Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

(Clockwise from above) Teammates Roberto Pietri. Freddie Spencer and Mike Baldwin whoop it up. Eddie Lawson (21) leads Pietri in a battle for third early on. Lawson smoked his tire badly on the start and lost ground on the front-runners. Steve WIS8 overcame problems in his road race debut for eighth. nd Pietri leadi ng th e charge dow n it lan e, o nto th e access road an d o u t nto th e in field portion of th e 3.8i ile co m bined oval/in field course. pencer had go tten off slowly, b u t o rse o ff was L aw so n w ho h ad rnok ed hi s tire badl y a nd was about Oth headin g onto th e track . La wson ad been lat e to grid, his bike shown g up whe n th e four-m inu te sign as ou t. Ba ldw in led th e first lap follow ed lo sely by Pietri, then Spen cer , Wise, oley, Thad Wolff, Lawson, H arry l inzmann , Ra in ey - havin g near ly orted o u t th e handlin g problem s a t pl agued him early in the wee k a nd Doug Po len . Spencer d idn 't wait long to assert imse lf, picki ng o ff Pietri an d then u tb rak in g Baldwin as he zipped to the chicane on lap two for the ad . From there o n, th e race belo nge d Spe nce r as h e left th e rest to fig ht r seco nd. And wh a t a fight it wa s. Wise , in is first-ever Superbi ke race (an d prossional road racin g de bu t) showed o respec t for Ba ldwin or Pi etri. Ea rer Wise h ad said , "Freddi e qual ifi ed ree secon ds faster th an m e a nd th at goi ng to be a lo t to ma ke u p." Meanwh ile , La wson was slici ng hi s way through traffic, m oving past a nice duel between Cooley and Ra iney. By lap fi ve he was fifth . Spen cer had a thr ee seco n d lead o n lap five a n d h ad beg u n la p pin g traffi c o n la p three. In quick success ion, Rain ey slo wed a bit whi le Co o ley tagged onto Lawso n. T he two th en mo ved up on th e Pi etri/Wise or Wise/P ietri du el as th ey traded th ird . Lawson wa ited an d th en pounced , giving h im third on lap seven . Pietri a nd La wson, wi th Wise in tow, wen t back an d forth. On la p 10 Wise made th e m ista ke whic h took him o u t of solid contention. He charged, going hi gh near the wa ll at the entrance to tu rn one in a n attempt to slip pas t Pietri. He ran o u t o f track a nd went onto the grass, sta yi ng up and losin g litt le time. " Being an MXer I just wa nt ed to try the d irt once, " joked Wise afterwa rds. Two laps later Wise hi t some oi l, got into a sl lde.nnd th o ugh t it wa s coming fro m h is bi ke. He slowed immediat el y, a nd, in do ing so, lost a lap before a chec k in the pi ts - when he gassed - sh owed no problem . Gas sto ps bega n on laps 12/ 13 which jumbled up the field a bit. By lap 16, Spe nce r wa s back o u t front with a lO-second lead. Law son, who h adn ' t g assed, was seco n d with Baldwin , P ietri, Co ol ey an d Ra iney foll owin g. "Somebody b lew a n engi n e arou nd lap 12 a nd coa ted m y faceshield," sai d Ra iney. " I h ad to ta ke it easy . T h ere were o nly two pl aces I could see ou t o f an d it was a bit scary." Bald win , in th ird, was beginni ng to scra tch h is head a bit a bo u t Law so n . Was he or wa sn 't he goin g to gas? Lawson go t La p 2, Lap I a nd then Gas signs on laps 18, 19 a nd 20. He kep t going. " I had backed off a bi t u nti l I real ized th at La wso n was going to try and run the full 100 m iles without a stop, " said Ba ldwin. " T hen I cran ked it o n and began to cat ch h im. It co u ld hav e been a last lap das h to th e flag, but he ra n out of gas just a s we wer e heading o u t of th e infield ." " I took a gambl e," said Lawson after wa rd . "The gas tank is bigger (six ga llons) o n the new bike a nd we ha d ru n some tests where I basically got I00 m iles from it. I had a ch a nce so I took it rather than p lay safe." Law son shrugged h is sh oulders. He had coast ed to a ha lt a bo u t two miles • • • I. I , 1 J • • I ~ - ha lf a la p - fro m the fin ish . He too k sixth. Spencer had nearly 20 seco n ds o n th e field a t th e fi n ish a nd had lapped through seventh place. That was Thad Wolff. who had plugged away a ll day for h is first Daytona fin ish . Fo llowing Wolff to set th e to p I0 were Steve Wise a n d p rivateer s Art Ko w itz, Rusty Sh arp a nd Rich Ch am bers. . " It 's grea t to win ," said Spencer. " It 's funn y, but th at last lap seemed so lon g an d I co uldn 't wai t for it to get over . T h is is th e wa y to beg in a seaso n." ] ust to keep everyo ne hon est , Wes Cooley had the AMA run a fuel ch eck on th e Ho nda ga s. "T hey were us in g an addit ive," said Cooley. " It pa ssed, th at's a ll I ca n sa y. Ijus t wa nted to be sure everyth ing was all righ t." • Result s 1. Fredd ie Spen cer (Hon); 2. M ike Baldw in IH on); 3. Robeno Pietr i (Hon); 4 . Wa s Cooley (Suz); 5. W ayne Rain ey (Kaw ); 6 . Eddie Lawson (Kaw ); 7 . Th ad Wo lff (Su z); 8 . Steve Wise (Hon ); 9 . An Kow itz (Kaw); 10. Rusty Sharp (Hon); 11. Richard Chambers (Kaw ); 12. Norm Murph y (Suz); 13. Joe Patto n (Hon); 14 . George Morin (Suz); 15 . Orner Nona n (5 uz); 16. Tony DeSimone (Kaw ); 17. Michael Cesey (Kaw ); 18. Rueben M cM u rt er (Kaw); 19. Scott Ch isolm (Suz); 20. Ikuo Kusama (Han). TIME : 55 min.. 29.471 sees. AVERAGE SPEED: 108.796 mph (Record). 11

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