Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/126811
" (Above) Cooley's already by as Spencer (19) takes second away from McDonald (2); (below) Has lam (601) and McMurter race for third. M ec hani cs M ike " St icks" Tro sp er (left) and Larry Worrell refuel Cooley as he leads the race ; Michelin's A ldo checks t ire t em perat u re. A A Superbike Championship Series: Round 1 Spencer wins and Cooley makes his pointin Honda sweep By John Ulrich DAYT ON A BEACH , FL, MAR. 10 Former 500cc Road Racing Wo rId Champio n Fredd ie Spencer wo n the 1985 Da ytona 200 by a m argin of o ne minute, 23 seco n ds. T h at m u ch was ex pected . What wasn't ex- 6 pected was tha t Spencer would cha rge from two m inutes behind after an unscheduled pit stop to investigate a misfire m isfire ea rly in th e ra ce. And eq ua lly unexpected was th e fact that two -time U. S . S u pe r h ik e Ch amp ion W es Coo ley would be th e ma n Spencer had to ca tch an d pass to wi n th e race. Cooley, who a t 28-years-o ld lost h is ride with Yoshimura R&D of America because he was, in one Yoshimura mechanic's words, "too o ld and slow," led more than half th e race on a VF750F Honda Superbike rented for Cooley from Dave Busby (who recently purch ased it from Sam McDona ld) by Tom Tucker's Super Team. The race ' marked Cool ey's fir st on an Interceptor-based Superbike, and he finished second ahead of Entropy Racing's VF750F ridden by jeff Haney a nd England 's Ron H aslam on ano ther ex -Mc Do na ld, re nted -fro m Busb y Super Team Honda . Rueben McMurter was fifth o n an FZ750 entered by th e test in g depart ment o f Yamaha Motor Corp. USA, ahea d o f jimmy Fil ice o n a sligh tlymodi fied Super T ea m FZ750, M ike H a rth o n h is VF750 F H onda , G len n Barry o n another VF750 F, Engla nd 's St eve Parrish o n a stoc k-exce p t-forpi pe-and-su spension FZ750a nd joh n Bet ten co urt o n hi s Beu cn cou rr 's Superbi ke Sq ua d VF750F. Notabl enon-l inish ers included U.S. Superbike C ha m p io n Fred Merkel o f Tea m H onda, former U.S. Formula Two Champion Sam McD onald on a n FZ750 lik e McMurt er 's, a nd new Yo shimu r a R&D pilot Kevin Schwantz, All th ree fr ied their bikes' cl ut ches orr th e sta rt - the sta rter threw th e green n ag 12 seconds after th e one-minute bo ard went sid eways. co m pa red to the usual fo ur or five seconds . a nd th at slig h t delay heated up cl u tches (a nd water temperatures o f wa ter-cooled bikes) a t th e cri tica l sta rt. Schwantz never mad e it past the first turn ; Merkel made a lap before a nd a fter pining for a new clutch , th en retired with sh ifting an d addi - tiona I clutch problems; McDonald made it well into the ra ce before h is Yama ha 's clutch gave up completely. There was no doubt after practice and qua lifying w ho was th e fastest o n the track: 1983 World Champion Spencer. judging by la p times, it seemed certain that Spencer would run away with th e first Superbike version of the Daytona 200 and make a sweep of the three major races. Spencer's qualifying time was o ne minute, 57.768 seconds ( I:57.768) for an average speed of 108.824 mph on th e 3.56-mile co urse. The next fastest rid er was Merkel , a t 1:59.680 and 107.086 mph , on a nothe r VF750F. Spen cer a nd Merkel shared mechanics Mike Velasc o a nd Merl yn Plumlee, but th eir H onda s were n ot identica l. Spe nce r's was bu ilt in j apan a nd sh i pped in for Da ytona , a n d ca me eq ui pped wit h a four-into -two -intoo ne exhaus t system ins tea d of th e u su al f our - into -tw o du al ex ha us ts u sed on Merkel's bike and other VF750F Su perbikes. According to so u rces in side T eam H onda the biggest (h owever, co incide nta l) advantage to th e sys tem on Spencer's Superbike was that th e single highmounted mu£fl er made it easier to remove and replace the rear wheel , versus the dual exhausts (one on each side) of ' the fo ur-into-two sys tems. And wh ile in theory the fo ur-i ntotwo -int o-o ne system - along with some friction -reducing internal engine cha nges like smaller gears made more power, the Honda men said any difference at all was very small - Spencer was able to jumpon Merkel's spare bike and go as fast in practice as he could on his own bi ke.