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/126331
- ; • s l1li t 00 t- O'> l""""4 0 CN f,.., Q.) ..0 8 Q.) .j,J 0.. Q.) v: IAbo ve l The'250cc Ughtweight Expert final blasts off the line w ith John Long 1361. Mike Baldwin 1431. Randy Mamolal26land Mike Baader 1891 leading the charge. Mamola won. IBelowlln Superbike Production. much of the race was a fre ight train consisting of Wes Coo ley 1 Steve Mclaughlin 1831 and Paul 341. Ritter. Cooley won over Ritter.and Mclaughlin. 8 "I tri ed all th e tricks. Going through traffic late in th e race settled it," said Long in winner's ci rcle. Liubimsky was obviously more elated than vet eran , Long and \ youthfu l Mamola , who despite his lack of years ha s made cou n tless trips int o winner's circle. Said Liubimsky, " We fin ished up the bike th is morning. My m ech an ic stayed u p all night. lowe him a lot of thanks and also a lot of thanks to Harry Hunt , m y sponsor. " Fourth place finisher Glen Shopher, who lists Farm House Restaurant as his sponsor, had sra rted the season as a Nov ice but with successes like his Sears Point N o vice win had op te d to ad van ce t o Light weight Expert ra nking . Baldwin 's appearance on th e works 'Ka wasa ki was a su rp rise to man y, bu t the rea soning behind the bike being brought out of "mothba lls" a ppeared sou nd after the Connect icut Yank ee easi ly won his heat race. On hand overseeing the return to road raci ng by Kawasaki was team manager Randy Hall . Sporting green socks , Hall explained, "I bought these socks for the 1971 Talladega National and that was the first Nationa l Kawasaki won. I've worn them on ra ce da y ever since ." While th e hopes for win fail ed to materialize, th e fla sh of green up front brough t a fresh br eath of air to American road ra cing whi ch has been dominated by Yamaha . W inner Mamol a ca lle d La guna Seca his favorite race t rack a nd described his b attle with Baldwin, "I had more powe r on the st ra ig ht, U!!t he'd out -br ak e me in th e corkscrew and his rotary va lve Kawasaki was strong out of the corners." (Yaml: 15. Bruce Maus (Yaml; 16. Richard Chambers (Yam); 17. Dea n Cleeton. Jr .IVaml; 18. 11 13 (Yaml: 19. Igs (Varni; 20. Mike Baldwtn lKawl. Time: 25 min., 0.354. sec .; A_age Speed: 91.179 mph . Superbike Product ion: Cooley makes loudest thunder By Jack Mangus Photos by Felix Adamo Results MONTEREY , CA , SE PT . 10 LIGHTWEIGHT EXPERT: 1. Rand y Mamola (Yaml : 2. J ohn Long (VarnI; 3. Gennad v liubimsky (Yam); 4, Glen Shopher (Yaml : 5. Dave Garou tte (Yam); 6. J ohn Gidney (Yaml; 7. John Bett encou rt (Yam ); 8. Conrad UrbanoWSki (YamI; 9. Bruce Lind {Yaml; 10. W . Craig Mom s (Yam); 11. Darrell l ee (Yam); 12. Rudy Galindo (Yaml ; 13. David Bearden (Vam); 14..Ken Botham Wes Cooley , aboard the Pop Yoshimura -bu ilt Suzuki GSlOOO, led all 20 la ps of the Su per bike Prod uction ra ce at Laguna Seca Ra ceway Sunday morning. But it was not a one m an show. Ra cecra fters Steve K a w a sa k i -m o u n t e d McLaughl in, sitting in for Da le Singleton who suffered a sho ulder se p arat ion a n d a concussion in practice on Friday, and Aero -Un ion/ Euromart Ducat i-mou n ted Pau l Ritter were rarely more than a bikelength or two behind Cooley th rougho ut the race. At the checkered flag it was R itt e r stealing sec o n d from McLaughlin. Coo ley led t he 35 bike/ rider field off the line a nd at the end of the initial la p it was Cooley, Yoshimura East"!' Be tt e n c ou rt 's Suzuk i/ Spectro Oil sponsored John Bett encou rt and in -an out-of-racing Hurley Wilvert, aboard t he ex-Wes C o o le y Yos himura Kawasa ki , the first three across the lin e . T hat initial lap also saw McLaughlin cross the line in fourth just ahead of Ritt er . The end of the sixth la p had rh e: scori ng pylon showing Coo le y McLaugh lin , Bett encou rt , Wi lvert , R itt e r , Reg Pridmore , Harry Klinzm a nn , Dennis Smith and Chuck . Parrne occupying the top 10 positions. Bu t lap seven m a rked th e end of the race for both Bett en cou rt and Wi lvert , John pulled off the course at turn seven with mechanical problems and H u rley jumped off th e co urse in turn nine. At the halfway poi nt Cool ley , McLaugh lin and R itt er were across the lin e within a second of each other and nearly 30 seconds be hi nd th e front ru n ning trio ca me a dicing group consisting of H a rry Klinzm a n n , J ohn Long , Den nis Smith, Chuck Parme and Reg Prid more. As the race ra n down it became ap pare nt th a t bot h Mc Laughli n and R it t e r were hawking C ool e y in p repara tion for a fina l la p all-ornothing-at -all move. T he trio moved through traffic as one, a nd other t ha n Mc Laugh li n getting out of shape when stuffi ng a wheel in on Cooley several times, the group flowed around the 1.9 mile race track smoothly. , All the expected d rama of the last lap s how disappeared whe n the officials failed to signal the riders (with a white flag) that they were starting the final lap . Cooley m a int a ined his lea d across the finis h line, but McLaug h lin lost his runnerup position to Ritt er in turn four. Said R itt er , " I never saw a white flag , I knew it would be a last lap