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Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/126323
Gene "Buritto" Romero scored second overall, 17 seconds behind Baldwin. It was his best finish in recent seasons. " The Georgia Pig Farmer," Dale Singleton, scor ed a third in the National on the Taylor White Yamaha. Mike Baldwin came from the last row of the grid to take over first on the fifth .Iap and score his first AMA ~rand National win. Randy Mamola lead s Wes Cooley /341. David Em de (56) and Ron Mass (40) in the 750cc class. ed Sonoma Motorcycle Classic two , bu t by the time they re ached the opposi te en d of th e course, th e ord er was Ak sland , Aldana , Romero , Ni xon . Schl acter, Cone and Cooley. Nixon passed Romero before they completed lap one of the 30-lap race. but Aksl and and Aldana were already putting daylight be tween themselves and the field . Entering the Carousel on the second lap , Aksland reportedly bottomed the suspension in the comer and hung up on an exhaust pipe. causing him to go down. Aldana tried to avo id him but there wa s no room to m iss the tumbling Aksland , and he wen t down as well . Both riders got up and walked back to the p its together. Aksland, missing a good deal of skin from his posterior. went to the hospital later to check on his shou lder, wh ich was hurting. Skip had separated his shou ld er and broken a collarbone in the Santa Fe "IT, and rode this race with a figure-eight shoulder brace. ·Schlacter took over the lead and Nixon . Romero. Baldwin (who started 35th and had damaged his front wheel in the aftermath of the Aksland/ Aldana crash. running over a carburetor that had been torn loose from Skip 's b ike ). Singleton and J ohn Long followed . Baldwin passed Schlacter on t he fift h la p a n d sta rt ed edgi ng away fro m the pac k. Romero sta rt ed mov ing up . d isp at chi ng Nix on , and a lap la ter. Schlacter. Nixo n and Sin glet on then got into a good swa pfesr, At th e I O-la' mark , the order was p Romero , Schlacter , Baldwi n . Singleton , N ixon . Long , Emde , Cooley and Cone . Randy Mamola , who' d worked his wa y up to eight h , had dropped out on the previous lap due to excessive motor vibration. On the 14th lap, coming around a bend before the start /finish line , Baldwin missed a shift. "T hinking the chain had broken again , he looked back to see if it had gone, turned around and saw himself heading for the wall . He recovered in time, went barely off the track and kissed the wall gently to bounce back in the proper. d irection. Baldwin had worked up a 17 -second lead on Romero by the 17th lap , and Singleton started to move on Schlacrer, getting by a lap later, At abou t th is time , Nixon crashed in turn four , another downhill ~ight hander, Ni xon report edl y lost co nt rol of the front end when he h it a slick spot. No inju ry repor ted , but he was out of the race. At the 20-la p mark. two-thi rds of the way through . Ba ldw in still maintained a 15- 17 second lea d on Rom ero . Singleton wa s th ird ahead o f Sch la ct er , Long , Emde , Ma ss a nd Cone . Five laps from the end , Schlacter dropped ou t in the pits after a b rilliant ride , wiih the throttle stu ck . The final four laps saw no change and Mike Baldwin crossed the line firs t for his first-ever AMA Grand National win . despite having lost power in one of his four cylinders at the three quarter mark. Baldwin, drenched ' with sweat the day was very hot and the humid it y was high - was obviously delighted . but the celebration was relatively calm and the only one to get drenched with champagne was Singleton. "W hen it came to the National, 1 knew it was going to be greasy, and it was," said Baldwin later. But Mike had had his tire and gearing choice set since the beginning of the yea r . " I used what Kenny' Roberts used last yea r ," he said . Beh ind Baldwin , Romero had his best finish of the yea r , and Singleton did likewise . Rounding out the top 10 were Long (wh o rode three cla sses during th e day), Em d e , Mass, Cone , H a rry Klinzm ann (M r. A I's R e s taurant /DG /Pau l Dahm en sponsored) , Canadia n J im All en (Motion Enr. ), a n d Kevin Stafford (Pau l Dahmen). wh o rode a day-glo orange TZ t h at looked j ust like Romero's bike . Steve Morehead , known more for his d irt track prowess, picked up a Camel Pro point by fin ishing 14th on the KK Suppl y/K&K Insurance Yamaha , with a steady ride. • Results 7~MILE NATIONAL: !. Mi ke Baldw in (Yaml; 2. Gene Romero (Yam); 3. Dale Singleton IVam); 4. John Long IVam); 5. David Emde (Yam); 6. Ron Mass IVam); 7. Harry " Mike" Cone (Yam); 8. Harry Klinzmann (Yam); 9. Jim Allen (Yaml; 10. Kevin Stafford (Yaml ; 'll , erik Buell (Yam); 12. Robert Wak efield (Yam); 13. Avrum Gudelsky IVaml; 14. SIeve Morehead IVaml . TIME: 54:42.07 . AVERAGE SPEED: 82.26 mph . AMA CAMEL PRO SERIES POINTS: 1. SIeve Eklund 1174); 2. Jay SP!'ingsteen 11 66 ); 3 . Ted Boody (100); 4. Skip Aksland 195); 5. Ga