Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

(Top to bottom) Baldwin signals wh i le going into the chicane . Crosby gets a champagne shower in t he w inner's circle . Steve Wise 's seventh place gave him the Winston Pro lead . DII~tonll ZOO (Continued / rom page 9) 26 as sembly ready a nd performed the change with amazing quickness. Obviously, changes had been practiced o ver and over. Spen cer was in on th e n ex t la p a n d hi s rear wheel /tire ch anged a lso. Ea ch wa s a lso fue led although th is was five or m ore laps before th eir sched u led gas stop and would later ca use both to make an extra stop. While this act ivity was goi ng on, La wson was calm ly and method ically advan cing u p th e ladder. Wi th Spe ncer's sto p, he took over first foll ow ed b y Crosb y , Co ole y , Schl a ch t er , Singl et on , Pi etr i, Br aun eck , Wolff , G erv ais a n d Richichi. T h e cast o f to p ten pl ayers was a lmost set, yet the finish wa s 40 laps away. T he sched u led gas stops began on lap 17, a nd Cro sb y took th e lead when Lawson hit th e pits. Lawson came back in second. Cooley, run ni ng a stron g th ird, slipped back quickly and was o u t o f th e race by gas time. Bo th Pietri and Wise had th eir tir es inspected in th eir p it stops. On lap 20, Lawson regained th e lead a nd would ho ld it until lap 27. Du rin g th at peri o d Crosb y to ok second from Wolff with Spencer moving into third as Wolff's p it stop took a long ti me. Schlachter a n d Singleton were fo~rth a nd fifth. Tire problems again hit Bald win as he slowed and went to the pits on lap 26 for a new rear tire. H e had been running fifth a t the time. Spe ncer made three more laps and went in for his new rubber and gas on lap 29. Meanwhile, Lawson's front-running ride had come to an end. He had pitted unexpectedly on lap 28, gotten off the bike to inspect the chain and then gone on his way. Two laps la ter, Lawson parked th e bike for good. " T h e chain started to stretch," explained Lawson. " It began to jump off the sp roc ket and put stress on the gearbox. I was sh ifti ng to fourth when a tooth bro k e off the rear sprocket. It ' s been a frustrating weekend." Crosby had taken the lead on lap 28 and would not relinquish it for the remai nder of th e race. Coup led with Spencer's tire ch a nge, Crosby inherited about a 33 second lead over Schlachter with Singleton about 12 seconds behind second place. Meanwhile, Spencer was coming back strong. With a harder compound, h e was cu tting a bo ut three seconds a lap off Crosby's leading pace. However. he was still over a minute behind. On la p 34. Bra u neck, who had bee n running fo u rt h in the gas stop shuffle. came in for h is stop. Apparentl y. h e slipped off the edge of the pit road apron. hit soft sand and went out of control at a high rate of speed. The bike and Bra un eck cartwheeled down the area near the track with the bi ke striki ng a trac k support truck. He was taken from the track to H ali fa x Hospital for observation and X-rays. Schlachter's second place ride came to an end on lap 36 with unexplained mechanical problems. Spencer was n ow in second behin d Cro sby. T hird belonged to P ietri with Singleton. Wo lff. Gervais. Rich ich i, Wise and Filice following. As the laps ran out. Wolff dropped to eighth aft er a long pit stop as the crew checked his tires . Richichi lo st his bra kes and slipped to 10th . Around lap 45 Ba ldwin had moved himself into fourth whil e Wise moved up behind Gervais to seventh. There was still a bit of drama to be played out. Spencer was still cutting three or more seconds off Crosby's lead a nd had whittled it to II seconds by lap 45. Cro sby. aw ar e of Spen cer co m in g on stro n g, kept up his steady 2 min .• 07 sec. pace. However, Spencer had to stop to top hi s gas and los t an addi tional nine seconds. Ba ldwin carnein for ga s on la p 47. T h e chase wa s on to th e flag. Spencer cu t the margin do wn to 11 on ce a ga in - and ran out of time . Baldwin had to co me in on th e wh ite flag for more gas . Crosb y a n d Sin gl eton , wh o was trying to avoid being lapped, ra ced to th e flag with th e advan tage to Crosby by a si ngle bikelength. Crosby had lap ped a ll but th e top four. Tea m leader Giacomo Ago st ini, th e Da ytona 200 winner in 1974, wa s a ll smi les. Crosby, wh o had gotten th e Tea m Marlboro /Agost ini ride a fter bo th 500cc World Champion Marco Lu cchinelli a n d Barry Sheene h ad turned it down . had paid off th e ga m ble handsomely. • Results 1. Grllme Crosby (Vl ml;2. Freddie Splnelf (H 3. Roberto on); Pi. tri ( H on~ 4. Mik, Baldwin (Hon); 5. 0.1. Singllwn (Vi m); 6. Stn, G.rvais(Y m); 7. 51," Wisl (H 8. ThadWotff (Suz); 9. l an): Jimmy Fi ice (Vim); 10. N Richichi(V l iti am); 11. Bnu::. Hammer (Su.); 12. Greg Smrz (Yaml; 13. David Chaok (Yom); 14. O ovo Schlasllr (Yam): 1S. Kun Liebmann (Vam) 18. Jim Young ; (V m): 17. Je" Heino (Suz): 18. Jimmy Ad i lma IDuel 19. D : ..... Emdo (Ya 10. Wayno Canalo IVoml. m): Time: 1 hr.• SO min.• ",5.686 SIC.. A",ago Spood; 109.103 mph. (Rem)

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