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/126002
The pack in the Junior Final winds its way down through the Corkscrew. Yvon tumbles; Kenny ~ By Jack Mangus and Lane Camp bell MOl'.TEREY, CAL., AUG. 3 ' Grand National Champion Kenny Roberts scored his second consecutive Laguna Seca win after a very swift Yvon DuHamel unloaded while holding a IO-second lead on the 29th lap of the 4D-lap Monterey Superbike International road race. The win earned Roberts 6 165 points and leaves him 221 points be hind Gary Scott. Th e lengthy interlude between Daytona and Sunday 's race was put to good use by the men responsible for the various fa ct ory -backed machines. Kawasaki stole the show when the y unloaded a green meanie for Yvon wh i c h was equ ipp ed wit h a parallelogram swingarm rear suspension system . DuHamel practiced on th e bi ke an d when questioned abou t how it was working pointed to it and said, "It 's lik e riding a Cadillac." The engine mounted in the trick unit was down on horsepower though, and the Canadian rider opted for a Kaw with conventional suspension. The five-lap qualifying heats-grid position determiners-were run ; and Suzuki 's David Aldana walked aw ay . with the first , follow ed by Yamaha-mounted Gen e Romero and Pat Evans . Ga ry Scott unveiled the Harl ey -Davidson 50 0cc twin in less than spectacu lar fash ion as th e Ital ian buil t 2 stroke was p ulled off the st ar ting grid at the two- mi n u te mark with a broken hose clamp between a carb and the manifold. Scott, who was seeking to pad his bulging point lead over Roberts, got underway two laps down on the field and finished up dead last- I 6th. Heat two provided the 40,000 spectators the first of the day 's Roberts/DuHamel wars. Roberts took the win with a two-second margin. They were followed across the line by Yamaha Motor Canada sponsored Steve Baker. Roberts occupied the pole for the National with Aldana, DuHamel, Romero and Baker joining him on the front line. The wave of the green from starter Bouncing Bob Malley saw Yvon pull a holeshot on the field ; and at the end of one tour of the twisty nine-tum course the order was DuHamel, Roberts, Aldana, Romero and Baker. Lap two provided one of the many "magic tricks" of the weekend, this t ime courtesy of Roberts. Coming ou t of tum n ine, a relatively slow 90 degree entrance to the front straight, Roberts; in an attempt to pull up even with Du Hamel, got all but totally sideways. Th e pair con tin ued to dice as th ey pulled aw ay from Aldana, who in tum was opening up sp ace on Romero and Ba ker. On th e fo urth lap Aldana's Suzu ki began to pop and th e following lap Aldana became a DNF when h is b ike seized. _ Roberts worked past DuHamel on the sixth lap and th e pair began to lap backmarkers. Behind them a race-long figh t for what everyone though t would be the show position started shaping up. Baker, Romero, Armor-All sponsored Steve McLaughlin, Boston Cycle sp onsored Ron Pierce, Suzuki's Pat Hennen and Levi Strauss sponsored John Boote, hailing from New Zealand, began to mix it up. DuHamel got back ar ound Roberts on the 17th lap and by the 20th lap had built the average speed up to 94.410 mph. Romero led the group of third-place seekers but retired fro m the race o n lap 25 when his Yam aha, according to Kel Carruthe rs, "apparently seized." Carruthers was q uick to point out foll owing the race that Romero's DN F was the first suffered by the Yamaha team d ue to internal problems with th e TZ700 and 750cc series bikes. Roberts was home free after DuHamel crashed in tum 'six. Yvon suffered a broken finger in the get-off which was app aren tly caus ed by a large amount of oil being dumped from his engine.