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Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/126647
Gregg Smrz. shown here leading Roberto Pietri early in the race. won his first National at the privateer-dominated event. AM A Grand National Championship/Camel Pro Series: Round 17 Smrz leads privateer sweep at Pocono National By Gary Van Voorhis Photos by Bill King and Ray Richardson LONG P O ND , PA, J UNE 26 Gregg Smrz, with a co nsisten t ride from start to finish in the Camel Cycl e Jam Formula One National at Pocono International R aceway, collected h is first-ever N a tional victory and led a p rivateer sweep of th e results. Not one factory or facto ry su p porte d mach in e was in th e to p 20, the first such occur- 16 ren ce in q ui te a whi le in Formu la One. Finis hi ng second af ter a solid ride was Doug Brauneck , wh o is probab ly most famous for h is heart-sto p p in g crash on pi t road during the 1982 Da yton a 200. T his .was Brauneck's best Form u la One fin ish to date in his career. Third p lace, a long with obvi ous disappoi nt ment, went 10 Miles Ba ld win. A crash la te in th e 27-lap, 75.6mile National af ter Ba ld win 's bike ran out of front brak es, co nceiva bly . cost him th e win . R ust Sharp a nd Norm Smyser , also in the ir top showings in Form ul a One, ro u nded out th e top five. All were Yamaha TZ7 50-m ounted . T he point sta ndi ngs in For mula One were j u m bled up with Miles Baldwin now o n to p ove r Sm rz by a sca n t th ree po ints, 49to 46. Brauneck has mo ved in to th ird a t 41 points with Mike Bal dwin foll owing at 40. T he fight for the win in th e Nati ona l wa s th rown wide open before a wh eel to uch ed the track in th e fin al. Firs t, Mik e Ba ldw in crashed in a Th ur sda y p ractice session at Pocon o a nd bro ke a small bone in his right wrist whil e badl y sprai ning his left. This left Hon da, wit h Steve Wis e sti ll recuperating from injuries sustai ned a t th e beginning o f June at Road Ameri ca, with both factor y spo nso red riders o n th e side li nes . In add itio n, Kawasaki's Wes Cooley found o ut- aft er not beli eving th e first X-rays of hi s el bow fo llowing h is crash last week in the Loudo n Nat ional -that he had broken a bone in hi s low er a rm. " I haven 't been a ble 10 get in touch with Mike," sai d H onda 's Udo G ietl, " to see how bad his wri st really is. I wo uld say he'll be o ut th ree weeks min imum a nd that co uld mean Lagu na Seca ." " Wes' inj u ry is a prett y bad one , with th e break ex tend ing from th e elbow tow ard th e hand," sa id Kawa sa ki's Gary Mathers. " T ha t' s a n area wh ere a rider puts a lot o f stress so Wes co uld be o u t for a long tim e." Fred Merk el had H o nd a 's productio n GP road racer, th e RS500 th reecylinder two -stroke, on th e pol e for the fina l via a heat race win nea rly 28 seconds faster than that of Yamaha T Z750·moun ted Braun eck, Mi les Bal dw in , o n .ano rher TZ750, held down th e th ird spot wit h th e 750cc Du catiPantah o f J immy Adamo and Sm rz a nd h is T Z750 filling o u t th e fro nt row. Witho ut facto ry sta rs Mik e Ba ldwin , Wise and Cooley, a nt icipa tio n o f a good fin ish was ra m pa nt a mong man y top privateers. O f co urse, Merkel a nd his H onda -Su p port mount wa nted to mak e everyo ne else fight for seco nd. Merk el and Smrz led th e two-wave, 58 rider field on th e way for the first o f 27 la ps. Merkel's stra tegy was clear: stre tch o ut as big a lead as possible in th e openi ng la ps. Ano ther rid er wi th early lap stra tegy was N ick Ri chich i. " I had so ma ny engin e problems a nd other things hap pen tha t I feel like Mr . Goodwrench ," sa id Rich ich i. " I' ll be starting 54th on th e gr id. I ha ve 10 be in with the fro nt run ners by the fifth lap or, I figure, I won't be able to make a race of it for the lead. " Merkel had opened a good gap by th e sta rt of lap three, whi le a battle raged betw een Ro bert o P ietri, Smrz, Sm yser, Brauneck a nd Ada mo. Bal dwin was qu ick ly o n the move, a nd by the fourth lap, had moved into second . with some beau tiful riding through traffic. Adamo was out of the race . Ba ld win was looki ng a t a seven seco nd gap to ca tch Merkel and tak e th e lead. Smrz, P ietri and Sharp were in th e top five. Ri chichi had moved hi s way to 14th and was quickly closing. Bal d win began to cut th e gap o n Merkel on the next lap while Bra uneck a lso closed in third. P ietri and Sh arp followed with Adamo, Lentz, Boo n ie Kno tt, Steve Ba ro n and H arry Klin zmann rou ndi ng o ut th e top 10. Su dd enl y, th e race co m p lex io n cha nged as Merkel appeared to ha ve problem s in the slowest turn in the in field and dropped dramatica lly off the pace. On lap eig ht, Merkel took th e bike to the pits, parked it a nd walked into the pi t area. Ba ldwi n took com ma nd, but jus t as qu ick ly Smrz too k it a way and a due l ens ued for the lead . Bra u neck was moving u p. Richich i, with a brok en transm ission, was out o f th e running, as was J on Ashmead.