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Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/126482
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Freddie Spencer leeds Kenny Roberta in a wheelie battle early in the race.
AMA Grand National
Championship/Winston Pro Series: Round 17
Experience prevai 5 in
Laguna Seca's
King vs. Kid battle
By Dale Brown
Photos by Mark Kariya and Charles Morey
MONTEREY. CA, AUG . 3
They stayed close as they ran away from the
pack in the early laps but in both 62.7 -mile
heats , Yamaha's King Kenny Roberts pulled
away from Fast Freddie Spencer to win easily in
the Champion Spark Plug 200km
AMA/Winston Pro Series Formula O ne road race.
Roberts, riding the same 500cc
6
Yamaha he will use to try and clinch
his third World Road Racing Championship in Brita in next weekend, diced
with Spencer through the first half of
each race, then rode off to secure 12·
13 second leads. In the second heat ,
Spencer was the only rider to stay on
the same lap with Roberts.
The grid for the first heat was set by
riders' fastest laps in timed practice.
Roberts won the pole, Spencer was
second fastest on the Irv Kanemoto
750cc Yamaha, and third spot on the
grid went to Wes Coo ley on t he
Yoshimura Suzu ki fou r -stroke . Fresh
Meadows , NY's N icky Ri chichi was
fourth fastest q u a lifier on his privateer
Yamaha , a nd Gen nad y Liu bimsky
rounded out t he front row . However.
Liubimsky was unable to start due to a
crash in the Lightweight Expert race .
Wes Cooley thundered in to the lead
as the race got underway, followed by
Robe rts , John Bettencourt and Mark
Jones. Spencer was back a few slots but
by the second lap had moved to fourth
behind Cooley, Roberts and Bettencourt.
On lap three of the 33·lap race ,
Roberts and Spencer moved to posi tions one and two and began to pull
away from the pack. They began a
series of lead changes that would last
for the next six laps.
Behind them . Cooley held third
ahead of Bettencourt . JOOf'S . Richard
Schlachter, Harrv Klinzmann , Steve
Gervais , Mike Co'; e and Ge,U' i,oJnf'ro.
That order was changed when Jones
bailed off in turn two on the sixth lap he walked away from it. A cou pl.. of
laps later, Cooley coasted to a stop off
the co u rse in turn six, t he victim of
either a dropped valve or broken crank.
At the one- th ird mark Ro berts had
recovered the lead from Spencer ,
Schlac hter had made secu re his sixth
lap pass on Bettencourt . and Klinzm ann
a nd Rom ero comprised the rest of the
top five.
. Out front. Roberts still had the lead
and also still had a Louisiana teenager
glued solidly to his yellow and black
fender. They had about six seconds on
Schlachter, who in turn, had another
eight seconds on Bettencourt. Klinzmann held fourth, while Nicky Rich ichi moved by Ro m ero for fifth.
Just past the halfway point, Spencer
regained the lead for two laps. but
then King Kenny got it back and started turning up the wick. "My plan was
to keep Freddie's pac.. early on, We
were going fairly fast , at 80%. You put
in another 10% , which makes 90% .
and you're going to go a little faster.
That's what happened . I wanted to go
a little faster at the end and save the
tires at the beginning , which made it
look like a showmanship race, but it
wasn't ," said Roberts later.
As Spencer saw Roberts start to dis appear, Klinzmann saw his fifth place
disappear as he had some problems
and dropped to eighth. Richichi had
fifth ahead of Romero. David Emde
and Klinzmann.
While Roberts departed from the
nearest rider, lie reeled off a few laps
in the one minute, eight second bracket.
Spencer's second place was in little
danger as he held a 20 'second lead on
Schlachter, bu t his Ya maha's monoshock was beginning to fade.
As the race wore down to th e last
laps , Roberts la pped riders u p to sixt hplace Romero. Spencer had a ha nd y
second over Schlac hter, Bett encou rt
and R ichichi. Behind Rome ro , Ernde ,
Miles Bal d win . Klinz m a nn and Cone
rounded out the top 10.
In the second heat Spencer, whose
crew had torn down the monoshock
and put fresh oil in it, shot out into the
lead and had several bikelengths' advantage on Schlachter, Roberts, Bettencourt. Cone and Romero at the end
of the first 1.9 miles.
Ro berts passed Schlachter on lap
two and began to close on Spencer irnmediately . By the fourth lap they were
engaged in another pass and repass
duel that had the approximately 20,000strong crowd loving every minute of it.
A close battle was going on for
third, with Schlachter working hard to
hold off Bettencourt. A little further,
back, Cooley and his freshly-engined
Suzuki were making tremendous gains
through the pack after having started
back on the second wave.
As the Roberts/Spencer duel continued, it became clear that Roberts'
500 was at no disadvantage in power
compared to Spencer's 750 . Several
times, King Kenny. used the front
straightway to pull up on and overtake
Spencer .
.
A t t he one-third mark, those closest
to the front ru nn ing duo were Schlachter,
Bettencou rt , Cooley , Rom ero , Bruce
Hammer, Gervais a nd R ichichi.
. Klinzm a n n pulled into the pits, ou t of
the race.
Rob er ts and Spencer had p ulled a
lot further ahead of the pack than they
had in the first heat. Lap 13 was Speno
cer's fina l one in the point position,
and then Robe rts took over and repeated what he did in the first heat , this
time clipping off a couple of la ps in
the I :07 range, good for about 102
mph on the twisty course.
Schlachter continued on his third
place ride, with Bettencourt some distance behind, and Cooley a little ways
behind him . In sixth was Hammer,
followed fairly closely by Romero and
Gervais.
With the race just past the threequarter point, Roberts came up to lap
Cooley and did, but Wes pulled off
into the pits on the following lap with
another sour engine.
With about four la ps re maining,
Roberts lapped Schlachter, making his
record-setting 29th Natinal win a dorninating one,
Roberts took the checke red flag and
rod e up to victory circle, where he
thanked promoter Lee Moselle and the
Champion Spa rk Plug people for
helping him m ak e it to th e race.,
Roberts also sp oke wryly of a rabbi t
who crossed his path between turns
seven and eight , three laps from the
fini sh . " I was afraid it was gonna outaccelerate mel" quipped Roberts , adding t hat he expected it to DNF. "It was
lea kin' litt le ball s of oil . . ."
Spencer's second netted him 16
points towards Rookie of the Year
honors. He'll leave for England
early in the week to compete in the
British 500cc GP at Silverstone.
Third place meant a good step for
Schlachter in his bid for a second U. S.
road racing title. He thanked sponsors
Microlon, Castrol, Sky Cycles, Arai
and Bob McLean .
•
Results
FORMULA ONE: 1. Kenny Roberts. 1·1 (Yam); 2.
Freddie Spencer, 2·2 (Yaml; 3 . Rdl Schlacl1ter. 3-3
!Yam); 4. John Bettencourt. 4-4 (Yaml; 5. Gene
Romero, 6--6 IYam); 6. Nicky Richichi. 5-8 (Yaml ; 7.
David Emde. 7·10 (Yaml: 8. S teve Gervais. 11-7 (Yaml;
9. Mile Baldwin. fl.11 IYaflll; 10. Cory Ruppelt . 12·9
!Yam); 11. Wally Chambers. 13-12 IYam); 12. Bruce
Hammel'. 22-5 (Ydtnl; 13. Bobettc Ptetri. 16-13 (Yaml;
14. Hap Eaton , 1416 IYam);
FIRST HEAT TIME: 38:47.130
AVERAGE SPEED 96.995 mph
:
SECOND HEAT TIME: 38:07.306
AVERAGE SPEED: 98.680 mph.
AMA GRAND NATIONAl CHAMPIONSHIPIWINCI
STON PRO SERIES POINT STANOINGS: 1. Randy
Go.. (1081 2. Honk Scott 11 001 3. Ricky Gr.ham (891
;
;
;
4. St..... MotohMd (851: 5. Mike Kidd (82); 6. Sc:o<1
Pork., (811: 7. S