Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

Merkel and McDonald wave a-sJohn Ashmead lo ok cool and exam ines his plaque. It was Ashmead 's second trip to the winner's circle . Joey Sommers rode his Yamaha to second in Formula Two, w ith a black eye; (below) Rich Schlachter won, barely beating Sommers, traffi c and I wore o u t m y rear ti re trying to ca tch him." While Baldwin . Schl achter .' and Chivington cru ised in the top three spots a t th e halfwa y point, Chandler was whittl in g down La brosse's m arg in in fourth . Th e battl e for si xth sa w Adamo , Mil es Baldw in a nd Ren frow trading places, wh ile Lusb y a nd Bra u n eck fou ght fo r ninth w i th McMurter trail ing in 101h. Boody wa s floa ting between 12th a nd 14th. Dave Schl osser . wh o sta rte d 3 1st o n hi s TZ750, had worked h im self up to 13th. On lap 28, Mik e Baldwin lapped Miles Baldwin- in eigh th -an d set his sights on Renfrow. One lap later , R en fro w was a lap down with Adamo falling next to the leader 's strong pace on la p 31. H owever , Adamo la tched onto Ba ld win and followed him for two la ps. Adamo later cred ited that move with helping him break away from Renfro w and Mi les Baldwin and secure a so lid sixth (a t th at time). Baldwin held a large lead o f 21.6 seco n ds on Schlac hter a t the start of lap 34. Chivington was a lo ng way back in third a nd apparently slowin g, while Labrosse was less than two seconds up o n fift h-p laced Chandler. Two laps la ter, Labrosse had regained additional breathing room. Ch iving to n went o nto pit road n ea r th e end o f la p 36 to get gas for his TZ500. " T he gas tank is a European model ," said Chivington. " It 's larger than we 're allowed to run here, so to meet AMA rules, we had to block off a portion and apparentl y there wa s a leak into there. The en gine began to sputter about three laps before I ca m e in and I knew I wou ldn 't make the distance without stopping. Luckil y, Ra n d y Ren fro w's crew had a gas ca n on pit road. It wa s reall y a bummer to have to stop because I had th ird locked up." Baldwin acknow ledged th e wa ves of th e fan s lini ng th e fen ce a ro u n d the co u rse with wav es o f hi s o wn as h e took hi s cool-o ff lap. H e recei ved a rousin g cheer wh en h e came to winner's circle. " T he tir e choice I ma de was th e ri ght o ne, " sai d Ba ldw in, " I d id back off a bi t in th e clos ing laps whe n a few d ro p s of rain began to fall. It' s ni ce to win a t Loudon because I h ave a lot of fa n s here a nd I want to than k ' ever yone who stayed to ch eer a ll of us on in this rain y weather. " Bald win acknow leged Michel in a nd Ara i for th eir su p po rt of his rac ing pr ogr am , a n d Bru ce Mau s a n d Creighton Dema rest who prepare hi s equipment. " I ran th e so ftest co mpou nd slick Superbike final a t Bryar Motorspon Par k, " I wanted to show everyone w ha t I co u ld do," said Merkel. " I ran the entire race - except for th e fi nal lap - a t race speed . I wa nted to domi na te fro m the sta rt, to sh o w everyone wha t I' m capable or." Fo llowing Merkel across th e finish line in the 37-lap, 60-mi lecontest was the O ntario Moto Tech / Peter Brad ysponsored Honda of john Ashmead, the third place finis her at Road America last weeke nd. T hird, and a spot in the AMA record books, went to Sam McDonald a n d his K&N Ra ci n g ba cked Yamaha FZ750. McDonald's finish marked the firsttimea Yamaha rider has a p peared in winn er 's circle in a series rou nd . Merkel's th ird stra ig h t series win a nd th e 16th of his career ca me before a cro wd es ti m a te d a t 20,000 a n d pa dded th e point lead o f th e defending series cha mpion. H e n o w holds a 33 poi nt edge, i 6 points to 43 over T odd Brubak er. A pract ice session cra sh in which Brubak er broke th e index finge rs o n both hands left Brubaker a d isa p poi nted specta to r for th e wee kend as well as side lin ing h im fo r next wee k's Pocono rou nd . G lenn Ba rr y, o n the H o nda of Ba rtow (Flo rida) H onda , via a fifth p lace fin ish, m o ved to w ithin three poi nts of Brubaker a t 40. Merk el eas ily won th e firs t two q ua lifying heat s o n th e 1.6-m ile co urse a nd al ong with the win came the po le p osition . Merkel lo st o ne of h is stro nges t co mpetito rs o n th e seco nd lap of th e h eat wh en Ru eb en McMurrer crashed , " I don 't kn o w. wh at happen ed ," said :\lcM urt er. " I wasn 't p us h ing it because there was no n eed . One m in ute I wa s up and th e next I wa s down a nd th e bike was boun cing o n me, " Dunl.op h ad o n th e rea r , " sa id Schlachter , "e ven th ough I ra n a ha rder co m pou nd in th e heat .race. I felt the so ft co m pou nd was th e wa y to go if th ere was a chance it might rain a nd th ere def in itel y was. I got close to Mike, bu t had a shi fting problem an d th en m omenta ril y got st uc k in traffi c a nd Mik e reall y got away th en , Bob MacLean and T im O 'Sullivan o f MacLean Ra cing as well as Stuart Toomey , Bruce Berl in ger, Ga ry H ilge n berg a n d Mike Sverina , wh o mak e up th e crew , d eser ve a big th anks." " It 's reall y ni ce to be in winner 's ci rcle, " sa id Labrosse. " I hate to ge t here on the misfortune of Dan Chivingt on because he rode a good race. I kept a stea dy pace throughout a nd I knew Doug Chandler wa s back there, I was waiting for him to get close enough to make a move. The grooved rear slick worked fine, alt hough I did start slid in g around a bi t at the end. Stuart Shaw , my tu ner fo r th e past three sea sons, did a good jo b wi th the bike," · • Results t . M ike Baldwin (Hon ); 2. Rich Sch lachter (Han); 3. Al an Labr ossa (Ho nl; 4 . Doug Chandler (Han); 5. J immy Ad amo (Cogl; 6. Dan Chiv ington (Yam ); 7 . M iles Baldwin (Han); 8 . Pet er Lusby (Hon~; 9. Randy Renfrow (Honl; 10 . Doug Brauneck (Yaml; 11. Ru ebe n M cMurter (Hon) ; 12. Joey Sommer s (Yam); 13 . Dava Schlosser (Yam); 14 . Ted Boody (Han). Time : 47, min., 4 1.22 1 sees. Av erag e spee d; 80.5 25 mph . CAMEL PRO SERIES POINT STANDINGS: 1. Bubba Shoben (109); 2. Doug Cha ndler (10 2); 3. Ted Boody ( 92~ 4 . Scon Parker (791; 5. Scon Peerson (77 t 6 . Ran dy Go.. (58); 7 . Terry Poovey (53); B. (TIE) Pet e Ham es/Rich Sch lacht er (52); 1D. Chr is Carr (50); 1 1. m E) Ronn ie J ones / Alex Jorgen sen (4 9); 13 . Jay Spr in gstee n (44); 14 . Wayne Rainey (411; 15 . Mike Baldwin (36); 16. Steve Eklu nd (35 ); 17 . Alan Labrosse (2 9); I B. Doug Bra uneck (27); 19 . Randy Renfrow (26 t 20 . J immy Filice (25). FORM ULA ONE POINT STANDINGS : 1. Rich Schlachter (521; 2. Wayne Rainey (401; 3. Mike Bald w in (36); 4 . Doug Chandler (33 ); 5 . Alan Labrossa (29); 6. Doug Brauneck (27 ); 7 . Randy Ranfrow (261 8 . M iles Baldwin (24); 9 . Dan Chi;' vington (21 ); 10 . Fredd ie Spencer (201. AMA Superbif(e Championship Series: RoundS Merkel in total command LO UDON, N H , J UNE 15 H onda 's Fred Merkel set th e a u to ma tic pilo t o n hi s low fly ing jet a nd strea ked to a 46second margi n of victory in the Mc Murter banged up his rig h t ankle. but wo uld ha ve raced if his eq ui pment h ad been re paired i n time, jim my Filice, on th e Su per Team / P a lo Alto (Ca l ifornia) Ya ma ha backed FZ a lso we nt o ut in a crash . H e was unhur t as was hi s m ach in ery. Mc Dona ld sped to the seco nd h ea t win over Bettenpurple Racing 's joh n Bettencour t. A bro ken sparkplug wir e p u t the SuperTrapp/Eagle Racing Kawasaki of Da le Q ua rterley in the DNF column and hejo in ed Filice at the bac~of the second wave in the fin al. Merkel, on th e Mike Velasco and Mer lyn Plu m lee-p repared Int ercep tor based mount, ca me off the starting line like he was la u nch ed by a rocket and immediatel y began to put large amounts of track between himself an d th e Beu en co u rt/ Ashmead dice C seco nd." Ri ch Cham ber s' ride came or to a q uick h alt as he crashed . Chambers was up quickl y, but didn 't get back into th e race. By lap th ree, Merk el was up nearl y 6.5 seconds a nd counti ng. Ash mead was in sa le p ossession of seco nd, with McDon ald h oundin g Betten cou rt for third as T eam America's Dave Busb y led a four-ri der p ack in a fig h t for fifth , Both Quarterl ey a nd Fil ice were slici ng a nd dici ng their wa y through tra ffic. McDona ld moved in to p u t pressu re o n Ashmead for seco nd w ith Bet ten cou rt right behi nd on la p six. Merkel was I I seconds up on th e d uel a fte r hav ing reall y kicked in th e aft erburners . C a n a d ia n Pet er Lu sbv, Bu sb y, Barry a n d Mike H arth mad e u p th e battle fo r fifth. Q ua rter lcy had moved fro m th e bac k of the pack to l -l th a n d Filice to 20th . T he Ashmead/ Mc Dona ld ba tt le went o n stro ng until Ashmead slith- 7

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