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/126482
Wes Cooley leads Superbike winner Freddie Spencer early in the final. Cooley's runner-up finish was enough to net him the point lea~. though. Superbike Production Spencer wins, Cooley takes point lead By Dale Brown Photos by Patrick Behar MONTER EY, CA , AUG . 2' "T his sure beats Suzukal" yelled Honda road race team manager Steve McLaughlin as Freddie Spencer roll ed hi s T eam Honda Superbike into the Laguna Seca win ner's circl e. Spencer led laps f i ve throug h 26 to win th e 50· m ile Super, bike Product ion fina l over the Yoshimura /Vetter Suzuk i ofWes Cooley a nd t he T eam Ka wasak i mou nt of Dave Aldana . Cooley moved into the lead of the point sta ndi ngs when previo us point lea der Eddie La wson DNF . Lawson was forced to miss tim ed prac tice, and thus start frorn - the rear of the gri d while the Kawasaki crew pulled a broken mo tor and rep laced it with another . T he replacem en t mo to r propelled Lawson into the top 10 before two laps were complete, but he pa rked it shortly thereafter, the mo tor firing on on ly th ree cylinde rs, Spencer was th e fastest during p ra c· tice and won th e pole with a 1:09.493 tou r around th e 1.9 ·mile, nin e-tu rn course. Cooley was second fastest, past· ing a 1:10 ;31 1. Aldana sat in th e middle of th e first five-rider row with a 1:11 ,244 . That was 'two seconds faster than the fourth qualifier, Ha rry Klinzmann , a t 1:13.394. Chuck Parme and Cal ifornia clu b rac er Mike Spencer, rid ing a KZ650 bored out to 855cc, were th e onl y other ride rs to br eak the 1:14 barrier. Lawson was gridded 34t h. When the one-minute sign turned sideways a nd sta rter Bob Ma lley's ' green fla g waved, Cooley shot ou t front ahead of Aldana and Spencer. Spencer qu ickly overt ook Alda na a nd trailed Coole y by a few ya rds with Alda na several m ore back. Klinzma nn , on the Ra cecraft ers Kawasaki, an d Roberto Pietri, on th e RSC H on d a , ran 4·5. Lawson was about ·12th . The lead pa ir ste adi ly pulled away fro m th e pack,' and in th e first half of th e fou rth lap , Sp encer took the lead . Beh ind Aldana, Klinzmann a nd Pietri ba ttled for fourth in front of Carry Andrew , Chuck Parrne, Mike Spencer , John W ~o , Joe Patton , Kerry Bryant and Rock y Phoenix. Once in front , Spencer me thodicall y opened up a seven -second lead on Coole y, who had a sim ilar adva ntage over Aldana. Klin zmann and Pietri had a ba ttl e for fou rth. In sixth was An drew's Hyper -Cycle Kawasaki, and Parme (GSM/ Kal·Gard Kaw) led Mike Spencer's lit tle Kawasaki . T he last ha lf of th e race was, with few exceptions, a follow the lea d er affa ir. Spe ncer' s new compound rear tire went awa y a bit during the latter laps and he slid a bi t, but sa id " it wasn 't anyt hing really dangerous. " Cooley's second netted him the points lead with three rounds remaining in the series . Aldana's third also kep t him up in points. Fourth went to Pietri, with Klinz mann dropping 'ou t late in the race, repor ted ly due to clutch problems. Andrew finished fourth while Mike Spe ncer (" I had to ride th e wheels off it") got aroun d Parme to fin ish sixth on th e underpowered 855cc Kawasaki. Bryant (Kaw), Phoenix (Kaw) and, Patton (Suz) rounded out the top 10 . 7