Cycle News

CN III ARCHIVES BY LARRY LAWRENCE L ast week we took a look at some of the rac- ers who won a single race in AMA Superbike competition. No disrespect at all, these guys were top-notch racers, each and every one. RANDY RENFROW WILLOW SPRINGS 1990 Randy Renfrow will be remembered as one of the most versatile road racers ever in America. In all Renfrow earned AMA championships in 250 Grand Prix, Formula One and Pro Twins. His sole AMA Superbike victory came in the last race of the 1990 season at Willow Springs Raceway. Renfrow rode sporadically in Superbike through the 1980s until picking up a ride with Vance & Hines Suzuki in 1988. He rode a Commonwealth Honda (that used a Honda AMA Grand National Dirt Track motor) to the 1989 AMA Pro Twins title in a hard-fought series over Dale Quarterley on a Ferracci Ducati. Common- wealth became the unofficial Honda factory Superbike squad with Renfrow at the controls in 1990. It was the first year for Honda's RC30, but surpris- ingly the bike was competitive right from the start. Ren- frow earned three podium finishes in the seven rounds leading up to Willow Springs. It was blazing hot in the high desert and nearly everyone in the race had tire problems. The ever savvy Renfrow saved his tires for a late-race charge. The strategy paid off and with three laps to go he passed Thomas Stevens, whose tires were chunking on his Vance & Hines Yamaha. Renfrow went on to win over Doug Chandler by almost 14 seconds. It marked the first win for the Honda RC30 in AMA Superbike. Renfrow continued racing until 2002 when he suf- fered severe injuries in a crash at Daytona. Five months later while recovering from his injuries Renfrow died in a freak accident when he fell down a staircase at his parents' home. DAVID SADOWSKI DAYTONA 1990 David Sadowski raced AMA Superbikes for nine sea- sons and only managed to win a single AMA Superbike ONE-HIT WONDERS — PART 2 P164 Steve Wise went down in the history books as the only rider to win an AMA Motocross and AMA Superbike race. race, but as Sadowski often says, if you're going to pick one race to win the Daytona 200 is not a bad choice. Sadowski was a leading AMA 250 Grand Prix and Supersport rider before arriving to the Superbike ranks in the late-1980s. A New England native and son of a military man, Sadowski was renowned as somewhat of a brutish competitor who liked to im- pose his will on other riders. Sadowski's 1990 Daytona was nearly over before it began. A first turn melee that took out Jamie James and Niall Mackenzie caused many of the top starters, including Sadowski, to scramble to the grass on the outside of turn one. Sadowski clawed his way back into the race. It proved to be a thriller with four-and- five-rider battles for much of the 200 miles. Renfrow, Stevens, Sadowski, Carl Fogarty and Jamie Whitham took turns up front. In the end it was Sadowski taking the lead on the last lap and nipping Honda's Randy Renfrow by .64 of a second – at the time the closest margin of victory in the history of the March Classic. "The motorcycle was so good it made it easy," Sadowski recalls. "I remember the first-turn incident got my adrenalin pumping and I had to work to catch up to the leaders. It was a great race and one that I'm glad to have won." PHOTOGRAPHY BY TOM RILES

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