Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

Baldwin wins rain-delayed Tallade-ga Superbike round TALLADEGA. AL. MAR . 21 Rain delayed the ru nning of the second round of the AMA Superbike Championship Series at Alabama Int ern ational Motor Speedway by a day. but when it ran Honda's Mike Baldwin was t here to teke the win and the points lead . Kawasaki's Wayne Rainey took second in the feature event of the Pro-Am format. w ith Steve W ise rounding out the winner's ci rcle crowd o n another works Honda Interceptor. Fourth and fifth wentto Honda Support riders Dave Aldana and Fred Merkel. In the Formula Two race. Dave Emde took the checkered flag first. followed by fellow Yamaha riders Hugh Humble'and Randy Renfrow. In the GP class of the Battle of the Twins. Ducati riders Jimmy Adamo and Malcolm Tunstall f inished 1-2 after Daytona w inner Jay Springsteen_crashed his Ha rley- Davidson on the final lap while holding a 30-second lead. Complete coverage next week. IN MEMORIUM: The motorcycle indust ry lost one of it s finest w hen Kawasaki Pub lic Relations Manager Rom Lovil was killed as resul t of a street bike accident in Foun tain Valley. Calif.• on Saturday night. March 19. Lovil. 41 . had headed Kawasaki's PR efforts for four years. and had served Suzuki in a similar fashion prior to that. eyda World's John Ulrich said . " He was one of the few true professionals in the field. I'm going to m iss him." The editors of this pub- ' lication certainly agree. Funeral arrangements for Lovil . who is survived by his w ife Judy and two ch ildren. are pending'. Flowers and cards should be sent to the Kawasaki Public Relations Department. 2009 E. Edinger. Santa Ana. CA 92711 . Godspeed. Rom... 6 Harley-Davidson confirmed an article in the Wall St reet Journal concerning an offer of financial aid by the Japanese Ministry of Trade and Industry, but they have spurned the offer. According toa Harley-Davidson press release, the offer (made on behalf of the four Japa nese motorcycle manufacturers) was to buy H arleyDavidson motorcycles and to provide technical assistance. Vaughn Beals, chief executive officer of H-D, is 'q uo ted as saying, "We are bewildered by their offer to purchase HarleyDavidson motorcycles, since Harley has no inventory problem . Un like the Japanese manufacturers, we cut production in time to prevent excess inventory, and thus do not need to sell bikes to anyone except our own dealers. In addi tion, the Japanese have offered technical assistance that we do not need." A mericans Freddie Spencer (Hon) and Kenny Roberts (Yam) finished 1-2 in the 500cc race at the open- : ing round of the World Champion sh ip Road Race Series in South Africa on Saturday. March 19. Roberts came from a dead-last start to finish saven seconds behind fast qualifier Spencer. Eng land's Ron Haslam (Hon) took t hird. Californians Randy Mamola (Suz) and Eddie Lawson (Yam) finished fifth and eighth. respectively. JeanFrancois Balde (Che) won the 250ccGP. Team Suzuki (Georges Jobe, Harry Everts, Andre Vromans and Eric Geboers) won the T rop heede Marques in Vorselaar, Belgium, on Sunday, March 20. Finishingsecond was Team Yamaha (Danny LaPorte, Jim Gi bson, Jo han Martens and Hakan Carlqvist). Gibson was ridi ng Yamaha's new I25cc GP bike. a watercooled, rotary-valve model. Andre Ma lherbe competed on the new Honda 500cc GP bike which features a wa ter-coo led engine. Ron Ribolzi (Hus) scored the overall w in in the Bonner Creek National , Championship Enduro which was run in Louisiana on Sunday. March 20. Heavy rain the morning of the event turned the run int o an ex tremely challenging affair. Of t he 250 starters. only 18 fin ished. Defending National Champion Terry Cunningham (Hus) finished second overall while John Martin (C- A ) took third. The right th umb that Terry Cunningham broke earlier this year is still bothering hi m. " I may sit out Some t ime ago we received a letter commenting on the activities of Checkpoint M.C. members and asking the question. "Are these guys OK?" Well. the Checkpoints and photographer Tim Elliott responded to the question w ith this photo of the club laying out its Bad Mountaill enduro. They may be OK. but they sure look cold. next weekend's Tennessee Q ualifier to give it a chance to get better," said Cunningha m after the Louisiana National Enduro. When he does get rolling in the ISDE Qualifier Series. Cunningham will be riding a prototype Husqvarna 500 that features a three-speed automatic gearbox. Kawasaki Motocross Team Manager Roy Turner said that Kent Howerton's no show at Daytona and Houston was to improve his 500cc National title chances. Howerton aggravated the injury he inccurred at the Seattle Supercross in the Atlanta Supercross mud. According to Turner. Howerton was not in a threatening position in the Supercross standings. so he elected to stay home and heal and train. He felt that the second incident was because the knee was not strong enough. When Bob Hannah passed his old " buddy" Broc Glover during the first night's final at Houston, the Hurrican turned around sideways on the seat and shook h is fist at G lover as he wheelied down the straightaway. Goat Breker is the newest Honda factory team member and will be on a works bike for the 500cc ' class in the Wrangler Super Serie s . "Everyone i s l o o k i n g for younger riders. and I was thinking that way a little too." said Honda MX team manager Dave Arnold of his new member. "but I thought. heck. this guy is going fastl So. we went with Goat. " Krauser USA and Yamaha are combining forces on a promo tio n entitled " Ride of Your Life." Grand prize in the sweepstakes will be a tri p for two tothe Kra user Railey in Europe, with Yamaha motorcycles and accessories rounding out the goodie list. Deta ils and entry forms are avai lable at participati ng Yamaha dea lers. Steve Simons is now the exclusiVe U.S . importer of Ohlins shock absorbers. Steve says he plans an ambitious promotion program. including a service truck at major races. Manning the truck and doing shock work at the races will be Stig Petersson. who was Brad Lackey's mechanic last year. Simons. who t ook over the Oh lins importation from Husqvarna last month. can be reached at 4161 948-3470. Just a few days before the Daytona 200, Kenny Robert s put his name on the dotted line to renew his sponsor' ship agreement with Dun lop Tin and Rubber Corporation. After a long association with Goodyear. Ro berts had switched to Dunlop in 1982. The promoters of the Hangtown Wrangler Super Series outdoor M >: National scheduled for March 2, say that. weather permitting. 5000 cubic yards of sand will be lai~ down on the track by the County of Sacramento. The event will ru~ at Prairie City OHV Park. east of Sacramento. and 500cc World M X Champ Brad Lackey will be the grand marshal of the race . . The California Department of Parks and Recreation says that Pismo Bead . should be open to vehicular traffic by now. Rain and rough surf destroyed both the Pier Aven ue ' and Grand Avenue entrance ra mps, and a temporary ramp was just completed for the Pier Avenue entrance in Ocea no. -A temporary ra mp is slated for G rand Avenue as well , but that is expected to be finished in three weeks. Efforts continue as the chance for, a legal Barstow-to-Vegas desert race looms ever closer. but the San Gabriel Valley Motorcycle Club. who put on the event prior to 1975. will not be putting on this year's. "They put an awful lot of effort into it already." said AMA 0-37 spokesman Jerry Counts. "However. they don't feel they have the manpower to put on the race. The pernllits are in and the District is now taking care of that. and we're looking for a club to be the official promoter," The annual Las Vegas 400, the biggest motorcycle-oriented desert race (purse-wise) of its ki nd, is set for the Ap ril 15-17 weekend. Friday is regis tra tio n and tech inspection, the race begins early Sat urday morning, and awards will be given o ut on Su nda y, April 17. This year, the race is getting a big assist from the fol ks at O ld 'Milwaukee beer, a firm that's enterin g the mo tors ports arena for the first time in 198!!. For all the details o n the (Continued to page 56)

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