Cycle World Race Watch

CYCLE WORLD RACE WATCH

Spencer and Roberts trade GP wins

Freddie Spencer and Kenny Roberts won 500cc road racing GPs in Yugoslavia and Holland, respectively, and Spencer maintained his lead in championship points standings.

In Yugoslavia it was Americans 1-2-3-4, running away from the rest of the field. Roberts, who started dead last (he pushed his reluctant-to-start Yamaha VFour 100 yards before it started), rode his way up into fourth place, ran off the track and lost positions, and again charged into fourth, 15 sec. behind third-place Eddie Lawson. Spencer won, eight seconds ahead of secondplace Randy Mamola.

In Assen, Holland, Roberts qualified fastest, Spencer a few one-hundredths of a second behind, the pair three seconds a lap quicker than the rest of the field. Roberts came from a mid-pack start to take the lead on the seventh lap, turning the fastest lap of the race in the process. Early-leader Spencer faded with front tire problems, and Takazumi Katayama and his V-Three Honda moved up on Roberts when Roberts suffered arm cramps. Roberts beat Katayama by less than one second, Spencer 7 sec. behind in third, Mamola 9 sec. behind Spencer and Lawson another 26 sec. back in fifth place.

With four races to go Spencer leads Roberts by 8 points.

Hannah regains Wrangler Series points lead

Outspoken Bob “Hurricane IF' Hannah used his works Honda to regain the points lead in the Wrangler Super Series. Hannah began his move on series leader Mark Barnett (Suzuki) in the Washington, D.C. Supercross at RFK Stadium, finishing second to Honda’s David Bailey but beating Barnett, who finished third. Jeff Ward was fourth, Mike Bell fifth. After that race, round l 5 in the 28-race series, Barnett led in points, 465 to Hannah’s 445.

Things turned around at the next round, an outdoor in St. Louis. Under the barelydecipherable series rules, Hannah picked up 50 points for winning both 250cc class motos. Barnett earned 16 points when he finished fifth in one l 25cc moto and didn’t earn points in the other moto after his bike threw its chain. Jeff Ward took the l 25cc class, winning both motos, and Johnny O’Mara finished second twice for second place overall. Yamaha’s Ron Lechien was third overall with 3-3 finishes. Broc Glover and his Yamaha won overall in the 500cc class with 2-l finishes with Kent Howerton (Kawasaki, l-4) second overall and Danny Chandler (Honda, 4-2) third. The racing over, Hannah held 495 points to Barnett's 481.

The point totals changed, but the spread remained the same at the outdoor in Pennsylvania. Both Hannah and Barnett won two motos, Hannah in the 250cc class and Barnett in the I25cc class. Honda's Danny Chandler won both 500cc motos. Points stood at Hannah, 545, Barnett, 53 l.

But Hannah pulled away on the rocky ground of Broome-Tioga Sports Center

in New York, winning both 250cc motos again while Barnett won one I25cc moto and finished second to O’Mara in the other. Glover won both 500cc motos.

With 18 of the 28 races done, Hannah led Barnett, 595 to 578 pts.

Springsteen scores while Goss collects

Halfway through the AMA National/Camel Pro series, the records and races are going to the swift, but the points and cash are

property of those who are both swift and consistent.

Swiftest of the swift has been—who else—Jay Springsteen. At the midseason mark he'd racked up three more wins, bringing his total to 37 nationals, more than any other AMA rider ever. With that came his 19th half-mile win, also a record, and he won three straight half miles.

Because the Camel organization knows racers sometimes need to get paid this week to buy gas to get to the races next week, there’s a mid-season payout, based on the points standings.

Leader of the series, and collector of $10,000, was Harley teamster Randy Goss, with 149 points. Next was defending national champion Ricky Graham (143), Springsteen (133), Bubba Shobert (108) and Scott Parker (96).

Here’s how it happened: At the Louisville half mile it was Springsteen, Goss, Graham and Parker. Next came Harrington, Del., where the finishing order was Springsteen, Parker, Graham and Goss. Then Knoxville, on the banked Smokey Mountain track that’s not quite a half mile but is fast enough to make it seem like one, where it was Springer, Goss, rookie Dan Ingram, Graham and Parker.

The Santa Fe TT naturally was different. Winner there, on the new Honda XL600based TT bike, was Mickey Fay, followed by Steve Eklund and Shobert, both Can-Am 500 Single powered. (Officially, that is. Tuner Ron Wood is in charge of the engine program for Rotax, builder of the Can-Am Sonic engine, so Eklund’s bike says Wood-Rotax while Shobert’s is labelled Can-Am.) In 4th, 5th and 6th, in what you could call the battle of the dirt Twins, were Springsteen, Goss and Graham.

In sum, while Springsteen’s brilliance has nearly made up for some troubles early in the season, it hasn’t quite put him even with Goss and his brand of determination and preparation.

Springsteen became the only full-service racer, so to speak, at the Loudon Formula One race. The AMA/Camel Pro championship includes events for short track, half mile, mile, TT and pavement. But due to rules and other details too complicated to explain here, dirt and road races have become virtually separate, except that the points earned in any event applies toward the national title.

Thus, while Yamaha could field bikes for all the events, they’ve dropped out of Camel Pro. Honda does enter all the events, but they have one team for road racing, another team for miles and half miles and a semi-separate team for TT and short track. Mike Baldwin doesn’t race on dirt, Mike Kidd doesn’t race pavement, etc.

But at Loudon , Springsteen ran the XR1000based, 1972-derived, factory road racer. He wasn’t in the hunt but spent most of the race dueling with Honda support rider Roberto Pietri . . . and finished 13th, for two useful points.

How ironic that Jay Springsteen, best dirt racer ever, and Harley-Davidson, famous for not having enough models, are competing in all the races and the multi-model factories aren’t.

AFM Six-Hour attrition race to 750

A Kawasaki GPz750 won the ninth annual AFM Six-Hour, held for the first time at Willow Springs Raceway.

Less than half the field finished, and Jeff Tuttobene and Doug Toland rode their Hi-Desert Kawasakisponsored GPz750 to victory with 207 laps of the 2.5-mi. course.

Thad Wolff crashed the Escargot GS1000 Superbike he shared with Jeff Heino during the third hour, and from that point the race was dominated by Luther Wikle and Lynn Miller on a works Formula One Honda entered by Ontario Moto Tech. In the last 20 min. of the race Miller’s ride ended when, in short order, a brake line broke (it was fixed in the pits, losing several laps) and the front tire went flat and Miller, unable to steer or brake, ran off the track and parked.

Wikle and Miller finished second with 206 laps, Dirk Vandenberg and Ken Vreeke were third with a trouble-free ride on a Honda Interceptor with 204 laps.

Team Ontario leads National Endurance Series

Team Ontario’s Luther Wikle and Lynn Miller lead the WERA/Nippondenso National Endurance Road Racing Championship after four rounds in the 15-race series. The team, riding an 1140cc CB1100F-based superbike for Ontario Moto Tech, won three of the first four races, finishing second in the other.

Second in points after four races were Team Hammer’s Boonie Knott, Tony DeSimone and John Ulrich on a 998cc Suztiki Formula One bike built by Yoshimura. Team Hammer took two seconds and a third with one DNF. Both leading teams suffered fluke problems,

Team Hammer breaking a crankshaft while leading one race and losing a fuel line while leading another, Team Ontario breaking coil brackets while leading one, crashing while leading another and losing their brakes while leading yet another.

Surprise of the series has been Quester/Sullivan Racing, riders Mike Harlow and Dave Boggess winning one race and taking third in another with a stock GS1100.

Two Baldwins win Mid-Ohio and Elkhart F-1 races

Mike Baldwin used his works RS500 V-Three Honda to win the Mid-Ohio Formula One race after Wes Cooley

crashed Eddie Lawson's 1982 I025cc Superbike while leading, a few laps from the finish. The race started on a wet track with Cooley jumping out ahead. Baldwin caught and passed Cooley as the track dried, but Cooley re-took the lead when rain started falling again in the closing stages. Three laps from the finish, Cooley crashed and Baldwin was secure in first. Steve Wise rode his VF750F-based Honda Superbike to second. Jimmy Adamo and the 706cc Reno Leoni Ducati Pantah were third until the bike ran

out of gas a few laps from the finish, and Jeff Heino took third on the Heino Brothers RG500.

It was another Baldwin, Canadian privateer Miles Baldwin, who used a Yamaha TZ750 to win at Elkhart Lake. Miles Baldwin beat Mike Baldwin’s RS500 in his heat race and then simply won the final event. Mike Baldwin retired after one lap of the final when his bike's engine seized. Fred Merkel, on another RS500 V-Three Honda, finished second, with privateer Nick Richichi third and fast qualifier Wes Cooley

fourth on his I025cc Kawasaki Superbike. Steve Wise didn’t start the race because he was injured in practice the previous day. Thad Wolff and Keith Kiyota were hurt in crashes during the final race.

Baldwin crashes, Baldwin wins MidOhio and Elkhart Superbikes

Mike Baldwin crashed while leading the 750cc Superbike race at Mid-Ohio, giving teammate Steve Wise his first win in the series. But Baldwin came back to win easily at

Elkhart Lake, consolidating his points lead for the class championship.

Second-in-points Wayne Rainey crashed his Kawasaki at Mid-Ohio and Wes Cooley’s Kawasaki blew up early on. Fred Merkel finished second on his VF750F Honda, with Jimmy Adamo and the Reno Leoni Ducati Pantah third.

At Elkhart, Rainey and Cooley followed Baldwin albeit at a distance across the finish line, with Adamo fourth.

Wise didn't race at Elkhart after being hurt in practice.

Emde’s TZ250 fastest at MidOhio, quickest to break at Elkhart

Dave Emde used Bob Endicott’s Yamaha TZ250 to turn the fastest lap all weekend at rain-soaked MidOhio Raceway, averaging 76.6 mph. Emde won the Formula Two race, and in the process went faster around the twisty course than anybody on a Superbike or Formula One machine. Hugh

Humble finished second after crashing while leading, with Randy Renfrow third.

But it was different at Elkhart Lake, where Emde’s bike broke on the first lap. Dave Busby and his aircooled, 350cc TZ250 won, with Canadian Rhys Howard second on his Motorcycle Works TZ250 and Keith Kiyota third on another TZ250.

Combined with his fifth at Mid-Ohio, Howard’s finish gave him the Formula Two Championship points lead.

VHR Honda sold to hillclimber

Terry Vance sold his recordsetting CB1 100F-based Pro Stocker dragster to former AMA'Hillclimb Champion Terry Kinzer of Allen, Kentucky. “Honda could have had the NMRA Pro Stock Championship wrapped up by now,” said Vance when he announced the sale of the Honda, which he used to set new E.T. and

mph records of 8.40 sec. and l 56.79 mph. Vance raced the bike once, then parked it, complaining that Honda wouldn’t provide financial support for a championship chase.

“Since they’re not interested. I’m not interested,” said Vance.

According to Vance, Kinzer will run the bike in local drag races and for promotions at his motorcycle dealership in Kentucky.

Fred Merkel, Superbike pilot

The event was a Budweisersponsored AFM-Pro Superbike race at Willow Springs late in 1982, and the starting grid was packed with well-known ridersMike Spencer, Harry Klinzmann, Roberto Pietri. On the pole was Fred Merkel, then 19years-old, riding a Yoshimura Suzuki. Before practice, Merkel's total Superbike experience consisted of seven laps at a Honda try-out session at Laguna Seca a few weeks earlier, yet he qualified fastest for the Bud race. And when the first leg of the twoleg race was finished, Fred Merkel had won by a wide margin.

In the second leg Merkel’s bike’s clutch burned up when the starter held the field for an unusually long time. But Merkel had made his mark.

He reinforced it in an AFM club race at Riverside, winning Open GP and Open Superstreet on the same Yoshimura Suzuki and breaking the Superbike lap record held by Eddie Lawson. Suddenly Merkel was a hot property, the subject ofbidding between Yoshimura and American Honda. Honda won, and Merkel, now 20,

will ride a VF750F-based superbike with parts support from Honda.

That's a long way from racing minibikes in the late ‘60s, but it’s exactly where Merkel figured he’d be sooner or later. Merkel started his career dirt tracking with XR80s and Yamaha 100s, racing four times a week in the intensely-competitive Northern California AMA D-36 events. His father,

Gary, a PG&E lineman, paid the bills and raced his own bikes as well, finally retiring in 1976 because it was too expensive—costing $20,000 the year Fred was 13—to support two racing programs: and Fred's program took precedence.

Merkel switched to road racing in 1981, riding a MT1 25R followed by a TZ250. In 1982 he made his speed known in Formula Two racing, winning races and setting a new lap record at Riverside in the process.

When Merkel rode the Yoshimura Suzuki for two races in 1982, he stayed at Fujio Yoshimura’s house. Later, Yoshimura told friends that he was astonished to find that Merkel regularly went to bed at 9:00 p.m. and trained an average of seven hours for each lap of a national race.

That training included 5 to 1 3 miles of running a day.

Asked what he thought it would be like to face Mike Baldwin, Freddie Spencer, Wayne Rainey and Wes Cooley for the first time at Daytona, Merkel said “I’ve thought about being at that point for years, and finally I'm here. Those guys are the best there are, but there’s no reason why they can’t be beaten in time. I’m not gonna rush it, I’m gonna plan my season and strive for consistency, not just try for the win in every race. Two or three wins and the rest DNFs won’t get me first or second in the championship, and a title is far more important than winning one or two races. It will be a little intimidating racing these guys at first, because these guys mean business.”

The way Merkel sees it, a couple of successful seasons on Superbikes could send him off to Europe with a full Grand Prix program, which is exactly where he wants to go.

“If you want to make money, you have to go to Europe,” Merkel says. “I’ve been racing 12 years now, and while the fun part of it is still there, it’s a business now.

I plan on doing this for 10 years and then being able to

retire financially secure, so every aspect of my program has to be taken 100 percent serious and very professional.”

How serious is Fred Merkel? Besides the four hours of training every day, besides the early bedtimes and conservative lifestyle (he still lives at home), Merkel and his parents took out bank loans to cover the difference between what his program will cost and what he was able to raise from sponsors like Castrol, Arai and Fox Action Wear.

To Merkel, that’s simply investing in his own future.

Dirt Track Ducati

He re’s a Ducati for flat track racing. The engine is the Pantah-based 600TT2, enlarged to 750cc. The engine is in effect the center of the

frame, being hung from the backbone and having the swing arm pivot off the rear of the transmission. The bike was built by Eddie Wilbanks, the engine by Reno Leoni.

The bike is sponsored by Sure-Fire Distributing Co. and the rider is Lance Jones. The Ducati didn’t make the national at Springfield, its first appearance.

Wrangler dash to pay winner $25,000

Wrangler will hold a 20-lap Supercross with a $75,000 purse, with $25,000 going to the winner. The race is scheduled for October 22 in the San Francisco area with the exact location to be announced. Top riders from the 17-race Wrangler Super Series plus invited riders from Canada, Japan and Europe will compete in the special, AM A-sanctioned event.