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/125860
U2 51 • II¥lI • ..... .. II¥lI g =- g ~ r- O"l C'J ;;>- ro ::s Bob Endicott comes just tha t far from dragging a valve cover, lap after lap. Mike Parriot does th e splits, herding th e great Kawasaki through the infield. hairy~ested Yoshimura . Ron Pierce , just before winnin g th e 250 GP sprint: "Yamaha were such prudes over giving me support I'm not going to give them credit for the motorcyc le anymore. It's a Ron Pierce Special." Yvon breaks, Reg slows, and Parriot goes By Lane Campbell & John Ulrich ONTARIO, CAL., MAY 12 Buddy and Mike Parr iot's' father-son Yoshimura Kawasaki team outlasted and/or outran everybody in the premier AFM 300 mile production road race. The faster Yvon DuHamel/Dale Alexander Yoshimura team bo th crashed and broke, the Reg Pridmore/Marty Lund e Butler and Smith BMW R90S spe nt to o much ti me in the pits tying to cure breather problems, and the Art Baumann/Ron Pier ce BMW (also Butler and Smith . entered) broke with a lou d clank in th e opening laps of the 94 lap endurance run . After th e LeMans start of the " 300" , it took Du Hamel (last off the grid ) about fo ur lap s to blast by early leader Pridmore . DuHamel pass ed o ver 30 riders his firs t lap alone, and got all 50 other racers by lap fo ur . Less th an ten minutes later, Pridmore brough t th e BMW in for what would be th e first of a long ser ies of pi t stops to cure brea th er problems. Mike and Bud Parriott (Yosh 900) moved in to second, fo llo wed b y the Bob Endicott /M . Rosteuscher R90S BMW and th e Bob Crossman/ Fred Wal ti Kawaski 900. DuHamel p ut in a40-min ute st int and handed off to Dale Alexander(presiden t o f Yoshimura Racing). Alexander continued to press, tu rning the 3.19 mi le cou rse in ab o ut 2 :20. (DuHa m el had be en un officially clocked as quick as 2 :14). Then a com e r m an n o t iced the rear brake actuating rod hanging loose on th e DuHamel/Alexander machine. For another two laps, the race officials stewed over whether to bring Alexander in, then finally black-flagged him, not because running with no rear brake was dangerous in itself, but for fear the rear brake rod would come off in someone else's line . Coming in, usin g the engine as a rear brake, (and a bit too much fro nt br ake ) Alexander got spit off right into his o wn pit just as he dropped it in to first gear and lo cked both wheels. Dal e w as unhurt, b ut the Parriot Kawa sak i went by wh ile th e Yoshimura cr ew clea red the brake rod and fixed a bro ken ign it io n sid eco ver, DuHamel mounted up and too k off in pursuit of Parrio t, Me anwhile, the Baumann/Pierce BMW had been pushed to th e pit wall wi th a case of " so m ethin g broke , with a clunk, mechanics won 't sa y what ," and the En di c o t t j Rosteucher m achin e continued to circulate ste ad ily aro und 2 : 20 -2: 24 ran ge . A r ek indled Pridmor e/Lunde t e am, probl em s overcome, was busily unlapping itse lf as t he hours ground on. DuHamel , turning in the 2: 17-2 : 19 range with no rear brake, finally caugh t Parriot. Both bikes we nt th ro ugh an other rider ch an ge wi thout change o f posit ion, the n tr ouble stru ck th e leader again. DuHamel pulled in for the crew to tape and wire up a split throttle assembly that was slipping on the bars ( a legacy from th e crash), and Alexander went out. Dale put on the pressure to try to retake Parriot until, on lap 8 7, he pulled in for good with a crac ked cy lind er spitting oil every wh ere. Pr idmore got b y the Endicott/Rosteuscher m achine and was turning under 2:20 consistantly to try to catch Parriot, The Yoshimura crew di d some quick figuring , gave Mike the "EZ" sign , and though Pridmore was picking up five seconds a lap, Parriot finished with a 30 second cushion. Tires had been a wo rry to all the heavywe ight c o n t e n d e r s. The Pridmore/Lunde BMW had a slick Goodyear on the rear, while the Endicott/Rosteuscher team stuck with a Dunlop. Th e Dunlop barely made the 300 mil es; . it was bald on the right side . Rosteuscher sat back in the p add ock grinning as he said , "See, 1 told you th e 398 compound would last." T he Yoshimura Kawasakis had both ru n on regular Dunlop TTI00s, chosen more fo r their longevit y than th eir grip. Dale Alexander, th o ugh he had los t, was not unhappy. Sp eak in g of the loss of the rear brake , he said " 1 st ill turned a 2 : 1 8 . ..when someth ing like t ha t happens, you st ar t working a litt le harder." Sunday's program had opened up wi th sp rints for GP and small Production bikes. In the: firs t sprint, a co mbined small GP and up to 25 0 Production mix, Dave Garrotte led wire -to-wire for the Overall and First 250 Production with a 250cc four-speed Ossa single. Steve Zimmerman broke the ltaljet monopoly in 50 cc GP , riding a bit o f living history - a Honda C R 11 0 twi n-cam wh ose lineage dates back to the m id -sixties. The second race for 125 -200 GP bikes opened up with a three-way n ose-to-tail dash between Mike Baeder (leading, 125 Yam), Pedro Gallinucci (charging, 125 Yam) an d John Serra (200 Bul, hanging on). Serra eventually dropped off the pa ce (he had 200 GP sewe d up) and Gallinucci, though he closed up r epeatedly, never made it around Baeder. Joh n Tallarico broughra TZ700 to the heavyweight GP race with an as yet unpro ven e x h a u s t system a four-into-two collector system built by Burak Bye-Products. The crank was assembled so th at cylinders 1-3 and 2-4 fired together in pairs. Fat cr oss-over head pipes draw the fumes into tw o • ch am bers whose volum e an d st inger diameter are matched to t he doubled gas flow. Tally had to wait until the race itself to really test the system, as th e ign ition r otor rubbed the cases Saturday. throwing the timing off. In the ra ce itself, no one had t he horsepower to catch Steve McLaughlin on his new TZ700, though Ron Pierce (25 0 Yam) began to pressure him in the in fiel d . Pier ce's start egy wo rked , as it forced McLau ghlin to scratch harder than he in tended, knowing it would be only a matter o f time before this d est royed S teve 's tires. Sure enough, after Pierce had passed him once, the TZ 700 began to behave lik e a cow on ice skates, a sign th at the rubber was beginning to ac tually melt and flow on the traction surfa ce. Adequate tires are com ing, may be by the Atlanta National. ONTA RIO,CAL.,l\lAY 11 Sa turday was to ha ve been a low-pres sure fu n-and-g ames day, but the . enormity of the organizatio nal task : began to overtake the AFM. The sidecars ran Saturday , with the Jim McNeal /S kye Kerley Honda outfi t .