Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

took over at the front on the fourth lap, a p osition he woul d hold throu gh the 11th lap. By this time, Sohwa ha d retir ed his Fas t By Ferracci Du cati wi th an electrical problem. Spencer took ov er fro m his teammate Smith on th e lap 11, w ith Kip p third, Ha le fourth, Stevens fifth, Me rke l sixt h a n d DuHam e l seven t h. Picotte had sli p ped a ll the way d own to ninth; he' would jump back up to seventh before p u lli ng out on th e 22nd lap with the Kawasaki d rop ping a cylinder. Spencer opened up a ga p on the 12th la p, but Sm ith and Kipp were back on him tw o laps later. The three-time World Cham pio n pulled in to the pits a few laps la te r to re m o v e t he wrist w rap ; h e dropped all the way back to 16th before eventually fighting back up to eighth. "I jus t made a bad decision to' wra p the wrist," Spe ncer said later. "I wear an Ace bandage on my right wrist for support . I felt it was a bit tigh t, so I loosened it so me before the start - apparently no t enough. A few laps into the race , it start ed to feel tight, and then it beg an to cut off th e circulation and make my ha nd go to sleep. I waved a t the p its whe n 1 went by, but there was no way to really let them know what I needed . I came in and took the bandage off. I was running quick times before that and figured I could run quicker still. It's fru stra tin g, but I guess it was a good ride anyway. You 're never sure of anything, b u t I felt w e had su ch a good chance today to pull off the wi n ." Spencer' s absen ce left Sm ith a n d Kipp alone up fr ont, th e pa ir takin g turns leading the w a y. By this time, DuHamel had w orked hi s magic in moving past the others on a race track that isn't easy to pass on . On the 19th lap, he trailed the lead duo by so me six seconds , and that was coming down. He knew there were enough laps left to do what was need ed . Tom Klpp rode well to finish second to DuHamel after also taking a tum at leading the race. "I wanted t o win really bad ," DuHam el said . '1 always ke pt an eye on them. Toward the end there wa s Freddie (Spen cer), Mike (Smith) and Tom (Kipp), Then Freddie disappeared and I saw ' P- 3' (p osition t h ree) so I k new Fr eddie was go ne . I co u ld see I w a s third and I had to catch up. I sa w them catch ing lapped traffic. They kept giving me the boa rd and 1 was getti ng closer. 1 ju s t kept ch a rg ing. For a w hile 1 was looking up and thinking, 'Boy, they loo k pretty far up there: I just kept charging harder and going d eeper on the brakes. But I kept a safety margin because I definitel y d idn't w ant to throw it d ow n beca use I also had the cha mpionship on my mind." On th e 31s t lap , DuHa mel mo ved a ro und Smith under b raking for turn Lap record and pole to Spencer F a s t By Ferra cci Ducati 's Fredd ie Spen ce r (r ig h t) e n d e d up with the pole position fo r the Su pe rbike Na tional at Hampshire N ew International Speedway - and h e m a y have gone even qu icke r if not fo r a n enco u nter with a tireprotected concrete retaining wall. . After changing the rebound settings on his rear suspension in an effort to make the Ducati 916 easier to slide, Spencer ripped off a record-setting, one-minute, 13.908-second lap on the l.6-mile race track. On the next lap, the Ducati s lid a little too much>. Exiting tum two, Spencer was highsided out of the seat of the 916, but somehow managed to get things almost straightened out. He then ran out of room and had to lay the bike down as both he and the Ducati slammed into the retaining waH on the exit of tum three. "I changed the suspeasion and it waSligood, but there was no warning: ' Spencer explained . "When it broke away, I thought, 'Man, I don 't w a nt to highside.' 1 thought I could save it and get it back up, but I saw the tires and I thought I'd better lay it down. I was having trouble getting the thing to slid e. I alread y had the good tire on and I had a good clean lap . It just broke away, off throttle. 1 fed it some throttle and it snapped back. It hit three after turning the race's fas test lap a 1:14.868; a lap later h e d id th e same th ing to Ki p p, who had n o idea DuHame l was even ther e. "Ma ybe four of fiv e laps before he passed me, I saw a yellow bike coming ou t of turn thre e th at I ha d n' t seen befo re," Kip p sai d . "I knew it was either Mike Hale or Miguel and they were on the gas. A few laps later, I knew somebody was behind me a nd you can tell when it' s a Du cati because you can hear it. But when he went by me, I was sur- prised." Thank y ou , a n d good n ight DuHam el was gone, giving his famous father Yvo n a pretty s pecial Fath er' s Day present. " t felt like 1 was 22nd or something, I but I jus t paced myself," DuH amel said. me in the rear end and threw me forward. I was wondering how soft those tires were going to be:' It was Spencer's first pole since 1992, when he earned the fast qualifier spot at Texas World Speedway on a Two Brothers Racing Honda RC30. Spencer stilI wasn't totally pleased with the rear suspension , and was hoping to find a compromise on rebound settings in the morning warm-up. Further enhancing the smi le on Eraldo Ferra cci' s face was the sight of a second Ducati 916 on the fro nt row , this one ridden by Mike Smith. The Georgian had clicked off a 1:14.383 in the second of two timed sessions to take the second spo t on the fro nt row. "We've been wo rking all weeken d to overcome handlin g problems," Smith sai d . " It d on't like to slide. It kicks and bucks. I need it as balan ced as possible an d it sure felt good today. I thin k a fresh tire and suspension was what we needed. It felt pretty comfortable there running those times. The only problem I can see is if it' s hot - it' ll wreak havoc on the tires: ' Th e eve r-s u rprisi ng Yoshimura Suz uki of Thomas Stevens was third quickest a t 1:14.384, just on e- hundredth of- a seco nd slower than Smith. Stevens had se t his time in the cooler ses sion on Friday. but a late-lap cras h in the second se ssion left him with a sore left shoulder. "Da le (Quarterley) and I were tryi ng to occupy the same space," Stevens exp la ined of his first-tum cla sh w it h Quarterley. "Unfortun ately, w e both lost. I outbroke Dale and had the inside. He just leaned on me in typical Dale Quartedey fashion. He hit my brake lever and we both went d own. I like Dale personaily, but when he does that.. . we're not playing rolIerbalI out there. The bike feels good. We've been fast in al~ the practice and all the qualifying. We ju st cou ld n' t pu a faster time down tod ay. t don't think the track was up to it today. Hey; the Ducatis work and everyone knows it." Quarterley saw things a little d ifferently: "All 1 know is that we both have to replace so me parts and we'll be racing tomorrow," the New Eng land er said."] was going into tu rn one. I started to turn in and somebody was there. I opened it up a bit and then turned in again. That "I was behind Fred (Me rk el) a nd Thomas (Stevens), go ing, 'okay, I've go t to get th ese guys soon: Th e bi ke was feeling funn y fo r th e first few laps, I guess because we had a brand-new tire on the fro nt. It took a little while for it to heat up and get its rig ht profile. On ce all the ligh ts were gree n I jus t s ta r te d cha rging real hard . It took a little while to catch up to Tom (Kipp). He was rid ing really great and he andMike Smith were doing a great job: ' As for his father, w ell: "H e's drinking right now," DuHamel s a id. " He's as . happy as can be. He's alw ays been' the bi gg e st b eli e ver in m e an d a lso my brothers . He kne w we could do this and he's been hammering on us for years. Sometimes it got a little annoying, but I guess it's payin g off tod ay. He' s really was when he and I crashed. I didn't know it was Stevens until we were sliding along the track. " The front row was filled by the Mu zzy Kawasaki of Pascal Picotte, who appeared to be returning to his earl y season form, Picotte, too , was right there with a 1:14.419. "This morning we ran different settings on the rear en d a n d I w as d oin g 14s o n a ra ce tire," Pi co tte explained. "I tried some different stuff and went worse. I was strugglin g to be a coup le of tenths fas ter wi th the qua lifying tire on that setup. We'll need to go back to what we had this mo rn ing for tomorrow ." Picotte was ben efit ting from having ex-Scott Russell mechanic Gary Med ley as hi s crew chief: "He knows a little trick to kee p the tempera tu re down on the rear tire . I think tomorrow wiII be good and it will be important to save the tire for the end of the ra ce:' Picotte added . The second row of the grid wo uld consi st of Va nce & Hi nes Yamaha's Tom Kipp, the sole Yamaha man with Jam ie James missing the race due to the broken wrist suffered last week a t Road Am erica; Yoshimura Suzuki's Fred Me rkel; Smokin' Joe's Honda 's Migu el DuHamel; and Mu zzy Kaw asaki's Steve Crevier, Ch ampionship points leader Mike Hale was the final rider in the 1:14-range, and he would start from row three - in considerable pain. Hale cras hed his 600cc Supersport bike on Friday, crashing in tum 10 (the same spot in which Mike Smith suffered a broken leg in 1992) and breaking a ribs while al so susta in ing, some lung damage. "I'm hurting:' Hale said . "Th e broken rib is quite painful. I came back and rode a few laps in Superbike qualifying today just to see how 1 would feel and if 1 could do it. 1 felt pretty good on the bike. I'm going to forget about the 600cc Supersport race and concentrate all my energy on the Superbike final. That's where my priority - and the team's - really is. Our crew has been working really hard and lowe it to them and myself. I'm looking forward to the race . There are a lot of gu ys in the Superbike cha m p ions hi p going good . I'm leading the title chase and I want to win the title bad." 7

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