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Chivin,gton and Renfrow lap Morrison. (Below) Schlachter (93) leads Cooley (34). Renfrow (96). Brauneck and Lentz early on.
Mike Baldwin used his Phil McDonald-tuned RS500 to win his third
Camel Pro Series National road race of the year.
AMA Grand National Championship/
Camel Pro Series: Round 20
Baldwin
cruises to
Pocono win
By Henny Ray Abrams
LONG POND, PA, AUG. 4
Mike Baldwin, on an American Hondabacked RS500, had an easy time winning the
shortened Formula One race at Pocono,
cruising to a 15-second win over Cycle Sports
Honda-mounted Randy Renfrow, with Dan Chivington
third on the George Vincensi
TZ750 Yamaha. It was Bald-
12
win's third National win of the year
and puts him comfortably ahead of
Wes Cooley (fourth here) 72 to 44
with three races to go, Fifth here went
to the MacLean Racing Honda of
Rich Schlachter.
The Pocono race run on Saturday
was originally scheduled for June 2324, but was rained out. With the
exception of the Superbike race, which
was run on the Saturday of the rained
out weekend, all of the races were
repeated on Saturday with a 5:00 p.m.
curfew imposed due to a WERA race
the next day. Apparently, little pro-
moting was done and the crowd for
race day was well less than 11,000
diehard fans, many of whom were
WERA members waiting for their
chance. Because of the small crowd
and uncomfortably hot and muggy
weather, the riders suggested that the
scheduled 27 lap final be cut and the
AMA decided to cut it to 20 laps,
which was 57 miles.
The 44 riders who showed up were
split into two five lap qualifying
heats. In the first, Mike Baldwin
made fast work of it with Randy Renfrow, Schlachter, Gregg Smrz and
Miles Baldwin, in Wes Cooley's spare
leathers, filling out, the top five.
Averaging 95.56 mph it was the faster
of the two heats taking 8:47,44 mins.
to run.
Cooley briefly led tne second heat,
but the yellow and green TZ750 of
Doug Brauneck had superior top end
power and would pull away on the
long Pocono straightaways. Dan Chivington, on another TZ, was running
third with Kurt Lentz and Steve
Arnold a ways back in fourth and
fifth. At the line Brauneck drafted
past Cooley with Chivington right
on his tail and Lentz and Arnold
holding their spots,
The 40-man final was gridded with
Baldwin on the pole next to the lone
front row Yamaha of Brauneck then
the almost identical Hondas of Renfrow, Cooley and Schlachter. The
second row was all Yamahas.
Schlachter got the holeshot with
Renfrow close behind, but Baldwin
made his move in the hairpin just
after the first tum and would never be
headed. Cooley was with the frontrunners along with Chivington and
Brauneck.
Baldwin was comfortable running
lap times of 1;43 and I:44 and gradually clearing himself from the pack.
On the third lap he had a five second
lead and added to that with each lap.
"I was pacing myself," said Baldwin, "and I never looked back. It was
hot ou t there and the heat can take its
toll on you, but I did the Eight-Hour
at Suzuka in Japan last week and it
was hotter than this so it helped me
get in shape.'
Renfrow started to move up at
about this time with Schlachter fading from third. "The engine started
to overheat on about the fifth lap," he
said, "so I had to back off, Ithad
nothing coming off the corners. I
started shonshifting at about ll,OOO
instead of 11,500 and hoping it would
hold up."
Renfrow was having a problem
with front end chatter and also, along
with Cooley, was being surprised by
the quickness of Chivington's Yamaha. "That thing has power coming
off the comers, It was wheelieing
when mine was hopping sideways,"
Baldwin's lead was 10 seconds at
the halfway point and the order
behind him wasn't to change much.
Renfrow was a safe second, Chivington third, and Cooley's bike was acting up in fourth,
"The other guys were riding really
well," Cooley began, "We went up a
jet size because of the heat and it
wasn't as crisp as it could have been.
It was running a little hot most of the
time and even though I could make
up time on the infield, Renfrow and
Chivington were a little quicker on
the straights."
SchLachter was in fifth and going
nowhere, but behind him Brauneck
and Miles Baldwin were having at it
for sixth. Baldwin, back on the
"Dinosaur" TZ Yamaha after the
disappointment of his RS500 Honda,
held the upper hand for most of the
race until a (ront tire leak cost him
the spot and Brauneck took the initiative for sixth. Baldwin finished
seventh.
The other Baldwin, Mike, was
pleased with the result and, unpressured, had no bike or tire problems to
speak of. Traffic was the only irritant
he found. "Had the race run for 27
laps there would just have been that
much more traffic to cut through."
Renfrow said that he was "Trying
not to look back and was looking
forward. I saw that I wasn't closing
on Mikeand was secure in second so I
held my spot. It was dangerous
enough out there.'
Chivington was elated. "I got that
old antique in there, The bike's a little heavier than the Hondas and it's
harder to work in traffic. Sometimes
traffic would help me and sometimes
it would help Randy. Theonly problem that I had was that the tires were
sliding a little on the banking."
Results
2o-LAP NATIONAL; 1. Mike Beldwin (Hon); 2,
Rendy Renfrow (Hon); 3, Dan Chivington (Yem); 4,
We. Coolev (Hon); 5, Rich Schlechter (Hon); 6,
