Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

EddIe I.JIvdon lleft) end Ron PIerce hold the winners' trophy.1oft. Bruce Hemmer I.bov. right) telImed with John Ulrich for IHICOfld, unofflc:l8lly fIv. Ieps shy. Lawson/Pierce 'brew it to lem' atAFM Budweiser Six-Hour By Dele Brown Photos by Merk Keriya, Cheri.. Morey end Brown RIVERSIDE, CA, JULY 26 Team Kawasaki's Eddie Lawson and Ron Pierce smoothly guided their works Superbike around Riverside International Raceway, sPending all but a few of their 175 laps in the lead as they won the American Federation of Motorcyclists' Budweiser Six-Hour endurance road ra~. . Everything went so smoothly 14 I can't believe it," said Lawson later with a big grin. "Kawasaki did such a Kood ~reparing the bikes, and I had a partner. With that kind of combination, it's hard to lOR." Second overall went to the 1200cc Suzuki-powered Team Hammer machine of Bruce Hammer and John Ulrich. According to early, and highly unofficial rcsu1ts, they fmished five laps down on the leaden. Third overall, pending the filing of a protest, went to the booming l000cc San JOR BMW twin of David Emde and Hany K1inzmann. The apparent fourth place finishen, Rick Mitchell and Steve Sowden on an ll00cc Kawa· 1aIti, were positive that they had finiIbed ahead of Emde and Klinzmann, and indicated they would file a protest 0IICe the results were pcated. Results as of this writing are ~xtremely sketchy. "~ you're getting - ~ top ~ overall, responded AFM Scoring Director Rem juliaJleJ1 to our request for rcsu1ts. "Lawson, Hammer, and David Emde was third. That's all you're getting right now be· cause everything else is goofed up, and we've got to go through all the scoring slips. " It appean that fifth overall, fint in the 750cc class will go to Pat Eagan and Chris Steward on the California Suzuki of Orange GS750. And putting in an outstanding ride for an apparent sixth overall, fint 600cc class machine, was tbe Palo Alto Yamaha RD400 ridden by Louis Vallegra and Don Greene. A Saturday heat race set positions for the grid. The Lawson/Pierce machine won it to occupy the~, followed by the YOIhimura Suzuki of Gennady Liubimsky and Dennis Smith, and the Emde/KIinzmann Beemer. At 1 p.m. Sunday the six bour occupation of Riverside tarmac began. Lawson was quick.1y out from, setting lap times in the one minute, 56 second range. Liubimsk.y occupied second with Chuck. Parme nipping at his heels with the Panne/Whitney Blakeslee Champion M/C Kawasaki. Hammer was running fourth, followed by the Battle of the Twins·winning Ducati with jimmy Adamo at the helm. Lawson would be the fust of the front·runnen to pit. They had fitted a larger tank. with quick. fill provisions to Lawson's Laguna Seca Superbike winner, but they still planned to call him into the pits on lap 20. Lawson had built a 22·second margin by then, and when Pierce left the pits, Liubimsky had just gone past. Pierce and Luibimsky spent the next 15 minutes circulating nose to tail. At the SO-minute stage, the fint of the from-runnen to fall by the wayside fell by the wayside. Third place runner Panne coasted into the pits. "I think. there's a hole in one of the pistons," said Panne. "They gave me the five laps to pit sign and I went down into tum one and got really sideways. I looked on the right hand side and saw oil all over by the rear master cylinder. I thought that the master cylinder was leaking and getting oil on the rear tire. I continued around and thought I'd come in right away, but down the back. straight the motor just went and 1ock.ed up on me." At the one hour mark Liubimsky pitted, handing the bike to Smith and allowing Pierce to scoot into a more comfortable lead. Hammer was run· ningthird. Pierce had worked up to nearly a minute's lead over Smith when he pitted on lap 4ll. Along with taking on gas, tire wear was checked, so when Lawson got back. on the coune, Smith had just roared by. A few laps later, at the 1:50 marker on the race clock, Lawson regained the lead and was not to lose it again. By this point in the race the Eagan/ Steward Suzuki appeared to be in the lead of the 750cc class. "I didn't get any pit signals while I was riding (in the fint hour)," said Eagan, who had to start from the back. row of the grid after only completing two laps of the heat race. "But when I came in they told me I was probably in the lead. I went around the track. and I was racing with (Mark) Shelton a Iitde bit, and then I pulled away from him. I figured he'd be in the lead." The 600cc class had been in the hands of Vallegra and Greene from the start of the race. "We led the 600cc class from lap one," said Greene. "Our goal was to get into the top 10 overall. " Before the two-hour mark. the jimmy Adamo/Kurt Leon Ducati, which had been among the front runnen, suffered a broken chain. It was the fmt of four they would go through, but they IOIdiered on to finish the race. At the halfway point, Pierce and Lawson were still leading, and 10 minutes later they would get a big boost to their lead. Liubimsky pulled in for what would be a last pit stop. "Going into turn nine I went down a gear, and then down another gear, and the bike started this clanging DOise," said Liubimsk.y. "So I pulled in the clutch, went a little further, tried to start it again because I thought it was my imagination, but it wouldn't start, so I pulled into the pits." Ef· forts to revive the machine proved fruidess. Pulling in at about the same time was the Emde/KIinzmann BMW, plagued by a slipping clutch. They decided to continue on, but had to shift at 7000 rpm instead of the nonnal 8500. The final three houn proved to be nothing but a cakewalk. for Lawson and Pierce. Two tire changes cut into their lead little, if at all. Pierce took the final 2O-minute stint and received the checkered flag a couple of minutes before 7 p.m. "You get a partner Iik.e Eddie, and the Kawasaki people were working really well, and they were very patient with me coming back.. I just couldn't get a better opportunity. They really opened the door for me to have a good ride," said Pierce, who added, "I'd like to thank. Racecraften for their support and Eddie for asking Kawasaki to give me a call." This was Pierce's second consecutive Six·Hour win, and his fint race since a bad crash at Suzuka a year ago. Two off·track. excunioDl, one each by Hammer and Ulrich, didn't stop them from placing second, although they finished with a broken fairing and a missing ,hock. bolt. ''This finish proves that machinery is everything, and that with a (Byron) Hines motor, you're in the hunt," said Ulrich in victory circle. Team Hammer lists as its lIUpporten, its two riden Hammer and

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