Cycle News

VOL. 52 ISSUE 40 OCTOBER 6, 2015 P101 ing into his own as a road racer. And as hard as it is to believe, by then Chandler was already a veteran among the crop of Supersport racers. In the final, Chandler rocketed his green ZX-7 off the line and led the pack around the four-mile course. Sadowski showed that his Vance & Hines GSX-R 750 had some power of its own, as he drafted past Chandler and James on the front straight. Local favorite Scott Zampach, crossed the line in fourth but was being chased down by Russell who got a poor start. During the second lap, Russell got Zampach going into turn five and quickly was up with the leading trio. It was now a four-rider breakaway. The big teams were flexing their muscles. Up front the battle was to put it mildly, intense. Chandler, James and Sadowski were diving into every corner trying to outbrake each other. Russell was a few bike lengths back watching and waiting. Russell, who had broken his col- larbone the week before, didn't want any part of the action in front of him, not in the early going at least. "Those guys were riding stupid," he said. "It looked like they thought every turn was the finish line." The leaders were running at a very fast 2:27 pace, and it looked like the race would be a titanic battle to the checkered flag. That all changed on lap four. Coming down the hill into turn five, Chandler and James were side by side. Sadowski was getting the draft of both bikes and slingshot to the inside. Sadowski suddenly realized that he was coming in way too hot for the turn. He ham- mered his brakes and swerved to the right in a desperate attempt to get set for the turn. Just then he hit James. "I was trying to brake but my front wheel was in the air and then his exhaust pipe got wedged in my fairing. Next thing I know I'm hitting the pavement at 140 mph," said a bruised and bat- tered James. Chandler in turn was hit by James' Suzuki and he too went off the track and crashed hard. It was a bitter ending for the Muzzy Kawasaki team who finally had a great chance to win the race. Russell was now home free and on his way to his second 750 Supersport victory of the sea- son. Sadowski ran off the track in the incident and fell back to fourth place behind Zampach and Roos. For the next two laps Sadowski rode the wheels off his machine and moved back into second with two laps to go. Sadowski tried closing the gap on Russell, but he was too far behind. Russell crossed the line 2.20 seconds ahead of his rival. The scene after the race was nearly as dra- matic as the action on the track. The first thing Sadowski did when he pulled back into the pits was immediately walk over to Chandler and apol- ogize for causing the crash. The sportsmanlike Chandler told Sadowski not to worry about it. Rob Muzzy was not so forgiving, "He (Sadowski) must have really wanted that race pretty bad," said Muzzy in disgust. The Muzzy Kawasaki was totaled. John Kocinski was standing nearby when the crash truck dropped off Chandler's bike. "They might as well find a dumpster for that thing," he said. Sadowski then walked to the Yoshimura pits, turned his cheek to James and told James to punch him as hard as he could, "I deserve it," said Sadowski. James didn't take him up on the offer. Probably a good thing since Sadowski was chiseled in stone. Ultimately the turn-five melees in Superbike and 750 Supersport didn't hurt James much. It would prove to be a standout season for the Louisianan. He went on to win both AMA 750 Supersport and Superbike Championships that year. CN Subscribe to nearly 50 years of Cycle News Archive issues: www.CycleNews.com/Archives

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