Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

Don Greene overca me m echanical pr obl ems t o f inish t hird in the Formula Two race ; Greene 's finish pu ts him second in t~e point standings. Gene Church powers his Harley-Davidson to a win in the Battle of the Twins at Pocono; Church took the lead on lap two and never looked back. Mike Hlnh (Ylm); 6. LInce Jones (Ylm); 7. Jimes Tribou (Ylm) ; 8 . Cllrke Pe lme r (ylm); 9. Kevin MOROhln (Ylm) ; 10. JlffJlmes (ylm); 11. Jon GrlY (Klw); 12 . Llrry Sham (Han); 13 . Philip Berk (Ylm); 14. Joe Nelson (ylm); 15. Clive Ng-A.Kien (ylm); 16. Ken Stephens (Hon~ 17. Tom Heyner (Ylm) ; 18. Mike Llndrum (Hon); 19 . Peu l Devlin (Kew~ 20. Mitch Mlrqui (Ylm) . Time : No time due to restart. POINTSTANDINGS: 1. Fred Merkel (96 );2 . Glenn Berry (53); 3 . John Ashmeed 145); 4 . Todd Brubeker (43); 5 . John Benencoun (37); 6 . J im Filice (32); 7. Wes Cooley (29) ; 8. Sim MeDon.ld (26); 9. (TIE) Kevin Schwentz/Freddie Spencer (20 ). Formula Two Two in a row for Schlachter LO NG POND, PA, JUNE 23 Rich Schlachter, for the second straight week, topped the Formula Two ranks, but at Pocono International Raceway 14 hi s win ca m e with more than the one· bikelength cu shion he h ad at Loudon . Schlachter's win gave Ma cLean Racing riders, the injured Wa yn e Rainey a nd Schlachter, five straight victories. Dogging H onda RS250mounted Schlachter a ll th e way was Spondon r id er J am es St eph en s. Runner -up Step he n s held a safe edge on th ird place fini sh er Don G reen e th roughout th e rac e, as th e to p three were set fro m th e o pen i ng lap o n in the l 5-la p , 42-m ile sp rint. The win, co u pl ed w it h Greene 's third pl ace fin ish a n d Rainey no t racing due to inj u ries sus tai ned at Loudon, bo lstered Sch lach ter 's poi nt lea d in th e series. Schlachter to ps th e li st a t 95 p o in ts, with Green e at 66 a nd Ra iney at 60. The first of two five -la p qua lif yin g heats, run in lieu o f timed qual ifying sessions due to malfunctioning timing lights, fell to Schlachter afte r a d uel with Doug Brauneck a nd hi s H asty Racin g-sponsored Spondon . Eu roc ycle / Arai-sp onsored Green e bl istered h eat two and finish ed nearly eig ht secon ds up o n the Ph il Sch il ling/Ton y Murphy/Speedline Fair i ng szD u n lo p z' C h a m p io n- back ed Spondon of St ephens. Miles Baldwin , as he had at Loudon , was a board th e H onda RS250 formerly ridden by Dal e Franklin. Baldwin got th e ride a fter Frankl in had a fall ing ou t with tuner Da ve H arold an d H aro ld 's sponsor - The Brothers H onda/ BMW of Paulsbo (Was h ing to a) offered Baldwin the ri de. Greene held the pole for the final with Schlachter. Stephens. Brauneck and Baldwin lining up alongside. Notably absent from the grid was J oey Sommers, the second place fin isher a week ago at Loudon. Equipment problems sidelined Sommers. Stephens latched onto Schlachter . on the opening lap and ' the two slowl y drew away from Greene in third. Greene's race was due to be a long one. " I 'rn still doing my own wrenchin g," Greene said afterward, " a nd ma ybe something I did wasn 't quite right. I began losing top-end power a lmost right away a nd instead - of being able to rev th e engine to 12.500 it would onl y go to 11,500 . The loss of one-thousand revs doesn't sound like much. but when yo u 're riding a 250 on this track it's the difference between winning and finishing somewhere else." Stephens kept the wick on his Spondon turned up, matching Schlachter's every move and hugging his rear tire most of the time. The two had nearly four seco nds on Greene in third at the start of lap seven with Greerie up eight seconds on Baldwin , Honda rider Brad Holman , and the Yamaha TZ250 of Chuck Askland. On lap eigh t, Brauneck moved around Aksland for six th and the top seven were set to the finish . Eighth place rotated a m o ng five riders in a dogfight for position. J eff H e ino , Rob ert Lugli ani, Dav e Sadowski , Garry G riffith a nd Dav id Curti s pl ayed the draft-and-pass game a mon g th emselves. Lap 12 saw Schlachter wi th a 1.5 seco nd edge on Stephen s before getti ng slo wed by traffi c a nd having St ephens going righ t back on hi s rear tire. Stephen s' edge a p peared to be lat er braking go ing into th e ch ica ne. while Schlachter h ad a better 'dri ve out. T wo laps from th e fin ish , Stephen s closed d ramaticall y o n Schlachter as th ey dove into th e chica ne , although .Sch lach ter maintained hi s lead . (La p times sh owed that Schlachter slo wed on th e next-to-last lap, th en turned th e fa stest lap of th e ra ce o n th e last la p , a ploy to try to los e Stephens. ) "The transmission popped out of gear as 1 was up-shifting ou t of th e ch ica ne," sai d Schla chter. "a nd Jim cl osed right in o n me. I kn ew th at wa s the time to pull o u t th e sto ps a nd gain so me br eathing room ." Schlachter had some 10 bikelen gths on Stephens as th ey sta rted th e fi na l lap and added another 10 before the finish . Greene cruised by about 10 seconds beind the first two, and about a mile ahead of Baldwin and Holman and his privateer RS250. "I didn't realize it was going to be that close a race," said Schlachter. " My strategy was to keep a comfortable distance between myself and Jim - at least one second - so I could save something for the Formula One race. Stephens rode one heck of a race ." Results 1. Richerd Schlechter (Hon~ 2. Jlmes Stephens (Spo); 3. Don G,.ne (Hon); 4 . Mllee Beldwin (Hon); 5. Bred HoImln (Honl; 6. Doug Brlunlck (Spo); 7. Chuck Aksland (y.ml; 8 . Raben Lugli.ni (Arm); 9 . Jeff Heino (Hon); 10. Deve s.dowski (Hon); 11 . G.rry Griffith (Y.m~ 12. Devid Curtis (y.mt 13. Dan Guglielmo (Ylm); 14. John Frlnee (Ylm) ; 15. Greg Esser (y.m); 16. lie R.eicot (Ylm) ; 17. Din Geiger (ylm); 18. Alln Hippensteel (l(ew); 19. Mich.1 Chol_ (ylm); 20. M.lcolm Montgomery (Y.m~ TIME: 25 min .. 34.99 sees. AVERAGE SPEED: 98.502 mph. . . POINT STANDINGS: 1. Rich Schlechter (95) ; 2. Don Greene (66); 3. Weyne R.iney (601; 4. Doug Brluneck(39); 5. D.... Sedowski (36); 6 . Jeff Heino (33); 7 . Chuck Akellnd (30); B. Raben Luglilni (24); 9. ew.yne Chung (22); 10. Freddie Spencer (20) . Battle of tile TW;lIs Church rings bell at Pocono LONG POND. PA . JUNE 23 Gene Church, on the HarleyDavidson Owners Group-sponsored Harley, had an easy time in the 15-lap, 42-mile Battle of the Twins final after taking the lead from Team Leoni Cagiva rider J immy Adamo on the second lap. Adamo's ride ended at th ree-quarter di stance with a sick en g ine . John Williams, on th e Du cati USA / Aero Union-sponsored Ducati took seco nd in th e GP cla ss behind Church a nd second overa ll, wi th third in both falling to Dr. John 's Moto-Guzzi . T eam rider Gregg Smrz and h is MotoGuzzi. Sherry Fridu ss, a Heav yweight Modified cla ss winn er a t Da ytona last yea r, pi cked up th e Pocono class win aboard her Moto-Guzzi North Am erica-backed mount while Marc Mercadante rode a Du cati to hi s second L ightweight Modified class win in a row . The Stock class win and the overall series points lead went to Will Roeder a n d hi s Harley-D avidson /Roeder Harley-Davidson-sponsored XRlOOO. Number One plate holder Roeder leads Church in th e battle for hi s seco nd ove rall series by 13 points, 138 to 125. H eav yw eight Modified cla ss rider Dave McClure led the standings heading into the event, but was forced to park his Harley-Davidson/Express Racing Harley at the end of the second lap with a suspected broken crank. He holds third in the standings at 120 points. Adamo led the thundering charge of 49 bikes at the end of lap one with Church in tow ahead of Stuart Cooper and a pitched battle for fourth among . Williams, Crane Racing's Malcolme Tunstall and his Ducati, and Dave Keiffer and his Rough Stock Racingsponsored Ducati. Church took over the lead from Adamo on lap two. McClure called it a day and parked his bike and the rest of the field began to sort themselves out. The top five remained the same through lap five with Church starting to pass slower riders. Mike O 'Brien led BMW rider Bert Stuckert and Friduss in a battle for the Heavyweight class lead while Yamaha rider Dean Joas led Ducati-mourned Mercadante and Roger Sears in the Lightweight class. Roeder was out front in the Stock class. but kept looking over his shoulder. Church opened up a nearl y ninesecond lead on Adamo by the halfway flags . Williams and Tunstall were in a tooth and nail fight for second after zipping around Adamo. O'Brien took himself out of the Heavyweight battle via a crash. At about the same time•. Friduss powered her way around Stuckert for th e Heavyweight lead. Cooper had retired from the GP class fra y a few laps earlier with apparent engine problems. Adamo pitted on lap II with smoke spewing from his exhaust pipes. At the same time. Tunstall parked his bike a fter "an oil line split and covered th e rear tire." Church cruised home with a 40second cushion on Williams, while Smrz held off Keiffer for third. Dale Quarterley, . on a H arley-Davidson finished fifth . Friduss, in sixth" took th e H eav yweight win from Stuckert. Lightweight winner Mercadante wa s 12th.overall with Roeder finishing 16th overall for th e Stock win. " I had a - transmission problerr.," sa id Williams, "and 1 had to make very deliberate shifts. Dale Newton, m y tuner, spent a good bit of last night do ing anengine ch ange." Results GP : 1. Gene Church (H· D); 2 . J ohn Willil m. (Duel; 3 . Gregg Smr. IM·GI; 4 . Dive Keiffer (Due); 5 . D. le Ou.nerley (H·D). . HIW MOD: 1. She rry Friduss IM·G ); 2.' Ben Stucke n (BMW); 3. St""e Wentwonh (H·D); 4 . Terry Spiegelburg (Due); 5. Brock Biffl n (Han) . U W MOD: 1. M.re Mercedlnte (Duel; 2 . Del n J oes (Yam); 3. Richerd W inningstad (Ceg); 4. Hilton ven Stlden (Due); 5. Willilm Clmpbell (Han). STOCK; 1. Will Roeder (H·D); 2 . Raben Feg l n (M-G); 3. Ed Thompson (BMW); 4 . Raben erlwford (H· D); 5. Wlyne Reiss (BMW).

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