Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

With his Seattle Superbike win, Kawasaki's Wayne Rainey is now five points ahead of Honda's Mike Baldwin in the title chase. AMA Superbike Road Racing Championship Series: Round 12 Clear skies, but Rainey weather at Seattle By Dale Brown KENT, WA, SEPT. II Wayne Rainey and Mike Baldwin, the two remaining protagonists in the battle for Superbike supremacy, battled mightily in the opening laps of the Seattle Superbike '83 event. But then Rainey forged his factory Kawasaki into a solid lead and was seven seconds ahead of Team Honda's Bald- l~ win at the end of the 20-lap, 45-mile main event at Seattle International Raceway. Those seven seconds translated into another four clear points and a fivepoint total lead for Rainey in his battle for the season title. Rainey said of this victory, his third consecutive, '"I wanted to win this. one so I could have a five-point lead going into Willow Springs (September 18), because Willow is where I learned to road race. But as long as we win, I don't care what the points situation is." Well clear of the two leaders came Rainey's Kawasaki teammate Wes Cooley, whose third was also the third consecutive. And trailing 11 Cooley was almost the entire Honda Support crew, consisting of John Bettencourt, Sam McDonald and Roberto Pietri. Honda-mounted Rick Orlando was the top privateer at sixth. Honda rented the track for two days before race weekend, but constant rain gave them little to test when the race weekend forecast called for clear skies. Saturday's practice was also wholly awash, but the douds and the rain went away Saturday night and didn't come back, leaving a mostly dry track for Sunday's competition and giving promoter Claude Hammond a few thousand spectators. There were two eight-lap heats to set grid positions for the final. Rainey won the first, Baldwin the fastest, and Honda's Fred Merkel had his day end midway into the first , hfi~C; ,~ljlSf CW!l9l9~ If¥: f,rPN ~{l9~ (Top) Baldwin (43) lead. Sam McDonald (29) and Roberto Pietri (,11) during a heat race. (Above) We. Cooley rode to a lonely third and IlOW holds down seventh in the point standings. IT ) coming into a downhill righthander, and although he got away from the bike, it cartwheeled end over end down onto an escape road. The frame was broken and too badly damaged to be repaired before the main event. ''I'm a little twisted, but OK," said Merkel. At the start of the main Baldwin put the power to the ground down the long drag strip that serves as S.I.R.'s front straight, with Rainey and McDonald trailing him into turn one. At the conclusion of a lap, it was Rainey and Baldwin nose to tail, with Cooley in third and pursued by McDonald, Bettencourt and Pietri. The leading duo quickly broke any kind of draft the rest of the pack might have had. Rainey led laps two and three, almost lost it to Baldwin on lap four, and then trailed Baldwin once on lap eight. Of one particular pass/repass session, Rainey remembered, "I g.ot into turn one a little hot, but I still managed to get under him. However, his line was faster and he just went right by me." From lap nine to the finish, however, the show was all Rainey's. He increased his lead to five seconds with five laps to go, and then to seven. In th.e,PECICf lavwIll.l~ p~HN,. ye seventh-place battle between DlJOItimoumed Battle of the Twins wi ner Joey Mills, Orlando, and PaCIfic Northwest favorite Randy Skiver on a privateer Suzuki. " After the race, Rainey said, "T!Wlgs weren'tlooking too good after I l>1ew up my good motor in practice. Ihad to ride with the back-up motor,,and Steve and Mark Johnson workedt eir butts off getting it in." ( Baldwin left the track almostjimmediately after the race was over, but Honda team manager Udo Gietl said, "The front end of the bike wasn't working very well. I don't know,if it was because of the lack of practice, but the springing and damping n~ver got matched up. Mike had perf,ormance on Rainey, but going through the chicane was a different mati~." Cooley, isolated fore and a~ In third, said, "Not bad for an old man, I guess. Mike and Wayne split eal early, and I wasted a bit too m~ch time getting around John (Bettencourt). But they rode a heckuva race up front. I only wish I could've made it 1-2 for Kawasaki. That's the plan for the last two races, getting in there between Wayne and Mike." After a bit ot dlcmg 10 the first six lap,s or so Bettencourt, McDonald '< ftSI .. f li) ([( .. .J.l ')t"', •• )

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