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/126409
(Above) Two Davids, Emde and Aldana, put the Yoshimura R&D Suzuki on top. (Below) Motorcyclist magazine's Suzuki (32) won the 550cc class. (Above) Winning the 750cc class was the RunyardlVandenbroek/Hagie Kawasaki (42). (Below) The Williams/Shopher/Draper Yamaha placed first in the 410cc class. AFM On Any Sunday II Ontario 6-Hour Endurance Race Team Yoshimura strafes Ontario By Charles Morey Photos by Patrick Behar and Morey ONTARIO , CA, APR . 29 "Where's the beer?" laughed Dave Aldana as he stepped.off the Yoshimura R&D-sponsored Suzuki GSIOOO that he and teammate Dave Emde had just used to win the American Federa tion of Motorcylists' On Any Sunday II Ontario 6-Hour Endurance Race. "W e were a little close on the tire ," he said a minute 10 later in a more serious vein as cre w members inspected the rear slick , excessively worn on the righthand side. "We were thinking about stopping a couple of times. " Then he grinned again , "Should have some money to party now!" Emde agreed. David Emde had been at the controls six hours earlier when the two wave , 100-team starting field had burned off Ontario Motor Speedway's starting line. He'd seen the Vetter Fairings-sponsored Kawasaki, piloted by Reg Pridmore at the time, and the. Racecrafters Kawasaki under the guidance of Steve McLaughlin put the Yoshimura bike in third in the opening laps. But after that , neither he nor Aldana had settled for second place. When the green flag dropped , th e impressive front row - Pridmore, McLaughlin , Emde, the Richard Schlach ter /Richard Chamb ers Ducati, the John Bettencourt/Martin Carney works Kawasak i, the Yoshimura Speed Center Suzuki ridden by Rudy ยท Galindo and Dave Langford and the Billy Addington/ . Dick Kilgroe /C arry Ko eshgeri an KZIOOO Kawasaki - shot for Ontario 's tum one. Emde led at the end of the first lap with the Vetter bike close behind and McLaughlin's Racecrafters Kawasaki in draft. McLaughlin, the '78 Daytona Superbike winner , fou n d a way around Pridmore on lap two, and the three crossed the start/finish line in tight formation . Emde lost two spots on the third time around ; both McLaughlin and Pridmore got past. But McLaughlin's minutes were .numbered. On the next lap, he came riding slowly into the pits, smoke billowing from the exhaust s~tem. . The number two piston had failed, and their day was over . Pridmore held the lead, keeping the Vetter Superbike scant feet ahead of the Emde's Yoshimura bullet, and the two began lapping slower riders only 10 minutes into the six-hour event. Pridmore stayed in front for a couple laps , then Emde got past to lead again with Pridmore's Vetter machine pacing the race within easy striking distance. The Schlachter/Chambers Du cati maintained third ahead of the Galindo/Langford Yoshimura Speed Center Suzuki, the Mallonee/ Pietri Warland Engineering Kawasaki, the Gordon Seim /jeff Little S&S Kawasaki a nd th e works Kawasaki rid de n by Betten cou rt , The Seim / Little Kawasaki crashed a lap lat er along with th e Earl Smith/ Gary Costa Ca n-Am a nd the Mic hael Moore /J ohn W est /R ob e rt Br aw n Yama ha, both a lap do wn. T op positions th en held firm until , approximately a hal f hour into th e race , Pridmore's ha nd went up, an d the Vett er bike pull ed int o th e pits. T ha t left Emde alone out in fro n t, th e Schlacht er /Chambers Du cati in se cond and the Mallon ee /Pi etri Kawasaki fighting off pressure from the Yoshimura Speed Center machine and the factory Kawasaki . Steve Mallonee had his hands full trying to keep third . "I thought it was handling funny, " he said later. The bike had two flat tires. Lap 17 marked the most spectacular moment of the race in a frightening crash that brought out the red flag , halting the event. John Bettencourt had the works Kawasaki Superbike pegged on the front straight, tucked in behind the Yoshimura Speed Center Suzuki, when suddenly the Yosh bike whipped to the side. Dead ahead was a lapped 400cc Yamaha travelling at a much slower speed. Bettencourt hit it flat out, breaking the Kawasaki's triple clamps under th e impact, bending the Yamaha's rear rim into a near-perfect elipse , and sending both r iders sliding down the asphalt with their broken machines. Amazingly , neither was seriously injured. The red , flag naturally set the pit crews working, changing tires and refuelling, and it gave the Vetter team opportunity to get their machine back into action. On the restart, Dave Aldana took over the Yoshimura R&D Suzuki, grabbed the holeshot and led the other Yosh imura en t ry and th e Vetter Ka wasaki through the first turn. Again, the Vetter bike, this time with Keith Cod e rid ing , was expe riencing probl em s, appa rently with fuel flow. Code made several pit stops, and th e Vetter crew checked and cle an ed fuel lines , eventually finding a clogged fuel tank vent tube. Code made one more stop after that , taking a short cut across th e infield and through the garage area before they finally solved the problem. Then he and reigning AMA Superbike Champion Reg Pridmore had their work cut out for them making up for lost time. They eventually worked up to seventh place a t the finish. Roberto Pietri started three laps down after the two flats on th e Mallonee/Pietri Kawasaki kept the pit crew busy during the restart. They too had lots of lost time to make up , and they did well , making it up to sixth overall a t the end. Twenty minutes after the restart, Aldana had established a 15 second lead. . At the 80-lap mark, approximately halfway, the Yoshimura R&D bike held the lead safely, and the announcer offered a rundown on what was happening in the various classes back in the pack. The John Fuchs/ Dan Sorensen 738cc Kawasaki was leading in the 750cc class with the John Ulrich/Pat Eagan Cycle World Suzuki, fast qualifiers for the class, still a threat. The Salvedor Avelar/Bill Storer Honda held third ahead of eventual winners , the Robert Runyard/Frans Vandenbroek/Roger Hagie 650cc Kawasaki. The Ontario Moto Tech/Motorcyclist . magazine 550cc Suzuki, piloted by Art Friedman and 'Jeff Karr, was doing