Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
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Laguna Seca (COl/IiI/lied froll! page 10) John Williams (45 and inset) beat Gene Church (8) in Battle of the Twins. That's Jimmy Adamo between Williams and Church. Turner (Vem); 16. Rick Collins (Vem); 17. Mike Kenyon (Yam): 18, Scott Moore (yam); 19, Bob DeWin (Yam); 20. Rob Stabile (Yam), DISTANCE: 201apI, 38 miles TIME: 24:08.693 SPEED: 94,43 mph AMA FORMULA TWO CHAMPIONSHIP POINT STANDINGS: 1, Chril Sleward (64): 2, Joey Som· mers (561; 3, Con Greene (51): 4, DIIVid 8usby (49): 5, Tracy DeMuro (47); 6, mE) Kevin Brunson/Dale Franklin (46): 8. Wayne Rainey (401: 9, Sam McDonald (32): 10. mE) Chuck Akaland/John Wi!· liam.(25), Batt" ~ tIN Twins Formula Two: Brunson (97). Franklin (48). White. Rainey and Sommers (behind Rainey). (Below) ~inner Rainey. ---:-----,---,---------,-----,-- 22 by crashes before, during and after the actual racing. Rainey became part of the carnage after winning with a 94-mph average speed. Rainey rode a TZ250L with an aluminum box-section frame built by Kenny Roberts, the engine fitted with HH non-power-valve cylinders and the front fork internals reworked by Simons. The race at Laguna and pre-race practice gave Rainey and me· chanic Bruce Maus much-needed track time to experiment and sort-out potential improvements that can be applied to the machine Rainey is riding in the 250cc World Championship series in Europe. The crashing started in the first lap of practice the morning of the race. Joey Sommers crashed in turn four and took Tracy DeMuro with him. "I had a new tire on and it just slipped out," Sommers said afterwards. The crash left Sommers and his father working frantically on repairs, and Sommers missed the rest of practice. But DeMuro was worse of[, suffering a broken collarbone and possibly broken ribs. In a separate incident, Dave Busby also crashed in morning practice, dislocating his left shoulder, breaking his right thumb and tearing ligaments in his right knee. He'd try to ride later but pull in after a few laps, in a~ony. On the warm-up lap just prior to the start john Glover and Wayne Montoya both crashed in the cork· screw, and both picked up their bikes and made the grid. Sam McDonald led the first lap of the 20-lap event on his RS250R Honda, followed iJy Mark White on the Tony Smith Racing Rotax and Kevin Brunson on A.A. Harper's Armstrong, with Rainey mid-pack. By the time they had reached the corkscrew (tum 6) Brunson had taken over second, and by the next lap Brunson was leading. Dale Franklin and his Dave-Harold-tuned Yamaha was in second followed by McDonald, White and Rainey. But then the ignition system came unplugged on McDonald's bike - the steering damper may have pulled a connector loose - and he was out. Brunson led the third, fourth and fifth laps, but on lap six Rainey took over. From that point Rainey stretched his lead. By lap eight Rainey was lapping the back of the pack. Brunson was second while Franklin and Sommers diced for third, john Williams and his Can-Am alone in fifth. For the top five riders the challenge was getting through traffic. Rainey staye<;J in front, held his grasp on the top position, and by' the end of the race had a five second lead over Brunson. Brunson lost time when he got stuck behind some lappees. Sommers used the traHic jam to his advantage as he put a seven-second cushion between himself and Franklin. Chris Steward fought his way through the pack after a fight with Williams [or £ifth place; Williams got stuck in traHic and had to settle [or sixth. Donnie Greene took a lonely seventh. By the end of the race there had been eigh t crashes and 10 mechanical dropouts in aJield of 61 entries. Brunson paid Rainey a complement after the race, "I learned more from Rainey in 30 minutes than in 16 years of school" said Brunson. "[ followed him pretty close and we came into traffic. I just started emulating Wayne in traffic, which I clon't have much experience in. I started [eeling really good. It surprised me that I had horsepower on him, but what really surprised me was that I could run through guys like he did." Rainey started the race running I: 12 and 1: II lap times, then dropped to a string of 1: lOs, the quickest being I: 1O.5 I. His lap times varied a second or so a lap when Rainey hit heavy conceJ:ltrations of traffic. Results 1. Wey,.. Rainey (Yam); 2. Kevin Brunson (Arml: 3, Joey Sommer. (Yam): 4. Dale Franklin (Yam); 5, Chria Steward (Yaml: 6. John William. (C·A); 7, Don Greene (Yam): 8, ChuckAkaland (yam); 9. Dew Sadowski (Yaml: 10. Mark Whita (Yam): 11. Allan Scan (Yam); 12, Bob Luglia"i (RlXl: 13, David Scott fYamk 14. SamiegO'tOndono (Yam): 15. Aaron Williams Dues to win By John Ulrich MONTEREY, CA, JULY 22 John Williams rode Dale Newton's 750cc Ducati TTl to victory in the Laguna Seca Battle of the Twins, but he had to do it twice. The race was red-flagged twice, once when Williams led and controlled from the start, the second time when Williams trailed Gene Church on the Don Tilley-tuned H.O,G. Harley-Davidson. But after the third start, at the final finish, Williams was in front. IL was his third event on Newton's bikes; he won in Seattle and was second at Sears Point last year on Newton's 9OOSS-based bikes. This year Newton - owner, tuner and sponsor rolled into one - has a pair of immaculate Pantah-based works racebikes and Laguna Seca marked Williams' debut on the new machine. "I want to win this one bad," Williams said before the first restart. "If they hadn't stopped the race I would have been gone." IL may not h'ave sounded modest, but Williams was right. He'san honest candidate fora HardLuck-Kid award, a serious racer with the worst luck and, usually, hampered by his equipment, which is either slow or breaks or both. Newton's bikes aren't slow and don't break, and Williams' luck changed. It started with the first start - Williams holeshot the field and pulled away a couple of seconds immediately, turning 1:12 and 1:13 lap times and leaving Church and BoTT Champion Jimmy Adamo on Reno Leoni's Pantah-based Cagiva. Dave Roper was a distant fourth ahead of Harry Klinzmann on the Krauser BMW and Kevin Bracken on the Bracken/Guest Racing Ducati 900. The red flag came out when Mike' Ross and Dave McClure crashed in the Corkscrew and that crash was the start of a long BoTT day. The race was amazing to see, a mixture of every type of twin-eylinder four-stroke in every type of condition ridden by riders with the widest possible ranKe of abilities; watching the race revealed every line or combination of lines or mish-mash of nonlines. There were races with races, guys stuf£ing and wobbling and weaving, some hanging 0[£ on conventiona I lines, some sitting bolt upright and squaring off corners. The bikes included serious racers like those ridden by Williams, Church, Adamo, et. aI., and stock 400s and 4505. The track was full of riders, traffic was impossible, and the race looked like a good idea gone mad. There were plenty of wrecks to back up that theory. Church launched himself first at the restart, Adamo and Williams close behind. By the fourth lap Williams passed Adamo; the next lap Adamo pitted - a throttle cable had jumped out of one of the carburetor slides. No matter. Another red flag stopped the restart, this time when Brent Ross collided with Mark Yarrow, in the corkscrew. , By this time KJinzmann was long out o[ the race, the Krauser BMW again breaking its five-speed transmission, just like U.S.-engineered BMW Superbikes used to do before tuners gave up on the five-speed and went to beefier four-speeds. Williams won the third start, getting out front and staying out front, Church second from the beginning, Roper third until he crashed in turn nine. Devin Battley moving his BMW Superbike up into third ahead of Dale Alexander's Ducati and Stuart Cooper's 650cc Yamaha Vision. Next came Bracken, Rob Reinen on a stock Moto Guzzi and McClure. Then Bud Riddle, Tony Guest and Sam Mateo crashed in turn [our, wiping out what officials estimated were 15 rows of haybales stacked in front of an Armco barrier. That left the barrier unprotected in the dangerous corner; Kerry Bryant pulled in on the Norton he was riding and insisted that offi~als red-flag the race again to replace bales. Bryant £igured that if anybody else crashed, the unprotected barrier would maim them. AMA officials declined to act on Bryant's suggestion, and let the race run to its conclusion. So Williams won, and the survivors packed up their twins. Results OVERALL: 1, John Williame (Duel; 2, Gene Church (H·C): 3, DeVin I[lattley (BMW); 4. Dale A1....nder (Ducl; 5, Stuart Cooper (Yam); 6. Kevin Bracken (Ducl; 7, lIob Reinen (M·G): 8, OlIVe McClure (H·D): 9, Fred Elker (Nor); 10, Jim SChmidt (Nor). GP: 1, Williame; 2, Church; 3, Banlev; 4, Alex. Inder; 5. Cooper; 6. Bracken; 7. Shannon Crio (Suz): B, Steve Wickland (Hon): 9, Frank Mazur (M'. G); 10, An Chambers (Duc), HVY AM: 1, McClure; 2, Simon Smith (Cuel; 3, Treer Dunne (Duel; 4, Rid< W _ (BMW): 5, Scott Smith (H·C~ II, Tad Van _ (Duc~ 7, Tony Gueat (Duc): 8, Bud Riddle (Yam~ 9. MicIr. OIield (Norl. LWT AM: 1, Eikar; 2. Schmidt: 3, Rihard Win· ning..ad (Cog): 4, Tom Terry (Nor): 5, Michael Geen CTri): 6, Eric Swartzburger (Nor): 7, David Neal (Nor); 7, Bob Garren (BMW); 9, Mark W_ndenger (Nor): 10, Chris Scott (Nor), STOCK: 1, Relnen: 2, ,Willi SChaffer (H·DI: 3, Bill Fenneay (Yaml: 4, Mark Yarrow (Yam); 5. Brem _ (Yam): II. Bob Cr_anI (H·D).