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/127727
appeared to have th ings well in hand, though James had started to chip away a t his lead when the red flag was thrown on the eighth lap. By th is point, many of the others w ere. in tr ouble: Polen was tipioeing around on s licks and was eventually lapped by Kipp, ruining his chances for a high finish on Monday; Crevier had crashed in the Corkscrew; and Sadowski ended up pitting after starting on slicks . For the others it ended up not meaning much other than grid positions for Monday' s final segmen t. Kipp, James, Smith and Spencer would start on row one with Sohwa, Stevens, Quarterley and Merkel on row tw o . Jacks, DuHamel, Hale and Salaverria mad e up row three. DAY TWO Monday's 22-lap race ended up being held in soaking-wet conditions - at least initially. A downpour just prior to the start of the race took the decision out of what tires to use - and all of the top factory stars went with full-wets . Except for James. The Yamaha factory rider used a rain tire on the front and an intermediate on the rear - a combination that started to work late in the race on a drying track, but one that left him too far behind early on to move into serious contention. At the drop of the flag it was Spencer taking to the front. And he had no intentions of being anywhere else . (Opposite. page) Fredd ie Spence r on a Fast By Ferraccl Ducati ran away in the raln-soaked and delayed Superblke National at Laguna Seca Raceway held Monday morning. Spencer was running fo urt h when Sunday's race was redflagged. (Above) Dale Quarterley (32) and Miguel DuHamel battled fo r second-place throu gh much of Monday's race; Quarterley took the spot. Fred Merk el (27) finished sixth. (Right) Mike Hale rode an Intelligent race , fi nishi ng a safe fo urt h and reta ining his championship points lead. Still, the drying wasn't early enough for [ames to be a factor at the front. Yoshimura Suzuki's Thomas Stevens and Desmo Gear's Al Salaverria ended up eighth and ninth with Muzzy Kawasaki 's Pascal Picotte riding cautiously to a 10th-place finish after crashing on Sunday morning. Chris Carr had his first-ever Superbike finish on the factory Harley-Davidson VR1DOO to finish 12th, one spot behind the impressive Darrell Clingerman on the Helimot European Accessories Kawasaki. Desmo Ducati's Dave Sadowski was origi nally credited with finishing eighth, bu t was later docked a lap when it was pointed ou t that d uring Sunday's sevenlap race, the Georgian actually pitted on the seventh lap and didn't cross the finish line. Thus, he started Monday's race a lap behind. Among the notables who failed to s co re many points was Kipp . The Ohioan joined Ferracci pilot? Smith and Sohwa on the sidelines when he crashed out of the race on the 24th of 27 laps after being caught by the DuHamel I Quarterley I Hale battle. Doug Polen, who recently joined the ranks of the privateers, ended the day 17th after losing a lap during Sunday's seven-tapper when he elected to use slick tires on a we t race track. Ha le's inte lligent ride kept him in the championship points lead , though the re was some shuffling that went on behind him. Hale now leads Quarterley, 82-75, with Merkel third, Stevens fourth, and Jacks fifth on 73, 71 and 66, respectively. 1\ TI\ • DAY ONE The first portion of what amounted to a two-leg race was one of tire choice . The factory Yamahas of James and Kipp had the best set-up with Dunlop rains on the front and intermediates on the rear; the Fast By Ferracci Ducatis were clad in full Michelin rain tires; DuHamel's Honda wore Dunlop slicks, front and rear, whi le Ha le had intermediates on both ends; Picotte's factory Kawasaki had intermediate DunJops on both ends while Picotte 's featured a full rain front and an intermediate rear, the sam e as the Yamahas. Kipp scorched away at the start and "I hoped to get a good start and get away," Spencer said later. That's exactly what he did - and he was never headed, leading at one point by as much as 23 seconds. With Spencer pulling away in front of them, the two other Fast By Ferracci Ducatis held down the second and third