DayloftG'81
00
Cj)
ICIoc:kwiM from top left) Def8l1dillg Superbike Ch8mplon W. Cooley awt8d off the ..-on with I IW'd-fought win. Honde'. Mikl Spellcer finilhed fifth
lifter running off the trick. Eddie uWIOn'. reCl ended premlturely Ifter "'ding due to 011 1.lltIgI. Fredell SPIIIC_ ~ eway from . . stIIkmoIdng
pit I,.. following hia fiery gas .top. He .till finished third.
AMA Superbike Series: Round 1
Cooley, Croz
banzai Bell
Saperbike 100
By Charles Morey
DAYTONA BEACH, FL, MAR. 6
Yoshimura Suzuki teamstersrWes Cooley and
Graeme Crosby slashed through the field of
1981 Bell Superbike lOO contenders with the
14 merciless efficiency of Samurai warriors. Only
one rider, Team Honda's world
class bayou boy Freddie Spencer,
could offer a serious challenge to
the dominant duo. And Spencer's
effon nearly ended in flames at a mid·
race pit stop.
Predictions for the season or.,ener
could only be based on qualifying
times, a new method of determining
staning grid positions for Daytona's
Superbike event. (Heat races have de·
cided grid positions in previous yean.)
And in those qualifying laps, Team
YOIIhimura shone brightest. Reigning
AMA Superbike Champion Wes
Cooley and last year's Daytona winner
Oraerne Crosby scorched the 5.87 ·mile
road course late Thunday afternoon
in dose fonnation drafting each other
to take the top times, ablolutely identical to the nearest thousandth of a
second: 2:07.8261
Freddie Spencer's CB900·bued Team
Honda Superbike howled to within
one IIeCOIld of the Yoehimura machines
with a third best time ofl!:08. 719.
Team Kawasaki's runner-up in the
controvenial 1980 Superbike Championship, Eddie Lawson, wrung a
founh fastest lap out of an obviously
slower machine at 2:09.594 for a front
row staning spot. Moriwaki Kawasakimounted Wayne Gardner put an
Auuie on row one by turning the fifth
quickest lap with a 2: 11.228 time.
Rounding out the top 10 qualiflen
were Team Honda's Mike Spencer
(2:12.245); Canadian Kawasaki entry
Lang Hindle (2:14.754); Team Kawasaki's Dave Emde (2:14.926); Team
Honda's resident Venezuelan Roberto
Pietri (2:15.044) and Harry KIinzmann
on the Racecrafen International Kawasaki with a 2: 15.824 lap.
Observen on the staning grid im·
mediately chose the favorites for the
llpCOIDing battle, one that would lee at
