Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

-Battle of the Twins ChampioQ By Don Laurino -Phot os by Gary Va'n Voorhis & Laurino Si nce th e ince p tion of th e Battle of th e T w ins class in 1 ow n has m ore or less belonged to T eam L eoni. Dur in g th e past tw o s , cati-mounted J im m y A da mo and master-tuner R eno L eoni have ro en emselves to be perhaps th e most consistent performers in AMA road racing. T eam Leoni has posted an im pressive record of 13 f irsts, th ree seconds and three thirds in 19 starts . Not on ly h ave J im m y an d R en o tak en first place seven out of the last nine titn "es out .the» have scored cham p io nship p oints in every BOTT race they hat - ever run . e . imy;'w ho h ails from Lo ng Island, New Yor k, started racing m o tocross'i n 1971 at th e a e of 16. A fter f ive years bad kn ees convinced h im to go road racing. In 1979 II as AAMR R 250cc cha mpion and second in the 2501350cc class of WE RA. That year he was als o W ERA G rand Prix R ider of the Year. First off, Jim, co ngratulations on yo ur second consecutive BOTT title. T han ks a 101. Last yea r we were abl e to p ut together a success fu l effort with the h elp of a few good sponsors. I wo u ld defi n itely lik e to thank the people at Mic he lin . They had u s set up with tires all year and for me they worked fine. T heir tires wo rked so well for u s that we di dn' t hav e to test any othe r brands. Not o n ly we re the ir slicks good but th eir ra in tires wo rked very well for u s at the Suzuka 8 H o ur w~ich was run completely in the . ram. T here are a lot of peop le to th a nk. Castro l h elped u s o u t a lot, as did Wiseco Pistons. Fox , Ca stre, ND , Arai, Mal ossi Carbs and D.LD C ha ins all gave us sup port. We wo u ld also like to th ank Deral e O il Cool ers who joined us in m id-season. My famil y has a lso been a great he lp to m e as well as a lot of folks in G len Co ve. Really, though, Ren o is th e m ain one. H e su p ports th e Team with h is own cas h. H e work s o n th e bikes in . his own ga rage after h is regu la r job wit h Berlin er. If he didn't enjoy raeing Du ca tis so much, we wou ld n't be out there. Irr 1981 you seemed to be gelling more com petition from other brands. . Last year you had the title in the bag by mid-season and you r closest cornpetition al so seem ed to be DUC3ti moun ted . Do you feel that there will be more competi tion from other brands this coming seaSon? Yeah , I thi n k so. Last yea r, we were gell ing a run for o ur money fro m th e Bob Works ·Yam aha 920 a nd th e San • ')~e-BM W" J bh h' WUl ia ms was a lso goi ng fas t towards the end of th e sea son . A T ri umph 850 wo n the Brit ish Tw ins class so if we co u ld see th at bike ove r here we co u ld see some good racing. As for J ay Spri ngs teen a nd th e n ew H a r lev-D a vi d so n XRIOOO, we'll just have to wai t and see. Team O bso lete's H arley ran strong last yea r and I wou ldn 't be surprised if Sp ri ngstee n run s strong. We'll find o u t a t Daytona. . Do yo u foresee any challenge from the Japanese manufacturers and their new twins this year? Yes. as I mentioned, the Virago 920 was comi ng along last season. I a lso th ink th at Honda co uld h ave a good bi ke if th ey sta rte d wo rki ng on it or if some individual decided to begin developi ng o ne . Why do you think th e Duca ti was so dominant last year? . Peopl e h a ve been racing Ducat is for years, so it is p retty well kn own wh at you h ave to do to them to ma ke th em co m pe titive. We a lrea dy kn ow th at we n eed this tire a t this track or wh at gearing will wo rk best a t another track. Whereas other peop le are j ust breaki ng into the class with new mach ines and are still in an ex perimenta l phase. When o ur competition begins to ge t each track wired, we will see so me closer raci ng. Do you feel that there is a potential for Ducati to co n trol the BOTT as Yamaha dominated FI for so many years? ' Righ t now, that is basically what is happening. Of course, I like the fact th at we are domi na nt but I wo uld like to see so me o ther m ar qu es co me along as wel l. You see. tha t was th e ' whole idea behind th e Baul e .of the

• Cover