Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

~ ~ (/) z 0 ~ ~ w "J: (/) ::;) ~ >- '" 0 ... 0 (/) ~ :I: 00 "- 0') ..... ~ 0 c~ ~ Dale Quarterley bent valves two laps from the finish of the Superbike race. but still finished third on his bright green Kawasaki. Fred Merkel led the entire race. (Below) Roberto Pietri heads up Jimmy Adamo, Sam McDonald, Ricky Orlando and Rich Oliver; this battle lasted several laps. AMA Superbike Championship Series: Round J Merkel massacres Sears Point By John Ulrich SONOMA, CA, MAY 20 Team Honda's Fred Merkel won the Sears Point Raceway Pro-Am Superbike race by a margin of 20 seconds. Merkel launched his Mike Velasco-tuned Interceptor into the lead off the starting grid and was never challenged for the lead. In the process of winning, Merkel turned several laps at I minute 47 seconds, including his fastest lap of 1:47.18. John Bellencourt was second on his David Hoyle-tuned, Bellencourt's Honda/Bell/Fox Interceptor, and Dale Quarterley put his GPz750 Kawasaki into third place. f\'f~rk~'s,w~n ,'Y'l a, popu!ar op~:, many of his hometown fans, friends and relatives came to the track to see Merkel race. Merkel, of nearby Stockton, was obviously pleased with his victory. "This is the track I learned to race on," said Merkel. "It's great to come back and win." Merkel was the fastest Superbike pilot on the track during practice, and easily won his qualifying heat, the second oftwo. Merkel's fastest lap in his heat was alr;nost exaply tWI? ' . . , I seconds shorter than the fastest lap turned in the other heat race, by Sam McDonald. Merkel went 1:47.43; McDonald 1:49.4. But while McDonald turned the fastest lap in his heat race, he d.idn't win. Roberto Pietri stuffed his Steve McCiennen-tuned Interceptor underneath McDonald at the entrance to turn lion the last of five heat-race laps, and took the win. McDonald had led the heat until then, despite painful pulled shoulder muscles and a sprained elbow suffered in a crash during Friday practice. McDonald's bike had popped into neutral entering the downhill, left-hand carousel, and McDonald ran off the track into an embankment. "There's no way I can ride 20 laps hard" said McDonald after the heat race. "Five laps made my shoulder hurt bad, real bad. I'm just going to ride around in the Superbike race, try to finish as best I can. I just can't ride it hard." McDonald, who was also entered in the Formula Two race, counted on concentrating on winning with his lighter RS250R, which wasn't as hard for him to muscle around the bumpy, demanding, tight Sears Poin t course. Jimmy Adamo and Reno Leoni's Cagi va 9OO5S finished third in the heat, behind Pietri and McDonald. Local boy Rich Oliver was fourth on his stock-engined, KZ750 Kawasaki Supertrapp. Behind Merkel's runaway (he pulled out eight seconds in five laps) in the second heat came a fierce ballie between Bettencourt, Ricky Orlando on the MPC Interceptor and Quarterley. Orlando and Bettencourt pulled away from Quarterley, and Orlando went for broke in the last turn of the last lap, running 'in underneath Bettencourt and promptly losing the front wheel, crashing and sliding into stacks of tires lining the Armco barrier outside the corner. Orlando's bike stuck in the tires - by the time he pulled it out and picked it up, he was dead last. Team Honda Superbike engine builder Merlyn Plumlee and Velasco collaborated on a special sta~e of tune for Merkel's VF750F-based machine, just for Sears Point. Working with cam timing, Plumlee broadened the powerband and moved power down; redline was reduced to 12,000 rpm [rom the usual 13,000 or 13,500 rpm. Merkel's engine was again filled with an experimental wet racing clutch first tried at Riverside; the works Interceptor engines Honda raced earlier (and sold to Privateers) have dry clutches. The new wet clutch is la~ger .in dialJleter,~r;ld,heavier, put less expensive to produce and sell, and doesn't require as many special parts LO allow its installation. According LO Velasco, the extra weight of the wet clutch increased the flywheel e(fect of the engine - he said that Merkel could tell the difference com- . ing 0[[ the corners. Knowing his bike was tuned for torque, it's no surprise that Merkel's starts were awesome. And it didn't hurt that even before the flag dropped. Merkel was crouched aggressively over the tank, every muscle taut, eyes rivet· ed on the starter. He revved his mount and worked the dutch on the launch, his start as effective as the best seen at the drags. By the time everybody else had moved a foot, Merkel was LOO lengths out front and wide open, charging. He had a four-second lead on the second lap of the Superbike final, and he just pulled it out from there. . But by that second lap, things had already changed behind Merkel. McDonald had been second off the grid, ahead of Pietri, Bettencourt, Quarterley and the pack. McDonald hadn't finished a lap before he noticed his Interceptor running unusually hot; he slowed momentarily and was swept back into fifth, then sixth. At the end of the second lap, Bettencourt and Quarterley led a great pack of riders, the first and last man in the group separated by less than one second. Quarterley was third, harried by Pietri, Orlando (up from last on the grid), McDonald, Adamo and Oliver. Another lap and the Bettencourt/Quarterley ballle, a replay of the pair's encounter at Riverside, gained a few seconds on the swirling mass of men and machines contestin~ fourth place. Adamo moved up on Pietri, passing McDonald and Orlando, stalking and pouncing in theesses; McDonald passed Orlando. Two laps later McDonald was by Adamo and had gained on Pietri - and Orlando and Oliver were right behind Adamo. On the sixth lap, Merkel was seven seconds in front. Bellencourt had escaped from Quarterley's grasp, puttinga five second cushion behind him. Quarterley had another 10 seconds on The Battle, still Pietri, McDonald, Adamo, Orlando, Oliver. The spread between Pietri and Oliver, first and last men in the clump, was still under a second, and all were charging and stuffing, scraping and sc;:rapping. McDonald picked off Pietri, moving into fourth, and Adamo dropped o(f the pace, surprised by a sudden handling problem. Adamo started gelling sideways in alr.t;lP~I' f.V.~V.' c

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