Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

(Left) Fritz Kling (2) Is already In trouble as he enters the fin al t um next to Grant Lopez (5). Lee Shlerts (58)and Dave Sadows ki (25)on the fi rst lap of the second race. Kling crashed seconds after this photo was taken. Kling finis hed second in race one. (Above) Sadowski (center) gets a minu tes, 22.522 second s to win the first, averag ing 106.010 mph. He beat Kling to th e stri pe by 2.273 second s, with Sadowski about 10 seco nds back in third . Fraser was fourth in Ihe first leg in fron t of Lee's Performance Center's Lee Shierts and Grant Lopez. Lopez finished fourth in the second race, just ahead of Shierts . After five rounds and 10 races, Sad o wski leads Batey by 34 po in ts, 294 to 260. With his cras h, Kling, w ho finished 19 th. d ropped back to third with 257 w ith three round s to go . RACE ONE Sadowski was the double winner on the 4-m ile Elkhart Lake circu it in 1996, but it was Batey who was on a roll this yea r. He'd wo n the previou s three races, then qua lified on the pole for th is on e. When the green flag dropped , he mad e a run to the fro nt , taking the lead from Shlerts halfway thro ugh the firs t lap and splitting from the field. End ing the sec ond lap, he had over thr ee seconds in hand, u pping it to fou r, where it stayed until th e final few laps, when Kling put on a cha rge . It was too little too late, thoug h, and the wi n we nt to Batey by 2.273 seconds. "I looked at th e lap tim es from last yea r and saw th at if I do n't get wit h the plan, I'll be left in the dust," Batey said Briefl after tying the F-US A record of fo u r wi ns in a ro w . "I thi nk Fr itz had th e sa me plan. "I told Dave (Sadowski) a coup le of races ago that I don ' t know if I can win the cham pionship, bu t, by golly, I wa nt to win some money," Batey conti nue d. " If you've got a good consistent bike, a n d a good fas t b ike, it 'll p u ll you through . An d I think th e Suzuki will pull us thro ug h, hop efull y." Kling's rid e w a s a s un eventful as Batey's; more so, in fact. Thou gh he couldn't catch the Tennessee rid er , he wasn't w orried about anyone snea king up on him. "I pretty mu ch lost that right off the start ," Kling said . "You can't give them th at mu ch at the start and expec t them to com e bac k to yo u. We had a sligh t prob lem and we'll fix it in the break." The p rocession continued w ith Sad owski. His team had thras hed to ge t his Hond a on the track and he wasn' t con fiden t that it was up to the task. "It beats fou rth pla ce, that's for sure," Sad owski said p hilosophically . " In a 72hour period my crew wor ked 75 ho urs, if you get m y d rift. All day and all night. The frame was cra cked and I d id n ' t know if I could go fu ll bore. I think I'm pl a yin g 'c ha m p io ns h ip' a n d that' s un char acteristic o f me." ••• Road America owner -Jim Haines confirmed that the t rack was trying to secu re a' Wo rld S up e rbik e eve nt for the Wisconsin facility and that 'it wou ld be 8 second Ame rican race , held the wee kend afte r the Laguna Seca race, "We're talkinq wi t ~ Dan M urp hy and FAST: We bot h have interests in it as a seco nd date . They'd be back to back . Ju ly 1l th and 18th. The difficulty is: in getting Road champagne sh ower from teammate and second-place , i nisher Jason Fraser f (left) and thlrd-place Steve Grigg (right) after wi nning the second race . Th e p ace he se t was s till e nough to keep him better tha n 10 seconds in fron t of his teammate Frase r at the end . " We h ad a problem wit h b r a k e rotors," Fr a se r sai d. " I go t a good holesh o t a nd went into turn two a nd had nothin g. Halfway throu gh the race th ey started to come back. By the n th e rhy thm of everything was off." Fras er had been part of a fou r-rider scrap .- Shie rts, Gran t Lopez and 'And y Deatherage were the others - all fighting for fourth. It wasn' t until the eighth lap tha t he w as securel y in place , having dropped Shierts to fifth. Lope z was next; th en came Z lo ck Racing team mates And y Deatherage and Eric Wood, both Kawasaki 840-mounted . Nin th- place Michael Fitzpatrick ju st held off Steve G rigg a t the line, G rigg having severe brake problems on his Muz zy Raptor becau se he hadn 't brought eno ugh of th e proper b rak e pad s. RACE TW O There was a bit of d rama at the start of the second race and it involved Sadows ki. The announcer said that he'd be a sses sed a stop-and-go p en alt y for jumping the fla g, but th a t wa sn ' t the case. The starter had thrown a hitch into her starting motion and it threw severa l riders, Sadowski inclu ded. Colin Fraser, the F-USA Direct or of Competition, said the s ta r t was proper a n d Sad o w sk i cau ght a break. He cau g ht a no ther o ne end ing th e first la p . That's whe n Kli ng, ru nnin g wide left into turn 14, oversho t the cor ner a nd tu cked th e fro nt end o nto th e grass . Two laps later, on the fourth lap , he ca ug ht a bigger break. Ba tey' s bike started sput tering a nd Sadowski's tw o title rivals we re in troubl e. "I wa nted to hang with Batey and I saw him spu ttering and thought, 'This is my da y: " Sadowski said . Then he saw Klin g was o u t an d thoug ht i t was a mec hanical problem. It was only later that h e fo un d o ut th a t Klin g h a d cras hed. Sta rting th e fou rth lap, it was Sadowski nominally in front o f Fraser, Batey back to third and dropping, followed by Shierts and Lopez, wit h Grigg on the boil. Though they're teammates, the leading pair weren't acting like it, banging and bashing, leaning into each other, a n d , ultimately , s lo w ing ea ch other down. Fra ser had the fast er of th e tw o Hondas and tha t meant Sadowski had to pu sh that much harder on th e brakes and in the corners. "I kn ew I wa s goi ng to hav e to work for it because his bike was so fast," Sadowski sa id . "He could n' t help but pass me o n the stra ightaway." With three laps to go, Fraser overs hot turn five and took both of them off and onto the access road, allowi ng Gri gg to close up eve n more. (Harley -Davi dso n's) Thomas W ilson did a· 2:12 ,6 (2 :12 .624) last support and that 's his po t of gold at the end of the rain bow, " Muzzy.hasn't show n any inclination to support laBelle, so Scarpa 'year and I drd e 2:13,3," Team Leeene's Dave Sadow ski said, ,. . is racing the Rapto rs in other, serie s. Asked If he'd -be riding the ' . '. ' . Hondas for the rest o f the year . Sadowski replied.. " I can't do it. Riders atte nding the Yamaha De a le rs Pocono Cycle Fest;It' s a scary thou ght. I'll either buy e.H epto r myselfor a Yamaha or va l on A u·gust '31 will hnd a race track wh ich has been subs tan3 _Suzuki , The se H o ndas hav e -given no ind icatio n of c hampitially improve d. The trt-oval porttoo of the course was paved last on sh ip-wi nning reli ab ility . T he .c re w'e wo r ked har der than year ; but the road course w asneqlected. That' s bee n changed for . Yo shim ura.. if you can believe that , - Sadowski said that team ' · 1997 , w ith bot h portions o f the road co urs e . w hich connect to the owner Bruce laBelle had ordered B Rapt or whic h he hoped to tn-oval on both the ' fro nt and back straights .. being rep aved and take delivery on ' at the Portland NASS race two weeks earlier. · wid ened, . . , , Then a messenger from Mu zzy showed up at the track with a onepage lette r explaining the.delay and offering a re fund . Sadowski Spo rt Rider 'M agazine 'wi n sponsor the S pOrt Rider S hootout . said . LaB elle ca nc ele d his o rd er and to o k his money back , a $ 10 ,000 wi nner-take-all bonu s tor the team owner with the high" M eanw hile, I don't know w hat I'm going to be riding from we ek est "SCOring rider fro m the Sunoco Race Fuels Form ula USA races to week, " Sadowski said: adding that co mmunica tion among the . at. f71oc onoand Dayt ona, That gi,,:,es the riders four races . in two vario us parties has been te~ible , . . . . , even ts : to.score points for their owner, ' ",. A merica ho moloq eted by the AM . We wen t thro ugh the process w ith the (G P) bikes, We have 95 percent of the lns pectton do ne and probably 7S perce nt of the work done, The diffic ulty nee.in the design of the chicane at the kink. That' s the problem-The ·w ay it wa s originally propo sed . it was sort 'o f a right-left that' wo uld've cos t '$6 oo ,ooo to $800,000 to imple ment , W e came back w ith a Sa d o~9ki 'w as ·dis'q ualified fr~m hi s s·t ~ rting po sit ion fo r the ' . In order to get , more fan. and manufacturer involveme nt , NASB 's mirror image, It require s final approval by the DNF1 (Depart ment of EBC B ra ke sSportbike class when his Suzuki GSXR600 was Pat Murphy said that they were looking . t · cutting back on the Nat ural Resources) because it goes into the ,wetlands , We subfound to make toe -much power on the dyno, but was allowed to amount o f CCS (Cha~pionship Cup Series) racing w e d o at ·the mit ted professionaily drawn plans to the F.IM ev en bef ore ' t his start frorntbe last row o f the' grid. "It.m ade 100 hor sepower yesnationals.' On the Fr iday 'o f race -weeke nd s. we're turn ing it into a' inte rest in World ' Superbike. On our own , we went ahead w ith it. terdey and 104 today , - Sadow sk i said on Sunday morn ing. " And spo rtbike day where we 'll have riding Schoo ls . ride- and-dr ive (ride The ball strictly lies in the hands of the FIM , Do they w ant a race? we didn't do nothing but put ' gas in it. .., Part of the problem may . . your bike to the track and do some laps>. instruction from pro rac -. There 's no way in hell I'm goin g to spen d $8 00.000 Ifor track have b ee n wit h the fuel itself ; ."W e're buying a blend from a Porte re. dem o riders from marofecturers . genera lly just a fan day, ' alterations ) that four World Cha mpi on s said we don 't ne ed." land , Oregon. distrib uto r, a ,55-gallon drum .. and b ringi ng it. to . ' where they have trac k acc ess and acce ss to things_that. ere tied Haines was 'referring to a se ries of .tra ck inspections done three Elkhart Lake w here there 's anotherdi stnbu tor w ho has the same up ' w hen we go racinq . - _ urrently, the.fult CCSprogram is 24 C yea rs ago by Dome's DennisNoyeswhen the circ uit was constdmany woul d be ering hosting a G rand Pri x. On separate trip s. N oye s brought foro. gas b ut w it h a different co lo r. - Still , Sadowski said" " It's .no • clas ses and Murphy said theY hadn't decided 'excuse. lshould have gone to the dyne. in the morning anddone cut. " That' s what we'restill trying to de te rmine : what lev el of mer 500cc World Champion Kevin Schwa ntz, and former champwhat w e needed to do, ~ The loc al distributor rim out of the Sun oco mpetition We want to' keep , It definitely won't be' eliminated , just ons Way ne Rainey, Kenny Robert s and Franco Uncini. the 198 1 w ortd Cham pio n wh o . now w ork s for rider , safety in the W orld co 112 race fuel afte r selling out of the eight barrels that. were c urt ailed." · M urphy said they were . "fairly certain that .Buell was . . ' . going toparticipete . At some ct our recesthrs yea r, t hey'v e made Championships.'.. Obviously. if we do a dea l wit h FA ST, it will be a brought. our race a BRAG (Buell Rider AdventureGroup) eve nt H we put long-temi deal - five year s, probably ," Hain es added, He. also said Fo~ ~he th ird Sune~o Rac~ Fuels Formuia US A race 'in a row , ' this together. they'd make those dayS the destination date: Trihe and th e facil ity . we re enthusiasti c about ,bri nging the race to .'T ra y Batey took the pole pos itio n. his' 2:14'.926 'narr owly in fr~nt umph has o ffered demo rides at the races thi s .year and Murphy Wisconsin and wou ld do wha tever it took to get ndone. . . . .' . of the Yamaha .of D utch rnan Racing's Fritz Kling (2:1 .93 5) and . said 4 wou ld meet"w1t~ the ,manufactu rers jn Los Angeles to try Te am La Belle 's Honda 'C B R9 00 RR-mo unt ed D av e Sadowski .to ge~ them il"!volved, For the second race -in a row , Team laBelle' s Dave S adows ki ' . (2:1 5.090 ), Sy compertson, Batey 's time was morethan 3.5 sec - ·· w as o n the Honda C SR90 0RR, instead of the Mu ziy Raptor wh ich he rod e to vic tory at Road Atla nta. And .the .reason. Sad -.. e nd s . slo w er than t he t tmeSmok tn " J o e ' s Ho nd a ' s . ~ i gu e1 -Fc rthe past three years, the Road America ,C yc le ' Fest has' ows ki seid.: "would take 'an hour to explain. - The short answe r is ' Dul-lamel set in w inning the pole for the AMA's MBNA Superbike .fallen on the concl uding weekend o f the O shkosh Air Show, race in J une. It wo uld have put him 12th;' on the grid : Dut-iamel set , an 'annual gatheri ng Which draw s nearly a .million .peo ple for ,the' this: The pair of Muz zy Rapt ors that Sadowski ro de ' in .Georgia were,'ow ne d byDe an Scarpa. v frien d and form er sponsor , a a new track record o f' 2: 1 1.630: averaging 109.398 mph. The rid-, week and ties up all the hotels and medi a otbeeree. even though ~ccordirig to Sadowski, Sca rpa thought that 'if the team did well in. ' ers attributed it to a dirty track and rubbe r .from several Indy . ' it's abou t 40 miles away-' Ne:K1 yea r: NASB/F~USA is tryiog to find : -' . ' '.. " . A tlanta, " flab M ~~ ~ould obviously .have.,to gi"e, u~ bikes and .ca~ tea~ ~· w hic h had tested_her~ th~ p revious week: " I _th i n ~ . .en alternate date. .. how theY "eft

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