IAbovel The Lightweight winner's circle: "Baby Kenny,"IRandy Mamola)
proves his point. Big Kenny wins again, Wes Cooley looks whistful.
IBelow) With Cook Neilson back in California, Mike Baldwin had the
Superbikes to himself.
,1
2
early laps of the 20·lap. 45 -mile event
with Stafford hanging right onto the
tail of Roberts as he worked his way
through traffic to the lead by the time
the field exited th e infield on lap one.
Stafford held position .u n til Jay
Springsteen blew by on lap six with
Schlachter moving past Cool ey int o
fourt h two laps later.
Springsteen still held second at th e
halfway flags with a pack containing
Stafford. Schlachter, Coole y, Conrad
Urban owsk i, Mike Baldwin a nd
Mamola very close behind.
Ro berts held an unoffi cial 15second lead by lap 14 with Sp ringsteen
falling back the victim of a very-soon ro -b e -holed piston . (" It wa s m y
Dayton a en gine. I had 90 or 100 mil es
on it. ") Mamola , by this time, ha d
decided th a t there was on ly one plan
of att ack. " I figu red I had better get
goi ng if I wa nted second so I just held
th e th rottle to the stops and tr ied not
to back o ff anywhere,"
T he thund e r ing six pa ck of
Schlachter , Mamola, Staffo rd , Cooley,
Bal d win and Ur ba nowski swa p ped
posi tions with in th em selves in a mad
scra m ble as the laps spun awa y.
Schlachter led th e pack on lap 17 a nd
the n bobbled a lap later lett ing
Mam ola, Stafford and Cooley by. On
th e white flag lap Mamola pull ed out a
few feet in t he infield which Cooley
promptly closed up as th e pair hit the
banking . Cool ey drafted Mamola,
sett ing him up for a pass at th e fin ish
line. Cooley broke draft a bit too soon
and Mamola .held on for second by a
hair. Roberts had already made his
way to the winner's circle.
" Kel Carruthers worked on the bike
all winter to beef it up from last year.
There's no other bike that can
compare with it th is year, " said Kenny
later. The opposition is well aware of
that fact .
•
Results
t , Kenny Roberts lVaml. 2. Randy Mamola IVaml. 3.
W.. Cooley lVoml. 4. Rich SChlaete- (Vom 5. M,ke
l.
Baldwin (Vaml. 6. Conrad Urbanowski (H·DI. 7. Don
Manl
