Cycle News

VOL. 50 ISSUE 36 SEPTEMBER 10, 2013 The downtown skyline served as backdrop and an estimated 20,000 fans crammed into the park to watch the race. Add to the fact that this race was a major happening in motorcycling; you also had the frenetic background of early '90s Miami in the mix. Still experiencing the 'Miami Vice' era with drug money driving an unbelievable underground economic surge, the race weekend featured wild parties that people still talk about today. Sanchez himself hosted a lavish party for the riders, teams, sponsors and media that had a free bar and got slightly out of control in an Animal House kind of way. The street course was a 1.5-mile, 11-turn circuit that utilized part of Biscayne Boulevard. Some of the top riders tried their best to talk with their fellow competitors to urge them to ride carefully, but as we all know when the green flag drops all the bestlaid plans in the world fly out the window. Things turned ugly for the riders early. Scott Gray showed what would happen if you pushed the envelope at the track when the Yoshimura Suzuki rider was injured in a practice crash eliminating him from the weekend. Gray took out Dale Quarterley in the crash too, but Quarterely was able to make repairs and race. John Ashmead crashed in 600 Supersport practice, hit a concrete wall and bounced back on the track where he was hit by fellow Floridian Jeff Farmer. In the Superbike final a first-turn pileup left riders nowhere to go and one of the victims was former AMA Superbike champ Wes Cooley, who happened to be carrying one of the on-board cameras and was too injured to restart. It was hot that first year too, almost inevitable in Miami in July. Dunlop's Jim Allen recorded the second hottest track temperature he'd ever encountered at 126 degrees. Riders racing multiple classes were wrapping themselves in ice-filled towels between races to try to stay cool. Doug Chandler won that 1990 race. It was red flagged early when radio communications were lost between corner stations. Spencer showed up for the race, but having just gone through an ap- P87 pendectomy operation a few weeks before, he was out of shape and in no condition to race in that heat. He pulled off the circuit with transmission problems on his RC Cola backed Honda RC30 while running 15th. After the race the entire purse money was stolen when an accident took place, possibly staged, and the AMA's Bill Boyce handed his briefcase to Ron Zimmerman and asked him to watch it. In the commotion of the accident, Zimmerman turned for one second and when he turned back the briefcase was gone. That was one of the primary reasons from then on riders were paid by check instead of cash after the race. The Miami race returned one more time the next year. It was the season finale and this time Spencer made a triumphant return. Riding a Two Brothers Honda RC30, he won the race over Scott Russell, denying Russell the 1991 AMA Superbike title. It marked Spencer's first road race win in six years. But the '91 race was a disaster in terms of rider injuries. Nancy Delgado crashed and suffered a fractured skull. Warren Elliott fractured his spine and narrowly avoided being paralyzed. John Cox's motorcycle punched a hole through the fence and ended up underneath Isuzu hospitality suites. In another incident riders nearly hit an ambulance during the 750 Supersport race. It took forever to get help to one rider who crashed and went under the fence where safety crews couldn't get to him. As more and more focus on track safety was coming into play there was no way the AMA could justify coming back to Miami and the race floated away into the annals of history, but not before leaving a legacy that would have lasting change on AMA Superbike, helping usher the series to its zenith of popularity in the late 1990s and early 2000s. CN Subscribe to nearly 50 years of Cycle News Archive issues: www.CycleNews.com/Archives

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