Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

in last year' s series , but was back again on his self-sponsored TZ750, along with Match Race rookie Mark Homchick from California on Paul Dahmen's sim ilar bike. Finally, wh en at one stage it seemed as if Baldwin would be unable to mak e th e series due to prior testing co mitmen ts a t Riverside, he nom in ated his fri end Alan Ward, a Canadian-born club racer from Connecticut to fill his pl ace on a .TZ750 which Mik e sold to Ward. After efforts to co n tac t Thad ' Wolff and Richard Chambers a t Imola failed, the organizers accepted th e offer, and Ward jetted to England a t 48 hours' notice. Baldwin also turned up aft er finding Riverside dug up, so th at meant the U.S. team had one reserve rider. Aga in st th e Yanks were ranged a British team that was very nearly at full strength - only Mick Grant could fairl y claim to have wrongly been left out. Team captain Barry Sheene, h is confidence boosted by a rousing second place in the Argentine GP on his first ride under a halfmillion dollar sponsorship deal with the john Player tobacco company, had Suzuki teamsters Roger Marshall and last year' s high point scorer john Newbold alon gside him on 1000cc dual -ign ition four-stroke FI mach ines. Suzuki GB 's ris ing Grand Prix sta r Keith Huewen was aboard Randy Mamola 's RG500 from last year . British cham pi on Bob Sm ith mad e h is Ma tch Race de but o n a new customer R G , as did Ch ris Guv a nd R G privateer Gary Lingham. Steve Henshaw had a TZ750 that was im. ported bra n d new from the States last spring. G raha m Wood a lso waved the Yamaha flag on a customer 50Occ, while rounding out the British team originally was winner of one of last year's races at Mallory Park, Honda U K teamster Ron Ha sla m. But in a frightening practice cras h a t Brands Hatch on Thursda y, which was captu red by the TV cameras and replayed to mi llions of viewers as a prelude to the same-day televising of four of the Match Races, the throttle of Haslam 's 11 23cc Honda Superbi ke st uck open at the not oriously tricky Paddoc k Bend an d Hasla m cras hed when he co u ld n ot shu t the engine orr kill bu ttons are not req ui red in Britain . H as lam was re la tive ly unsca thed, tho ugh severely sha ken with a pavement ras h. " Rocket Ro n 's" p lace was taken by Yama ha 500mounted Steve Pa rrish , still nursing the effects of a broken clavicle sustai ned two weeks earlier a nd which had been pin ned to a llow h im to ride in this weekend's importan t events for British sponsors and ri ders. T hursday p ractice a t Brands H a tch brought good news a nd bad fo r th e Am erican team . T he bad wa s th at Alda na's and War d 's bikes were still stuck in Briti sh customs. Whilt' t he cheerfu l Mexican-Ameri can probably knows his way arou nd Brands as well as most of th e Brits, this was more seriou s f o r th e C onn e c ti cu t rookie, who conseq ue ntly got h is first glimpse of the circ uit on race day. The good news was th at both Spencer an d Baldwin were cu tti ng som e extre mely fast times, lik ely to give Sheen e a nd the rest of the home riders some ca use for concern. BRANDS HATCH, ENGLAND, APR . 9 With Great Britain in th e grip of a ecession deeper than anything th e USA has expe rienced this side of 1933, the rac e promoters must have n mighty relieved a t the su bstanial cro wd that turned up on a br igh t ut bitterly co ld da y on Good Friday o wat ch th e first two rounds in th e eries. Crow ds th roughout th e weeknd were good a nd, at Oulton Pa rk n Monday, rather h igher th an last . . . . year. Since it's generally accepted that the income generated by the Match Races supports racing at th e three British tracks concerned for th e rest of the year , the imponanceof the crowd figures sh ou ld not be underestimated. A spatt er of light ra in fell as the teams came out for the first race; for tunately it soon stopped without really dampening the track , and proved to be the only precipitation a ll weekend. A stan-line footballsty le huddle had the U. S. tea m psyched up: " Give 'em hell" was " EI Capitan" Aldana ' s advice , whil e British team manager Ted Broad's ins tructio ns to h is squad were more devious: " Forget th ev're Yanks." he told h is men : " just pretend th ey'r e Argentiniansl" As the flag fell Roger Marshall used the torque of hi s four-stroke Suzuki to head into Paddock Bend first, chased by Mike Baldwin, Freddie Spencer and Dale Singleton . Sheene was fifth , but by the end of that first lap of the 2.61-mile circui t he and Spencer were running second and fourth , Barry blasted past Marshall on th e second lap to lead th e race: It wa s Argentin a all over aga in - but without the vital ingredient of Kenny Roberts. This time though the NS500Honda was no match for the Yama ha, a nd it took a ll Spencer's skill and knowledge of the Bra nds track wh ere he devastated th e Brits on h is first ap pearan ce in Europe th ree years ago, to stay in to uch with th e flyi ng Shee ne. Ba ld win too wa s riding the wheels o ff th e Mo riwaki Honda , whose las t year's Superbi ke engine, fitted after Daytona, was si milarly u na ble to keep o n terms wi th the '82 Suzuki o f Marshall. Beh in d, a solid pack of Brits filled out the top 10, with Wood leading a scrappi ng Newbold and Lingham, followed by Smith in turn hot ly pursued by Schlachter, who'd got the better of Da le Singleton. On la p nine though, Schlach ter slow ed with a broken piston ring and detonation, event ually lim p ing home 14th. T his left Aldana, ma ki ng his way u p th e field af ter a slow sta rt , in n inth , ahead of Singleto n, wh o was having a race- lo ng dice with Henshaw. Superior ri ding by th e Georg ia n saw h im home j ust a hea d o f the fa ster bik e at the end. Ri ch ich i and Homchick - the la tter learn ing the circui t in the co urs e of the race - broug h t up the rear. On the last la p wha t seemed set to be a comfortable wi n on points for the home team turn ed into a rou t, when Sheene took the flag wav ing to the crowd, wit h no Spencer in sig h t. Fredd ie had sensatio na lly cras hed the Honda at the tight Dru ids right hander when the th ro ttle stuck open a bou t 200 yards fur th er on from where Hasla m had had h is inci dent. T h is time.the ri der was a ble to wa lk h ome, lookin g more than so mew ha t she ll shocked by the experience, bu t th e bik e was a total write-o rr: bent fra me, forks, smas hed tank an d fa iring, with u ndisclosed but presumabl y considerable interna l en gi ne damage into the bargain . " I h ave no idea wh at made it happen," said a disconsolate Freddie later, " I only know I'v e never tri ed so hard in my life to get a bik e slo wed down without damaging it - brak es on, clutch in an d trying to find th e kill button. I'm sick." Whil e a team of 14 Keihin technicians joined a similar team alread y wor kin g on the Haslam carb problem within si x hours of a telex hummin g back to j apan wi th details of the incident, Freddie 's TransAtlantic series was o ver. With insufficie nt spares to rebuild th e bik e, an d hi s spare m a ch in e a lready in j a pan u ndergoi n g pre pa ra tio n for the Austr ian GP, Spencer had no option but , to w ithdraw , H onda U K readi ly CN 00 O"l Top scorer Barry Sheene is trailed by Mike Baldwin, volu n teered the loan of one of their FI bikes, but with th e gearchange on the " wrong" (Europea n) side, Fred di e declined and jetted home to Louisiana th e next da y. T his double blow took the sting out of the series, a n d from then on th e Bri ti sh team were for egone win ne rs. A double blow? Not o n ly was Freddie ou t of th e rest of the ra ces, but he failed to score any points a t all in his on ly race . From n ow o n Alan Ward beca me a fu ll-fledged team member, bu t it was asking too m uch of th e rookie to try to fill Spe ncer's place. Whi le his Honda teammate cras hed out of th e series, Ba ldwin was busily trying to find a wa y a round Marsh all's fast er bike - without succes s, for o n the last lap he bent a valve in his efforts to snatch second place, with the en gi ne ex piring in a cloud of smo ke just as he crossed the line in th ird. Aldana was th e Yan ks' next highest scorer in eighth, so the race saw a British walkover 89-47, in sp ite o f Huewen retiring with a broken coi l, and Chris Gu y seizin g his new RG500 for the fifth time in two days o n th e warm-u p lap . Despa ir in g o f ever getting the bike to run properly he wi thd rew fro m the Brit ish team. This meant bo th reserves, Ward a nd Parris h , wo u ld co ntest th e full series from now on. Team Ho nda effected a snappy engine change on the Ba ld win bike in the interval, whi le Wes Coo ley l Sth in th e first race - insta lled new cl utch plates to try to cure per manent slippi ng. At the flag in race two Shee ne cha rge d into a n immediate lead fro m wh ich he never di slodged, trailed closel y by Marsha ll w ho was ridi ng a t th e very peak of h is form. The pair fin ished a seco nd apart aft er th e 13 laps; 22 seconds a head of the rest of th e field. Init ially, Mik e Baldwin held down a secu re th ird place, till ca ug ht by a battling tri o of Huewen, Wood and Roberto Pi etri, who'd now decided his RG500 was ready to tak e some stick and was riding with gr eat verve and attack. Roberto swoope d insi de Huewen on th e Iast left-hander a t H awthorn's to pl ace third ; the pair having demoted Baldwin to fifth as th e Honda 's new engine refu sed to rev over 9,000 and event ually lost power badl y in th e clos ing laps. Mike was al so pick ed off by Bob Smith to even tua lly place seventh. Singleton got the better of Gary Lingham th is ti me, wh il e Cooley overcame fur th er clutch problems to pl ace 10th , just ahead of Henshaw who suffered a partial seizure on his TZ750. Behind, Schlachter - star of th e Ame rica n squad last year - was fra n k eno ug h to ad mit to being jus t plain o u t of.t h ~ . groove: " I just don 't know what was wrong, but I simply couldn't get it together. I could say I was worried what was going to happen to the bike next, we have so much trou ble keepin g it running in one pi ece anymore. But it wasn't th e bike - it was me. G uess I'm go ing to have a good talk wi th myself before Mallory." Wh ile Ward toured ar ou nd and learned th e circ ui t as he went, th e ot her U .S. teams ter s all suffered pro blems. H omchick retired o n lap fou r with third and fourt h gear absent, while Aldana was in fou rth place on the first lap befo re losing his right footpeg and - even more important - the rear brake lever on his Vesco Yamaha. T ypically tenacious, Dave rode th e wh ol e race with hi s right foot da ngling in the air and using th e front brake j udiciousl y; he still beat Nick y Rich ich i, who was tro u bled by a n ignition misfire through the race. . In the fina l laps Huewen mounted a big effort to repass Pi etri for th ird , with 'the Venezue la n ma ki ng a big comeback on the lin e to fin ish half a length down . Brita in won the round 87-49, a nd led after the first day by 176 to 96. As a com peti tive series, the 1982 Match Races were dead. MALLO RY PARK , ENGLAN D, APR. I I When the tea ms reassem bled at the twisty little Mallory Park circuit, the princi pa l so u rce of interes t wa s whether Barry Sheen e co u ld relieve Marlboro of their $40,000 Gra nd Slam bo nus pr ize for becomin g the first man to win all six races in a series. But just as las t year, when Randy Mamola seem ed in line for a shot at th e prize, Mallory pro ved to be the graveyard of hopes for a biK pa yda y. Paul Dahmen a nd Don Vesco had stayed up till 3 a.m. th e nigh t before re bu il di n g the gearbox on Homchick's bik e afte r tra ci n g th e necessary pans; Richichi was on his th ird igniti on unit (a n d when th at lunched out in p ractice he had to borrow o ne from Schla ch ter ); Aldana had spe nt Friday evening looki ng for his brake pedal at th e po int it fell off at Brands (he found itl); and Richard Schlachter had had his ta lk with h imself, decided th at he'd co me to race, an d was raring to go. Cooley and Ba ldw in were particularly looking forward to a circuit which suited the en gine braking and torque of their big four-strokes. But th e big news was that runnerup in both the Brands races, Roger Mar sh all, had been rush ed to th e hospita l on Friday n ight with severe sto mach pains. After di agnosing an a ttack of ga llstones, th e doctors let , h i ~ n.h~

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