Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/126631
on lap 15. H is rear tire was checked and the Honda crew had another ready should they need to make a change. In quick succession, th e rest of the field started heading into the p its to fuel up. Bo th the Honda a nd Yamaha crews checked tires. Aldana ran into a bit of frustration in his pit stop as fuel sloshed over his lank an d onto the windscreen. "I ha d to ri de the rest of the race wit h my head above the fairing an d tha t's no t the way to do your best," sai d Aldana. , Roberts grabbed th e lead co mi ng off the turn two ban ki ng on la p 19 from Lawson to begin a 10 lap ri de out fro n t. Spencer held thi rd a head of Ba ldwin , Wise, WoI£f, Aldana and Kurt Lentz, who was making h is firs t appearance among the frontrunners. A good ba tt le en sued between Roberts , La wson and Spencer as the three pl ayed freight-trai n throug h the infield and on the ova l. Ron H aslam was the first retiree of th e H onda camp. H is mount coughed up an engine and left the English ri der to spectate from the pits o n lap 21. . Spe ncer was th e nex t H onda ri der to hit bad luck. He parked his bike on lap 25. Earlier in the week his transmission had been replaced because of balky shifting. "We though t we solved th e problem by changing the transmission," sai d Spencer o n his wa lk from the pits to the Honda encampment. "T he second transmission did like the first and didn't want to shift after awhile. The race was fun while it lasted." Roberts continued to lead through lap 30 with Lawson right o n his rea r tire in a ba ll et-style display of how to move through slower traffic with grace a nd ease. Lawson took the lead o n laps 31 and 32 wit h Ro bert s back in fron t on lap 33 and Lawson in charge again on lap 34. Robert s was in and out for gas o n lap 34 wi th Lawson and Baldwin in a lap later. Wise pitted on lap 36. Gervais was also in on lap 36 and had gas splashed on his windscreen as well as bogging the engine. He was running in the top five. Robert s was in command fro m lap 36 to the finish . Lawson bega n to slow in the in field o n lap 38 and then hea ded to the pits where the Yama ha crew had a chance to make the only tire cha nge of the day . "There was a little hole in the tire like that from ru nning over a nai l, " said Yamaha 's Ken Clark. "Eddie was in and out in just a bit over one minu te." Actually it was one minute and 13 seconds, but that still seemed quick enough for him to hold onto second ahead of Wise. Behind Wise came Ba ldwin , Wolff and Aldana. The rest of the field was rather jumbled up. Roberts, Lawson and Wise lapped their way a t least once through the rest of the field. Baldwin was one of the last of the pre-race favorites to retire and there were more long faces in the Honda pi ts. "T he clutch started slipping very early in the race and then fina ll y tota lly went away ," sai d Bal dwin . He was o ut on lap 4 I. Ro berto Pietri, the third p lace finisher last year for Honda, who is riding for Vance & Hines Racin g in Formula One this season, had parked his bike th ree laps ear lier . "I had a probl em with a broken section on th e lower part o f the fairing earl y and some ot her th ings a lso . Finally, the en gine got slower and slower and I called it a day ." There was one more bit of drama to u n fo ld am ong the front-runners ~ ~ C(") 00 0') ...... r 0 €'. PRO ~ ... C(") c-r ..c::: U l-< es ~ before they took the checkered flag. "It was the best race I've ridden and the strongest bike I've ever had, " said Wolff after his engine blew on lap 46 while he was running fourth. " It 's heartbreaking to go tha t far and have it all go away." With Wolff out, Gervais moved into fourth and Aldana into fifth beh ind Ro ber ts, Lawson a nd Wise. The fina l fin ishing order was set. . Roberts p layed to the crowd on th e final two laps an d they loved it , salutin g him around the track. Wise, who finished seventh last year in the 200, was p leased wi th his showing. " I though t I would try to keep up with the leaders in the opening laps, bu t I got sideways a co u ple of times and decided to back off and finish up there. I got so sid ewa ys one time, I thought my heart was going to stop." " I' m never happy about fin ishi n g second," said Lawson. " It was a good race a nd without m y tire problem th ere might just have been a different outcome. " . Robert s was all smiles. He had won Daytona in 1978 from the pole and then went to Europe to win hi s first of three 500cc World Championships. He plans to retire from GP racing at the end of this season and wou ld like to add a fourth titl e to hi s list. Perhaps, Buster Robert s, Ken n y's father summed it up best. He p u t his arm around Kenny and said to a group of well-wishers, " My son is still the greatest." O verh ea d, an ai rplane was tra iling a banner reading: " Co ngratula tio ns, King Ken ny." • (Above) Miss Camel Susan Callicutt, Steve Wise, Kenny Roberts and Eddie Lawson grin it up in w inner's circle. (Bel ow ) Dave Aldana (4 0 ) rode steadily for f ifth . (Bottom) Freddie Spencer's charge was cut short by 8 broken transmission. Results 1. Kenn y Robert s (Vam ); 2. Eddie lawson (Yam); 3. Ste ve W ise (Han); 4. Steve Gerva is (Yam); 5. neve Aldana (Yam); 6. Kurt Lentz (Vam); 7 . Hap Eeto n (Vern ); 8 . John Long (Vern); 9 . Rusty Sher p (Han); 10 . Doug Brauneck (Yam); 11. W illiam Kn ott (Yam ); , 2. He nry DeG ouw (Yam) ; 13. Harry Kl inz man n (Vi m); 14 . Cave Bu sby (Yam); 15 . Tony Head (Yam ); 16 . Uri Bergbaum ISuzt: 17 . John Ashmead (Kew ); 18. A le n Lebr osse (Vern); 19 . Den Nolen (Suz); 20 . St eve Beron (Vern). TIM E: 1 hr .. 4 8 m in .. 51.032 sees. .AV ERAGE SPEED: 110. 926 mph . (Record). 9