Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

(Above) David Emde took the Formula Two w in. (Below) J immy Adamo led from start to f in ish in t he Battle of the Twins. (Botto m) Peter Essaff and Dennis Crueger were the Sidecar w inners . Formula Two Emderolls after Humble fumbles LEXINGTON. O H , MAY 22 Da vid Emde, usi ng a go-slow strategy as th e track at MidO h io dried. kep t lea der H ugh H u m ble wi thin striking dis- 12 tance. When H u m ble got a bit too much gas and spun the soft co m pound rai n ti re he was using, Ernde took th e advantage and went on to tak e the victory in th e 21 lap, 50.4 mile Formula Two Championship Series round. Humble wa s up quickl y to hold on to second. The real battle unveil ed in th ecl osin g laps as Doug Brauneck pu lled to wi th in two bikelengths of thi rd p lace Randy R enfrow a nd co nt in ually hounded him to th e finish . Renfro w took th e nod. bu t not by much . The series points battle now finds Ernde in command with 53 points as Humble and Ren frow are tied fo r second at 49 each. Sam McDonald, via his fastest h eat race win. held th e pole for the final with Dave Emde, Rhys Howard, Hugh Humbl e a nd R uss Paulk filling out the front row. The track, although still wet. was benefitting from a brisk wind which was helping to dry it. Whether to use rain tires or sli cks was th e big question as skies wer e overcast. Howard grabbed the immediate lead. but it was Dav id Ernde in the lead at the end of lap one, o ver Howard. McDonald, and Humble followed by Pa u lk in fifth . There was plenty of sh u ffli ng on the n ext lap although Ernde kept the lead as Humble made his bid for second. Dave Busby, from th e back of the second wave, had 'mo ved quickly through traffi c to 11th . Humbl e made h is bid for second good a n d took ov er th e lead o n lap th ree, bump in g Emde to seco nd . McD o mil d sli p ped off th e pace as d id H ow ard and Rand v Ren fro w, wh o wer e stretched o ut behi nd. T here was a good scrap going on for fifth on la p five as Pa u lk, Doug Brauneck a nd Joey Su m mers di ced it o ut o n th e q u ickly d ryin g tr ack . Ma rtin Sh u bert, th e o nly rider in th e first wa ve to sta rt the race o n slic ks, was hol di ng o nto 15t h a nd wa iting for drier co n dit io ns. T he su n made it s appea ra nce o n th e seventh lapas Humble and Ernde carried o n their war a t th e front with the advantage to Humble. McDonald, Renfrow an d Howard wer e strung out behind. Busby, on his a ir-cooled Yamaha 350, had moved to 10th. Ernde grabbed th e advantage o n la p eig h t, lost th e lead back to H umbl e o n th e n ext go aro un d , and was back a bit one lap later as Humbl e u sed tr affi c to open up 15 ya rds. Meanwhile. Renfrow wa s moving o n McD onald a nd his third pl ac e position. By th e end of lap 12, Humbl e had stre tched out a 12-second lead o n Emde. One la p la ter, Humble slid out , losing the lead. He was up quickl y and held second. Ren fro w was leading a good dice with McDon ald for third. while Bra u neck was in fifth . Busby had moved to ninth behind Howard, Paul k and Joey Summers. Bra u n eck m oved past McDonald and set his sights o n Renfrow with McDonald dropping o u t an d leaving it a two rid er battle for third. Humble had closed th e gaP. a bit on Emde for the lead. A good distance back, Howard , Pa u lk a nd Bu sby were running 5-6-7. The positions remained th e sa me on lap 17. Renfrow had a double mission to h ang o n to third , as it meant a trip to wi nner's circle, a nd it wo u ld keep h im in a tie with Hu m bl e fo r second in seri es poi nts . Emde had a n eight-secon d gap o n Humble as th e. white flag ca me o u t signalli ng th e fina l lap. Renfrow an d Bra uneck we re two lengths apa rt in th ir d . T h is would be the bailie to th e fini sh . Braun eck tr ied a n o u tside line to pas s in the final sweeping corner, but d rifted o u t a bit and Renfrow held on to tak e th ird with Brauneck fourth a n d H oward fift h . Of note, was th e ride of Shubert, who put in a late charge on th e drying track to post an eig h th . " I wanted to p lay it cool d uring th e ra ce, " sa id Emde. " I' ve had some experience with running on rain tires on a drying tra ck so I felt the pace Hugh was selling migh t just get him into trouble. It did , and I took advan tage. I'd like to thank Bo b Endicott. ND . Bell and Bates for their help." " I got on the gas a bit too fast com, in g out of a corner and lost th e rear end," said Humble about his crash. " I laid it down eas y, kept the clutch in and th e engine running and got up in second. I cooled ita bi t from there on. My dad built th e engine and I get help from Goodyear, Nippondenso, Castrol and Bell. Thanks to everyone." " T h at was my first race on rain tires,"said Ren fro w of his third place finish . " I knew Do ug was goi ng to make the last lap pass in the carousel turn near the finish, but I had the line and a bit more power. " Ren frow rides for T ea m Sure-Fire. " I had tr ied to get around Ran dy in that corner a number of times," said Brauneck, " bu t each time 1chickened out. I figured why not one more time an d m aybe I'll get lucky, but Randy didn ' t give an y ground. " Bra u neck wa s aboard th e John Hasty Racing / White Bea rin g Company sponsored Rotax powered Spondon . · • Results FORMULA TW O: 1. DaVid Emde (Varni ; 2 . Hug h Humble (Vam ); 3. Randy Renfrow (Vam ); 4 . Doug Brauneck (Spon l; 5 . Rhys Howard (Varni ; 6 . Russ Pau lk (Yam): 7 . Steve Baron (Yem); 8 . Martin Shu bert (Yam); 9 . Dave Busby (Yam); 10 . Joey Summers (Yam); 11. John Franz (Yam); 12 , Car l Mufflev (Yam); 13. Dan Coe (Yam ); 14 . Rolland Readmenn (Yam); 1 5. M ike Landr um (Yam ); 16 . James Wool •s!' y (Yam); 17 . Tony Gio ia JYam ); 18 . Pete r Trevitt (Varni; 19 . Bob DeWit t (Vam); 20 . Rocky D. an (Vaml. Tim e: 39 min .• 24 .9 sec. AVERAG E SPEED : 76 .72 0 mp h. FORMULA TW O CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES POINT STANDINGS : 1. Dav id Emd e (53); 2. (TIEl Hug h Humble /Randy Ren f row (4 9 ); 4 . Rh ys Howard (4 1); 5 . Ru ss Paul k (25); 6 . (TIEl Dav id Coe/ Rusty Sharp 11B); B Ji mmy Fili ce (16); 9 . Dave Busby (15); 10 . Don Gr eene (13) . Battle of the Twins Adamo all the way LEXINGTON, OH, MA Y 21 Jimmy Adamo, with a very strong showing, led from start to finish in the 17 lap, 40 mile Ba t tle of th e Twi ns fina l. Adamo's o n ly cha lle nge ca me in th e ea rly laps when David Emde closed in, but Ad amo just turned up the ga s and shrugged off th e cha ll en ge. Emde ran a strong ra ce to finish second wh ile Joey Mills ran an uncontested third. Th e Ba ttl e of th e T w ins fina l wa s swi tched to th e fin al even t in Saturda y's Superbike/BoTT program due to an impending stor m . Fortunately, rain didn't fall o n eithe r race. D efendin g BaTT Ch ampion Jimm y Adamo, ab oard th e Team Sure-Fire/ Leon i Ducati, he ld the pole for th e final. Grid positions were a wa rde d on cu rre n t point standings a nd no h eal races w ere run. The factory H arl ey-Davidson , whi ch J a y Springsteen rode in two rounds. wa s in the han ds o f Da vid Emde, wh o said it felt " d iffere nt, bu t neat to ride," . Adam o ro cketed off the starting line a nd in to th e lead. Adamo had opene d up a 20-bike1ength lead by th e end o f lap o ne over J oe y Mills. with th e H arleys o f Emde a nd Dav e R o p er i n th ird a n d fourth . R on Shordone h eld fif th wi th J eff Ma cMill an in six th . G en e Church, riding a H ar lev-Davidson in th e Stoc k class , was holding down 10th . Ernde began to creep up on Mills an d cha llen ged h im for third on th e fourth lap. Emde quick ly moved by Mill s a nd began to put on a run to ca tch Adamo. Mills was a safe th ir d ahead of R o p er. Both Mi lls a nd Adamo were doing double d uty as eac h had jumped o ff their Superbi ke mounts to run thi s race. Adamo was n o w four seconds up. Ern de didn't waste any time n i bbling away at Adamo's lea d and had cut it to just over two seconds as they sta rt ed lap six. Mills wa s well clear of Ro pe r in third while Church had sliced his wa y through traffic to fifth on lap six. By the halfway flags. Adamo had opened up his lead a bit by using traffic to his advantage. Adamo had also sliced his way through the field and was setting his sights on lapping the sixth place rider. Church, in fifth, fell victim to the charge of Adamo on h is way to the checkered flag. Cutting very q uick lap times and slick use of traffic enabled Adamo to co nt in ue to extend his lead to 22 seconds by the time la p 13 ro lled around. Ernde, Mills. R o pe r and Church circulated in stretched out fashion in th e top five. Adamo took the checkered fla g for th e victory with a 36-plus second m argin over Ernde, Mills too k an uncontested third with Church moving to fourth after Ro per cra she d o u t on th e 15th la p . Chuck Quenz ler, another Harley rid er. took fifth an d th e Amateur Modified class win . Ad amo ' s seco nd victory o f th e year added to hi s seco nd a t Davtona moved h im well into the cha m p io nsh ip series points lead.

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