Cycle News

VOL. 52 ISSUE 26 JUNE 30, 2015 P147 Leading up to the race it appeared that the Vance & Hines Yamahas were well prepared for the horsepower hungry Brainerd circuit. Jeff Farmer's K&P Racing FZR 600 and Russell's Muzzy prepped ZX-6 were two seconds a lap off the pace set by the V&H Yamahas. "I think if I can stay in their draft, I'll have a chance," said Russell before the start. Russell's little green machine was much more competitive since oversized pistons were installed after Atlanta. Still the Kawasaki had a ways to go to stay with the top Yamaha's on a high-speed track like Brainerd. As expected Sadowski and Stevens blasted away from the start and took control of the race on the very first lap. Russell and Barnes kept the leading duo in sight in the early going. As the race progressed Stevens parked himself on the rear tire of Sadowski and the duo blitzed the track at a record pace. Russell made a gallant attempt to join the leaders at midrace but was only able to close to within a second and a half before resigning himself to second. "I tried everything I knew to do to catch them, but it was a waste of time. They would gain 10 bike lengths on me on the front straight," said Russell. The race for the win came down to the final lap. Sadowski led coming out of turn nine. In the half-mile straight between turns nine and 10 (the last turn), Sadowski began to weave drastically trying to keep Stevens from passing. The tactic worked, Sadowski had a clear advantage enter- ing turn 10. That's when Stevens made an error, he tried coming up on the inside of Sadowski by braking late. In response of that move Sadowski let off his brakes slightly and forged ahead. Then Sadowski leaned into the turn, Stevens was carry- ing too much speed and low-sided into the back of Sadowski. The two disappeared in a cloud of dust as Rus- sell came by fist in the air, taking his first win of the year. "I had a funny feeling that was going to happen," said Russell. "Those guys were really going at each other. I just started laughing inside my helmet when I saw them go down; I knew they didn't crash hard enough to do any damage." Unknown to Russell when he said that, Sa- dowski did re-break his collarbone in the acci- dent. Both he and Stevens made the start of the second leg of the World Superbike event. Both Stevens and Sadowski tried to get up and restart their bikes to make the finish, but it was no use, the rest of the field began to come by. Barnes held off Zampach for second place, over eight seconds behind Russell. Stevens was sorry for his mistake. "The last thing I wanted to do was take my teammate down. I should have been smart and settled for second. I thought Dave would really be mad at me, but he just told me 'hell of a race,' he said he probably would have tried the same thing on me," relayed Stevens. Stevens' blunder was even more puzzling when you consider he would have still led Sad- owski by seven points in the series chase had he backed off to take second. "There's some good money involved in this series if I should win," said Stevens in defense of his action. Sadowski rallied and went on to win the cham- pionship. In the end the Vance & Hines team wasn't big enough for the both of them. Sadows- ki was gone and Stevens remained with Vance & Hines in 1991 and went on to win that year's AMA Superbike title. Years later Stevens said of the rivalry with his teammate: "Dave was a strong bull-headed young northeast guy that you wouldn't ever pick a fight with," he said. "However, put a strong bull headed guy from down South on the same racetrack and sparks were going to fly." To this day when people talk about intra-team rivalries my mind always goes back to 1990—Sa- dowski and Stevens. CN Subscribe to nearly 50 years of Cycle News Archive issues: www.CycleNews.com/Archives

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