Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

to rain tires and conti nue if th e skies let loose. Cooley, via his fast heat win , sat on th e pol e. " I was as su rp rised as an yone tha t m y heat was fastest ," said Cooley. When th e gr een flag waved it was a d rag rac e between Cooley a nd Honda -mounted Freddie Spencer. T ha t last ed two la ps and Spe ncer was out. One la p into the rac e Honda's Ron Pier ce disappeared . Sch la ch ter and Adamo had esta blished themselves righ t up front while traffic shuffled around. By. lap five Cool ey was on his way, opemng up a five second gap over second- pla ce Sch la ch ter a t tha t po in t. " I won the race comi ng off th e comers, " Cooley wou ld say later. " I got a mu ch bett er d rive and that cornpe nsa ted for the top speed advantage of the 750s. " . Adamo was still hanging close to Schlachter on his self-sponsored Yamaha tuned by Reno Leoni. His was an exercise in keep-on -keeping-on as he had obta ined enoug h parts plus new cases to rebuild a badly blown engine from on e week previous . Saturday was spent work ing out th e engine again with Saturday night a full scale teardown and rebuild . That wasn 't th e end of his problems. "O nc e my sh ield began to fog and my glasses got sweat streaks on them I was forced to slow down a bit," sa id Adamo after his fourth -plac e finish . Cool ey, Schl achter a nd Adamo kept up their front -ru nnin g pace on lap eight while Baldwin began to close the gap on third . Ba ck in fifth a battle was developing between Ha rry Klinzmann. Rich Chambers, Ma rk Jones and Bruce Hammer that would capture the int erest of the crow d for th e rema ining laps. Jones finally took the nod on a bike that his father sa id "shou ldn't have finished five laps much less the whole ra ce. The engine was just not right. " Klinzmann had fifth sewed up on the final lap when he blew an engine. Chambers could have had fifth handed to him , bu t he dipped his knee once too often in a slow comer, hit a speed bump and dropped back one place. Miles Baldwin got around Adamo on the 10th lap and set his sights on Schlachter, inching his way to within striking distance as the laps wound down. Baldwin got his cha nce with two laps to go as he ca ugh t Schlachter exiting a slow tum. " I got Baldwin back as we passed the white flag ," said Schlachter la te r. "! hen ! pu.t five or so bike lengths on h im gomg m to tum one and it was a race to the fla g from there. I had just enoug h to hold him off. Where was Cool ey all this time? H e was cutting every la p like the entire field was at his back d oor. O nly when he took the check ered flag did he ba ck off. He had over 10 seconds on second ~a~. . "I was hu rt ing on th e sta rt. My left leg hu rt so bad from hitting a spee d bump in the Superbike race that I couldn't even get it to bend enough to reach the peg . Once we started I forgot all about it ," sa id Cool ey as he limped to the pits with champagne and flowers. "We're go ing to party tonight." Results FORMULA 1: 1. Wes Coole v ISuzl ; 2. Rich Schlacht er (Yaml; 3. Miles Baldwin (Yam); 4. Jimmy Adamo IVam); 5. Mark Jones IVam); 6. Rich Chambers (Yam); 7. Bruce Hammer (Yaml; 8. Bruce Pettersen IVam); 9. Frank McTaggart lYaml; 10. Cory Ruppe lt IVam); 11. Nick Richichi (Yam); 12. Gil Mart in (Vam)' 13. Kevin Stfford (VarnI; 14. Gene Romero (Yaml; 15: John Sa":!ways (Yaml; 16. Harry Klinzmann (Yam); 17. Gary Collins {Vam); l B. Ted BoodV IVam) ; 19. Dave SchIllSSef lYam l ; 20. Ed Powe lllYam). TIME: 45 min .. 01.11 sec. AVERAGE SPEED: 95.961 mph POINT STANDINGS: 1. Hank Scott 167); 2. Randy Goa 151 1 3. Alex Jorgensen ISOI 4. Ricky Graham1451; ; ; 5. Steve Mor_ (4 1); 6. Gory Scott (40)' 7 Mike Kidd 138); a Kenny Roberti (33) ; 9. mel Pa,kerf Jar Sorinllot- (32) . Sartt o 00 0') 1"'"""1 AMA Superbike Championship Series: R ou n d four Freddie Spencer 1 topped Kawasaki 's Eddie Lawson and Dave AIdanB after 81 early leader Cooley ran out of gas on the last lap. Spencer over Cooley in no • gas, no WIn battle ELKHART LAKE, WI ,JUNE I "I really like to win," said a smiling Freddie Spencer, "but this isn't exactly the way 1 like to do it." Spencer, some eight seconds back in second place as the final lap saw W~s Cooley sitting de jectedly by the Side of the track on his Vetter/Yoshimura Suzuki about a half mile from th e finish out of gas and out of luck. Spenc er would stop to give Cool ey a lift back to the pits on his coo l-off lap. Follow ing Honda -mounted Spencer home were th e T ea m Kawasaki duo of Eddie Lawson and Da vid Aldana . T eam Honda's Ron Pierce nursed a sour engine to fourth to rou nd ou t the fa ctory race. In the non-fa ctory po rt ion of the event. J immy Adamo put his Reno Leoni/Berline r Motors Ducati ahead of Ka l-Gard/GSM ·sponsored Chuck Parme after a race-long duel. Parrne was Kawasaki mounted . . Th.ere w,as p.lenty of joking going on m WInner s Circle as Team Honda manager Ste ve McLaughlin congratula ted Team Kawasak i manager Randy Hall. "You gu ys did a good job ," sai d McLaughlin . He paused, then added " . .. offollowing." "Notice who has the points lead, Steve," said Hall. Aldana gave Spencer a champagne shower after Spencer sprayed the crowd. Lawson never smiled. As with the rest of the events, the AMA has modified its count -down procedures to start with seven minutes to allow for a moderately fast warm-up lap. C?Oley topped of~ with gas upon re tu rning to t he gnd, crossed ' his fing ers and hoped for the best. Spencer won th e drag race down th e long front chu te to tum one as the roar ~ta rted, of four.~trokes echoed through the cou nt rysid e. Aldana moved into second followed by Cooley. Pierce, Lawson, Roberto Pietri ' and th e rumbling rest . By lap three it was Cooley drafting pas t Spencer on the uphill straight past the starr/Fin ish line for th e lead . Pierce had displaced Aldana to fourth . Two more laps and Pierce was back in fifth slowing slightly with what would be diagnosed as a "sick engine" later . The factory-sponsored bikes, with Roberto Pietri on his Honda mount in sixt h, pulled awa y from the rest of th e field. Heading up the rest of the field was an outstanding battle between Chuck Parme and Jimmy Adamo. Adamo an? his Ducati w,ere giving awa y two eyh dners a nd a bit of displacement to t ~e ,~ e1 d: "You just watch Jimmy ride, said tuner Reno Leoni. "He rides with his heart... The seventh lap saw Lawson coming on strong. " My front tire wasn 't scrubbed in enough at the start which made the front end slide," said Lawson later. Meanwhile, Aldana was having his troubles. " I was hell in those opening laps, but little things spoiled ":IY ride. Everything has to work just nght or you can't ride to the limit. Cooley really had it all together almost... Spencer was also having h is problems with a front brake that was losing pressure and a pipe that was grounding in a couple of corners. Lawson wou ld also note that ground clearance was a problem. Cooley kept grinding out the laJ15 with one at two m inutes, 24 .04 seconds or about 97 mph. But gas consumption was becoming a problem as he would soon find out. The bike was sputtering as he took t he whi te flag. ''Just a half m ile more was all I needed. A beer can ful l of gas and I could have made it, A bummer," said Cooley shaking his head. Spencer, to everyone's a mazement, took the flag followed by Lawsoo and Aldana with Pierce coasting across io fourth . The duel which became a battle and then full scale war between Adamo and Parme saw Adamo gain the advantage in the last two laps after "riding the wheels off" and hold 00 to we fifth on Cooley's retirement. Lawson how holds a SCYeIl point lead , 52-45, over Pierce with Aldana taking third away from Cooley, 42 to 40 . Spencer's win puts him io fifth at S9 points. Results SUPERBIKE: 1. Freddie Spencer lHonI: 2. Eddie Lawson IKawl; 3. David - . , fKawI; 4. Ran PisaI IHon); 5. J immv Adamo lDuel; 6. Chudt Ponne fKawI; a w.. 9. 7. Rockv Phoenix lKawl: Cooley CSuzl: Roberto Pietri (Hon); 10.l*wge"'" " - t 11.1lich Chambers IHonl; 12. Doug tJInrtt IC-t 13. ___ Pidgeon ISuzJ 14. David Hovle IC-t 15. Micheol ; C8sev IKaw) . 16. St-. Gilbert lHonI: 17. o.id ItaIor IKaw); l B. AI PhiNipo lLavk 19. _ I C - t 2Il. Rich Schlachter (Duel . TlME:40min.. l0.92-. AVERAGE SPEED: 95.!i615 mph "-* AIM SUPERIIlKE ~ POWT STANDINGS: 1. Eddie c-.152t 2. Ran -l45l: 3. David AkBlII 1421; 4. _ Cooley Mat 5. " ' Spencer 139 6. me.Jimmy-....a..dt PonneI26l: k Roberto Pietri Q4l; 9. Ilich a..-l17I; 10. mEi Pate-v~_"01 a u

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