Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

.ROAD RACE series Pocono International Raceway North American Sport Bike Jim Lester (8) led the Sportbike class early on, but no one could match the pace of race winner David Sadowski (38). Georgian had borrowed a Honda CBR600 from Dean Scarpa just for this race and made it apparent during qualifying that it was a worthwhile loan. He qualified on the pole nearly a second in front of FILA Racing's Eric Wood, one of the riders who tried futilely to stay with him in the early going. The numbers added up quickly. Six ,seconds on lap three, nearly eight on lap six, then it was up to nine which, is where Sadowski decided to hold the line. Crossing the stripe, at the conclusion of the ll-Iap, 27,S-mile race, Sadowski had a 9.670:second lead, averaging 81.456 mph in completing the race in 20 minu tes 15.380 seconds. ''I'm really used to these Dunlop tires," Sadowski said. "The D-364 radial is an awesome tire and it allows you to go out hard and just keep a steady pace, I really have to thank Dino Scarpa. He gave me a 600 for the day and here we are, spraying champagne," Eric Wood took up the spot behind Sadowski on the third lap after a harrowing escape the prior lap. "The second lap I actually fell down, right off the bike, both feet dragging on the ground and somehow, something out there picked me up and kept me going," said the Kawasaki-mounted Penguin Roadracing School instructor, enough parts damage that ~e couldn't get it ·sorted out this .,,;'eek· end," Polen said, He. added th~t he would be skipping the next FUSA round at Loudon in favor of the final AMA raCe at'Las Vegas on October 6 and would compete. in the ft'nal F-USA at Daytona . Dave Sadowski's Team LaBelle Honda CBR900 sported a trick· 'on October 20, Pocono International Raceway Long Pond, Pennsylvania Results: September 1, 1996 (Round 6 of 8) EBC BRAKES SPORTBIKE: 1. Dave Sadowski (Han); 2. Eric Wood (Kaw); 3. Brian Livengood (Hon); 4, William Lindsay (Kaw); 5, Jim Lester (Hon); 6, Reuben Frankenfield (Kaw); 7. Steve Johnson, (Hon); 8, Eric Kropp (Kaw); 9, Bradley Zajic (Kaw); 10, Kevin Warner facturers and. for some of these teams it woultj have been, a real problem. Some of them would have had, not by choice: but to race somewhere else, not NASB: ·Mainly .F·USA level te.ams and we have a numper of tearrs that are using F-USA tires," Michelin sponsors the top tWo teams in th" Sunoco Race Fuels Formula-USA championship standings and won both legs at Pocono. "It was quite new, swjngarm'at Pocono, one hand·rnac.hined by team Ollfner an undertaking," Leroux said. I didn't ·seeh as' an opportunity Bruce LaBelle, •Uoder ilccelerat19n, with the power .that the Mike Sullivan, the veteran AMA 250cc GP oompetitor, has the same schedulE! as' Polen, Sullivan, who finished ~Ifth at tH,! most myself. The. nu,!,ber of tires is quite high and there, was no guaran. ,Mike Velasco, engine puts out, we'were getting, a twisting effec't from th·e chain drive," LaBeHe said, "We weren't sure if itWas the r!'cent Aty1A ,250cc GP at· Sears Point. will race the final AMA · tee we would be able to .supply that ma~y tires with reliability, " cha$sis or the s"Vinllarm, We found out'it was 70 percent. 250~~ GP'race at Las Vega$, then go to Dayto~a on the Zlock swingarm. We'H 'go back later and fix the, chassis, 1 laBelle said' " Racmg KawasakI. pu!;,van had ridden 'a 9500c verSIO'! of the ZI9Ck · punlop'~ National'Sale,s ManagerM.'''e Buc!dey ·said 'oi their decisjon not io,build a sp~c tire: "It's in line.with,.;yhat our ,belief .that 'it took two weeks to design and build three swingar:ms from Kawasaki in a club race at Seattle International Raceway, but was, which was that. lirst of all, being able to 'handle that from a aluminum, He said they planned to build more out of magnesium Pocono waS his f-USA debut for the team. In, th!! first leg .he capacity standpoint. it brought up, some questions because we which would weigh· just more' than the 12 <~/4 pounds. tha.t the crashed on fiuid left from another motoncycle, then flnished fifth in , , didn't know the exposure from untts. More'importantly, our philos· $tock weighs. The aluminum piece weighs ·18 1/2 p'ounds, A ' the second leg. . ophy'iS that we race io achieve the ultimate victory' of beating our 'Ioad analysis showeci that the new piece wa.s ttiree and a half The 1a.turn, 2.5-mile track had been reconfigured for the eompetition." not beating ourselves, It kind of went against the times, stonger than stock, "Dave (Sadowski) said there was a'big Pocono Cycle Festival.. using a large pact of the Long Pond' Dunlop philosophy. AI that point we felt that we would suffer, as , im,provefTlent,· L,aBelle said. "It help,ed him come off the. corners back straight as well as most of the·front straight: but none,of 'well'as racers'and end' users, ana it kind ofbrings·teohnokigy to·a harder, No.w he can actually spin the tire and do p.ower slid!!s out siandstill. rhere is no reason to deveiop if you have 100% market of"the turns." "It got rid of a lo.t 01 the shaking coming out of the ·NASGAR tums 'one or three. ,It was an unpicturesque course, laid snare." .. , , ' out· through fiat grass with nearly unlimited runoff, except in the comer. but I can't tell if it was the swingarm working Qr we were first and final·turns, Though the layout was new, the surface ';; horsepower off this weekend," S.adowski $aid, Sadowski qual· In I';JASB statement issued .at"Pocono, 'Formula USA Director wasn't Md there was neariy u~animous agreement that the track ified second, tho'ugh he might have done better had a rapiator needed resurfacing, Of all the riders who commented on the ·of Competition Colin Fraser announced the decisi0ns on a pair of hose not come off in the first session: ' roughness of the 'track, Mike Sullivan had the best remark. "JI's r~cent protests. :The F&M Racing Team of Michael Fitzpatrick , and Don 'Munroe was protested' at the Road America race for The team had reverted back to mostly stock "anks after a series· like, a golf cact path,' he said, . , · .not having "similar" machines in the tw\>"rider,. EBC Brakes Tliple of crankshaft failUNS in the previous race at Portland. 'We Crown EompedUon. The protest. was disallowed because .. ft was had some built by Falicon and they were jun~: Bruce. laBelle 'NASB President Roger 'Edmondson 'announced in statement not filed within the time allowed by the 'rules," the statement said. released on Augus) 30 that the controversial "spec tire" rule, said, "I would recommend that no one buy them, Ther.e was Fraser added that the team's attempt to "create Ii team look was which h~d been propo,sed for all NASB a~d Championship Cup . something severely wrong with the pieces. I asked. for:a refund Series. would be scrapped for '997. Edmondso'1. said that he'd · less than desirable and'noted that F&M inust ensure 'a team look, and tney baSically said, 'ThaI's racing.'.1 asked them to build new done a study on the proposal and "what we learned in our study to ct;>mpete in· the remaining rounds." Fraser also·disa!low~ Dave cranks and we'd take them somewhere else to be heat-treated. is that no single tire company, felt confident it could meet the sup' Stanton's protest from Portland. After'crashing on the water They wouldn't do that" La'~lIe said that the team was on stock ply requirements that would be Involved for this, program in spewed out by the Dutchman Racing Yamaha 'of Fritz Kling and cranks with a slightly ·Ionger stroke that added a little more· mid· "997," Supplying tires, slicks, rain tires 'and DOTs, for an entire' causing a red liag, Stanton went out for the 'second part of the range power. laBelle said that the team would have new ·cranks serjes would have been an enormbus undettaking with little · first leg on his Supersport machine which had not been through for the· Loudon race, at the beginning of October, though he tech inspection. Fraser did say that Stanton could keep the laps wasn't sure that they'd need the extra poV>(er. "At Daytona (for advantage to the manufacturer and less to the riders. Though no the finat F-USA races of the year) we'll be r(pping. The newest' money changes hands, many teams· have tire. contracts which , completed before the crash, which gave him a 20th place finish and f 1 points, ., guarantee them a supply of tires for the 'season, Unless that' parmotors are all coming for Dayto~a. " . ticular team had a contract with the company chosen as the "spec tire," it would mean they would have to buy tires, an added Despite a two"year absence, the Sunoco Hace Fuels Formula' Though their engines held tbgether, there was still work to be USA Series drew a very encouraging crowd for the weekend. F· done, Cho:is Taylor crashed his Team laBelle Honda when the , expense· that no team was 'looking forward to, Edmondson addecf ., video camera, which was mounted under the tail section, fell.off that" depending on how things go next year, we may take another USA President Doug, Gonda' estimated the 1hree:pay cro";cf at look at the. spec program," In a letter which he'd sent to the man- .30.000, and there were a large number in attendance 6n motorcyand lodged between the rear wheel and swingarm as Taylor got ufacturers, Edmondson said that, 'We're, not concerned. with lap onto the front straightaway. "Being a 250 rider, I grabbed the cles, Because the track, in the Pocono mountains:of ,northeastern tiInes or lap records, we're concered with rider safety,", and went clutch,"· Tayior said. BiJt that didn't stop the fall. "I was whacked Pennsylvan,ia, is within' a two-hour driv.e of New York City and half ·dizzy the whole day," Doug Polen, who 'mounted the camera, .on to say" that he wasn't asking for "your latest, greatest - pr.od· Philadelphia, and only a couple more to Baltimore-Washington, uct. He 'also wanted to pre'negotiate a price, which would have disputed the team's account of the crash, saying he. believed it D.C., the number of people to dra,w from is the highest in the was an engine failure that caused the crash. "If it was the camera, . made it very difficult on the existing network of the tire manufac· country, The program again featured British stunt rider Gary Roth. well; who impressed the crowd with his collection of wheelies, . how come tli,! cabl.e wasn't broken?" Polel) asked, Taylor was a turers' dealers and distributors. DNF in the ~econd race, his Honda slOWing until it felt like it was· stopples,. and tium:outs. ' • almost on one cYlinder. " , ,. .. . Reaqting to word that the spec proposal had been shelved, Michelin's Manager of Two-Wheel for North America .CIeude 'Leroux . By netti'1g a first and a seco.nd, Tray Batey pocket!,d $4100 in Team Polen Suzuki's Doutt Polen was at Pocona' to do. tel~vi' said: "We didn't like· the idea for a number of reasons. The'main' . F-USA prize money" Fritz Kli.ng earned $3250 for his first and sion work, but couldn't get his Suzuki. back together in time after reason is when you do a spec tire yoy leave the user with no choice' fourth and Dave Sadowski took home $2700 for a second and, a the previous week's damage from Sears Point "There was and there's lot of teams that are sponsored by different tire manu·' third. arm an ' a 26 who'd fallen in the first Formula-USA race. "It set me back a few places and Dave is a great rider and he was a little bit gone and I decided it wasn't going to be worth my while to go chase him. I was just going to try to stick where I am and do the best I can." ' That he did. At the halfway mark he had nearly five seconds on the third place Honda of Brian Livengood, a mar" gin that stayed constant to the end. Livengood took ,a little longer to establish his spot, the Z & M Cycles rider gaining some breathing room on the eighth lap to make his in.auguraJ podium appearance. "It feels really good to be on the podium for the first time," he said after finishing in front of William Lindsay. Honda-mounted Jim Lester came home fifth, one better than class leader Reuben Frankenfield, who he trails in the championship by 28 points, 156-128, with two races left. Steve Johnson, seventh today on the Top Line Cycle Honda, js back in third with 121. fN

• Cover