Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

Lawson denounces Daytona Superbike 200; Yamaha, Suzuki, Kawasaki won't ente.r By John Ulrich I'm going to Mugello (Italy) for e San Marino GP," said Freddie pencer, "but I'll only be a spectar. All my four-cylinder GP bikes ave gone back to Honda in Japan o even if I wanted to ride there Ily wouldn't be any equipment. II be heading to Japan right after t," continued the 1984 600cc orld Champion, "to ride in the eptember 9 Japanese GP at Suka. My collarbone should be well n the way to being totally healed y then. Taking time off to let it eal properly really makes a big ifference although the circumtances weren't the way I would ave liked them to be." A July 21 rash during a timed qualification ession for the Formula One Naional at Laguna Secaleft Spencer ith a broken collarbone and cost im any chance at repeating as orld Champion. uestioned on whether he would ompete in the September 30 Camel ro Series Formula One National at exington, Ohio's Mid-Ohio Raceay Spencer said, "There was'some alk about the possibility of racing ere a month or twO ago, but that as it. I haven't been contacted by nyone, Even if I could, a lot would epend on my schedule as far as test· ng and other commitments go plus he availability of equipment." , "We're very optimistic about the change in the format for the 1985 Daytona 200 from Formula One to Superbike," said Daytona International Speedway's Jim France, one of the prime movers behind the change., "The new format has a lot of potential and I believe we're doing the right thing and going in the right direction. We've made a lot of progress in the last three weeks toward having a strong foreign rider contingent by working closely with Steve Mclaughlin ofthe International Superbike Series. There is a strong possibility that Daytona could be the kick off avent for their 1985 series. " Kenny Roberts remains in St. Joseph's Hospital, 1100 W. Stewart Dr., Drange, CA 92668, Room 528-B, recovering from injuries suffered in an I)[f-road play-riding crash August 18. ~obetts was scheduled to have his left iemur pinned on August 22; he's not lccepting calls but is accepting let:ers and cards. rhe next California Off-Highway W10t0r Vehicle Recreation Comnission meeting will be on September 28 at the San Luis Obispo South County Regional Center, 1101 W. Branch St., Arroyo Grande; California. ~ll 1985 Supercross races will be ,anctioned by the AMA. Insport, "hich sanctioned the 1984 Wrangler iupercross Series, will be taken inlouse at Stadium Motorsports and lecome a sort of tour director instead )f a sanctioning body, according to itadium Motorsports spokesperson >enny Nicolai._ ONTARIO:CA, AUG. 24 " World Champion Eddie Lawson has denounced Daytona's plan to relegate Formula One to side-show status and to feature a 200-mile Superbike race in 1985, and representatives of Yamaha, Suzuki and Kawasaki have said their companies won't enter the event. "They turned the largest motorcycle race in the world into the smallest," said Lawson, himself a two-time Superbike Champion. "They needed to go 500cc for F-1, even if they didn't have very many bikes at first, and let it build back up. The initial cost of buying a 500 is very, very expensive, but what do they think it costs to run a fourstroke? The factories will put the development into the four-strokes and the privateers won't be able to keep up. There's gonna be a bigger gap than with the two-strokes. The privateer just won't be able to compete. "It was always a big deal for me to go to Daytona," said Lawson. "It was my dream to win Daytona. I was really looking forward to Daytona. I asked Yamaha if we could develop the bike, go tire testing early. Nowl don't care if I neversae Daytona again. I'm tired of racing in oil (dropped by four-strokes). When you hit oil and get sideways on the banking, it'. no fun. "If Bill France wants us to race stock cars, maybe we can'glue door handles on our fairings," Lawson said. "I get mad just talking about it. In related news, informed sources inside the company said that Kawasaki Motors Corp. U.S.A. will not return to Superbike racing in 1985. The company - which pulled out due to financial troubles after winning the 1981, 1982 and 1983 titles - may return to Superbike racing in 1986, but it's not known if the effort will be in-house or take the form of support for a privateer effort. Sources at U.S. Suzuki Motor Corp. said thatthe company will not mount a Superbike racing effort next year. And according to Racing Manager Ken Clark, Yamaha Motors Corp. U.S. will not build a Superbike for the Daytona Superbike 200 and will not enter the supporting F-1 race at Daytona. ''I'm going to try and do Mid-Ohio." said Lawson of the AMA Camel Pro Series Formula One race scheduled for September 30 at Mid-Ohio Raceway. "It's not 'or certain but I'm gonna try to do it if I can get a bike from Yamaha. I want to try to build up the sport, since I won't be racing at Daytona. "That's gonna be a real exciting race," said Lawson of the Daytona Superbike 200, "being an all-Honda field. I'll take (bet on) Freddie (Spencer) by an hour and 20 minutes. " f. Spencer will ride Daytona: Mamola won't SHREVEPORT,LA,AUG.27 Former 500cc Road Racing World Champion Freddie Spencer will enter the 1985 Daytona Superbike 200. In a presstime phone call, Spencer told Cycle News "raalistically you have to look at the change of the Daytona 200 to a Superbike format and how it will affect the sport. While it may not be the best thing immediately, Ithink Dayton. is making the change to create a wide variety of interest and_add some spark to the sport. The racing itself won't do ,it all. We need involvement by all the manufacturers as well as more and varied sponsorship of the sport. As for mysalf, I will be riding both so it doesn't make as much difference which race is 200 miles and which 100." Meanwhile, Jim Doyle, who represents Randy Mamola, said that all of Mamola's 1985 sponsonlhip negotiations will exclude Daytona. Mamola will not attend any events at Daytona, and Doyle said that the change to the Superbike 200 "will set back motorcycle . racing 20 yeanl. " Elmer Tren (Kaw) topped Brian Johnson (Kaw) for the Top Fuel win in the August 25-26 NMRA MidAmerica Nationals at Columbus, Ohio's National Trail Raceway. Trett turned in a 7.66 second, 186 mph winning ride in the quarter-mile. Terry Kizer (Kaw) was the Funny Bike winner while the Pro Stock win went to Bob Carpenter (Suz). Ray Bellucci (Kaw) was the victor in the Pro Camp .ranks. The U.S. contingent for the MX/ Trophee'des Nations,team MX events in Europe - consisting of Kawasaki's Jeff Ward, Yamaha's Ricky Johnson and Honda's David Bailey and Johnny O'Mara - departs September 3 headed for the September 9 MX des Nations in Ruskeasanta, Finland. On the following Sunday, September 16, the team will be in Varberg, Sweden, to participate in the Trophee des Nations, Ward and Bailey are the only two returning members , of last year's team that swept to wins in both events, ,(.continued to page.32<) , -.::l'" 00 0') When is oil too hot? ,.,...-04 How hot is too hot for engine oil? The question comes up because there's a magazine out on the stands this month carrying the opinion that oil temperatures of 250 to 2600 F are too high for petroleum-based oils, and that oil temperatures exceeding 3000 F are too high for any type of oil. How hot an engine's oil will get is determined by how much rpm is turned: increase rpm for any given road speed and oil temperature will increase. But 3000 F in the sump doesn't mean it's time to panic '1nd pull off the road. The American Petroleum Institute (API) tests {or SF-rated oil-the kind you should use in your motorcycle--incl ude 64 hours of running in a 350 cubic-inch Oldsmobile V-8 at 3000 F sump temperatures. To pass the SF rating test, an oil must prove its ability to resist oxidation and prevent wear for the duration of the Lest. And tests conducted by OEM engineers confirm that 300" F isn't an unusually-high sump temperature for hard use. In one tes.t, Honda engineers conc1uded--after monitoring sump temperatures and conducting a post-test engine teardown--that peak oil sump temperatures of 2840 to 3380 will not cause problems. Yamaha engineers view peak oil sump temperatures of 3020 to 311 0 F as normal, following the same sort of tests, Kawasaki's similar testing led to the conclusion that peak oil sump temperatures of 3000 to 325 0 F would not cause problems. Suzuki ran bikes at top speed, saw constant oil sump temperatures of 3200 F, and found no problems upon engine teardown. All the OEM testing'involved petroleum-based oil. Closer to home, I've been doing a bit of endurance road racing the last four years. For three of the four, the team I ride for was sponsored by a big oil company. How big? Big enough to seB800 million gallons of one type of engine lubricating oil alone in 1982; big enough to have a huge research and test facility staffed by full-time scientists who spend all their time evaluating oil {ormulations and use and their effects on engine wear and reliability. I learned a few things, working with those guys. For three years, every time the end'urance team ran a motorcycle, an oil sample was sucked up out of the sump with a huge hypodermic and shipped off to the research men. Often a company field technician accompanied us to test sessions and instrumented the motorcycle with trick gauges and probes. Temperature probes were imbedded in engine parts, and the engines run on the dyno; after a teardown, a look at the color of the imbedded probe ,revealed how hot the individual engine pans got. Used parts were examined under electron scanning microscopes. These guys were serious, and they knew what they were talking about. More than that, after our testing, they weren't worried about their .. , ., . (.Ca"tin~e.,d. t.o.page.:il-.)•• 5

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