Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

Q(") 00 Q') Randy Renfrovv 'Everything has to be done right' By Gary Van Voorhis Photos by Lori Tyson and Dale Brown Randy Renfrow turned in the type of season most riders can only hope for. He made winner's circle 10 times in the 14-event Formula Two Championship Road Race Series, with half of those trips celebrating a victory. Add one fourth-place finish, a ninth and a 12th, and only one DNF 16 and you have the makings of a title winner. Renfrow has been racing for 12 years, but is a relative newcomer to road racing, with the just concluded season being his first complete season of pavement scratching since turning totally to road racing from motocross four years ago. Determination, a strong battle plan, total confidence in himself and his machine, plus the ability to keep moving forward when all his challenger's programs were crumbling about them notched the crown for the 27-yc;ar-old Falmouth, Virginia, resident. Renfrow is single and holds down the full-time job of managing Cycle Sport, a Yamaha dealership in Springfield, Virginia. His size, 5 feet 5 inches and 122 pounds, is an asset on 250cc machinery. He was backed in his championship quest by Sure-Fire Distributing, Bi-Star Racing, his employers at Cycle Sport, and he also receive.ecause I crashed hard in one of my first races and broke a collarbone as well as dislocating a shoulder. I did manage to ride the AMA Formula T~o' events at Pocono and the Daytona Pro-Am where I got a fifth and a second. Doing that good told me I had potential. I got a new bike for 1982, but that season also started off badly. I took two bikes to Daytona in March which was a mistake because we spent all the time switching parts between the bikes to make one good one and I didn't get much practice. The end result was I crashed and broke my wrist. Scratch the first half of 1982 off. When I got back riding, I was determined to learn as much about the bike as I could so I went to a lot of . club events. I believe that track time paid off. Did you feel Lady Luck let you down at this year's season opener at Daytona where you had more than your . share of bad luck? I sure did. I was heading into the chicane on the final lap of the Formula Two final and I knew there wasn't anybody close enough to take third place away from me. I was really feeling good because making winner's circle at Daytona, the biggest and most prestigious race of the year, would really give my effort a boost. All races pay the same amount of championship points, but everyoneseems to remember what you did at Daytona. I went to accelerate out of the chicane and the engme died. I knew immediately what had happened because I had run out of gas earlier in a practice session. I think if I hadn't had to push the bike to the finish line to give me something to do, I proba- bly would have sat down and cried, I was that disappointed and disheart, ened. However, I realized I had lapped a lot of riders and felt if I could make it to the finish line I might be able to salvage some points. It paid off because I got 12th. As things turned out later in the season, those points weren't critical although they could have been. Who did you feel at the beginning of the year would be the top contenders? Dave Emde, Donnie Greene and Hugh Humble were right at the top of my list. Rhys Howard was on the list, although I didn't think he would come on as strong and a~ soon as he did. I felt Alan Labrosse would also be a contender, but then he didn '. hit all the races. Sam McDonald, the defending champion, was another rider who didn't contest a lot of the races. Were you confident you could do well before the season started? , We knew we started the season low on experience in relation to many other teams and riders because we didn't have that much knowledge of the bike. In the Formula Two ranks especiall y, you have to know the bike inside and out. As the season wore on we began to learn more and more about the bike and I was able to intensify my riding: We also found you can't count out anyone as a challenger. Danny Coe and Russ Paulk proved to be stronger than we expected and if they hadn't had a multitude of problems would have been contenders at the end. At any given race there were at least 10 riders capable of winning. It took me a few races to learn everything had to be done right - the start, the first lap and every succeeding one - in order to do the beating instead of being beaten. By the end of the season, I understood that very well. We worked very hard at keeping the program together and I Gould see other riders losing their chance because their programs were deteriorating. It was very important to be mentally up, not only in a racing frame of mind, but also confident the machinery was in top notch shape. By the end of the season I felt I had a mental edge because I believed strongly I .} I I

• Cover