Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

(Above) Freddie Spencer's quick pit stop, (Below) Randy Renfrow (3) was fourth. behind Ron Haslam (601 ), James Knipp (beh ind Haslam) was 22nd, AMA Grand National Championship/ Camel Pro Series: Round 3 Spencer rules Formula One By Gary Van Voorhis DAYTONA BEACH, FL, MA R. 8 Freddie Spencer o vercame a starting-grid controversy and a broken exha u st pipe to take his first Formula One victo ry a t Daytona, and there was no doubt that Spencer was th e fastest rider in th e field a n d th a t o n th e track he won fair and sq uare. T he controversy en tered on the sta rt of the race wi th Spencer need in g to restart his engine after the one-minute board was displayed - a clear violation of AMA rules a nd a hazardous situation a s well. However, other riders were receivingassistance from their rnechanics a t the sa m e time as, or just before, Spencer's probl em a nd wer e also in viola tion of th e rules. In the end. the AMA decided to tak e no actio n agai ns t Spencer or the other riders and even thoug h th ere wa s much ta lk among th e top fin ishers of protests none were filed. But several riders claimed that the AMA refused to accep t their written protest a nd to ld th em th e situa tio n was handled, when it wasn 't. A seco nd problem cro p ped up rig h t at th e fini sh of th e ra ce when Spencer a nd seco nd-p lace-fin isher Mike Baldwin wer ejoined in winner's circ leby Jeff H aney. T his scori ng error and a n umber of others weren' t straigh tened o u t u nt il a fina l pos ti ng of the resu lts a t 9:15 th e next morning. Haney, elated in the trophy cerernonies, found himself seventh when the scoring was fina lized. If Haney was bummed the next morning, Ron Haslam was more so at the end of the race. Sa ying h e kn ew h e finished thi rd , Haslam co u ld o n lv wonder aloud why h e wasn't rig h t. fully in the winner's circle . The cha nge of the Dayto na 200 to Superbikes and the moving of th e National - run with Formula One ma chines - to Friday continued 10 generate mixed reac tions a mo ng th e riders. Some favored th e 100-mile sp rint format a nd wer e gl ad 10 ge t th eir ra cin g o u t o f th e wa y ea rlier in th e week . Man y feel th e 200, the se t piece of Cycl e Week , shou ld sti ll be th e Formula One race. One cha ng-e which m t with n o M ike Baldwin (abo ve) led t he f irst t h ree laps on hi s priv at eer RS500 . (Bel ow) Marco Lucch inelli (6 11) ro de the first non- Hon da to sixth . approval from th e riders and others - including many o f th e AMA officia ls a nd workers on hand for th e races - wa s a cha n ge in th e rider number in g sys tem. In short , th e top 50 ri ders in la st year's point sta nd ings - i n eac h class - receive a number co rres pond ing to th eir sta nding while all o thers race with a three-di g it num ber. T he 80-ride r field had 56 riders with three digit numbers a nd p ro ved 10 be a scorer's nightm are. Additi ona lly, th e fa m ili a r rider number /name co m bi nations wh ich fa ns had been us ed 10 for many years went o u t th e window. Id entifying rid ers without a prog ram proved nearl y impossible. The new 3.56-m ile co u rse, shortene d by three-tenths o f a mil e from 3.87 by revamping th e infield, provided a n ew ch a llen ge 10 riders familiar with the o ld co u rse by making th e infi eld portion more inter esting. Honda 's Spencer grabbed th e pole fo r th e final with a fastest lap of one m i nu te, 5 1.709 seconds with an average speed of 114.727 m iles per hour. Defending U.S. Form u la O ne C ham p ion Mike Bal d win , no w sponsori ng h is own team a fter Honda dropped their Formu la One program, pushed his Bruce Mans-tuned Honda into the second spot on the front row , alm o st four seconds s lower than Spencer. Has lam . Ra n d y Ren frow and Ri ch Schlachter rounded out th e top five. H aslam 'a nd Schlacter were riding Stuart T oomey-tuned MacLean R acin g RS500s, Renfrow riding his o wn RS500. Spen cer was th e picture of co n fidence as he waited o n th e starting line to tak e his warm -up lap" That . cha n ged radicall y wh en a scr ew secu ring th e left side o f hi s Iaceshield popped o u t as h e rode down th e backstretch . O nce ba ck in hi s grid pos ition h is crew, led by Erv Ka nemo to , h urri edly taped the shie ld down. Spencer had sto pped h is engine wh ile the.work was going o n . H e h ad . arrived back on th e grid with a bit o ver two minutes lef t a nd a t th e twominute sign official s tri ed to clear th e grid of mechan ics. Spencer's cre w wasn 't the o n ly one sti ll wo rki ng. Once the ta pe job was fini shed , Spencer wa s push ed o ff 10 bum p start h is engi ne a nd wa s ba rel y back in position when th e green flag dropped . " It was a da ngerous situa tion with mecha n ics o n th e g-rid a nd the race a bo u t 10 start in add i tion 10 clea rly being a ru les' viola tion ," sa id Wes Coo ley of the P rof essional Ri ders Associa tion . "Spencer shou ld h ave bee n given a o ne- lap p ena lt y right a way , but th e AMA didn 't do a n yth ing. Fr eddie to ld me la ter h e felt sure that 's what wo u ld happe n. " :If th ey're not going 10 a bide by th e rules. then wh y co u ld n' t th e AMA give me four pounds a t L ag una ?" as ked Cooley, referr ing to his loss o f second pl a ce in th e Superbike race there because th e Yoshimura Suzuki was 100 light. Although th e AMA said th ere were n o ri der protests filed aga ins t Spencer, the officia ls reviewed video tapes of the start an d , according 10 AMA's Bill Boyce, decided to take no actio n a gain st Spencer since to do so would single him out wh en other riders were a lso in viola ti on of th e rules. "When I gOI back to the grid I told m y cre w 10 do a good job taping th e shi eld down and to make sure it was right ," sa id Spencer a fte r th e race. " 1 was more wo rri ed a bo u t th e sh ield th an being th e la st rider off th e grid if th at's what I had 10 do. I saw th e o ne min ut e sign go sideways (sig na lin g a start within the next 10 seconds) as m y engine sta rte d and I hoped I co u ld get pulled back into m y posit io n before th e flag wa ved because it wa s a dan gero us si tuation. I was barely back in lin e when th e flag wa ved and still rolli ng back ward s a bit so that bl ew my start." _(Continuedto.page. Iti ) .11

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