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Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/126468
and the 750cc category ar e under ques tion . No final offi cial resu lts will be
ava ila ble until the records for the 158 lap , 88-entry field a re chec ked .
Pre -race ente rtai nme nt was provid ed
by a field of vintage ma chines - many
of th em tru e classics, othe rs just old . A
sho rt race was staged, a nd following
an ea rly three-wa y fight a mo ng Don
Vesco, Bud dy Parr iott and T ony
Murphy , Vesco eme rge d the winner.
Slated for an II a .m . start, gridd ing
p rocedures delayed the six-h our ra ce,
a nd th e gree n flag d ropped at II :15.
True to form , the three fast qualifiers
shot into th e lead , Cool ey holding the
. point with Eddie Lawson holding back
the Pierce/Spencer Honda. The
McLaughlin/Pietri Honda , the Parme/
Blakeslee Kawasaki , the Klinzmann/
Emde Kawasaki , the Smith/Pridmore
Suzuki, the Little/Seim Kawasaki , the
Billy Addington/Syd DeSoto Suzuki
and the Fleming/Spencer Kawasaki
completed the top 10 on the open ing
lap.
Then the Pierce /Spencer Honda with
" Fast Freddie" at the controls pulled
around the works Kawasaki and set
sights on th e Yoshimura Suzuki. Lap
two saw the Honda in second; lap three
saw it in the lead. From th ere on, th e
only tim e th e #97 Honda forfeited control of th e race was in making pit stops
for fuel , tire and rider cha nges. And
thos e were temporary. (Un less, of
course , the T eam Kawasaki protest is
upheld. )
Other Team Honda members weren 't
as lucky. Approximately two hours into
th e race, Roberto Pietri pulled into
th e pits for fuel , rid er change and a
tire check. Timing was off, however,
and Roberto found the Pierce/Spencer
machine still sitting on pit row undergoing a tire change. He quickly pulled
back out onto the track, did a nother
lap , then pulled in again. As co-rider
McLaughlin prepared to take over ,
the crew decided it was time to replace
the rear tire. They raised the bike onto
the stand, pulled the wheel as
McLaughlin waited, and attempted to
mount the new wheel. Bu t the axle
wouldn't fit through the wheel assem blyl A spa cer in the hub had moved,
and as seconds turned to minutes ,
McLaughlin paced, toe -tapped and
gestured his exaspera tion as the crew
tried frantically to make it work . It
wouldn't. The wheel finally was set
aside and a new one selected. But even
then , the sprocket and brake disc had
to be transferred to the new wheel ,
and it was 16 minutes before the #88
Honda could return to the track at least
seven laps down from the previous
position.
In the confusion of the moment, Jeff
Haney, riding the third Honda and
rapidly nearing "empty" status, was
forgotten . By the time someone noticed,
then signalled Haney, it was too late,
"H e's pushing it'" The shout went
up as Haney was seen at the far end of
pit row pushing off the front straight.
A quick run down to him with a minibike and gas can put Haney hack on
the track and hack into the pits on the
next lap. But in one confused 20·minute
period, Honda had lost two of their
three good placings.
Meanwhile, Team Kawasaki had
been pulling off th eir pit stops like clock
work . The Yoshimura pit stops were
not as quick, but Cooley and Schlachter
were pacing well for the six-hour schedule . The Kawasaki had picked up a
l O-second lead on the Pierce/Spencer
Honda when they'd pitted, but when
the Kawasaki stopped for gas 10 laps
later, the Honda again took over.
Rich Schlachter pulled in to the
Yoshimura pits as the clock a pproached
the three-hour mark. Cooley waited to
board as th e crew fueled th e Suzuki
and changed the rear tire. Suddenly,
gas began flowing from the inside left