Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

Two Suzukis leading the way: Fred M erkel (27) and Thomas Stevens (11) had the Yoshimura bikes out frontl,arly on. (Below) Jamie Ja mes finished fourth after starting s lowly on the Vance & Hines Yamaha. into the left-hand turn one. Kipp gave chase, but it was Steve ns blitzing pas t the local favorite halfway around on the opening lap. And just like that it was the two Yoshimura Suzukis that led across the stripe at the end of the first lap . Kipp was third with DuHamel four th . Smith had jumped up to fifth, and led Crevier, Schwa, James , Hale, Pascal Picotte and Sadowski. . The race at the fron t quickly sorted itself ou t, with two groups of four circula t ing toge ther : Me rkel, Stevens, DuHame l and Smith; Kipp, Crevier, Sohwa and James. But Ha le was on the move. Despite sitting in nin th place on the third lap, Ha le on ly trailed Merkel by four seconds. The four at the front quickly became three whe n Smith's Ducati coasted to a stop on the grass on the outside of the . Carousel - turn 14 - the victim of a failed bear ing on his Ducati's timing bell tensioner, Stevens le d his first Superbike Nationa l since 1991 when he moved arou nd his teammate Merkel on the sixth lap, but DuHamel followed the Floridian past the former World Cham- ian had gambled by using a softer Dunlop 868 - the same tire used by the factory Hondas - and the peakier powerband of . the Suzuki had used it up . Stevens would eventually fini sh seve nth after hi s impressive early-race performance. "I had confidence in that [ went fast on that tire (in practice) and it looked good," Stevens said . "I took a chance and [ made a mistake. [ had 'em right where [ wanted 'em. Once [ got by them (Merkel and Du Hamel), that was it . Using tha t tire was a crap shoot. At one point I overheated the front because [ pion and shortly thereafter disposed of Stevens ' Yoshimura Suzuki. "The pace fell a little bit slow, at least [ fell pretty comfortable at that pace," DuHamel said later. "It was hard to get by them because they were riding pretty good. First [ had to get over the shock of hav ing two Yoshimura Suzukis ahea d of me. [ said, 'I've got to get more aggressive.' [ got by Fred (Merkel) an d then Thom as (Stevens). I tried to open up a gap a bit, but the tire was slip ping. This was the wa rmest it's been all weekend, so I was n't real confident about the tire going the whole distance. So to make a long story short, [ was trying to keep a gap while saving my tires." By the time DuHamel moved into the lead , Hale was up to sixth, challenging Sohwa an d James w hile tr ailin g his ·leading teammate by only 3.3 seconds. Hale moved by James on the ninth lap and was suddenly fourth when Sohwa pulled in to the pits a lap later, his Ducati having sho rted its electrical system. He trailed DuHamel by 2.3 seconds after 10 laps. · Merkel moved by Stevens and into second place on the 12th lap, marking the beginning of Stevens' demise. The Florid- Home-boy Kipp takespole , I t took three days to ultimately decide who would sit on pole position for the Superbike National during the Honda Super Cycle Weekend, but when all was said and done it was the fastest man from Friday's session who ultimately ended up quickest. That man was Mentor, Ohio's Tom Kipp (right). Wet weather in central Ohio resulted in a slower race track, with rivers of water running across the tarmac in some sections while water seeped up from beneath the surface in others. Saturday's final session was completely washed out, and rescheduled for Sunday morning. The difficult track conditions meant that Colin Edwards II's lap record from a year ago, a one-minute, 29.l76-second lap, was safe; and the schedule change meant that Kipp was forced to wait until late Sunday morning to see if his Friday time would hold up. Kipp had circulated the 2.4-mile Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in 1:31.095, and it would ultimately be enough to earn him his second career pole position and his first of the year on his Vance & Hines Yamaha YZF750. Kipp didn't feel that he suffered from Saturday's session being rained out: "We're all in the same boat," Kipp said on Satu rday.i''The Yamaha is good for this race track. Jam ie's always done well here and I think we have a very competitive.motorcycle here this year. The track is still dirty and slick, mostly in turn one and in the esses at the end of the back straight. It hasn't really gotten hot so that we can lay down rubber in the areas that need it. We need a dry night and a hot day to get the track cleaned up. The race pace should be that fast, if not faster. Rain just wipes out everything we've done with the track. It wou ld be tricky in the rain." Despite the pressure of racing in front of his family and friends, Kipp was at ease: "I come in here looking forward to it," he said. "The last four or five years it's r eally given me a big boost. I think having family and fans here is an advantage for me. [ get excited about it, but I guess you could make it either way. This way is a lot nicer." Sitting next to Kipp on the front row was Smokin' Joe's Hon da's Miguel DuHamel, in his best qualifying effort of the season. Unlike Kipp, DuHamel improved his qualifying time in Sunday's final session, upping the pace to a 1:31.272. "It's just getting more time," DuHamel explained. "We were able to change front tires and we're getting the bike dia led a little better. [ got bogged in traffic - every lap there was a minimum of one, two or three guys in my.way, but from what I hear everybody had that problem. I was doing the same speed on my race hres as with qualifying tires, so I'm confident for the race." Third on the front row was Fast By Ferracci's Mike Smith, the Georgian stoppi ng the clocks at 1:31.480 on Sunday morni ng. Smith, who was third after the Friday session, felt all would be well with the Ducati, wet or dry. "We're pretty set," he said. "If it's dry we have a setup and if it's wet we have one too. I feel pretty good. I'm still learning the bike, but I've finally got the time on it to know what I wanted. Before Laguna Seca and today, I didn't really know . Now I feel pretty. good about what I want. We'll definitely run at the front here and we would have at Laguna - we just ran into some problems there (Smith crashed in the wet race)." The front row was filled by Yoshimura Suzuki's Fred Merkel, the fourth different brand of motorcycle on the fastest row of the grid and the fourth of six men who were lumped in the 1:31 range. Me rkel clocked a 1:31.513 for the fourthquickest time. The second row would consist of Smokin' Joe's Mike Hale, Muzzy Kawasaki's Steve Crevier, Yoshimura Suzuki's Thomas Stevens, and Fast By Ferracci's Takahiro Schwa. "We changed a lot of variables I was going to try this afternoon," Hale said on Saturday. "Gearing, suspension... I'm pretty confident of the decision me and Merly n (Plumlee, Hale's crew chief) came up with. There shouldn't be any problems. I did a 31.4 this morning with the race setup. I don't hold, any real regard for the qualifying session. [ didn't go out with a qualifying tire late in the session, I'm just working on getting ready for tomorrow's race." The third row would consist of Team Desma Ducati's Dave Sadowski, Team Mirage's Dale Quarterley, Vance and Hi nes Yamaha's Jamie James and Muzzy Kawasaki's Pascal Picotte, who lost almost all of Friday's session when his Kawasaki suffered a broken transmission. 7

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