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Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/127813
AMA Superbike National Champion Doug Chand.ler
12
think people were doubting me. Heck, 1
was doubting myself. You have a bad
year, you have some trouble, and you're
not sure what you're going to do."
Winning didn't come right away, but
Chandler quickly re-established himself
as a major player. He won at the third
round in Laguna Seca after finishing
fifth and third at Daytona and Pomona,
respectively, but his Laguna win carried
with it an asterisk - title rival Miguel
DuHarnel had crashed his Smokin' Joe's
Honda late in the race while leading.
From then on, Chandler didn't really
need to win. Until Brainerd, that is.
A close second-place finish behind
DuHamel in Homestead, a careful seventh in a Mid-0hio downpour, a steady
second behind rain-master Alessandro
Gramigni on a wet day at Road America,
and another close second to DuHarnel in
Loudon translated to a IS-point lead for
Chandler when the series headed to
round eight in Minnesota.
That's when disaster struck. A small
fitting on the Kawasaki's water pump
snapped off, causing the engine to overheat and expire in a puff of white smoke.
Chandler's points lead suddenly had a
lot in common with his blown engine.
What was once a IS-point lead was suddenly a 2D-point deficit. Now there was
nothing to do but race.
"I felt we had it covered up until
Brainerd," Chandler said. "Having the
DNF there kind of put us behind, but
prior to that I was riding a lot more conservative. He (DuHamel) might have
gotten to within seven or eight points,
but at IS points going into Brainerd I
was pretty comfortable. By that time at
Brainerd, I'd passed him and it looked
like we were going to be able to get
away from him, so I.wasn't really bothered to really push it. 1 was ahead of him
and that's all that really mattered. When
that went out the window it was wide
open again.
"After that 1 could just go out and do
what 1 needed to do, what I wanted to
do. Sears Point (the folloWing round)
was one of those weekends where we
were off for both da ys of practice and on
Sunday we got it to come together for us.
We were up front and that's something 1
didn't think we stood a chance of being.
(Aaron) Yates was going fast and 1
thought for sure he'd disappear. I'd
already made a good tire choice, but
after the red flag 1 knew what 1 wanted
to go back to and that was the (Dunlop)
881 that I'd run most of the year on. We
were able to do that and it made a world
of difference in my confidence in the
bike.
ChlIndJer leads title rlvel Miguel DuHe...1.
The two b8ItIed ell yur, with ChlIndJer
biking the crown In the _ _ tllI8".
"1 led it for a while, but I think I kind
of blew that by' letting Mat (Mladin) by
me. Typical Mat, he put his head down
a t the start of the race and was really
fast. But most of the time the tires will go
away on him because he's just hard on it.
1 thought he'd come back to me, but I
wasn't thinking that Yates would be
coming up. So when Aaron came past
me and those two kind of went at it, 1
just let 'em go. 1 didn't know what was
going to happen with them."
Behind him, DuHamel was strug- .
gling. The French Canadian finally
dropped back to ninth when a shifter
linkage failed on his RC4S. They were
even again, or close to it. DuHamel led
the championship by just two points
with one round remaining. Unfortunately, it would be six long weeks before the
green light would flash to start that final
round.
.
"No, I wasn't confident," Chandler
admits. "That was the longest month
'I've ever had to deal with. It's kind of
silly having that much time in between
the last two races when we were so close
in the championship. That was tough to
deal with, but 1 think we did a pretty
good job. 1 got my head down and
stayed busy with other things, and
didn't really think about it. I didn't let it
keep me up at nights. I just went about
my daily business with some help from
my children. They're definitely enough
to keep you busy. But it was tough, not
knowing what the race track was like,
trying to visualize what this track could
be like. You just had no idea - did it have
long straightaways, slow comers... it was
tough."
Tough accurately describes Chandler,
at least the one that showed up in Sin
City. Anyone who thought Doug Chandler lucked into the 1996 AMA Superbike ational Championship was somewhere else on October 6.
"Yeah, I'm proud of how I rode in
Vegas, but there were a couple of 'em
that 1 thought we had good chances in. I
knew Las Vegas was going to be a lot
tougher, but we did what we had to do.
From the time we got ·on the track we
kind of had the guys cover.ed. 1 didn't
really feel like I was sticking my neck
out doing those lap times. My main goal
there was just to finish ahead of Miguel
(DuHamel) and at the time I was thinking that Larry (Pegram) might be able to
just go. When Miguel came past me in
the second corner, 1 figured we'd be racing for the win and that wasn't something I'd planned on doing.
"Even though he struggled in qualifying, you can never count someone like
him (DuHamel) out There are weekends
when you're struggling and struggling
and come race day you somehow manage to get it together. Anyone you're
really competing against, you've got to
count on that as something that could
happen. Wayne (Rainey) showed that to
me a lot over in Europe. Most champions have the drive so that they can
somehow manage to pull something out
of the hat to be competitive for the race."
DuHamel encountered myriad problems come race day and he fought like a
champion to finish third, but this one
belonged to Chandler. It was his to win
from day one in the Nevada desert and
it appeared that he had his title foe covered even if Lady Luck had been more
kind to the Honda RC4S and its rear
Dunlop tire.
"1 think my riding is better now than
it was in 1990," Chandler said. "This was
a tougher year than it was in '90 - the
competition in general. There are a lot
more factories involved now and each
factory has two riders... Yeah, it's a lot
tougher. 1 think I had a lot more ambition in 1990 because 1 hadn't gone to
Europe and I really wanted to get over
there and see what that was like. I was
able to go there and do it, and I enjoyed
it and had fun - but now I'm content to
stay
It was nice to come back and
still be able to win again. Most guys
when they come back can win a race or
two, but are never really in it for a championship. I can still do it and we were
able to go out there and do it.
"1 feel as far as being able to defend it
that our chances are good - as long as
there are no major catastrophes with the
bikes or me getting injured. At the start
of last year we had a new bike and we
weren't even close at Daytona. This year
we'll be going back with kind of what
we had, with what we ended up with. 1
feel we should be good from the first
race on."
Naturally, Chandler ranks DuHamel
as the biggest hurdle in that quest for a
third title, but let's not forget Australian
Mat Mladin and the Fast By Ferracci
Ducati.
"The bike's good, the tires are good,
and Mat's a good rider," Chandler said.
"It's going to be tough. He's a pretty versatile rider; he's ridden just about everything and he's been able to get on 'em
and go good. And (Tom) Kipp and the
nere.
Yamaha guys have been so close... and
the Suzuki guys as well. They're right
there. 1 think (Aaron) Yates will pick it
tip a step and be right there as well. It
should be a good year."
Chandler goes into the new year with
a new teammate, young Tommy Hayden. Again, he will be the team leader
and likely won't have much help as far
as setting the bike up. Not that he needs
it.
"I'm going to try to help and get him
(Hayden) up to speed," Chandler said.
"If he's willing to listen and go along
with things, yeah - no problem. Only one
year, in 1991 with Wayne (Rainey), did I
have a teammate that could really help.
Other than that, well... Kevin (Schwantz)
was good but Wayne was for sure the
best as far as ~t went, as far as learning
something from him. It's always good to
see what the other guy is doing, but ultimately you want to make the decision.
Sometimes the two riders go in opposite
directions, but 1 don't mind trying what- .
ever they're trying just to see. I've
always paid attention to what the other
guy is doing, what's working for them,
and just try to keep that in the back of
my mind. It's not like they're no. help. 1
mean having a second guy definitely
helps you, no matter what kind of rider
he is. You can get something from 'em.
'1 think there's more we can do with
the bike. Rob (Muzzy) brought in Dale
RathwelI, and that guy was really good
and I enjoyed working with him a lot.
The rapport with some of those suspension guys can either be good or bad, and
I've had my dealings with both. Wayne's
(Rainey) guy, Mike Sinclair, was really
good. There are other guys who want to
go this way and you're thinking the
other way. That makes it kind of tough.
Not knowing Dale, 1 wasn't sure what
way he was going to go, but right off at
the first couple of tests we were going in
the same direction. We hit it off perfect
and off we went, the thing just kept getting better. I hope he's back again next
year because he was a big help. His position was good because if we had troubles he could go out and watch and we'd
have a little discussion. He could pick
stuff out as well as me just coming in
and telling him."
There are several things we can all
count on for the 1997 season, and one of
those is that Chandler will again be in
the thick of things in the AMA Superbike series. He'll also return home every
Monday, happy to be with his family,
his friends, and his vast array of motorcycles, boats, and custom hot rods.
QI
Rob on DOu9'------_ _
R
ob Muzzy has been around this block several times. The two times he's been around it
with Doug Chandler have resulted in two AMA Superbike National ChampiOnships.
Naturally, Muzzy has a great deal of respect and trust in Chandler, and who wouldn't?
After all, he's arguably the most mild-mannered, non-