Race Watch
=RACE WATCH
Baldwin and Cooley win in Japan; Mikkola repeats as World Champion; Hennen wakes up
500CC MOTOCROSS WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP TO MIKKOLA AND YAMAHA
Finland’s Heikki Mikkola took his second 500cc motocross World Championship, scoring 14 wins, 2 seconds, 6 thirds and 1 sixth in the 24 moto Grands Prix series. In final points, Mikkola led America’s Bad Brad Lackey (Honda) 299 points to 214 points. Lackey won four motos, took 10 seconds, 2 thirds, 1 fourth, 1 fifth, 2 DNFs and 2 DNSs. Throughout the season, Lackey was the only rider who could consistently stay with Mikkola, the pair often running away from the pack.
Mikkola clinched his crown at the GP of Luxembourg when Lackey slipped and crashed about 150 feet out of the starting gate and was rammed by several other riders. A trip to the hospital revealed that Lackey had no broken bones, but strained muscles kept him out of the second moto at Luxembourg and also the two motos of the final GP in Holland.
Five-time World Champion Roger DeCoster finished the season third in points. DeCoster made a spectacular comeback from a ruptured spleen suffered earlier this year in a practice accident, and plans to regain his championship in 1979. DeCoster’s contract with the Suzuki factory extends through 1982 with Grand Prix racing optional beyond 1979.
Final points standings: Mikkola, 299; Lackey, 214; DeCoster, 172; Herbert Schmitz, (Maico) 127; Gerrit Wolsink, (Suzuki) 124; Andre Malherbe, (KTM) 109; Graham Noyce, (Honda) 90; Jaak van Velthoven, (KTM) 78; Jean-Jacques Bruno, (KTM) 44; Yvan Van Den Broeck, (Maico) 40.
HENNEN REGAINS CONSCIOUSNESS
After almost 11 weeks in a coma following his serious Isle of Man crash, Pat Hennen regained full consciousness. Hennen talked nonstop with his brother and fiance for eight hours before being sedated by doctors so he could sleep. The next day, Hennen walked around, shaved and talked.
AMERICANS DEVASTATE SUZUKA EIGHT-HOUR
Americans Mike Baldwin and Wes Cooley weren’t supposed to win the Suzuka International Eight-hour Endurance Race at Suzuka Circuit, Japan with the Yoshimura Suzuki GS1000 Superbike. Their photos weren’t even published in the official program.
It was supposed to be a Honda benefit. Honda owns the racetrack, promoted the race, and invited the local population to come see the all-conquering Honda 997cc RCB 16-valve racebikes win everything, just like they’ve done in every endurance event they’ve entered in the last two years.
After eight hours, in front of 70,000 spectators, the first Honda finished in sixth place. The RCBs were crashed or broken, and other brands filled the winner’s circle.
Baldwin and Cooley beat the secondplace Yamaha TZ750-mounted team of David Emde and Isoyo Sugimoto by four laps. The Yoshimura Kawasaki KZ1000 of New Zealander Graeme Crosby and Australian Tony Hatton was third, another two laps down.
American Honda had hired Ron Pierce and U.S. Superbike Production Champion Reg Pridmore to race a CBX six-cylinder at Suzuka, but Pridmore crashed into an Armco barrier and broke his shoulder when the brakes failed before qualifying. “I came into this one corner and there was absolutely no front brake,” said Pridmore later. “I touched the rear brake and it was far too violent, and I crashed. Then they installed braided steel lines and removed about 60% of the rear pad material, which was what I told them to do four days before the crash. It was all so needless. I just couldn’t stop the thing.”
Emde was fastest qualifier at 2:19.23, followed by Baldwin at 2:21.20 and Cooley at 2:21.45. Cooley and Baldwin were the best matched of the teams. For contrast, Emde’s partner, Sugimoto, qualified at 2:22.71. Christian Leon was the fastest on a Honda factory RCB at 2:21.74, with partner Jean Chemerin qualifying at 2:26.11.
The American Honda CBX was far off the pace, with Ron Pierce qualifying at 2:34.47. Since Pridmore was injured, Pierce rode with a substitute rider, Y. Fujimoto.
Crosby led Cooley off the start, but Emde quickly took the lead with Cooley second and Crosby third for the first 45 minutes. Then Emde made the first of many gas pits for the thirsty Yamaha twostroke. Between stops, Emde flew, making up ground lost to refueling and his slower partner.
The RCB of Stan Woods/Charlie Williams crashed on the first lap.
By the one-hour mark, Cooley led Emde’s partner, Sugimoto and Crosby with the RCB of Christian Leon fourth.
Pierce was 11th on the CBX, already one lap down on the leaders.
By the second hour, Baldwin had taken over the Yoshimura Suzuki and had lapped the remaining RCB, how ridden by Chemarin. Emde was second, with Hatton third on the Yoshimura KZ1000, a lap down on Emde and Baldwin. The American Honda CBX was back in 31st position, a full 10 laps down on the leaders. An ignition kill-switch short forced Pierce’s partner, Fujimoto, to push the bike into the pits from the back side of the course.
At the third hour, Cooley and the Yoshimura Suzuki led Emde and Crosby by a full lap, with the Kawasaki KR350 of Masahiro Wada and Akihiko Kiyohara another two laps down at fourth place, and the Suzuki GS1000 of Hsashi Yamana and Toshiaki Hakamada right behind at fifth. Hakamada, an expert-ranked motocrosser, had received a special license for Suzuka, his first road race. Although he complained at first that riding a big motorcycle with little handlebars (clip ons) seemed unnatural, Hakamada quickly made the adaptation—obviously. The machine was built as an after-hours, back-door-sponsored project of several engineers at the Suzuki factory, and featured adapted RG500 fiberglass parts mounted on the modified GS1000.
At the halfway point—four hours—Baldwin had the Yoshimura Suzuki in front of the Emde/Sugimoto Yamaha and the Crosby/Hatton Kawasaki. After repairing the ignition short and replacing wornthrough, oil-leaking crankcase side plates, Pierce had hustled the American Honda CBX back up into 23rd position, 15 laps behind the leaders. Leon’s RCB had pitted for good with mechanical problems.
At 4V2 hours, Baldwin pulled in for a rider change, refueling and tire/wheel change. According to Suzuka rules, only four people could work on the bike at any time—the two riders and two designated mechanics. Cooley and Baldwin pulled off the front and rear wheels and slid replacements into place quickly, just as they had practiced time-after-time before the race. Using air wrenches, they tightened the bolts.
“I went to tighten one of the axle holder bolts and the air wrench just clicked twice and snapped the bolt right off,” said Cooley after the race. “We had practiced with the wrenches connected to an air bottle, but used a compressor for the race. The extra pressure made the wrench tighten the bolt too much. I figured that was the race right there.”
But 4xh minutes after the bike pulled into the pits, Cooley decided to go out again, slowly. “I went four or five laps,” said Cooley,” and it wasn’t bad.” Meanwhile, the pit crew ground down one side of a spare axle holder clamp, hoping that the shortened holder would expose the broken-off-flush bolt and allow a new nut to be installed. Cooley was signalled into the pits, and the piece was installed. It worked.
The Yoshimura Suzuki led the fifth and sixth hours, but the Crosby/Hatton Yoshimura Kawasaki had firm control of second place, one lap behind Cooley and Baldwin, a lap ahead of the Emde/Sugimoto Yamaha.
Then Hatton ran out of gas on the lap before his scheduled refueling stop. Hatton pushed the bike more than one mile into the pits, running as fast as he could in the hot, humid atmosphere, stopping once on the main straightaway when he became sick. At the Yoshimura pits, Hatton collapsed, the bike was refueled, and Crosby took off. By the seventh hour, Crosby alone (Hatton being too sick to ride) had regained third place, four laps behind the Emde/Sugimoto Yamaha and seven laps behind the Cooley/Baldwin Suzuki.
Pierce had worked the CBX into 15th by the seventh hour.
Finally, the eighth hour and the finish came, in darkness. Cooley rode the Yoshimura Suzuki across the line, completing 194 laps. Cooley had forgotten to change his dark visor for a clear one at the last gas stop, riding almost blind during the last half-hour.
Emde finished second on the TZ750 with 190 laps, having ridden the last three stints by himself since his partner, a nursery-school owner and mostly-retired racer, said he couldn’t see well enough to ride in the dark. Crosby was third and had unlapped himself, finishing just two laps behind Emde, 188 completed.
The GS1000 Suzuki of Yamana and Hakamada (the motocrosser) was fourth at 184 laps.
At fifth overall was the first silhouette entry (the class limits modifications), a 716cc Yoshimura-equipped Kawasaki KZ650. The first Honda, an RSC-modified CB750F2 silhouette entry was sixth; a Yamaha TZ350 seventh; an XT500-based special nicknamed “Road Bomber” eighth; and two Honda CR250R-engined two-stroke Singles in ninth and 10th. Pierce brought the American Honda CBX home 11th overall, third silhouette, 19 laps behind Cooley and Baldwin.
After the race, ranking engineers from each design group involved in producing the GS1000 participated in taking apart and examining the winning Yoshimura GS1000 at the Suzuki factory at Hammamatsu, Japan. Cooley toured the factory and was treated as a king, while Baldwin, eager for personal reasons to return to the United States, flew home immediately after the race.
