Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/126757
This shot from the front of the start shows how the factory riders dominate the front of the grid, Another first-tum angle shows the privateer's angle as Ron Haslam leads the pack through in 1983. Honda stars Mike Baldwin (43) and Ron Haslam are good bets for the title, (Below) Freddie Spencer (19) will retum to defend his Superbike crown, (Above) Privateers like Steve Gervais (33) can do business with a little luck. (Below) Eddie Lawson comes off a runner-up finish. I 16 200 miles with that kind of a GP .engine. They may work real well but in the 200 miles, the TZ750 or the factory 6805 have an advantage over the 500s just in ccs, and in having an engine that's been proven in the past. Even the standard TZ750 will probably still be in the winner's circle or in the first rive this year. It's a reliable engine that's been in Daytona since its conception, won there the first time out and took off where the TZ350 left off. Continues to dominate in numbers. Behind Roberts and Lawson and Spencer, if they all finish, I'd put Baldwin. He believes he's every bit as good as Roberts. He believes he is. He's got the ambition and everything else but I don't think he has the natural ability. The determination makes up for a lot of things sometimes but I don't think he's got enough to make up for what Roberts has got. Rainey will go good but he needs more experience and he'll be back there behind those guys. Ron Haslam on a Honda RS500 could upset my predictions because if he~s got the bike he'll be right there. Yeah, Has- lam's a real scratcher. The best privateer guys can go for is to rinish and hope that attrition takes its toll as it always does. The biggest advantage the factory guys have over privateers is in testing. We show up at Daytona for Speed Week and get 15 minutes, half an hour of practice a day. You goout with a new engine and youcan'tdoa two-minute eight-second lap right off the bat, you do a three-minute lap. You go five laps, maybe try to break in an engine in two laps, three laps, you go 15 miles and you try to get on it too soon and it will seize up or something will go wrong. You don't have the time to even get the engine warmed up, you don't have enough time to get them broken in to where you can rev them up. _ And another thing. Everyone knows that the right ~nd or tires at Daytona are stone cold for a lap or two, that's why they give us rive laps of qualifying. So we try a Dunlop tire or something and work up to speed in two or thrc;e laps, and that gives you two . _.t.. _.i •• laps in a shon practice session to find out if the tires are any good. Nobody can do that unless they have 100,000 laps on it like Roberts or tire testers do. They know that. Or you go to the next practice session if your jelling is right, depending upon atmospheric pressure, and ir your gearing is right, depending upon winds, and if everything goes okay and if you can get through technical scrutineering as the AMA calls it, which is a kind of a joke for everyone. Maybe in a week's work you get 20 laps alternating between Novice, Superbike, Twins and all the other classes. You might, might get 20 laps. I know that when I've gone to qualify ror the last th ree years, in practice I haven't gOllen in more than eight or 10 laps. That's where the days or renting the Speedway ror the week berore pays of[ ror those ractory guys. They know what tire to put on, they know what gearing to put on ror that lillIe l5-minute practice session and what .. ~.... J •