Race Watch
RACE WATCH
500cc Singles Allowed in AMA Lightweight Expert; Lawson and Computer Tests Kawasaki Racebikes; Hannah Smokes Off Winter-AMA Series in Florida
SMALL-BORE THUNDER
In an effort to spice up the Lightweight Expert (250cc) class at national road races, the American Motorcyclist Assn. (AMA) has decided to allow 500cc four-stroke Singles and 425cc four-stroke Twins to race against the 250cc two-stroke Twins that now constitute the class. While still referred to as Lightweight by the AMA, the new class is already popularly known as Formula Two.
Typical of available kits are the Wasco Frame Service frame kits available for Yamaha, Honda, and Suzuki Singles, with a frame for a 425cc Suzuki Twin in the works. A Wasco kit includes chrome-moly frame, swing arm, rear axle, chain adjusters, fairing mounts, tapered roller bearings for the steering head and swing arm pivot, footpegs, and rear brake pedal. The frame comes painted in the color of the customer’s choice.
The $1000 kit doesn’t include an engine •or other major components, and anybody who envisions it as an inexpensive entrance into an expensive class is in for a bit of a shock. A new Yamaha TZ250G sold for $4209, although the 1981 version is expected to be more expensive. Building a Wasco Yamaha Single would require, »using suggested retail prices for new parts, a $ 1072 TT500 engine and $3650 worth of TZ250 parts, including forks, triple clamps, tank, seat, fairing, wheels, brakes, controls and clip ons. Add the cost of the engine and other needed parts to the $1000 for the frame kit and you get a (grand total of $5695.
Then there is the question of whether or not a 500cc Single can compete on the national level. If your idea of being competitive is being in contention for the win, then a 500 Single cannot compete against TZ250s in Expert races.
But the concept has proven viable on the club level, where Bruce Lind has won races with a Wasco Honda in WMRRA competition on Washington tracks.
Instead of being seen as an economical alternative to a TZ, a 500cc Single should instead be viewed in a different context. A Wasco Honda entered in the 1980 OMRRA Portland, Oregon Six-Hour finished fourth overall and would have won if one of the riders hadn’t crashed, losing 20 laps (the team unlapped itself 11 times in five hours).
The road racing Single is easy to ride, being light and having a wide powerband if properly tuned. It is ideal for racers who want to learn to go fast in the Formula mode, that is, without the street-bike constraints of dragging parts and dealing with handling problems. A Formula Two bike is va lot less expensive and much easier to maintain than a Formula One 1025cc four-stroke. Instead of eight or sixteen valves, after all, a Single has only two or four valves to adjust, and there’s only one piston to attend to, instead of four.
More information is available from Wasco Frame Service, 18451 Des Moines Way South, Seattle, Wash. 98148, (206)
, 242-8878. >
INSTRUMENTED LAWSON TESTS KAWASAKI RACEBIKES
Eddie Lawson and Kawasaki racing de . partment technicians tested racebikes at Daytona International Speedway in January. During the tests, Lawson made laps carrying a new backpack micro-com puter system that included a tape re corder. With the system, Kawasaki en gineers can determine what a bike is doing at any given point on the course. Measure ments available include stress measured with strain gauges placed on parts of the frame and swing arm; rpm; suspension movement and rate of movement; acceler ation and deceleration; oil temperature and pressure; cylinder head temperature; and exhaust temperature. The system re cords information on tape lap after lap,
and by examining that tape the engineers can find out, for example, how hard the bike accelerates off the back-straight chi cane with one set of carbs, and how hard it accelerates with another. The strain im posed on the frame by the steep Daytona banking can also be measured, as well as the strain on the swing arm during the transition from straightaway, through the chicane, and back onto the banking. That type of information would be especially valuable in determining the suitability of a new aluminum swing arm Kawasaki is re portedly testing for their Superbike. (Lib eralized 1981 rules make such swing arms legal for the Superbike Production class). Besides testing the latest Kawasaki su perbike, Lawson also tried a KR250 road racer equipped with a belt drive system off the KZ440. Kawasaki is eager to have Lawson's KR250 prove the durability and strength of the belt drive used on the Ka wasaki street bike. While the belt is qui eter and reduces vibration on the racebike (the same reasons it's used on the KZ440 streeter), Kawasaki tests have not shown any horsepower gain with the belt. Nor have the tests shown that the belt reduces horsepower.
Late in 1980 Lawson said that he wouldn't ride a 250 during 1981, but his plans have changed. Immediately after re turning from the Daytona tests, Ka wasaki's Randy Hall said that Lawson would be contesting the AMA Light weight Expert (250cc) races throughout the 1981 season.
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SAD FAREWELLS
`he winter of 1980-1981 was a difficult one for motorcycling. Christian Leoi~ four-time endurance road racing Worjd Champion, was killed in a crash while testing a Suzuki endurance machine in Japan. Leon had just agreed to join Suzuki, leaving Honda. He left a wife and twc children.
U.S. motocross star Gaylon Mosier was hit by a truck and killed while riding a bicycle in New York, training for an upcoming race. Mosier left a wife and ona child.
Noted ISDT rider Teddy Leimbach wag seriously injured in an automobile accident near his home in Lorrain, Ohio prioi' to the start of the 1980 ISDT. American ISDT riders dedicated their efforts in tFfe French event to Leimbach, but Leimbach died on the third day of the event. He was a student of Agricultural Engineering an<^ was unmarried.
It wasn’t flesh-and-blood but will be missed anyway. Ontario Motor Speedway, one of the safest road racing tracks in tfcte world, was purchased by Chevron Land and Development Co. and will be razed to make way for a business and residential development. The track, located in Ontario, Calif., never operated in the blac^ despite a series of management and promotion efforts. In recent years the trac^ was best known in motorcycle circles as home of the AFM six-hour endurancerace. The 1981 AFM six-hour will be held at nearby Riverside Raceway. Chevron Land and Development is a division of Chevron USA, an oil company.
CURIOUS BEGINNINGS
R ace observers couldn't help but note the irony that as Chevron Land and Development was putting Ontario Motoi Speedway out of the racing business, ii was announced that parent firm Chevro,~ USA was getting into motorcycle racin~ for the first time in its history. The $38billion-a-year company agreed to back 1980 AMA F-I number two Bruce Ham mer's Team Hammer endurance racing effort. Team Hammer will enter selected endurance events in the U.S. and Japan during 1981, using a Moriwaki F-I chassis equipped with a Suzuki GSI 100 engine.
HOT WIND COMING
The FIM will allow turbocharged fourstrokes in world championship road racing grands prix starting in 1984. Under the rules, turbo-charged engines will be limited to half the displacement of normally aspirated engines. For example, turbocharged 250cc four-strokes could be entered in the 500cc class.
A proposal to encourage four stroke entries by limiting two-strokes to half or one third the size of four strokes in the same class was defeated. Interestingly, Honda representatives at the FIM congress opposed that proposal.
According to reports, turbocharged machines will be allowed in the 1981 Bol d’Or 24-hour endurance race, a non-championship event.
GETTING A FACTORY RIDE
ike Spencer, 22, is the new man on the Honda road racing team. He'll be teammate to Freddie Spencer(not related) and will ride in Superbike and Formula One races.
The story of how Mike Spencer got his ride is a good example to aspiring racers dreaming of a factory ride.
When Spencer was 20, he bought a KZ650, built the engine into 716cc, welded in frame bracing, laced up wide rims, bought slicks, worked on the suspension and went racing. He raced every time he could. Often the bike blew up until he figured out the right combination of parts and oil (ending up with Castrol R, based on castor beans).
But he kept at it. By the middle of 1980 Spencer was attracting attention even though he had never raced AMA. Finally he entered the Laguna Seca Superbike race with his KZ650 enlarged to 855cc, and finished sixth.
His lap times at local AFM races were excellent in spite of running a smaller engine than most Superbikes. Spencer was usually at or near the track record for Su-
perbikes. Spencer paid for his racing by working as a mechanic and service manager for a motorcycle shop. He paid for his own parts, did his own work, and dedicated his life to racing.
More than that, Mike Spencer kept his eyes and ears open, and listened to suggestions. When a friend—impressed with Spencer’s performance on the track—suggested that Mike call Fujio Yoshimura before the final 1980 Superbike race and ask for a chance to ride a Yoshimura Superbike during track tests, Spencer jumped on the phone and did it. Fujio had seen Spencer ride, was impressed with his sincerity and confidence on the phone, and said yes.
Spencer went out to Willow Springs raceway with Fujio, Superbike Champion Wes Cooley and the Yoshimura mechanics. There on Cooley’s bike, Spencer went a few hundredths of a second lap faster than Cooley—who hadn’t ridden at Willow for awhile—and stayed conservative in his riding, not risking a crash.
The result of the test session was the offer of a Yoshimura Suzuki to ride in the final 1980 event. He wouldn’t get any salary, but his expenses would be paid and he could keep his purse money.
Spencer took the offer, went to Daytona for the first time and finished third, behind Cooley and Freddie Spencer, ahead of Honda riders Mike Baldwin and Roberto Pietri. He also joined the elite group of Superbike riders who have turned 2:08 laps at Daytona, the others being Graeme Crosby, Cooley, and Freddie Spencer.
Spencer was offered a ride with Yoshi-r mura for 1981, and agreed to the initial offer. But when contract negotiations with Cooley broke down over money (Cooley had been offered $90,000 to ride a Honda endurance machine in Europe, and had been paid less than half that to ride for Yoshimura in 1980), Yoshimura put Spencer’s deal on hold. Cooley finally signed a contract with U.S. Suzuki to ride for Yoshimura, getting paid enough money to convince him to stay in the U.S. But the money Cooley got used up the budget money that would have gone to hire Spencer.
Spencer was depressed, but not beaten. The same friend suggested that he give Honda a call with the same test-session offer. Spencer did, and found to his surprise that Honda race team manager Ron Murakami was very interested.
Spencer came to terms with Honda without any test session necessary, receiving a fat contract. He’s still working at the local dealership, using his Honda money to buy à large house in a Southern California coastal community.
Spencer did all the right things. He dedicated everything he did to going fast, raced whenever he could, trained to keep in top shape when not racing, avoided alcohol and dope.
When he had a record to talk about, some racing credentials, he wasn’t afraid to call to the right people at the right time and make his pitch.
We wish him the best.
IDBA SPRING NATIONALS DATE CORRECTION
T he Competition guide in the March issue listed the International Drag Bike Assn. (IDBA) Spring Nationals in Gulfport, Miss. as taking place on Easter weekend. The race will actually take place on April 11-12, not on Easter.
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HANNAH RETURNS TO WIN FLORIDA WINTER-AMA MX SERIES
H urricanes have been known to hit the borders of Florida, and January was no exception as Hurricane Bob Hannah made his return to racing felt in the 11th Annual Winter-AMA Series. Hannah had dominated the series' 250cc class in 1977 when his career was blossoming. This year~ Hannah returned to the deep sand courses of Orlando, Gainesville, Cocoa and St. Pe tersburg and posted seven moto wins on his works 250cc Yamaha in the eight-moto series.
The 125cc series title went to Team Yamaha’s Donnie Cantaloupi, who headed to, Florida for some training time and went home with the overall. Cantaloupi took only three moto wins but consistently stayed in the front of the standings.
Newly signed Husky rider Gary Pustelak took home the Open class title by only three points over Maico’s Alan King.^ Pustelak goes by the nickname of Iron Man. He only claimed one moto win, but when the going got rough so did the Iron Man, never dropping below sixth in any moto kept Pustelak in the points.
The series had a factory flavor, at least through the third round. Team Honda started the series in full force bringing in 500cc National Champion Chuck Sun^ Donnie Hansen, Steve Wise, Jim Gibson, and newly signed Danny LaPorte and Johnny O’Mara. Team Kawasaki’s Tom Benolkin made round one, and Suzuki teamsters Denny Bentley and Mark Barnett, the 125cc National Champion, ap^ peared for rounds two and three.
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The entire Honda team ran in the 250cc class due to the availability of 250cc production Hondas. O’Mara was the pride oí their effort, holeshotting his way into the lead in most of the motos he ran in and scoring one moto win along the way. But* Honda couldn’t put together an overall, and by round three the Japanese designers of the new 250cc Pro-Link came down to see what was happening. At the end of that round Honda packed up and headed for California to work on Supercross bikes.
For Barnett it was a different story. Suzuki had two 1981 Full Floater 125cc-< production bikes flown in from Japan for Barnett and Bentley to ride in round two* Barnett put in flawless rides with Bentley in tow, the two posting first and second overall in the class for the round. In round three Barnett again blasted to a 1-1 day, but Bentley was stopped by a stomach virus. After round three Barnett was called back to California to test Supercrossk bikes, and Bentley stayed away with a continuing flu bug.
Home-state talent came on strong in round one at Orlando. Todd Hempstead, 16, put his new pro license to use and reaped the 125cc overall with a 1-3 day. Donnie Cantaloupi took the other 125cc< moto win, and Steve Martin posted a 3-~ day to start his assault on the class titl~ Hannah entered both the 125 and 250cs classes, but later confided he wasn't stron~ enough to ride both classes and that wasn't used to the stock 125cc water. pumper.
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Hannah secured a perfect 1-1 day ii the 250cc class. He was challenged b~' Florida star Keith Oelerich but final!' paced ahead.
Florida's Kenny Keylon, 16, also a nev pro, jazzed the Open class with two mol~ wins on his support Yamaha. Mickey Kes sler ran second on his new Maico, wit] Gary Pustelak taking third overall.
The Gainesville course catered to hig. speed riders and sand riding talent weren't as necessary for round two. Bai nett sizzled the 125cc class, and Hann~1 had a 6-1 day after pitting in moto ont thinking his bike was seizing. It was sti good enough for Hannah to claim th~ overall ahead of Chuck Sun, who ran 3-~
Pustelak took fourth in moto one b~ liked the rough going in moto two and too the win. Georgia's Marvin McDani! thrived on the high speeds and took secon overall with a 3-4 score.
It was an overall winner repeat at Coce for round three. In that round the Hu: ricane Hannah of the past returned. Ba nett again was flawless and claimed tw moto wins and Martin kept close with t~ seconds. Hannah looked to be relegated t a low finish after falling in his first mo~~ but banzaied his way to the win at reman able speed, passing almost at will and wii fling the moto. Hannah blazed to th second moto win uncontested. O'Mar and Trans-USA Support class cham David Bailey followed Hannah in the ove: all column. Two seconds did the trick f~ Pustelak and he took the Open class ove: all. Keylon won the first moto and too second overall and Kessler took the secon moto win, grabbing third overall for til day.
One point separated Cantaloupi ani Martin at St. Petersburg at the fourth a~ final round after Cantaloupi in moto tWi and came out the loser as Donnie ran in fo a perfect day and the title. Hannah ex tended his points lead in the 250cc c1a~ with another perfect day and led Bailey' Moto-X for Kawasaki in both motos.
Maico's Alan King, the AMA 500cc MX Rookie of the Year, finally put it gether for the day's Open class overall Pustelak fell in moto two and bent his shifi lever against the case, and ran the last fe~ laps in second gear. Though he ended ur fifth overall for the day, he held on to slim margin over King in the fina standings.
Tom Mueller
