Race Watch
RACE WATCH
ROBERTS QUITS WINNERS. . . AND TAKES THE CIRCUS WITH HIM
KENNY TAKES IT AGAIN
Kenny Roberts won his second world 500cc roadracing championship in a dramatic finish at the French Grand Prix. And Roberts says he and the other top riders competing in the FIM series won’t be back next year.
The French round was typically sensational in what has been one of the best seasons in years. At the start. Roberts had the points lead and the only rider who could challenge him was Virginio Ferrari. Roberts, Ferrari. Barry Sheene and teenage Californian Randy Mamola got into a scrap for the lead, then Ferrari slid wide while in second. Fie dropped to seventh place, but while battling back toward the leaders he tried to pass Johnny Cecotto on the outside and crashed heavily. (Ferrari was taken to the hospital, and later reports said he was injured but will recover.)
With his only threat out, Roberts could have coasted to a finish and a secure title. Kenny doesn’t work that way. He. Sheene and Mamola kept up the close racing, with the new kid even taking the lead a couple of times.
Going into the last lap, Roberts went off the course while avoiding two lapped riders who crashed in front of him. The engine quit, so Roberts bumped it back into action and still managed to finish third, with Sheene the winner and Mamola second.
Traditionally, this would be the time and place for the champion to talk about next season.
Roberts doesn't work like that. Instead. Kenny announced his plans the day before the British Grand Prix, before his second world crowm was officially his.
What Roberts said, in effect, w;as that he will not run in the FIM’s races next year. and that neither will the other top riders.
A virtual revolution, in short.
That Roberts has not been happy with the FIM isn’t news. His two seasons in Europe have been marked by haggles over starting money and by petty interferences over passes and the like. Roberts says he feels as if the riders are treated as hired hands, paid performers who can be summoned or dismissed or ordered about as the officials please.
The surprise at the British GP was that Roberts isn’t alone in this. Roberts, Sheene, Ferrari, Cecotto, Hartog, a total of 40 riders, the ranked members of the racing world, have backed the new' series.
The name will be the World Series. There will be two classes, 500 and 250cc. The riders have formed their own organization. They offer their services, the various tracks accept and apply for dates and the whole series is supposed to run under FIM rules, as an international race, rather than a world championship race.
Now it gets tricky. The idea is that the tracks w ill apply for dates, and the factories will go along, which will make the series so successful that the public forgets about the FIM.
There’s not enough space here for details. and none of the above seems as firmly fixed as Roberts would like. Honda is opposed. They want to wán the world title, plain as that. And the Honda riders, Mick Grant and Takazumi Katayama, are the only top world racers who didn't sign with Roberts. Their contracts forbid it.
Meanwhile the various tracks are beginning to worry. If they sign with the riders, will they get other dates and sanctions? What about all the support classes, the 125, 250 and sidecar titles?
Most important, will Yamaha, Suzuki and Kawasaki let Honda win the FIM title by default, just so their teams can put on good races?
Probably not. Later this year, at the FIM Congress, push will come to shove.
Meanwhile, Kenny says he’s ridden his last FIM race, and rumor has Yamaha sounding out other racers in case there’s a vacant seat on the team. >
SCHREIBER WINS WORLD TITLE
California Whiz Kid Bernie Schreiber won the Czechoslovokian round of the world trials championship, and became the first American world trials champion.
Bultaco-mounted Schreiber was top man on all three loops of the Czech course. His victory there put him 10 points ahead of Yrjo Vesterinen. who also rides for Bultaco and who had won the world title three years running. Swede Ulf Karlson. Montesa. was third for the year.
Schreiber was a California sensation when he was 14 and turned in better rides than the experts he wasn’t old enough to officially compete against. Two years ago he entered international trials events. He was seventh for the 1977 season and gave himself two more years to become champion. Schreiber is the youngest rider to win an FIM world title.
COLEMAN/BEVANS WIN LAGUNA SECA SIDECAR RACE
In a come-from-behind charge, the Larry ®Coleman/Mark Bevans Yamaha topped a very close sidecar race. With a new bike, passenger and motor. Coleman fluffed the start and finished the first lap sixth. Last year’s winners Richard/McKinna (Yam.) were shunted out when their motor stumbled off the line. The race quickly settled into a five-way scrap for the lead, with lap two scoring: Bryant/Essaf (Kaw). Breese/ Morris (Kaw). Hopp/Alston (Kaw),' Lougee/Harrold (Kaw), and Coleman/ Bevans. Less than 3 sec. separated first and fifth.
Halfway around lap three, leading passenger Pete Essaf missed a handhold and driver Kerry Bryant flipped the rig off of turn three, leaving the order Breese/Morris, Lougee/Harrold. Hopp/Alston, and Coleman/Bevans. Same lap, exiting the corkscrew, Ken Harrold’s newness to Lougee’s outfit caused them to part company. (Ken was “loaned” the ride only that morning by Sears Point winner Carter Alsop, w ho was bruised from a fall in the same place after winning Saturday’s heat race).
Coleman managed to get between Hopp and Breese on lap five, then nailed the lead> on lap seven. Under constant pressure, Coleman hung on to the end. But Breese/ Morris weren’t as fortunate as Hopp/Alston stuffed their rig inside them, last lap, last turn, to take second. Ken Harrold’s third lap fall transitioned from a slide to a “Warp 5” run down the edge of the six-seven straight to rejoin a waiting Lougee. With his ballast back, heat winner Lougee blasted back from 14th to sixth, taking fifth in the last corner, last lap.
Walt Garnett
NMRA 1980 DRAG RACES
The newlv-established National Motorcycle Racing Association (NMRA) division of the National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) has announced its 1980 drag racing schedule. Professional classes will include Top Fuel, Super Eliminator and Pro Stock. Sportsman classes will consist of Pro Comp, Modified, Competition, Stock and Combo eliminators. In addition to the six NMRA events. Top Fuel and Pro Stock riders will be able to compete and earn points at two NHRA nationals, for a total of eight Top Fuel and Pro Stock races.1
NMRA events in 1980 will take place at Gainesville, Florida on April 12-13; at Epping, New Hampshire on May 24-25; at -Cincinnati, Ohio on June 14-15; at Indianapolis, Indiana on July 4-5; at Fremont, California on August 9-10, and at Ateo, New Jersey on September 27-28. Pro Stock bikes will also run at NHRA events at Gainesville, Florida on March 14-16 and at Baton Rouge, Louisiana on April . 25-27. Top Fuel bikes will run at NHRA events at Indianapolis, Indiana on August -27-September 1 and at Ontario, California on October 4-5. K
Further information is available from NMRA, 412-414 W. King St., York, Pa. 17404,(717) 854-1768.
ROAD RACING IN HAWAII
The Hawaii Road Race Association is holding regular sprint and endurance events on the island of Hawaii. Interested racers or spectators can get more information by writing to the Hawaii Road Race Assn., 901 California Ave., Wahiawa, Hawaii 96786. Annual membership is $12. According to a recent press release, a 15 in. mongoose was flattened at the last HRRA event. And we thought ramming rabbits at Willow Springs was exciting! IS
