Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
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VOLUME 56 ISSUE 44 NOVEMBER 5, 2019 P111 the first-ever national victory at Pocono. An estimated crowd of 4000 fans showed up to that first na- tional in '71, but the popularity of the race grew, and it got progres- sively bigger, especially during the 1980s, perhaps owing to it being within a couple of hours of both New York City and Philadelphia. After skipping a year, the national returned in '73, this time using a 2.8-mile road course configuration. Gary Nixon, riding an Erv Kanemoto-tuned Kawa- saki, won that year over Yamaha- mounted Kenny Roberts. Part of the program that year was a production race won by Yvon Duhamel on a Kawasaki triple. It was one of the precursor events that eventually morphed into the AMA Superbike class. After a few year's absence, the national returned in 1977, and Kenny Roberts won going away over Skip Aksland and Gary Nixon. Interestingly, the AMA weighed the bikes before the races, and it was open for anyone to see. The stunner was Alan Bar- bic's Yamaha of San Jose-spon- sored Yamaha TZ750 weighed in at a svelte 295 pounds. Barbic made his own frame for the bike, and that weight likely made it the lightest TZ750 raced in that era. Roberts' winning TZ, by com- parison, weighed 335 pounds, and Rich Chambers' weighed 380 pounds, nearly 100 pounds heavier than Barbic's! Mike Baldwin won Pocono in '78 en route to winning the AMA National Road Racing Champion- ship. The race was controversially rained out in 1979. Many thought the AMA bailed out the promoter, which was set to take a significant loss since only a small crowd showed in the steady rain. It was a big deal because it was the road race season finale, and the four top riders were within seven points. The same thing in AMA Superbike where it was close between three riders and Pocono would have been make-or-break for the championship. The 1980s saw both the peak and quick decline of the event. Perhaps the biggest crowds ever showed up in the early 1980s, when riders like Dale Singleton, Freddie Spencer and Mike Bald- win were trading wins, but by the mid-'80s, things were falling off fast. "I went to many AMA Nationals there, and the place was packed with motorcyclists camped out everywhere," racer Roger Lyles recalls. "It was a big party with drag racing all night." The track surface was be- ginning to deteriorate, and the owners didn't have the money to repave. The whole area was in a downturn, with the area's honey- moon hotels falling out of favor and into disrepair. Not to mention the track, never the safest track, it had become especially danger- ous with the speeds motorcycles were reaching by the 1980s. The facility sadly witnessed several fatalities and serious injuries over the years. "The steel walls were unforgiv- ing and scary in hindsight," racer Mark Coughlin said. The last AMA National was held at the Pocono in 1986. Randy Renfrow won the F1 race and Wayne Rainey in Superbike. WERA kept motorcycle racing alive for years afterward with its Cycle Jam. It was one of the big- gest races of the year for the club organization, but even WERA left when things continued to decline. "WERA stopped racing there due to nothing being done to help fix the bumps and bad spots," said WERA CEO Evelyne Clarke. "The bikes got too fast to take the chances. It was a great track in so many ways—always had huge grids, and it hurt us to let it go, but safety became a great con- cern there. Good memories and some bad ones, too." The last major motorcycle race at Pocono was a Formula USA event in 2002. In 30 years of rac- ing, the track in the mountains of Eastern Pennsylvania witnessed a lot of history. Fans bemoaned the loss of motorcycle racing, but newer, safer tracks were built, and for motorcycle racing, at least, Pocono became a track today only visited in the history books. CN POCONOS Subscribe to nearly 50 years of Cycle News Archive issues: www.CycleNews.com/Archives