Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

Cycle News 1985 08 14

Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles

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Dan Chivington (left) and his TZ500 had a terrific battle for third with Doug Brauneck and his TZ750, Brauneck crashed. still finished fifth. . .Five-t im e U .S . Formula One Champion M ike Baldwin lifts the rear wheel of his RS500 Honda as he brakes for a turn. AMA Grand National Championship/ Camel Pro Series: Round 1. 9 Baldwin's win,' title at Mid-Ohio National By Gary Van Voorhis LEXINGTON, OH, A VG . 4 Honda 's Mi ke Bald w in mathem a ticall y clinched the Form ula O ne title with a n easy win at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course. ' Baldwin, wh o led the final 30 laps of the 31-lap, strange position of being able to tie Baldwin on points - sho u ld he win a t BIR and Baldwin score no points - and still losing the title by having less Nationa l wins. Yankee Baldwin and th e fifth of h is Rainey took th e pole for. th e Nacareer. Baldwin's crew, Bruce Maus tional o ver Baldwin by a tick of th e and Creighton Demorest, h ad Bald cl ock with Schlachter and Renfrow win 's Arai /Mich elin-backed H onda behind. Shobert. riding Superbike RS500 read y " be crated up for to Series points lead er Fred Merkel 's sh ipment to Sweden so Baldwin ca n ba ck-up bike. pu t th e H onda Inter rac e th e Au gust II GP. The rush back ceptor 750-based mo u nt o n th e o u tside o f row o ne . but was a full two to Eu ro pe was co n tingent o n h is wrapping up th e title. seco nds off Rainey 's time. T he fi na l Randy Renfrow , in hi s seco nd ride spot on th e 26-r id er g rid was fille d by for new sp o ns o r St arfire R acin g . Last Chance Q ua lifier winner Mike turned in a stro ng performance to net Elmore and hi s RS50 0, second o n his RS500 . Third fell to Ra iney led the first la p o n th e ' Dan Chi vington and hi s Gee Vee Pertwisting course which th ro ws a varforman ce Yamaha TZ500 afte r a n ie ty of eleva tio n cha nges a nd 15 ti ght equall y stro ng rid e. _ turns a t th e riders p er lap. Baldwin , MacLean Racing's Wa yn e Rainey, in seco nd , led Shobert, Schlachter, Renfrow, Br auneck , Chi vington, a board a Honda RS500, and th e TZ750 Yamaha of Shoei/Interstate Leathers Labrosse and Chandler. rider Doug Bra u n eck rounded out Mil es Baldwin came a ro u nd nearl y' the top five . half a lap down , definitel y not the Rich Schlachter, the rider with the wa y to start a race. " I got to the grid a best chance of taki ng the tit le chase to bit late," said Miles Baldwin, "but the final round at Bra inerd Interna- . that wasn't the problem. We had tional Racewa y on September 1, some trouble starting the bikeand by crashed early in the National a nd th e time the problem was fixed I erased what chance h e had. Sch lach didn't have time for a warm-up la p . ter sustained a battered right elbow To make ma tters worse, the gas never and pl enty o f bruises. got turned back on after the work was In . the battle of th e dirt trackers, fi nished on the bike and I had to pull Doug Chandler finished seven th with off the track j ust into the first lap and. Bubba Shobert 10th and Ted Boo dy do that. I was not very happy out 13th . there." Shobert continues to lead the Camel Mike Ba ld win took o ver the lead on the second lap, leading a string of Pro Series point standi ngs, 156 points to 149 over Chandler wi th Boody seven riders with MotoPlan Insuranthird at 130. ce's Alan Labrosse and his RS500 at Renfrow now finds himself in the the tail end. J II \ J ~. : J J j I J h- ~ ) 1 ~ I' J ( _ f ~ I. J I • )., ~~ I J I ,,( I ~ 1 [J r ) I ; ! 1 :1 I t j ~ ~ 74.4-mile National, collected the lion's share of the $21,000 purse. T he title marked the fourth in a row for Co nnecticut ,; 8 - On lap three, Jimmy Adamo ca me into th e pits and parked his T eam Leoni Cagiva 500 GP bike. Superbike winner John Bettenco urt 's ride ca me to an end one la p later as he also parked his bike. Lap five sa w Elmore come into th e pits to remove tape from his overheating radiator. By lap seven , th e front -runners had sp lit into groups with Mik e Ba ldwin, Rainey, Schlachter a nd Renfrow pulling away from Chivington, Brauneck a nd Sh obert while Labrosse trailed . Art Robbins, o n the Treen-backed Yamaha TZ750, had Doug Chandler a nd h is Freddie Spencer/SuperTrapp Racin g RS 500 for co m p a ny in a battle for ninth. The co mp lexio n of th e race changed on th e 10th lap as Schlachter crashed hard in a section of uphill /downhill tu rn s short ly af ter ta kin g seco nd from MacLean Racing teammate Rainey. " I don't know what happened," said Schlachter afterward. "T h e back en d broke loose and I went flying . Luck ily, I onl y rashed up my elbow. I know I'll hurt tomorrow because I don 't think I've ever hit the ground that hard in a crash." Ra iney almost didn 't avoid going down with Schlachter. " R ich 's bike bo unced up and nea rl y took me with it," said Ra iney. " Someho w I mi ssed it , but in doing so I rea ll y pulled my elbow a nd it hurt bad en o ug h that I co nsidered pulling in for at least the next·two or three laps." Rainey ca rries pins a nd wires in hi s right elbow to a llow him to ra ce after breaking part of th e elbow in a crash a t Loud on in June. Ra in ey a lso wears a special o rt hoped ic bra ce. The ou tco me o f th e in cid ent was tha t Mike Baldwin added to hi s leading advantage a nd Renfrow , who wa s in position to mi ss all th e ac tio n in front o f him , secured seco n d a good distance over Rainey. Renfrow pushed hard in th e n ext few laps to close th e gap on Baldwin, but Baldwin used traffic to hi s advantage to open up four seconds on Renfrow by lap 14. Shobert's strong ride in sixth came to a dusty interruption on lap 14. " I missed a shift goi ng into a turn and cou ldn 't get slowed down ," said Shobert. "I 'ra n off the track, went do wn, bu t kep t th e engi ne going and got righ t back on the track. The excursion dropped him to ninth. The ba ttle for fo urth behind Mike Bal d win , Ren fro w and Ra iney starred Chivington and Brauneck in a good position-swapping duel which ca me to an end on lap 21 as Braun eck hit the dirt. " I was up and running for the bike before it stopped sliding," said Brauneck . " I straightened the bar a nd grip on one side, got a push off fro m a corner ~,!rker a nd spent a ~ ~:JJ~.,t i .J -I t·\ /i: <. ? 1 . '· ~ 'O ] lap cleaning the dirt ou t of the fairing while trying to keep up a pace." , Brauneck dropped to sixth, but came back roclairn fifth three laps af ter hi s crash. " I reall y didn 't have a ny problems," said Mike Baldwin. "I did keep my eyes open for slick spots, oi l on the track a nd made ·sure I didn 't spook an y riders wh en I passed th em. The thought of th e last two times here wh en I cras hed, o nce from o il on th e tra ck and th e o the r from a rider moving into my line, did cross m y mind a few times." Baldwin was leading in both those instances. . Back in the p ack so me interesting di ces were ta kin g pl ace. Art Robbins' stron g cha llen ge for sixth ended when he ran off th e track , but he kept it up and got back on track in eighth wh ere he finished . Russ Paulk, on th e T a ylor White-b acked. Vic Fasola- • prepped TZ750, wa s on a relentless ch arge from de ep i n the pack, aft er Shobert's ninth place. Miles Baldwin cu t through traffic for 12th. Two laps ea rl ier, Chivington, after cat ching and tailing Ra iney, p assed and moved into third. With Brauneck 's move arou nd Labrosse for fift h, the top six were set for the run to the finish . The fina l lap s saw Mike Baldwin in cre ase hi s margin of victory to nearly 15 seconds as the rest of the top six held position. Labrosse, in sixth, had to hold off cha lle nges from Chandler in th e final three laps. " Do ug had better braking in the turns," said Labrosse, " wh ile I had th e ad va ntage o n to p -en d speed. We were both riding ca u tio u s and it was speed over braking a t th e finish ." Robbin s held a secure eigh th , bu t beh ind him th e fin al two laps sa w Paulk ca tch, pas s a nd hold off Sh o bert to tak e n inth. " O nce I go t near Bubba I felt I had a cha nce ," sa id Paulk. " It was like dangling a prize out th ere and I wanted it." " I wa s just rolling a lo ng in th e final laps," sa id Shobert. " I got pit signals that whoever was behind me was a lo ng wa y back and my pit crew apparently thought Paulk was a lap down ." . Mi les Ba ld win 's hard work paid off with an II th place finish . " It was a lot of hard work for very little return:' said an obviously-displeased Ba ld win . Mike Ba ld win was all sm iles o nce he was sure he had cli nc hed the ti tle and g iven his sponsors , Mic helin a nd Arai, what they were look ing for. " It . feels good, " said the champion. "I was going to sta y here in the V .S. and no t go back to race in the final Grands P rix, but now that I've gotten the title I can go back and concentrate totally on those two final races." • ) i : t 1 ) ~sf;l.)1 .J1 .. c c c r s a r j ~)

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