Daytona '80

DAYTONA '80

250 Expert Eddie Lawson Wins The Slow Race

He just teels so bad when he loses.” said Fred Spencer, Sr. about his son. popularly known as Fast Freddie. “He just feels like he let everybody down. They weren’t even going to run the 250, but I guess I talked them into it. We just didn't have the motor, and it does make a difference here. It was the same engine as we ran in 1979, they didn’t even fool with the bike, because they were concentrating on the 750. It hadn’t even run since Sears Point. He just couldn’t do anything with them on the straightaways.”

It says something about 18-year-old Freddie Spencer’s goals and standards of personal performance that he’s disappointed to finish in the winner’s circle at Daytona. Being in winner’s circle means finishing first, second or third, and only first place is good enough for Fast Freddie. Anything else, it seems when talking to him or his father, is nothing.

That Freddie is officially credited with finishing third in the 250cc Expert race at Daytona 1980 doesn't tell the entire story. That finish says nothing about the fact that Erv Kanemoto and Stuart Tooniey brought Freddie’s Howard Racing-sponsored TZ250 Yamaha to Daytona in boxes. They didn’t put it together until Wednesday of Speed Week, and Spencer had two laps of practice on the machine before beating Gregg Hansford (Kawasaki) in the first five-lap heat race.

Daytona is an unforgiving place for the unprepared, and last minute efforts can’t always do it when the opposition is ready and waiting. In the 250cc class, the opposi-

tion came in the form of Eddie Lawson and Anton Mang. Lawson, a 21-year-old Southern California construction worker, holds the 250cc lap record at three of four racetracks open for club events in California—Ontario, Riverside and Willow Springs. Lawson also held the lap record for Sears Point until his KT Engineering teammate from Northern California, Gennedy Luibimsky, regained the record on his home track. (KT Engineering is the new name of the operation formerly known as Hunt Racing, since Harry Hunt sold the business to Kryn Teewu.)

Mang, a West German sponsored by Krauser accessories with a strong connection to the Kawasaki factory, finished fourth in 1979 behind Skip Aksland (who didn't enter the 250 race this year), Spencer, and Randy Mamola (who didn't enter any races at Daytona in 1980). This year, both Mang and his motorcycle were a lot faster than they had been in 1979, and Mang beat early-leader Lawson in the second heat race.

Hansford, although often in the hunt at 250cc World Champion races in Europe, rode a KR250 prepared in the United States by Steve Johnson of Kawasaki Motors Corp. Although Johnson, (who wrenched for Phil Read when Read was 350cc World Champion), knows what he's doing, the KMC 250 didn’t have the benefit of the same works parts used in the grand prix machines. Hansford, who weighs 178 without leathers and dwarfs his opponents, couldn’t afford to give away power and be competitive at Daytona. InQ

his heat race. Hansford never challenged Spencer for the lead.

Lawson’s KT Engineering Yamaha was not only ready, it was trick. Titanium bolts abounded, securing the triple clamps, the front disc carrier, the radiator, the footpegs. the rear sprocket—everything that could use titanium bolts had them. The front discs were plasmasprayed aluminum giants, the calipers aluminum TZ750. The G-model TZ250 barrel was ported by Harry Hunt, the engine assembled by Luibimsky.

Two Cottons, built by the Cotton Motorcycle Co. in England with in-line, twincylinder, rotary-valve Rotax engines, looked promising in practice but wouldn’t finish the race.

Luibimsky on another KT Engineering Yamaha led off the start of the final race, chased by Derek Huxley on an ill-fated Cotton, Spencer and Lawson. Mang was well back, but it wouldn’t matter.

By the start of the second lap Lawson led Spencer, Luibimsky. Mang and Hansford. Hansford was out almost immediately with a crankshaft failure (“They fooled me again,” Steve Johnson would later say of the Kawasaki factory. “They didn’t send me the good GP cranks”). Luibimsky faded back and ran off the track after becoming sick in his helmet, the after effects of a week’s bout w ith the flu.

And Mang gained steadily, reeling in yards at a time, making up huge chunks of distance, then suddenly passing and leaving behind Lawson and Spencer, who ran continued on page 121 nose-to-tail through the infield lap after lap.

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The finish seemed a forgone conclusion, with Mang a certain victor. But past the mid-way point, Mang slowed. After having raced for seasons on Michelin slicks, Mang switched for Dunlops for Daytona. When the tires got hot in the middle of the race and started to slide, Mang was uncertain how far he could push the unfamiliar tires. So he backed off, going for the finish.

That let Lawson and Spencer, both running Goodyears, past, and the pair pulled Mang until the final lap.

Spencer is famous for making sure he is second out of the chicane on the last lap, ready to draft and slingshot past his opponent on the long, 30-second pull around the banking and down the straight to the finish line.

Lawson is no dummy. He knows all about drafting and slipstreams, the way a bike in second place speeds up in the vacuum behind the bike ahead. Freed of cutting the wind, the second-place machine can gain enough speed to pass the first as if a booster rocket had been fired off.

So the last lap turned into a slow race, Lawson and Spencer looking over at each other and rolling off the throttles.

The game ended when Mang blasted past and took off, the result being an allbets-are-off scramble for position, on the gas and going for it.

Lawson, while riding hard, found himself second out of the chicane, close to Mang, with Spencer right behind. So he rolled off the gas just a little.

“I wanted Freddie to pass me,” said Lawson after the finish, “and he did, coming out of the chicane. So I could stay right behind both of them to the last second, then swing out. It worked out for the best.”

Loosely translated, “worked out for the best” means that Lawson, running in the super-suction of a two-bike draft, rocketed past to win by several lengths, with Mang and Spencer side-by-side across the line. The photo-finish cameras gave second to Mang, and third to Spencer.

It was a-hard-fought battle, requiring brains and strategy as well as horsepower. It was no disgrace to finish third, or second.

And certainly not to win.

Walking back to the pits, Lawson displayed a T-shirt his mother had made for him before he left for Daytona.

On the front were the words “Freddie Who?” Œ