Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

Scott Gray leaves Reuben McMurter. (Below) F-2 winner John Glover (96) leads Tracy DeMuro(52). Chris Steward (30) and Don Greene. Walt Nitto ran away in Superstreet. (Below) Earl Roloff (10) and Rich Oliver (2) chase Kevin Monahan in the CSS Challenge. ninth, his bike's rear shock losing all damping, pUlling him behind McMuner, Earl Roloff and Oliver; Hampton finished 10th. Cooley led the start of the last lap of that first segment, but Merkel drove by between turns seven and eight; Cooley closed up but didn't pass in turn eight, nor in turn nine, and Cooley's allempt to draft and pass on the straight brought hi,m past Merkel too late, after the finish line. Cooley took the lead of the second segment quickly, was passed by Merkel, and it looked, for the time, .that the race was over. But Cooley caught up, the pair running I :31s and I:32s and even an occasional I :33 lap ti me in the face of a rising headwind. Merkel drafted past on the straight; Cooley repassed between turns three and four. Merkel almost got past again at tbe end of the straight, on the inside, but not quite, and it was this lap that showed a preview of what was to come at the finish, because this time Cooley didn't gain ground in turn eight; Merkel stayed right with Cooley through that corner, not gaining, but neit losing either. At the first turn Merkel pulled even, on the outside, but Cooley dropped down inside and stayed in front. McDonald ran alone in third, turning about the same lap times as Cooley and Merkel, staying three or four or five seconds behind, holding. McMurter was alone in fourth for awhile, until Vreeke, then Pietri moved past. Pietri caught and passed Vreeke, too, this time with a spare, working - albeit a lillle-too-stiff shock installed on his bike by mechanic Bill Hell fri tsch. Oliver was out; Gray, who had been hosed down with oil on the first lap when Roloff's bike's engine blew, was in seventh, Hampton eighth. Merkel led the last lap, Cooley just behind; the race looked like it would be decided in turns eight and nine, Cooley losing ground when his Suzuki's reartire slid and stepped outas he grabbed the gas in turn five, the bobbie costing him distance and drive to Merkel. And in eight Merkel didn't lose ground, in fact gained, and led across the finish line. "My wrist really hun," said Merkel later. "I just ran with him. I waitedat the top of the hill on the last lap, hoping he'd pass me so I could draft him out of the la t turn. I waited and waited but he wouldn't pass so I just put the hammer down. I ran wide open through turn eight, didn't let off at all; that last lap was the fastest I went through that corner all weekend. " So Merkel won. Results Fred Merkel (Han) 1-1; 2. Wes Cooley (Suz) 2-2; 3. Sam McDonald (Han) 3-3; 4. Jim Vreeke (Kaw) 4-5; 5. Reuben McMurter (Han) 6-6; 6. Scan Gray (Suz) 5-7; 7. Roberto Pielri (Han) 9-4; 8. Terry Hampton (Han) 10-8; 9. Chris Crowell (SuzI13-1 0; 10. Vince Costa (Kaw) 12-11; 11. Earl Roloff (Kaw) 7-16; 12. 8ernd Koegler (Han) 11-13; 13. Jeff Haney (HonI14-12; 14. Rich Oliver (Kaw) 8-18; 15. Larry Shorts (Han) 16-9; 16. Kerry 8ryan. (Kaw) 15-15. SUPERBIKE POINT STANDINGS: 1. Fred Merkel (1761; 2. Sam McDonald (149); 3. Reuben McMurter (113); 4. Roberto Pielri (85); 5. Rich Oliver (731; 6. (TIE) John Bettencourt/Ricky Orlando/Dale Quarterley (53); 9. We. Cooley (521; 10. Terry Hampton (30). FORMULA TWO: 1. Oon Greene (1151; 2. Chris Steward 1991; 3. Sam McDonald 184); 4. (TIE) Tracy DeMuro/Alan Labrosse (801; 6. Dale Franklin (741; 7. Dave Buaby (62); 8. Kevin Brunson (61); 9. Joey Sommer. (581; 10. John Glover (51). Formula Tlllo Glover wins By John Ulrich ROSAMOND, CA, SEPT. 16 Even before practice John Glover figured he had a good shot at winning this race on Barry Elliott's Spondon-framed Yamaha, the best shot he'd ever had. Glover was coming of[ a club race at Willow Springs Raceway in which he turned I :31 lap times, faster, as it turned out, than he'd need to go to win this Nippondenso Formula Two event. But more than tbat, Glover had discovered two important things about setting up the Yamaha he helps Elliou prepare before races. The first thing was simple, and surprising considering 33-year-old Glover's years of racing TZ250s: the correct way to put together his Jmodel's clutch. As Glover tells it, the diagram in the manual for the bike is wrong; following it leads toconsLantlywarping steel clutch plates and poor starts, poor stans that had Glover wondering for a time if his domination of AFM 125cc events on an MTI25R Honda had somehow ruined his technique for gelling holeshots on his TZ250. It turned out that pnce assembledcoll'ectly, the clutch worked fine, fine enough for Glover to turn 11.63 seconds and 122 mph at the drags with the tall-geared TZ. Tbe other set-up trick was one Glover found in the manual itself, a not-so-obvious tip buried in the text, a simple phrase which, when correctly interpreted, yields the key to making a TZ250 slide the rear wheel before it slides the front wheel on any given track. That's the difference between getting sideways at the limit of tire adhesion or crashing at the limit of tire adhesion. It's common for TZ250 pilots charging, charging, charging a lillie harder in this corner or that - to find the front wheel pushing and tucking under, the rider either saving it or crashing, as often one as the other. It happened at Willow to Alan Labrosse, winner of the Formula Two races at Ponland and Brainerd, the results being twO crashes in practice. "The front wheel kept pushing," Labrosse would say later. "I ended up not going as fast in the race as I did in practice. " It's tempting, seeing a nice fellow like Labrosse crashing, to offer Glover's new-found knowledge, the secret gleaned through careful reading and experimenting, a bit of information so valuable as to make Glover brisl1e with new-found confidence in his motorcycle and its ability to warn him of traction limits without pitching him on his head. But what Glover told us in confi- dence is not ours to relea~e, as regretful as that may be; all we can do is hope to send others back to their manuals, their minds ready to snatch the telling phrase; on the other hand, maybe what is so significant for Glover isn't for the others, although we doubt it. As it was, Glover did win, leading most laps, his fastest circuits being I :32s on Ellioll'S bike, fielded with sponsorship help from J. B. Wholesale Roofing Supplies and Granada Yamaha. "I knew there were two places on the track where I was faster," Glover would say afterwards. "I was faster in turn nine and my bike was faster-no way they could beat me to the £lag. I wanted to go just fast enough to win; every time someone got close I just whipped it up some more." The someones Glover referred to were Chris Steward, Tracy DeMuro and series point leader Don Greene. Like Glover, Greene had won his heat race for starting position, Greene beating local Dave Sadowski and Labrosse, Glover beating Steward, Sam McDonald on the American Honda RS250R, Dale Franklin and .DeMuro. It was Steward who jumped orr the starting grid first, he and Glover pulling away from Greene, Franklin and Labrosse on the first lap, gaining the most distance in fast, sweeping turn eight. DeMuro was back behind Sadowski, McDonald behind DeMuro. On the third lap Glover shot past Steward on the front straightaway, Steward coming close to pulling up even between turns one and two but not quite gelling past. Steward would later say that it was at this point that the stin~er fell off 11

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