Racewatch
RACEWATCH
BALDWIN WINS RIVERSIDE PRO-AM
Red Wave sweeps racing as Spencer, Baldwin, Hannah, Breker, Malherbe and Noyce win for Honda; Yamaha and Roberts take Imola 200.
Mike Baldwin rode his Honda Inter-ceptor-based Superbike to untouchable leads in both heats of the Budweiser Pro-Am at Riverside Race-way, turning 1:28 lap times in the process. Kawasaki’s Wayne Rainey was second overall, finishing an uncontested second in the first heat and fighting a fierce battle for second—won by inches—with Fred Merkel (Honda) in the second heat. Rainey had turned 1:28s in practice before his first-string engine lost power, and ended up racing with his spare engine and going 2 sec. a lap slower. The same problem beset Wes Cooley, who finished fourth overall on his Kawasaki while still recovering from a collarbone broken at Daytona. Steve Wise ran second to Baldwin in the first heat before crashing and breaking his collarbone.
The race was dominated by factory machines (Baldwin, Wise, Merkel, Roberto Pietri, John Bettencourt, Sam McDonald and Dave Aldana on Hondas; Rainey and Cooley on Kawasakis). When the last factory pilots (McDonald, Bettencourt, Aldana) exited Turn Nine onto the front straightaway near the end of the second heat, the first privateers (Ricky Orlando, Harry Klinzmann, Bernd Kogler and Jeff Heino) were just entering the back straightaway, almost half a lap behind. Orlando finished top privateer on an almost-stock Interceptor after Klinzmann and Heino’s Suzukis both broke. Kogler was second privateer on his own CB750F.
Randy Renfrow won the Formula Two race by a few inches when leader Dave Emde got sideways driving out of the last turn. Emde was third with Danny Coe second, the first three crossing the line side-by-side in a finish almost too close to call. At various times those three had led, along with Hugh Humble and Rhys Howard, who came from sixth to first and promptly ran off the track. Humble was fourth, Tracy DeMuro on an RDbased air-cooled 350 fifth and Howard sixth.
An interesting side show was a match race put on by Keith Code’s California Superbike School. Each of 10 privateers was assigned an identical GPz550, and lead weights were bolted to the bikes ridden by lighter riders to eliminate weight advantages. Emde won that race by half a wheel from Thad Wolff, with two-time AFM Champion Frank Mazur third.
ROBERTS WINS IMOLA 200
Kenny Roberts won both legs of the Imola 200, the Italian equivalent of the Daytona 200. The race doesn’t count toward the 500cc road racing World Championship, but Roberts’ performance was heartening to Team Marlboro/Yamaha because Roberts soundly beat many of the riders he faces in world championship rounds. Notable was Freddie Spencer, who retired in both legs while running second to Roberts. Both times, Spencer’s RS500 Honda seized one cylinder.
Reigning World Champion Franco Uncini finished second overall on his Suzuki, with Yamaha’s Eddie Lawson third. England’s Ron Haslam was fourth on a works Honda.
Roberts took 1.6 sec. off the Imola lap record in qualifying fastest for the race with a time of 1 min., 55.71 sec. Spencer was second-fastest qualifier.
SPENCER WINS FRENCH GRAND PRIX
Fast Freddie Spencer won the second 500cc road racing Grand Prix of 1983, in France, leading a one-two-three Honda sweep with former World Champion Marco Lucchinelli second and Grand Prix newcomer Ron Haslam third, all on NS500 V-3s. Kenny Roberts, who led in the early stages of the race, was fourth after two exhaust pipes on his V-4 Yamaha broke, causing the bike to lose power. Marc Fontan was fifth on an-other works Yamaha.
Both Randy Mamola an d Eddie Lawson were eliminated from the race when they were rammed on the starting grid by another rider. Mamola suffered a broken foot in the incident, and one of Lawson’s handlebars was broken off. Reigning World Champion Franco Uncini had problems starting and retired after two laps.
MOTOCROSS RESULTS HOTLINE
Race fans who just have to know the results the day after a race can call a new hotline installed by Moto-X Fox. The number to call is (408) 377-5725, 24 hours a day.
GIBSON SECOND IN DUTCH 125cc MXGP
American Jim Gibson finished second overall in his first 125cc Motocross World Championship Grand Prix, in Holland. Gibson, riding for Yamaha, finished third behind Eric Geboers (Suzuki) and Pekka Vehkonen (Yamaha) in the first moto, but took second in the second moto, behind Geboers.
“I’ll do better on a faster track,” said Gibson. The Dutch GP race course was rough, deeply-rutted sand.
Gibson’s finish left him second in series points standings, with 22 points to Geboers’ 30 points.
Warren M. Price
YAMAHA’S ROTARY-VALVE MOTOCROSSERS
The Yamaha 125s ridden by Jim Gibson in World Championship Motocross and Ron Lechien in the AMA Wrangler Super Series have rotary valve induction. The rotary valves are located on top of the crankcases, just behind the cylinder, positioned 90° from the crank-shaft and driven by a shaft with bevel gears. The carburetor sits on top of the valve, in about the same position as the carb on a piston port or reed valve engine. The system was first seen on the works V-Four road racers as used by Kenny Roberts and Eddie Lawson, and reports are that the bikes run very well.
WARD, HANNAH, BREKER TOP CMC SERIES
Jeff Ward, Bob Hannah and Goat Breker were first overall in the CMC Golden State Series 125, 250 and 500cc classes, respectively. Ward, riding for Kawasaki, won six of the final eight motos of the series, finishing second twice behind Honda's Johnny O'Mara in the fourth round of the series and win ning everything after that.
Honda teammates Bob Hannah and David Bailey dominated three of the final 250cc four rounds, Hannah winning four motos and Bailey two, and both of them sat out the final round as a short vacation in their race schedule. Despite that rest, Hannah topped the 250cc class with Bai ley second.
Breker started the series riding a pro duction CR Honda and ended it on a works bike. He had to work hard for his championship, trading moto wins with Yamaha's Donnie Cantaloupi, and Jim Holley, Honda's Phil Larson and priva teer Yamaha pilot Warren Reid. Cantaloupi finished second in final series 500cc points.
HONDA WINS FIRST 500cc MXGP
Honda teammates Andre Malherbe and Graham Noyce each won one moto in the first World Championship 500cc Motocross Grand Prix of the sea son, .in Switzerland. Malherbe won the first moto, coming from behind to pass early leader Hakan Carlqvist (Yamaha). Noyce finished second with Suzuki's Andre Vromans third and Carlqvist fourth. In the second moto, Noyce passed Malherbe late in the race to win by several seconds, with Vromans third. Roberts set a new record in qualifying, making a lap of the Monza circuit in 1 min. 52.69 sec. for an average speed of 115 mph. Spencer qualified second fastest at 1:52.90 with Mamola third fastest at 1:53.17. Reigning World Champion Franco Uncini was fourth fastest at 1:53.39, with former World Champion Marco Lucchinelli fifth fastest at 1:53.67.
After one round in the 12-race series, Maiherbe and Noyce are tied with 27 points, ahead of Vromans with 20 points.
Reigning World Champion Brad Lackey-the first American to win the title in motocross-is not defending his title, having failed to line up a ride for 1983.
SPENCER WINS ITALIAN GRAND PRIX
Fast Freddie Spencer won the third race in the 500cc Road Racing World Championship Series, in Italy. Spencer, who also won the first and second races in the series on his Honda, beat Randy Mamola (Suzuki) by 7.6 sec. Eddie Lawson was third on a Yamaha.
Fast qualifier Kenny Roberts was lead ing by 7.0 sec. when a lapped rider ran him off the track on the 15th lap. Rob erts crashed but remounted and was run ning fourth when he ran out of gas on the last of 24 laps.
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Spencer leads the World Championship points standings, with 45 pts. Roberts is tied with England’s Ron Haslam for second with 20 pts. each, and Mamola is fourth with 18 pts.
HANNAH ON NATURAL ABILITY
The day before the Daytona Supercross, Honda’s Bob Hannah, 26, told a roomful of Honda dealers that now-retired motocrosser Marty Tripes was the most talented racer he knew.
“Marty Tripes has more natural ability than anybody,” said Hannah, “but he didn’t train. If we all took a year off and we raced, Tripes would lap us. But three or four months of training and practicing later, we’d lap him.”
Tripes, now 26, is the manager of Factory Rider, JT Racing’s retail outlet in San Diego. Ten years ago Tripes burst onto the professional racing scene by winning the Superbowl of Motocross, his second professional race, on a Yamaha. He won the Superbowl the next year, too, on a Honda. He says he never trained in the early days of his career.
In 1978, after a year off, Tripes says he trained hard for a comeback. He started winning again for Honda, finishing first in the Atlanta and Daytona Supercrosses. The series became an epic string of battles between Tripes and Hannah, and, to win, Hannah had to deal with Tripes. Hannah eventually won the series, aided by several mechanical DNFs by Tripes’ bike.
“There was nobody else in our league,” says Tripes, remembering the battles with Hannah. “That was the race. To win he had to beat me, and third place was like 20 seconds behind. The second the flag was down we could laugh about it, tease each other about it. We ended 1978 on bad terms because I felt he pushed me off the track when I was winning in Nebraska, but we sat down and talked about it and now we’re like best friends.” Tripes doesn’t race anymore, and rarely trail rides he doesn’t even own a bike. But he’s glad to see his old friend and arch-rival Hannah doing well. “He’s really doing a number on them now,” says Tripes, “I’m glad to see it. You can hear the crowd when the announcer says ‘Bob Hannah,’ like an excitement runs through the people. For him to come back from a leg injury like he did is really incredible.” ©
