Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/1178480
VOLUME 56 ISSUE 42 OCTOBER 22, 2019 P141 and quickly put the fire out with an extinguisher. Spencer hopped back on the bike, but the fire cost him precious time, and as he found out once back out on the track, it slightly melted his bike's throttle cable, causing it to stick intermit- tently. He would make a valiant effort to get back into contention in the second half of the race, but the Suzukis were simply too fast. Yoshimura almost had a pit stop disaster of its own. Graeme and Cooley came in at the same time, nose to tail. Croz nailed the brakes diving into his pit stall. Cooley was caught off guard and was forced to make a quick flick around his teammate, then a hard left back into his pit, narrowly avoiding a collision. Croz led coming in, but Cooley was just ahead as the duo exited the pits together. There was an additional mo- ment of drama as Lawson took the lead when the Suzuki pair pitted, and he just kept circulating. Some speculated the Kawasaki squad was going for a no-pit strategy by having Lawson short-shift and con- serve fuel. And who knows? Ka- wasaki may have had a few tricks up its sleeve with some creative methods of carrying additional fuel. A few years earlier, they'd report- edly gotten inventive and put extra fuel in the headlight shell. But as the Suzuki riders closed in on him, Lawson seemed to slow even more. Turns out, his Kawasaki's engine was leaking oil, and he was battling controlling the bike coming out of turns as it slid around on its own oil. He pitted, and the crew looked at the leak, and it was determined it was something they couldn't fix quickly. They sent him back out, hoping he could limp home to the finish. But after a few more near high-sides, Lawson pulled in again and parked it behind the wall. In the closing laps, Cooley and Crosby were doing the slow-down dance, each one hoping the other would lead out of the chicane on the final lap. "There at the end, Graeme was playing the game I thought he'd play," Cooley said. "He stayed behind me to try to slingshot past at the end." Cooley decided to try to make a break on the final lap, and he wicked up the throttle early exit- ing the chicane onto the banking. The aggressive acceleration, while still leaned over, caused Cooley's Suzuki to get into a big slide. It might have cost him the race, but Crosby did the exact thing a couple of dozen yards back and got into an even bigger slide. As the two came around the East Banking heading to the flag, Crosby closed in, but he wasn't quite close enough for the draft, and Cooley took the victory by 0.7 of a second. "I wish I had those last couple of laps to do over," Crosby said with a grin in Victory Lane. Freddie Spencer came around in a lonely third ahead of Gardner, and Mike Spencer rounding out the top five. It was a great victory for Yo- shimura Suzuki sweeping first and second, but at the same time, it was a bitter loss for Honda. The next year Honda finally got it right—in a big way—and would sweep the podium. However, the 1981 Bell Superbike 100 belonged to Suzuki, a race that helped con- tinue to strengthen the importance of AMA Superbike racing. CN VS. HONDA DAYTONA SUPERBIKE BATTLE Subscribe to nearly 50 years of Cycle News Archive issues: www.CycleNews.com/Archives Honda's Freddie Spencer (left) battled for the lead early, but a fire during his pit stop ruined his shot at winning, and he took third.