Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

'8 Dragbike! National Championship ~ Series: Round 2 ~ McBride, Miles roll ~ in Dixie National r...... " ...... ....... By Gary Van Voorhis 0. ... -e COMMERCE, GA, MAR. 30-31 Larry McBride and Steve Miles p u lled off their first wins of the season in Top Fuel and P ro Stock, respectively, in the Dixie National a t At lanta Dragwa y. The Top Fuel final pitted McBride, on the ex-Terry Vance Suzuki-based Iue ler, against Elmer Trett and his new titanium-framed Kawasakibased creation. The run proved anticlimactic as Trett lost traction on the line and McBride was gone before he could gather things back in. McBride ran a con servative 7.65 seconds at 151 mph to Treu's losing. 8.71 sec .ll71 mph . Miles , aboard a Kawasaki campaigned by Vance for most of last year, met Suzuki rider john Mafaro in the Pro Stock final and punched out an 8.70/155.18 as Mafaro struck a combination of ignition and transmission problems which left him sputtering to a 1O.73-second losing effo r t. Treu 's pit area always draws people to it to gaze at his Iue ler. After three seasons, his " Mo u nta in Magic" bike has been replaced by a titaniumframed mount featuring a stream lined Kev lar and ca rbo n fiber body covering ov er half the bike. The black, red a nd silver paint job, a l4-inch rear Goodyear slick and 95-in ch wheelbase a ll add up to make the machine tru ly imposing. The I 327cc Kawasakibased blown and fuel injected nitro burn er barks a sound that screams • power wh en the throtrle is blipped. McBride's white with metal-flake blue tr im Suzuki [ueler, also at 1327cc 'd is p lacem ent , was also a major center of attention. McBride noted during Saturday'S qualifying that he was just gelling used to the bike and that . it had " m uch more power" than an ything he had ever ridden , One incident marred Saturday's racing. Barry Witmire crashed his Top Fuel bike at over 120 mph after passing through the timing lights. The cra sh heavily damaged his bike and left Witmire with a badly cut right hand plus ligament and/or cartilage damage to his left knee which may require surgery. • 94" 3 "Can you believe it ran that good on the first run?" said Treu, "I never expected it to be this good right away. The bike rides like a Cadillac." However, the run wasn 't without problems as Treu's engine blew the head gasket on the burnout and about two-thirds into the run a small piece of metal broke out of the right-hand side at the top of the barrel. Repair work on the bike took until 4 a.m. Sunday morning and then continued at 7:30 a.m . for another two hours. A lot of riders burned the midnight oil, including McBride, who was having blower problems. When the blower on the engine and the spare didn't work right, McBride borrowed one from Larry Hayes. The first elimination round of Top Fuel saw McBride win over Charles Israel when the kill switch came apan and shut the engine off at threequarters distance. Israel was riding a Suzuki for Star Cycl e's George Bryce, which is normally campaigned in the Funny Bike ranks. McBride's ' winning ride was an 8.00 /156.25 pass. Tre u then so loed and put down a 7.77/193 .13 pass w hich had everyone buzzing. Michael "Squeaks" O'Connor, on vacation with his family " in search of warmer weather than in An chorage, Alaska," also ran solo. His 8.99 /157.60 ended the round. Treu and McBride ran solo passes in round two after O 'Connor struck problems to set up the final. Tren turned in a 7.43 /193.13 with McBride at 7.7 1/157.61. McBride had lane choice for the final and chose the left one. Treu, never having run in the right lane, consulted his friend jim McClure who had used the lane - for advice. The pair staged and when the green lights came on, McBride left the line clean and straight while Treu broke his rear slick loose and gave McBride the edge he needed . By the time Treu was able to get usable power to the ground, McBride was gone. as good a time as any to see what the bike would do. I found out. I'm very pleased with the way it ran :JII weeken d." john Mafaro, winner of the Pro Stock round in the NHRA Gatornati onals, put his 1981 1260cc Suzuki, sponsored by Web Cam, Vance & Hines, LA Wand High Performance, in the lap qualifyingposition in the 12-bike field with an 8.574 /153.22 effort. Steve Miles , who m et Mafaro in the final. W:JS seventh in qualifying on his Motorcycle Machine/M&M Bo ys/ Vance & Hines-back ed 1395cc '82 Kawasaki . Both worked th eir way through the first two rounds of eliminations before the semis. The first run rnatchup was between Miles and "Superbike Mike" Keyte. Miles was bauling a transmission/shifter problem which forced him to use his left foot to brace the shift lever in ' case it jumped out of gear once the air shifter-assisted shift to top gear was made, Keyte lost the run on the line as he uncharacterisrical lv jumped the ' stan and redlighted away his chances for the final. Miles ran an 8.7 1/155.12 and later said the tranny problem was still there. Mafaro met Ka wasa ki rider jeff Luccarel li in the other semi with Mafaro turning in an 8.64 /151.77 pass for his win and the la ne choice in the final. Both riders worked on their bikes before the final wi th Mafaro lo o kin g for a way to cut his elapsed time down since Miles' best run was an 8.57 ride in the opening round, while "Pizza john" hadn 't broken out of the 8.60 second range in eliminations. The pair staged for the final with Mafaro in the left lane and Miles in the right. Both left the line clean, but Mafaro began to slow almost immediately and the game was over. "The changes we made must have solved my shifting problem," said Miles. "Everything went smooth ly for the first time this weekend." "This is a heartbreaker," said Mafaro. "I had him covered. He wasn 't going to bea t me. " • By Pat Owens Gene Romero - Mr. Team Work Now that Ricky Graham a nd Honda have won the coveted Grand National Number One, I think the reader of Cycle News would like to know about the in volvernent of MT. Gene Romero, the Honda din track team manager. Gene's involvement began in 1980 Tretr's day didn't stan out the way when he was racing all the mile din " I knew I had to cut a light on track races with sponsorship from he wanted it to. As he did a burnout Elmer, " said McBride. "I glanced a Anheuser-Busch. He did some conbefore staging for his first qualifying bit toward his lane, saw he wasn't suiting work for Honda and the input run , he sensed something was wrong there and let off near the end. I'm still resulted in a lot of testing to develop a and sh u t off the engine. The intake gelling used to the bike and this is a competitive engine. When the firs t manifold had developed cracks in the big boost for my morale. Clark Rowteam was put together in 1981, Gene area near the injectors. Treu made a ley, my partner, is really happy." was sti ll a consultant an d was raci ng quick trip to his nearby home, re- ' McBride mentioned R eid el l Machine the Camel P ro series himself. A t the moved the blower/injector/manifold and Tool Works, Arias pistons and DuQuoin Mile in 1981, it was apparunit from his " o ld " bike, and replaced -Maaco Auto and Paint as some of his ent to me that Gene was helping the enti re assembly . He was back and backers, as well as Terry Vance and jerry Griffith, then the manager of ready to run in time for the fina l Byron Hines, from whom he bought the Team Honda, even though he qualifying session. His 7.60 /185.56 the bike. was not on the Honda payroll. At the pass brought a smile to his face that "I had never really galien on the endoftheI981 season the Honda effort told, without saying, that he was verr ,' t el'\" ~Jot.'!IS~ ...,itft ·the· ... I1' 't~' r I .h,ottlo CJOrlrl.~.stllr on RY l li Ww r.' ·I'l,pm d l.aOf'lla..... in5JWl dthel Jl8t" ~alf runs, " said Treu, " I figured now wa s miles or the miles. bike performed. Gene Romero is an important part of Honda's dirt t rack effort, In March of 1982. Gene went to wor k for American Honda with his mission being to more effectively help jerry Griffith and the Honda dirt track effort. The firs t Honda d in tr.ack win too k place tha t year at Louisvil le.Ken tucky, with SCOll P earso n as the rider. That Honda dirt tracker was nicknamed the " sidewind er " because it was a modified CX500 Honda road bike engine turned sideways in the frame. The sidewinder had a larger bore and stroke that brought it up to 75Occ.Meanwhile, development work was continuing on a new engine by the factory. Gene had always felt that the engine m ust be air-cooled and as light as possible to be fully competitive with other machines. Another reaso n for Gene's thinking was that the engine should be available to privateers, and if a n engine is watercooled it would be much ha rder to maintain on thehectic Grand National Circuit. The year of 1983 was the major development year. Some people realized that Gene's input was moving the team in the righ t direction. O thers felt that Honda could not wi n consistently and ,th e tota l effon would fa i l. At the end of the season Gene was instrumenta l in ' signing both R ick y Graham and Bu b ba Shobert to two -yea r co ntracts for Honda . He also h ired a few key support people to make u p a winning team . ' Before the 1984 season Gene re tired his fa m o us number three so tha t ' R icky Graham could use it. T here was lill ie doubt in my m ind that the H o nda team could win its first Grand National Championship, as Gene ' had started preparing for i t during the winter. I also knew that Gene had ultima te confidence in Bu bba as well as R ic ky. Prior to going to work fo r Honda, Gene was working on a deal with private sponsorship and he knows that the rider is at least 75% of a winning team effon. At the stan of the 1984 season, Honda announced that its RS750D din track engine would be available to privateers. The fact that Ted Boody won the Springfield Mile as a p riva teer using one of these.engines is a big p lus for racers and uhe future of American dirt track racing. The engines used by Bubba a nd R icky we re also available righ t after the ra ce ended. Gary Sco tt purchased the engine o ut of Bubba's bi ke whi le it wa s still warm in the winner's circle. Bra nd new engines were a lso available at the mi le. . T he most positive q uo te ca me from Honda dealer Woody Leone o f Beaum o nt , Texas. "Now tha t Honda has good equipment available a t a reasonable price, I am building two din track racers for the 1985 season." Woody is original Honda dealer number 48. and he said WatJ3!ftenrying golf and fish i ng 'during semi-

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