Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

Stanton stayed in range with a third and a second. It was Kling who faltered, crashing in the first race and placing fifth in the second to drop from second to fourth in the standings. Interestingly, none of the Team Valvoline riders had raced here before, so they would have to learn this tight, technical track from scratch. "You can't try to go fast here," !,tanton said. "If you try too hard, you end up crashing. You have to wait for it to come to you. Once you get the rhythm everything seems to click. It's more of a carry-your-speed kind of track. If you don't, and try to get a big drive, you wind up spinning it sideways. " Friday was their first day at the track, and they were quickly down into the 1:18s. Kling had not been here since he was on the Harley-Davidson superbike team in 1993. Sadowski, who had raced on the current layout only twice before, was less than enthusiastic about the new configuration. "I've successfully avoided racing here ince '92," Sadowski said. "The track flows like milk with a bunch of curdles in it!" The field of series regulars was augmented by four Canadian factory superbike racers who came down for the event: Kawasaki Canada's Don Munroe, who had scored two impressive seconds behind Dale Quarterly at this event last year; Honda Canada's Jeff Williams, and Yamaha Motor Canada's Neil Jenkins and Mark Kowalski. A number of talented local riders also looked set to do well, including Eric Wood, Sean Sweeney, Brian Kent and John Scheehser, the latter aboard an Atlantic Motorsports-prepared Yamaha YZF750 superb ike for this event. Several of the season regulars were missing. A string of mechanical failures has kept Doug Polen's Formula USA points tally low, so he decided to seek better luck at the AMA Superbike finale at Las Vegas. Sponsorship difficulties prevented Chuck Graves from coming. And Chris Taylor got a ROC-Yamaha GP ride and will miss the last two Formula USA events this season. This year's most dominant LRRS rider, Richard Alexander Jr., was also absent. He was variously rumored to be either at the AMA National at Las Vegas or home saving money for next season. The fall colors and the "leaf-peeper" tourists they attract were just beginning to appear this weekend. The high temperatures were 45 on Saturday and in the mid-50s on Sunday, up from the mid-20s with frost on Friday and Saturday nights. A dear sky with a few diffused high douds both days helped to warm the track up by the afternoons. QUAUFYING For the first time this season, grid positions would be determined by two five-lap heat races late on Saturday rather than by timed qualifying. The most interesting action came in the first lap of the first heat. The first surprise was seeing Munroe on his Canadian Kawasaki 750cc z:x.-7 superbike immediately seize the lead from Sadowski aboard the Team Labelle Honda CBR900RR and Batey on the Valvoline S;uzuki GSXRll00. Munroe explained how he shot into the lead from his sec- . ond-row start. "Andy Deatherage in the row ahead of me got a really good start and moved to the inside," Munroe said. "I think he held up the whole field. " The next surprise came at the end of the first lap when Sadowski got on the gas too hard coming out of tum 12 onto the front straight and spun the rear tire. (Above) David Stanton turned In 3-2 finishes In the two legs of F-USA. (Left) Locel racer Brett Metzger finished . with a pair of sixths. The bike swapped viciously several times before hooking up, throwing Sadowski forward almost through the fairing bubble. He held on, crushing sensitive portions of his anatomy against the gas tank hard enough to dent it and make him hardly able to breathe for the rest of the race. Even though he got back into the gas as quickly as he could, Batey went by him and into second in a flash. ThetaCe was hot, Munroe turning two hi 1:15s, the fastest being a 1:15. 79. A s ort distance behind the lead trio came Scott Zampach, finding the track well-suited to the Triumph of Americasponsored Taylormade Triumph 900, followed by Valvoline Suzuki's Jamie Hacking (who normally rides WERA Superstock event, now on the team's GSXR750 superbike in his first Formula USA ride), and Andy Deatherage on one of the Zlock Racing Kawasakis. Batey dosed on Munroe at the end but could not pass him, so they. finished in that order. Kling completely dominated the second heat but went only fast enough to keep local rider Sweeney on the BCM Ducati 955 at bay. Kling and Michael Fitzgerald were first and second off the start, but Sweeney went by Fitzgerald in turn 12 on the first lap. Amazingly, Sweeney was riding with a badly bruised left ankle suffered when he high-sided Saturday morning. He could barely walk, but having his ankle taped at the medical center enabled him to weight the pegs and shift well enough to beat Wood in the heat race. Fitzgerald, taking it easy because he had made drastic improvements to his bike (including lowering the front end lOmm to quicken the steering) was soon demoted to fourth by Stanton. Locals Wood and Metzger rounded out the top six. The pace of this heat was 1.2 seconds pe.r lap slower than the first, so Munroe would have the pole. Munroe said that he still did not have the perfect setup and was still not 100 percent comfortable with the track. He felt he needed to go brake later in tum one and go deeper into tum 11. He had switched from a midrange pipe back to the normal Hindle pipe he usually runs because the midrange pipe cost him too much top-end power, and he had also gone to a softer compound 881 Dunlop rear from the 241s he had been using. ':Tomorrow's gonoa be a whole different ballgame, because everyone's still figuring out the track," Munroe said. Heat-two winner Kling said that he saw "plus one second" on his board for his lead over Sweeney and figured that there was no point in pushing it. Asked whether he could find an extra second in his lap times for race day, he replied, "No problem!" "1 wouldn't have been able to go that fast without Munroe," Batey said. "He really rides this track well." Batey used a Michelin 2788M rear for the heat races, which is a smidgeon softer than the 1879 the team usually runs. "We thought the 2788M might work because the speeds are not so high \0 0\ 0\ r"' -.0 r"' I-< QJ .g ...... u o 29

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