a press conference shortly after his record-setting long way behind, but we're getting there. The more laps lap, and while the second session was still in progress, you can do around here the better:' . the Rolex chronograph that would go to the pole sitter As for all the different rumors as to the actu al size of was brought up: "If they go any faster than that, I'll give the Ducati engine that Corser and Co. had in their ·916 'em this one too," Russell said while holding up the chassis, the Australian said dryly: 'T m not exactly sure Rolex that adorned his left wrist. 955, 916. maybe smaller. I don't know, it's probably a Sure enough, the others weren't able to best Russell's 955:' lap - which topped the record of 1:50.068 set a year ago Fogarty's day of qualifying on Thursday started with by then-Ducati-mounted Pascal Picotte - but two of the a crash, but finished with him on the front row of the riders from the second session did make it to the front grid for what would be his third Daytona 200 start. row. Those two were the factory Ducati men - Corser "I feel better now that I did it (crashed)," Fogarty said and Fogarty. Corser lapped at 1:50.065 while Fogarty with a smile. "I'm just trying to build on my confidence, stopped the clocks at 1:51.038, joining Russell and fourth- I haven't been on the bike in a long time, but it's getting fastest Colin Edwards II and the factory Yamaha on the better and better. Today was the first time in two days front row. that I've felt good . I didn't think I'd be doing 55s (1:555) But Russell was the man of the hour: "I never expect- with the way I was going:' ed to do that kind of time - I don't know how I did it. I As for Russell's hot lap, Fogarty said: "You'd expect came in, looked at Rob, laughed and told him - I'll go do that from him:' a 49 now. I ran it really deep into the chicane andI went Thursday' S post-qualifying press conference was the into tum one the same as I would without the tailwind. firs t time th at Fogarty h ad b een introduced to the This is something I've been trying to do for three years. I fourth man on the front row, Colin Edwards II. The Scott Russell: .Mr. Sub·1 :50 S said later. "I lost a lot of time and had a lot o f problems, but I guess everybody did. Afte r the first pit stop I los t track of the race:' Things stay ed the same un til the 50th la p wh e n Go b ert cr as hed in tu rn six wh ile holdi ng d ow n a comfortable seco nd : " I' d see n my p it boar d a couple of corne rs before that (cras hing), " Gobert sai d . " I not iced the lapped traffic was hold in g m e up . Wh oever was' behind me had caught me by abou t a second the last two laps . I saw 'eigh t to go' and I was jus t try in g to pic k u p th e pace a little bit and ge t throu gh the traffic a bit quicker. I push ed a little bit hard go in' in there (tu rn six) and I sort of knew straight away whe n I broke tha t it was e it he r go nn a b e in th e r e or on th e ground . As it turned ou t, I ended up on the grou nd : ' Shortly after Gobert's crash, Ed wards wa s fo rce d to pit w h e n h is re ar tire chu nked . That gav e sec o nd to Fogarty with Ste vens a n d Polen le ft to argue over thi rd pl ace. Edwa rds rejoined the pack, with a so fte r rear tire, in fourth place. He qu ickly ga ined gr ou nd , passin g Polen on the 54th lap and Stevens sho rtly th ereafte r. But Steve ns didn't Texan and his Vance & Hines Yamaha had lapped at 1:51.225, shredding Dunlop qualifying tires along the way. "I cut my quickest lap on a soft tire," Edwards said. "We tried a few different ones and the third one was the best. If you didn't get a tow you were dead and 1 didn't get a draft. I'm only getting one good lap out of those tires and we thought we'd get three or four out of 'em. The Yamaha guys have their crap together and it's working out good. Last year here it just didn't work out. This is the only week of the season that you have to ride on these hard tires. You have to learn to ride with 'em and not go on your head:' Edwards also said he planned on not only changing rear tires twice during the Daytona 200, but he'd also likely swap front tires - as a safety precaution. The second row of the grid was led by Mu zzy Kawasaki's Pascal Picotte, who actu ally went faster than Edwards. Since he did so on Friday, however , he wa sn't able to bump Edwards from row o ne. The French Canadian clicked off a 1:51,202 to e arn the s p o t directly beh ind his teammate Russell on the grid . Next cam e birthday boy Jami e James . Th e Van ce & Hines Yamaha ride r did his 1:51.240 on Thursd ay w hile celebrating his 34th birthday, and he did so des pi te shifting problem s with th e YZF750. "Th ey d idn 't get the sh ifter fixed until seven la ps from the end of the session;' Jam es said. "I think I cou ld . have done 50s • real low 50s:' Smokiri ' Joe's Honda 's Miguel DuHamel had the team' s number-one Honda RC45 o n the secon d row with a 1:51.245 to lead Fast By Ferracci Ducati' s Freddie Spencer (1:51.360). Row three would consist of Mu zzy Kawasaki's Anthony Gobert (1:51.572), Vance & Hines Yamaha's Tom Kipp (1:52.038), Smokin' Joe's Mike Hale (1:52 .056) and Yoshimura Suzuki's Thomas Stevens (1:52.565). "I'm trying to find my own way around," said Gobert, a Daytona rookie. "I don't like to learn from someone else . Later in the session I followed Jamie James around for a few laps and he showed me a few things. He was carrying a lot less mid-corner speed and keeping it tighter. I think I've learned a lot more today than I did during the tire test. We're looking forward .to the race now. I'm just going to do the best I can do and hopefully we 'll be there at the end:' Friday's session saw nearly every one of the top men crash, with a spate of the incidents occurring in tum one. The list included Russell, DuHamel (who was spit off his RC45 when it ran out of fuel in tum one), Spencer, Gobert and Kipp, though none suffered any serious injury. "I just got-in to the second horseshoe a little too quick ona new front (tire)," Russell said. "It was just a lowside. The bike's okay: it just slid and tumbled once:' While Russell 's 1:49.852 lap was impressive, most agreed it would have little to do with what could be done in the race. "Last year we got into the low 50s," Russell said. "That won't last. I think we'll probably run high 50s, low SIs. It's too hard on the tires to do anything else ."

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