Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

ROAD RACE Speedway Sunoco Race Fuels Formula USA (Left) Dave Sadowski (25) leads the first F!JSA race of the season. Chris Carr (12), Tray Batey (1) and Doug Chandler (11) give chase. (Above) No one could match Chandler on the day. The AMA Superblke National Champion easily won both races on his Muzzy KawasakI. (Below) Carr leads the way in the second race, heading Sadowski, Andrew Stroud (9) and Andy Deatherage (6). By Henny Ray Abrams DA¥rONA BEACH, FL, MAR. 2 nyone who thought he could beat Muzzy Kawasaki's Doug Chandler at Daytona this weekend was seriously deluding himself. From the first Sunoco Race Fuels Formula USA qualifying session, when Chandler turned a lap 4.5 seconds faster than the field, to the first leg, which he won by 22 seconds, to the second, which he won by 26, Chandler was only racing against himself, testing tires and showing off the awesome power of the Muzzy Kawasaki Raptor. "You come up here and hope to do your best:' Chandler said in Victory Lane, after repeating his double-win weekend from a year ago. "To walk away with two wins makes you even more pumped for next week and the Daytona 200." Though he obviously wanted to win, that wasn't his stated purpose. "You're mostly looking for consistency in your lap times:' Chandler said after the second leg. "You just want to be able to keep improving and we were able to do that. My last lap was my fastest." The AMA Superbike Champion won $2500 from the $10,000 purse in each leg, making his weekend haul $5000, before contingencies. Since Chandler isn't contesting the entire F-USA series, his placings were mostly irrelevant to the series regulars who were hoping to follow him home; Harley-Davidson's Chris Carr had other ideas. Riding as the sole rep of the Milwa ukee factory, after his teamma te Thomas Wilson was sidelined with a broken collarbone, Carr had the most satisfying road racing weekend of his career, finishing second to Chandler in both races on iii machine that showed considerable development and speed and was the equal of the rest of the field. A '1 know the bike's improved in horsepower," Carr said. 'Tm certainly pleased with the pace that we ran this early with the bike development this week. Those guys got experience and it doesn't matter if it's AMA or F-USA. 1 was racing against some fairly experienced racers on good motorcycles and I got the better of both of them." In the first leg he had a raceJong scrap with Dutchman Racing's Fritz Kling and Team LaBelle's Dave Sadowski, losing them in the final three laps after Kling was slowed by an overheating engine. He was able to clear out a little faster in the second one, gapping Sadowski on the sixth lap and running mostly alone for the rest of the race. Kling and Sadowski swapped places in the two races, with Kling taking fourth in the first and third in the second, Sadowski just the opposite. Kling spent much of the day overcoming problems. He had engine problems in practice, put a new one in, then in the first race was slowed. when his engine began overheating and spitting water out on the 11th lap. "Fritz's bike was spewin!Jj water the whole time:' Sadowski noticed. "He was putting water on the track and 1 was slipping and sliding. I tried pulling up next to him to tell him. He almost threw it away big time and he said, 'I've had enough.''' In the second leg Kling fi tted yet another motor, then lost a good deal of power in his front brakes and ran off the track in tum one on the third lap. He made his way back to third, but couldn't challenge Carr. Zlock Racing's Andy Deatherage was a consistent sixth and fifth in the two legs. Tray Batey's debut with the F-USA number-one plate wasn't auspicious. The Valvoline Suzuki rider was fifth in the first leg, then dropped out of the second with less than two laps to go when he suffered a severe rear-tire problem and had to pull in with the tire well out of round. His new teammate Chris Taylor fared even worse, carding a 33rd and 27th in the two legs. RACE ONE Chandler didn't lead every lap of the first leg; Sadowski led one. Then Chandler was by and away. He blew by Sadowski on the back straight and set off at a pace that would end up being about two seconds a lap faster than anyone else. Sadowski might have wanted to give chase, but thought better of it. "1 heard the Raptor coming," Sadowski said. 'lt's got that unique exhaust note. I went, 'Man, I know I got to let Dougie go 'cause he can do 51s here.' I just tried to stay with him· but the bike's a rocketship. The Raptor's really something else. It impressed me today. With our stuff, we were just down a little bit, but this is a good start to the season. I didn't rev it past 10,500 all weekend. Last time 1 was here I revved it to 11,800. That's why the engine broke. It ran like a top all week. end ." '1 knew we had them pretty well covered timewise in qualifying," Chandler said. "My whole"goal was to go out there and put as many laps in as I can and stay consistent. Instead of worrying or trying to fit it in practice or qualifying, we can sort out the tire situation today. Daytona's a unique place and you've got to get used to the speed as well as the harder tires." Once Chandler was away the fight was for second and it took a couple of laps for the principals to form up. By the end of the third lap it was Carr leading Sadowski and Kling with Zlock Racing's Eric Wood fifth in front of Batey, then Deathera~. It was an interesting battle, the Harley clearly the equal of Kling's Dutchman FZRIOOO Yamaha on the straights with Sadowski hanging in the draft. "I was very surprised:' Carr said. '1 have to look at the F-USA race at Elkhart Lake last year as a reference and we couldn't even draft there or go by them. I even h~d Doug (Chandler) pull me on the first lap out of the chicane. I even drew a bead on him at the start-finish line. As soon as we got to turn one it was over." 'lt may have appeared we were cruising in the middle, but I'U tell you, Chris Carr was really setting the pace:' Sadowski said. "There was no getting around him. Carr's bike had top-end horsepower and handling .through the

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