Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

(Right) Thom as Steve n s celebrates his seventh-place finish - his best 01 t 997. (Far ri ght) DuHamel sprays the bubbly after his 13th career victory in the Superbike cl ass. (s uz): 9. La rry Pegra m (5uz); 10. Tommy H ..yden (](.aw); 11. Pau l Ha rrell (YOIm); 12. Doug Polen (Suz); 13. Eric Moe (K.aw); 14. Andy Deat herage (Kaw); 15. Dax Snow (5uz); 16. Da le Kieffe r (Suz); 17. Christopher Itl nkin (Suz); 18. Ant hony l upo t5uz); 19. Tripp Nobles (H -O); 20. Bri.ln G ibb!. (Suz) ; 21. John Jacobi (Su.z); 22. Ja~ Randolph (5U7.); 23. Jan'le'\ Milroy Jr. (J(a w); 24. Gn-g Fryr r (Yam); 25. ShaM' Cla rke (Su z); 26. Jimmy Moo~ (Suz); '17. ~ Hen d ric ks (Suz); 28. Mike Walsh (Yam); 29. Davi d Kieffer (Dud; 30. Akiha ru Shigcn o (Suz); 31. Cal vin Rayborn UJ (H -D); 32.Ccrald RottuNn Jr. IDuc): 33. Thomas Wilson Jr. (H -D); 34. Quenni King . (SuzJ; 35. Chris Carr (H. D), Time: 34 min., 51.100 sec. Oi.tann: 21Io01p&, 63 milt.'ll AverOlgl!' spee d: 108.460 mph M.lIrgin of victory: 3.450~. AMAI M BN A SUPE R n l KE N AT IO N AL C'SHI P POINT STANDINGS ( Aft~r 6 of 10 roun d,,); 1. Doug Ch.m d ler (186/1 wi n); 2. Mat Mlad in (171/3 win s); 3. Stev e Crev ie r (162); 4. Pascal Pico tte (158); 5. Aaron Yates (154); b. Miguel DuHamel (152/ 1 win); 7. Larry Pegram (1 12); M tom Kip p (108); 9. Tommy Hayden . (101): 10. Pa ul Ha rrell (97) ; 11. Eric Moe (m; 12. Tripp Nobles (70): 13,'Oax Snow (70); 14. Dale Kil·(fer (68): 15. Chris Carr (67): 16. Ce rald Rot h man Jr. (64): 17. DoUK Polen (62): 18. Jamt>!i Ra ndo lph (57) : 19. John Jacobi (56); 20. Ch ris Rankin (55). Upcoming Rounds : Round 7 - Lexington, OH , Ju ly 20 Round 8 - Co lo rado Springs, CO. A ugu st 17 Briefl •••• Alt houg h the victory was only his ftrs tcf the season. it was the 14th AM A Superbike win of Miguel DuHame l' s career - and tha t moves him into a tie for fourth on the all-time win list with Ed d ie La w son , Another win from DuHamel will move him into a tie for third with Freddie Spencer. and two 'more will tie him for seco nd WIth Wayne Rainey . D ul-iamel nee ds six mere victories to tie Fred M erkel at the top of the list with 20 caree r wins. M feels great. M it DuHamel said . " w hen you 're up ther e with those kind of guys . Eddie Lawson and Fred M erk el - but that's my goal . VVhenever I race . I wa nt to be able to w m. I can't wait ,!.ntil th e next race . ~ W as Who is 'doing what." Doug P o le n said. M e heve to tailor the program to fit and to get the best of wh at we 've go t . We'lI get it . We' figure we 've got all the info rmation now to get what we need from here on out . The tire deve lopm ent (with Pirelli) can only get better, too. I'd .like to finish the year running at the front and start again in '98 with a rea sonable effort. The pe rsonnel we had at the sta rt of the yea r set me back fo ur mo nths;' j ust little things we keep .finding . like improper routmq of wi res that causes short outs . Hey . I cari't believe we 're fourth in the 750cc Super spo rt points. and I missed two races . " Polen fini shed 12th in the Superbike National on Sunday. In 'addition to .racing in both the A M A and NAs a series. the Texe n is'also campaigning the World Endurance Chcmplonstap on a factory Suzuki with Peter G od dard and Eric Gomez. The next rou nd of that series - the 24 Hours of Spa - is in two weeks in Belgium. . to make it the record books because it was set in a non-qualifying ses sion. Chandler lapped the 3 -mtle race track in 1:3 7 .~89 . under Alessandro Gramigni' s lop record of t :38,30 5. set in qualifying for last year's Supe rbike Na tional. .Yoshimura Suzuki 's Pascal Picotte was placed on probation' by the, AMA for remarks he made in the 600cc Superspo rt pest -race press conference 'at Brainerd. Pico tte. who is still incensed over being docked a' lap for passing under a wav;ng .yellow flag at the last round in New Hampshire. let it fly in the pressroom wh en M or e r~n ·off area and more mon ey: W hen the AMA/MBNA asked about an 'ambulance that was parke d on the outside of tum Superbike Serie s regu lars arrive at the Mid·Ohio S ports Car two durin g tbesooec Superspo rt race .' "Tha t was another smart Course in July. they' II be greeted by cha nges to the run-off area call again by the A MA. ~ Pico tte said. " If you .crasbed there and in the notorio us final 'corner at the facility . Ac cording to AMA road you hit the ambulance. wha t do you think is going to happen? You racing manager Ron Barrick . the w~1I that lined the outside of the. kill yo urself..That' s for sure - 100 percent s ure. The same call that fast left -bender' has been' moved back to the fence line, WIt h 50 . happened at Loudo n last week. How many peo ple crashed in that percent 'of the area gra ss and the other naif gravel. 'II) addition, ' Harley -David son 's C h ri s Carr is moving fro m his home in Valley comer at Louden last weekend? A bunch o f experienced riders Mrd.Obto has also upped the superbike purse $t5,000 over last ' Springs. California, to Pennsylvania. Car r, ahtelcnq Cali forn ian, is crash ed in that comer.' and you put an am bulance rig ht th,:re _ , year's payout. . . . looking forward to life back East.: His wife; Pamela, is a Pennsylva Thef'areelly s mart . What' s going to happ en if-you cra sh and • • . . I nia natrve. . there's no tire 'w all? Imagine that comer two (at Brainerd) at about The re turn o f Willow Springs . The .A M A National Champt - . 130 mph . OPen the door. becau se I' m going to (Picotte' po inted onship Road Race Series willreturn to Will ow Springs Raceway In 'skyw ard). ~ was pissed becau se it w as reellye bad call by the With· M innesota 's G reg ' Fryer pulling the upset of the weekend Rosamond. ·Ca lifornia, in 199 7 with the race schedu led for Apri l ' by topping the previously undefeated And rew Stroud in ' the wet , .A M A again. There was 8 stu pid waving yellow flag on the inside 24-26 - a wee k aft er the A MA National at 'Laguna Seca Raceway Formul a Xtr eme fi nal, many were reminde d of th e ti me w hen . again : I got c razy . ,At [eas t we ..,.;ere able to see it. It was right in M onterey, Califo rnia . The lost time the AMA co mpe ted at Wil . anoth er .local racer ended ' up with -the sup erbi ke pole in,,· 19 8 5.· there on the insi de whe re you lo ok , A t Loudon; .you put the Rag . low Springs w as in ,199 0, with Randy Renfrow w inning the S uper- : Tom Ma son wo n the fastest of tw o heat races to .eam the pole ove r there. How are yo u going to seee yellow flag if you put thet bike National on a Commonw ealt h Honda RC 30 . ACcordi'ng to the · for the Superbtke National, de spite racinq against the like s o f Fred .thing' there? You can see th e ambulance be cause that thi ng Is AMA. Willow is not slated to 'replace another race . but wi ll' instead about that big (Pic otte held his hand s apart): the ye llow flag is that M erkel. Mason, w ho reti red from racinqtn 1988. was on hand this etlow -the se ries to 'grow to 11 round s: The Netto nalat Road · wee kend to cheer on Fryer. Ma son , 'though, didn 't end up winning .big (he held his fingers a partl . ~. . . . A merica In Elkhart Lake , Wi scon sin; meanwhile, w ill be moved the 1985 Nat ional, He finished fifth in the dry Superb ike National, back a week in order ' to -let the race coinc ide' with ' Harley-David - · which wa~ pos tpo ned to .M on?ay bec ause o f rain . M erkel ... Picotte' ~ teammate Aaron Yate, bro ught his Su zuki GSX R600 . son 's 95th annive rsary ce lebra tio n in n earb y M ilwa ukee . A full to the winner' s' circle with the left side of the bike caked in mud 1~7 'sc hed ule is expecte d to be released with two wee ks . . Tw o in a row _ not this year. Fred M erk el. Wa yne Ra iney and afte r fin is hing thi rd in t he 6 00 cc Sup.er sport final. Yates had ' . crash ed the b ike on the coo l-off lap whi le showboating . "I was D oug Polen each wo n successive S upe rbke Nationals at BrainAMA ' 750<:: c Su per spc rt Ch amp ionsh ip poin ts leader J a son messing around ." Yates explained. ~ I downshfted to fir st, go t on erd International Racew ay, with M erkel win ning in 1984 and '85. P ridmore wit! ride a SUluki 'GSXR750 superb-ke in the fmal four Haineyin 1986 and '87. and Polen in 1992 and '93 . Since Polen 's the brake and go t it going sideways. Then it kind of wen t out farround s of 't he A MA/M BN A S up erblke"Serie s. and also in the ther and it scared me . I let off th e brake and it booked up and 1993 victory . a different rider had w on the post four races at W orld Superbike ro und at Laguna S ec a Racew ay on J uly 14 . almost high-sided me. I ran o ff the track and on the -grass and I Brainerd, Colin Edwa rds II (1994), Miguel DuHamel (1995).. and MSuzuki has been good to me and they've actually built a super. was trying to be easy on the brake s. I grabbed the front J ust a litAles sandro Gram igni (1996). DuHamel became a two-time winner bike fOT for the! last four races, said Pridmore, who won his tle bit and it Just slid out . It was all muddy . J jumped up and down at the circuit with his victory this year . Rich O liver' s victory in Sun · fou rth 750Cc Supe rsport race of the year on Saturday at Brainerd . and everybody was just raising hell over there . It was pretty neat. " day 's 2SDcc Grand Prix was his 16th straigh t - and his third in a · Sta rting at Mid -Dhio . I'll be on a superbike for the rest of the row at Brainerd . Ofiver is the only rider to have won more than . yea ~; I'm actua lly going .tc go and do World Superbike at Laguna . . one 250cc G P event at the Min nesota facility . • With average lap times in the lOS-mph range . Brainerd obviously Ac tually. we 're just go4ng to go and shake the bike down there allows the top supertakes to air It out on Its long front straigh t and perfect place..,eh? We're goi ng to seebowthe bike is and try to Nate "'Ga t o r " Wa it made his return to road racing at the site of extremely fast first two corners. Rad a r readi ngs on the be competitive for M id-Ohio and the rest of the AMA Nationals, • approach the first turn dUri~ qualifying showed that the Muzzy his horrendous crash a ago in the Hartey.Devideon TwinSport . Kawasaki ridden by Doug Chandler was the fastest of the superSeries , Wai t. who suffered a compound fractu re of an arm, br oke Ronda 's J ame s Bronson. who has replaced M ark McD aniel on bikes. Chandler's Kawasaki was clocked ot .1 7 6 mph . The Fast both wrists: leg , and an elbow . and pun ctured a hole in his the second Team Polen Suzuki. suffe red a broken left wrist in a , quadricep muscle when he cra shed at Brainerd last year. wasn 't By Ferrucci Ducati ridden by M at M la~ in W!3s some 5 mph slower crash in pract ice a~ Brain erd . Bronson is drawing high praise from at 17 1 mph. . making his racing return - that carne back in M arch , in a MARS team owner Doug Polen. " He's goi ng to be one of t he good paved-oval race where he was injured again. In the MA RS race in ones: the two-time W orld C~mplon said " He's 22 years old . Du'e toe la~k of ' time to ' prep are it s ca se. t he Hy p e rCyc le Rorida on M arc h 1. the 18-year-01dWait "soffered e broken femur .he'a patrent. and he's willing' to learn from Somebody who 's do ne to go wi th his lon g hst 'of previous inj urie s. Wa tt rep laced the S uzu k i team was able to get 'a post po nement on it.s hearing with it. The education is the easy part. ~ . . an AMA Appeal Boa rd wh ich w ill decide its fate after M ark M iller injured Shawn Higbee on _ M itc hell' s M od esto Harley -Davi dson the. was disq ualifi e d ' from the Road A merica round of the 7~Occ 883 in the TwinSport race . finishing' fifthin the .final. Polen ' s te am co ntinues to fight problem s. mo st o f whiC~ came .Superspo rt Series for illegal engine mcdif icencne. The heo ~ng wl!1 .about with the pe rsonnel he had wo rking 'the bikes early in the Doug Chandler broke the ·motorcycle. track record a~ Brainerd . take' place either at the Laguna Seea W orld Superbike round or at . season , be 'sald. M e' re going to reorganize after this race, as far' .IntemationlJl Raceway on ~un day morn ing , thoug~ the time won' t W the next r~ und of the AMA Series at M id·O hio. off. won. . me P . . year . to a 7

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