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o
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(Above) Mike Baldwin will get one of the two Honda FWS 1OOOcc V-4s.
(Below left) Privateer Doug Polen was fourth at the Daytona 'S1 seasonender. (Below) Frenchman Marc Fontan was second last year.
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body to an up-fro nt fin ish and haven 't
had lengthy reliability wit h the fastest
riders. Look at Freddie Spencer. He
led the race last year on a Honda four
stro ke, but didn 't finish. And this
year he's riding a new machine, a V-4
that's untested a.s far as being actu a lly
race proven.
The Four-Strokes
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I thin k that from the point of massive effort, Honda is n u m ber one in
the four-stroke category. They'll be
run ni n g an interesting group of machines. Freddie and Mike Baldwin
will be on the new FWS V-4 watercooled machines while Ro bert o P ietri will be ridin g an inline fou rcylinder with a Moriwaki aluminum
ch assis. The Moriwaki fram e is an
improvement over what American
Honda's been running to date. But
the FWS is totally u nt ried in the heat
o f actua l compen tro n. Fred tu rned
2:03 lap times in p re- Day to na test ing
which is just a seco nd off the all -out
lap record owned by Kenny Roberts
on a 750 when 750s weren 't restricted.
But will it last?
I thi nk Robert o 's machine is the
odds-on reliability favorite of the
group. The engine is known to be
relia ble , if it's ri dden at rpm limits
necessary for it to live for 200 miles.
H e h as the best cha nce of finish in g
with a Honda.
