Race Watch
RACE WATCH
Springsteen is AMA Champion again; Hannah gets charitable; Vance and Suzuki win Pro Stock title; Cecotto sews up F750 crown; Collins turns 199.55 mph in standing start quarter mile.
SPRINGSTEEN TAKES THIRD CHAMPIONSHIP BY FIVE POINTS
It was the closest AMA Grand National/ Camel Pro Series finish ever, with Steve Eklund almost becoming the first privateer to win the Championship. When it all came down to the Ascot half mile, defending champion Jay Springsteen led Eklund by one point. But when the dust settled on Ascot, Springsteen had won the race and the title for the third time, leaving Eklund second at the flag and second in points.
Eklund had led Springsteen by 17 points after the two Indianapolis miles, finishing third behind Garth Brow and Hank Scott on Saturday night (Springsteen didn’t qualify) and fifth on Sunday, behind Hank Scott, Bröw, Ted Boody, and Steve Morehead, and ahead of Corky Keener and Springsteen.
Neither Eklund nor Springsteen finished the Loudon road race, where Springsteen’s leaking XR750 oiled the track and caused half a dozen riders to bail. Dale Singleton won the restart; Eklund and Springsteen retired.
But Eklund’s effort stumbled at the Syracuse mile. Eklund and tuner Tom Hasler were working on an engine change between Eklund's semi and the main event, counting on the time normally given to the trophy race to allow them to finish the powerplant swap. But worried about approaching bad weather and impending darkness, the referee switched the program. suddenly scheduling the Main event first. Eklund’s bike fired up just after his two-minute delay grace ended, and he wasn’t allowed to start. Springsteen won and regained his points lead.
By finishing sixth to Eklund’s eighth at the Columbus half mile (won by Steve Morehead). Springsteen stretched his margin from three points to five points. Eklund made up four of those margin points with his fifth at the second San Jose mile, where Brow won and Springsteen finished ninth.
At Ascot. Springsteen laughed and joked with well-wishers in the HarleyDavidson pits, confident that one of his two XR750s would do the job. Eklund brooded, sitting on an ice chest as Hasler and assorted volunteer helpers worked on Eklund’s sole Harley-Davidson. The toll of the long privateer versus factory battle was showing.
Both Springsteen and Eklund came from behind at Ascot, passing early leaders Gary Scott and Terry Poovey. Spring^ steen won even though Eklund, looking very smooth in contrast to Springsteen’s rough style, closed up a bit at the end. Poovey was third, Scott fourth.
HANNAH WINS OLYMPIAD, DONATES PURSE TO CHARITY
Bob Hannah won the Motorcycle Olym piad-a motorcycle decathalon-and donated the $10,000 first place money to the Muscular Dystrophy Foundation. In the Short Track, and TT events (both won by Eddie Lawson), Hannah finished 11th and 16th respectively. But Hannah won the Cross Country and Motocross events, and took ninth in the drag race to end up tied in points with Kawasaki's Jimmy Weinert. Hannah got the overall based on more event wins. In overall standings, Hannah and Weinert were followed by John Hateley, Rex Staten, John Gennai, Jeff Ward, Rick Hocking, Rich Eierstedt, Brad Lackey and Gaylon Mosier.
VANCE AND SUZUKI TAKE PROSTOCK CHAMPIONSHIP
T erry Vance won the International Drag Bike Assn. (IDBA) Pro Stock cham pionship for the third consecutive year, setting both ends of the national record with a 9.00 sec. 147.05 mph pass. It was Vance's first championship with the R.C. Engineering Suzuki GS 1000, but probably not his last-Vance and tuner Byron Hines signed with U.S. Suzuki Motor Corp. to campaign a GSl000 Pro Stocker and a GSI000-based Top Fuel machine in 1979. Vance won his previous IDBA champion ships with an R.C. Engineering Kawasaki, as well as the American Motorcycle Drag Racing Assn. (AMDRA) Pro Stock Cham pionship (prior to that organization's fold ing and the establishment of IDBA).
AMERICANS AT BOL D'OR
Problems hampered two American teams at the 24 hours of Bol d’Or, the world’s premier endurance race, held annually in France. The Yoshimura R&D of America team of Ron Pierce and Wes Cooley ran third on an llOOcc Suzuki GS1000 until mechanical problems stopped the bike in the second hour. Pierce was forced to push the bike almost three miles into the pits—without help, to comply with the rules.
After lengthy repairs, the Yoshimura „Suzuki went out again. The lost time meant that Cooley and Pierce weren’t in the hunt, so they amused themselves by pulling giant wheelies for the crowd. More mechanical problems finally sidelined the bike for good.
Harry Klinzmann took the place of Dale Singleton (injured at Laguna Seca) to ride a factory Honda 997cc 16-valve RCB Four with David Emde. Carburetion and handling problems hindered the young Americans, but they still managed to finish ninth.
The detuned, light-equipped TZ750 Yamaha of Patrick Pons and Christian Sarron led the race for 17 hours before the crankshaft broke. Pons and Sarron turned laps times about four seconds a lap faster than the next machine, the works Honda of Christian Leon and Jean Claude Chemarin.
Leon and Chemarin won the event followed by the fellow Honda works teams of Hubert Rigal/Jacques Luc and Stan Woods/Charlie Williams. Eight of the first 10 machines were Hondas.
BALDWIN WINS MOSPORT F750; CECOTTO TAKES F750 CHAMPIONSHIP
Mike Baldwin posted his most impressive win to date when he beat Kenny Roberts in both heats of the final F750 World Championship race held at Mosport Park in Ontario, Canada. Yvon DuHamel came out of retirement once again to finish third on a Kawasaki, Skip Aksland was fourth and Johnny Cecotto finished fifth overall to become the new F750 World Champion.
Baldwin’s phenomenal ride was overshadowed by an accident during Saturday morning’s qualifying session which took the life of AMA regular Avrum Gudelsky and sent Steve Baker and Belgian rider Didier Derodragues to the hospital. Baker fell when his bike went into a slide just over the crest of corner 2, a fast, blind, downhill left-hander. He bounced off the guardrail onto the track where Conrad Urbanowski was unable to avoid him and ran over his leg. Urbanowski managed to stay on his bike but Gudelsky and Derodragues were not as fortunate. Two other riders picked their way through the mess before the red flag was finally shown.
The accident sparked concern over the safety aspects of the bumpy, slippery Mosport circuit. The track has little run-off room and what there is usually terminates in either guardrail or concrete, a requirement for the car races also held there. Roberts asked that extra haybales be placed at strategic points and this was done, but several riders remained detuned the rest of the weekend.
Race day was cold and windy with a strong chance of rain, and although the track was dry for the first 750 heat, most of the riders chose intermediate tires for their front wheels.
Roberts needed an overall win combined with a lower than 6th place finish by Cecotto to win the championship. His hopes were dashed by the second turn of the first lap however, as he watched Baldwin motor off into the distance. Over the first eleven laps Baldwin lowered the lap record five times, finishing a full two seconds under Baker’s old record at 1.39:47. He pulled away from Roberts by three to four seconds a lap and by the end of the 25-lap heat was 49 seconds ahead. Roberts duelled with DuHamel for 10 laps until he broke clear, finishing 10 seconds in front of the Kawasaki. Some 20 seconds further back, Cecotto and Aksland were locked in a fierce battle for fourth. Aksland forged his way ahead several times but at the finish it was Cecotto by a second. John Long was a lonely sixth, last man to be lapped. Rich Schlacter had an ignition coil fail on the warm-up lap and gave up after seven laps.
LACKEY TO RIDE KAWASAKI
A merica's great 500cc GP hope Brad Lackey has announced his intention to sign with Kawasaki for 1979. Riding a Honda, Lackey finished the 500cc moto cross World Championship series second in points - behind only Yamaha's Heikki Mikkola - in 1978.
Everyone expected Roberts to go better in the second heat and he did, but Baldwin was still in control. Baldwin charged into the lead once again with Roberts about three seconds behind. Roberts halved that margin on lap 7 but Baldwin responded by lowering the lap record once again and pulled away, finishing first by 24 seconds. DuHamel, Cecotto, Aksland, Long and Steve Gervais were running nose to tail in a scrap for third. Gervais, a young Canadian in his first year of 750 racing, finished 11th in the first heat after two stops, once to fix carburetor problems and again when the zipper on his leathers came undone. On lap 8 he and Aksland pulled away from the rest of the group and six laps later Gervais uncorked a 1.39:51, passed Skipper and crossed the line third, 10 seconds behind Roberts. DuHamel was left by himself in fifth place about five seconds clear of the Cecotto-Long duel. Long passed Cecotto on lap 7 but the new World Champion repassed on lap 15 and stayed there.
Long might have been tired after win*ning both the Superbike race on Saturday and the 250 race held between the 750" heats. After the GP, Long received a broken arm in the 125 race when 11 of the 16 starters fell at the second corner. The fast approaching darkness forced cancellation of the race after one lap—a fitting ending U# a fouled up weekend. —Kent Peterson
KAWASAKI ROCK AND ROLLS THROUGH ELVIS COUNTRY
Kenny Anneseley powered his double engine Kawasaki fueler through the quarter mile in 7.95 seconds to claim the Top Fuel Eliminator title at the IDBA’s Valvoline Sunshine Nationals held at Memphis, Tennessee. Anneseley, sponsored by Motorcycles Unlimited, of Oklahoma City, won after Marion Owens’ double-engine Harley threw a drive chain. Super Eliminator went to Sam Wills’ single engine fuel-injected Kawasaki, also sponsored by Motorcycles Unlimited. Wills clocked an 8.77 sec. @ 155.37 mph win over Zip Eakle’s Kawasaki.
The upset of the weekend was the defeat of Pro Stock King Terry Vance by Sid Pogue on a Kawasaki Zl-R. Vance, aboard the R.C. Engineering GS1000 Suzuki;* missed a shift on the big end and handed the win to Pogue. It marked just the third time that Vance lost a professional race in, this class in three years. Pogue turned a 9.43 ET, rides for his own machine shopf and hails from (where else?) Oklahoma City. -*>
The Pro Comp title also went to Kawasaki. R.C. Engineering’s Joe Yeager topped Kosman Specialties’ Mike Bruso with a pass of 9.10 seconds. Ultra Stock Eliminator was two stroke motor wizard Paul Gast of Grand Island, New York, who pushed his H-2 Kawasaki to a 10.69 for the^ win. —Joel Breault
COLLINS TURNS 199.55 MPH QUARTER-MILE
R uss Collins set a new Top Fuel NHRA world record for motorcycles at the Winston World Finals held at Ontario Motor Speedway. Collins powered his 1own nitro V-8 Honda through the traps it 199.55 miles per hour with an elapsed ime of 7.62 seconds. To establish the new
record, Collins had to back up his effort within 1%, and did so with two more passes at 198.79 and 197.70 mph. Collins also took Top Fuel Eliminator over Motorcy cles Unlimited's Ken Anneseley of Okla homa City. -Joel Breault
HANNAH WRAPS UP TRANS-AMA
For the first time in the eight-year history of the Trans-AM A series, an American has won. And as anybody who has followed motocross this year might expect, the man who did it was Bob “Hurricane” ^Hannah, Yamaha’s stellar performer. Hannah’s incredible season already included winning the Supercross „►and 250 National series and the Motorcycle Olympiad.
Hannah won the first five races in the seven-event Trans-AMA series overall, '’chalking up eight wins in a total of 10 motos. A bad start and involvement in a pileup left Hannah seventh in the first .jnoto of the sixth race at Lake Whitney, Texas, but Hannah came back to win the second moto and tie up the championship. Hannah didn’t finish either moto at Sears Point, the final race, after crashing and damaging his bike in the first moto. But Hannah didn’t have to finish — he already had enough points to take the title.
Four-time Trans-AM A Champion Roger DeCoster of Belgium finished the series in sixth place.
