Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

CHICANERY BY HENNY RAY ABRAMS e all know how to win the Daytona 200: Be like Scott. Scott "Mr. Daytona" Russell won an nprecedented fifth Daytona 200 on unday, further adding to his record otal and his burgeoning Floridian legd. Long ago, he demonstrated that he, ore than anyone before or since, nows how to win the Daytona 200. at is becoming painfully obvious is hat his rivals - and the term is used oosely - haven't yet figured out the best ay not to win the Daytona 200. This ear there was an impressive demontration of methods employed to defeat uccess, some never before seen - and or good reason. So if it is your wish to ot win the Daytona 200 you should... ... get into a bar fight at the start of e week. This is a first. According to the offi 'al Suzuki press release, Yoshimura uzuki's Aaron Ba tes (sic), who could asHy pass as the Fourth Musketeer, ould be riding "with a broken jaw er being involved in a disturbance in Daytona Beach club on Monday." The emiofficial account of the incident trains credulity and goes something 'ke this: As soon as he walked in the ont door of Razzles, a Daytona meat arket, Yates was sucker-punched, the ·ctim of mistaken identity. ever saw t coming. The bouncers took him out of e place and put him on the sidewalk. e made his way to a hospital, where he as told to take some pain-killers and orne back in the morning. The jaw was lated and wired hut. "Once I get my helmet on, it holds he jaw tightly and I am not in too much · omfort, but. I certainly don't want to · k crashing and aggravating the jury," Yates said. Riding a superbike or 200 miles on a track where your chin pends most of its time bouncing off a as tank is not conducive to success. acing is the ultimate pain-killer, and ates rode valiantly to finish sixth, on e same lap as Russell. Memo to future ar-brawlers: Don't. ... ride a superbike like a 250. No one is likely to ever repeat what 'ch Oliver did in winning 20 250cc GPs , ver the past two seasons on a Yamaha Z250. No one is likely to want to repeat hat he's done so far on a superbike. In J Friday's second qualifying session, the four-time AMA 250cc GP Champion and all-around good guy high-sided going out of tum six on his way to the banking. He was in the air longer than the Wright Brothers and ended up needing a CAT scan. His hand was chewed up and his vision was initially blurred, but he was otherwise okay. He'd flicked it in the same comer during the December Dunlop tire tests, breaking all of the toes on one foot. And, since his inaugural spill in his superbike debut at Las Vegas last year, he's crashed in every test or race bu t one. In the Daytona 200, Oliver crashed again - this time in tum one. Oliver's time through the final corner onto the banking - one of the two most crucial spots on the track - was faster than anyone's, including fourtime Daytona 200 winner Scott Russell. When he made it. Superbikes require more finesse, less corner speed. Once Oliver gets it right, he'll be a force. Until then, keep the Sharkskinz guy's number on the speed dial. ... ride a Harley-Davidson. Up until Scott Russell gave Yamaha its 18th win this year, Harley-Davidson had won as many Daytona 200s - 17 - as any other brand. Unfortunately, the last time was March 23, 1969: Cal Rayborn was riding, Richard ixon was president, and Pascal Picotte was just being conceived. Exactly nine months to the day later, Picotte was born on December 23, 1969, in Granby, Quebec, Canada. Another 29 years on and the FrenchCanadian qualified the VRI000 fifth fastest for the Daytona 200, giving the team good cause to celebrate - something they haven't been able to do for a few lean years. Picotte was optimistic when he got on the VR last December and he quickly proved his optimism was grounded in reality. Much of the credit, he said, goes to suspension whiz Dale Rathwell, who has worked with most of the top superbike teams and is now with Harley. The Harley wasn't that far off on power, but it hasn't always been able to put it on the track. With a host of changes to the VR that allows for greater adjustability, Picotte was able to flog it the way he'd flogged the Suzuki, Kawasaki and Ducati before it. With due deference to Thomas Wilson and Chris Carr, this is the first time the Milwaukee team has had a veteran road racer since Doug Chandler rode the bike in 1995. Picotte's race was impressive, running as high as third before a Keystone Kops pit stop hurt his chances and mechanical problems killed them, something Yamaha's Jamie Hacking expected: "I was waiting for the thing to blow up." It didn't, but it was grounded by troubles caused by the first pit stop and eventually retired on the 44th lap. Had this been a regular AMA-Iength National, around 64 miles, he may well have been on the box. If nothing else, Picotte and the boys from Milwaukee proved that they're a force to be reckoned with. ... try to get away from Scott Russell. American Honda's Miguel DuHamel pulled the bonehead stunt of the race, crashing into the chicane and out of the race when he tried to pull away from Scott Russell with about 38 laps to go. Up to that point DuHamel had been able to stick with Russell and keep him honest, though Russell later professed he knew he had him covered. Russell wins because he knows the race is 57 laps, knows how to manage his tire wear, ahd knows that no one can get away from him. It hasn't happened in seven years. When he was beaten in 1993 by Yamaha's Eddie Lawson, lawson graciously said his day had been carried by horsepower. When Russell was beaten by DuHamel in 1995, it was because he was on an ill-handling Lucky Strike Suzuki on Michelin tires which he hadn't properly tested - taking nothing away from DuHamel, who has, after all, won the race twice. DuHamel's crash was pectacular, the bike cartwheeling into a very exotic pile of exotic junk, while DuHamel slid, unhurt, along the ground. TV viewers may have been impressed, but his bosses at American Honda, who had guests from Japan over during Honda's 50th anniversary year, weren't. With the surfeit of superbike talent at the top, a single DNF could be the lethal blow to DuHamel's title chances, something at least one Honda honcho posited. ... try to win the race before the first pit stop. Fast By Ferracci's Mike Hale was my pick to win the AMA/MBNA Superbike title this year. After crashing out of the Daytona 200, he's 19th in the standings. Oh well, at least I picked Chandler the last two years. Hale's crash was deja vu, the Texan tumbling as he exited the infield in the same place he crashed out of the lead of the Daytona 200 in 1995. The difference is that in 1995 he fell on someone else's oil while in the lead on the fourth lap. This year there was no oil, just a front tire that slid out from under him on the seventh lap. Hale later said he was being cautious in that corner and yet he still crashed. The Fast By Ferracci team had access to the same Michelin tires which carried Russell to victory, so you can't blame it on the tire, though Hale and Russell do ride differently and the Ducati V-twin presents differen t problems for the tires than Russell's inline four-cylinder Yamaha. In Phoenix, where Hale destroyed his number-one bike in a crash during practice, the problem wasn't so much traction as balance, finding a front tire that worked with the rear. Too much traction out back puts too much stress on the front, and makes for a skittery motorcycle and jittery rider. Both Hale and Ferracci have proven that they know how to win: Ferracci won four times la t year with Mat Mladin. Hale needs a confidence-builder, and going to Laguna Seca - the first proper road course of the season - may be the answer. ... not bother entering. As calamitous a race as these riders had, the one constant among them was that they tried. They strapped on their helmets - in Yates' case, gingerly - put on their boots and leathers, and set out on a noble quest. For a while, anyhow. They didn't go to Daytona hoping to get in a bar fight or get high-sided going onto the banking or blow their Harley up or cartwheel into the chicane or lowside in turn six. They went there to win, and they'll come back next year and the year after and the year after, armed with the knowledge, pain and experience from this year. And maybe one of those years, Scott Russell will figure out a way to not win, but I wouldn't bet on it. fN LOOKING BACK... 30 YEARS AGO,.. ANNUAL APRIL FOOL ISSUE 20 YEARS AGO... MARCH 22, 1978 his wa our "April Fool" issue, and it apparently was supposed to be funny. It was also billed as our big 68-page is ue, and every page wa numbered 68. Typestyles were deranged, and there were plenty of attempt at humor that one can only guess must have been chuckler back then ... One of the very few cool items that was in the paper was artist Alex Tremulis' conception of the Evel Knievel Skycycle, with which the daredevil planned to jump the Grand Canyon. This version featured Knievel laying in the prone position, rather than seated, as he ultimately was in the ~-2 Skycycle during his ill-fated Snake River Canyon attempt... Norton PlIs were still the rage in the dez, as Mike Patrick won the Sandblasters Hare Scrambles in Ridgecrest, California, on one of the big twins, and was th us glorified in win ad. " T King" Kenny Roberts (Yam) lived up to his name at the 1978 Daytona 200. Roberts lapped the entire field, including second-place finisher Johnny Cecotto (Yam). He set five new lap records in the process... Australia's Gregg Hansford (Kaw) won the International Lightweight race for 250cc machines... Steve McLaughlin (Suz) took top honors in the Production Superbike event... Freddie Spencer (Yam) won the ovice race... A three-day Class A peedway program was a part of Camel Motorcycle Week, and Norm Robinson was the man to beat in the Scratch program on March 5 and 7, while Dave DeTemple took the win on March 6. Rick Stone, DeTemple and Paul Orlandi were the Handicap main winners over the three nights ... Jack Penton (KTM) won the Alligator End uro ... Marty Tripes (Hon) made it two in a row with a win at the Daytona Supercross... Part eight of the "How to ride like the Hurricane" series discussed practicing and training methods. 10 YEARS AGO... MARCH 16, 1988,.. ne week after showing us how he did a lap of Daytona his way, Kevin Schwantz (Suz) did 57 of 'em his way en route to victory in the Daytona 200 by Arai. The Texan gave Suzuki its firstever Daytona 200 win at Daytona. Equally as impressive was Team Honda's Bubba Shobert, whose Honda VFR750 vapor-locked, causing him to start dead last - nearly a full lap behind the leaders. Shobert rode his tail off to finish third behind Doug Polen (Suz) to make it an allTexan winner's circle... Rick Johnson (Hon) dominated the muddy Daytona Supercross... John Kocinski (Yam) oundly trounced the field to win the 250cc field at Daytona ... Will Davis (Rtx) won the AMA 600cc ational in the final short track at Memorial Stadium... Larry Roeseler (Kaw) roosted to victory in the Alligator . Enduro. l~ O

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