Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

In ~ « a:: -c '" > « a:: > Z Z w ::: > '" o ... o In ::: 0.. (Above) West Germany's Anton Mang dominated Daytona's Formula Two race. (Below) Spain's Sito Pons finished second after starting last. West German Harald Eckl and California's Don Greene were this close for most of the 1OO-mile race . Eckl beat Greene for third amidst controversy. Formula Two Mang romps to Formula Two win ByPaul Carruthers DAYTONA BEACH . FL , MAR . 8 It took him four a ttem p ts, but West Germany 's four-time World Champion Anton Mang finally won the Formula Two race at Daytona Interna tional Speedway. The Rothm ans H onda ace storme d to a . . . b Ig W In over a su p porti ng cas t of Eu ro peans including seco nd a nd th ird p lace finish ers Si La 16 . . . . POllS and H a ra ld Eckl: Cahfor~ la s D~lI1 Greene was the first Am~n~ oln with a respectabl e fou rth place finish . " It was quite a n easy race,' the 36yea r-o ld Mang sa id . " It was more like a. lo ng practice than. a ~ce. Every time I wo u ld see a pu Signal there wo ul d be two seco nds (ga in o n seco nd . . p lace) e~e r~ la p. " . Mang s first Daytona W I ~ ca m ~ in hi s fourt h year a n d after tak in g a Iiveyea r break fro m 250cc racing o n th e ~I~ri da track . H e led from .start to fin ish . bu t ma y have had a tough er tim e if Pons. a lso H onda NS R250mo unted . had sta rted fro m h is a ssig n I'd seco nd spot o n the fro nt ro w. After co m p!etin g th e warm-up lap, Spaniard Pons stop ped at h is pi t to top-off his gas tan k ; wh en he tr ied to move to h is front-row starting positio n, the two- m inu te sign was a lready up and he was sto p ped by o fficia ls. H e w a s the n forced to start fro m th e back row. giving a n ea rly 20-30 seco nd adva ntage to Mang a nd the o the r front runners. But Po n s heroicall y blas ted h is way through th e pack to tak e second pl~ce and to give Ma ng so~ethi ng to thi n k about fort he u pco m m g G rand P rix season in Europe. The third-place battle went down to the wire. or at least to wha t Greene thought was the wi re. Green e and Eck l engaged in a race-long ba ttl e that was unfo rtunately decided by a false che ckered fla g . W ith Ma ng closing to lap G reen e a nd Eck l o n h is fina l lap, th e flagman waved th e che cke red flag at wha t he though t was Mang . It wa sn ' t; ins tead th e flag went to Eckl and G re ene, wh o in stantly slowed , thi n king the race wa s o ver . T here wa s one more la p . however, and th ird p lace belonged to Eckl. G reene wa s visibly u p set by th e incident a nd immedia tel y brough t it to the attention of the AMA. "Th ey th ought I was Ma n g ," G reene said after viewing tapes o f the finish . " It was a h u man erro r and those things hap pen, bu t I wa n t th em to a pologize, I let o ff, the checkered fla g m ea n s the en d o f th e race a n d I go bv th e flags. " . Greene go t h is apology foll o w in g Sunda y's 200 m il er when th e AMA issu ed the fo llowing sta teme n t. " O n beh a lf o f th e Am eri ca n Mo torcycli st Associa tion, I wou ld like to formall y a pologiz e to M r. Eckl a nd M r. Greene for a ny co n fusi o n thi s error m a y have ca used th em ," Bill Amick sa id. " Don (Greene) approa ched us yesterday af ter the even t a nd as ked us to revi ew th e si tuation. It wa s a mat ter o f p rotocol. No formal protests were filed." Qualifyin g for the l oo-m ile ra ce sa w Man g a fu ll secon d a n d a half faster th an Po ns after th e German turned a 2:00.723 la p for a n average speed o f 106.160. Mang 's H on da was fill ed with Du n lo p radia ls whi le Pons' identica l Honda NSR250 had M ichel in ra d ia ls, Third place o n th e grid went to Spain 's Carlos Ca rd us o n another H onda . West G erman y' s Rein o ld Ro th was next in hi s fir st ride o n a Hond a a fter ri di ng Yam ah a s in the 1985 World Champio nship. " !found o u t very quickly th at th e H o n da accelera tes better tha n the 1985 Yama ha ," Ro th sai d . " Co m p a red to th e wo rk s H o nda s, it is much the sa me on to p speed but with not as m u ch accelera tio n ." R oth was fo llowed in qua lifying by Eckl, Belg ium 's Step ha ne Merten s, G reene, England 's Ga ry N oe l, Da vid Curtis a nd Joh n L ong. T he 76-rid er field started lap o ne af ter a very uno rgan ized gri ddi ng p rocedure th at upset a few of th e Eu ropeans. Po ns, however, definitely go t stung th e hardest. " T he sta rt procedure wa s sh it," he sai d . " I stopped to top up m y gas a nd th e o fficia l would n ot let me go to th e fro nt. I lost a t least 25 seco nds and I reckon I co u ld have stayed wi th Ton i a nd beaten him." Mang was a lso co n fused by the sta rti ng procedure. " I kn ew seve n min ut es to sta rt would n't be much o n a track th at ta kes tw o m inu tes to go arou nd fast ," Mang sai d. " We hurried u p a n d fill ed quick ly. I n oticed Pons was still pa r ked a nd I left him a space." Engl and 's Noel, o n a Dr. J oe Ehrlich EMC, had th e best luck with the start and led th e field into turn o ne, follo wed by G ree ne . Mang was six th in turn o ne, but by th e time th e leaders h it the ba nk in g for the fir st time h e was u p to th ird . On the ba nking, Man g passed Greene and N oel li ke they we re sto p pe d an d th at 's th e closest a ny bod y go t to th e German all day. . Noel ran o ff the track in turn o ne to start the th ird la p as th e race for second p lace tightened dramatically, Greene went from seco nd to sixt h as Mang led R o th , L ong, Ra nd y Ren fro w, Do ug Bra uneck a nd Greene. Lon g a nd Ro th sta r ted to get awa y from the field in th eir ba tt le fo r secon d w h ile P ons ~vas fig h ti n g gamel y through th e pack , tryi ng to get in th e top 10. After five lap s, th e little Span iard wa s u p to eig h th a n d ga in ing rapid ly o n th e six-ride r bail ie for seco n d. On la p six, Pons was fifth a s he dove hard into turn o ne a nd three turns la ter Long went down in a cloud o f d ust a fte r lo sing th e front end. H e ran to the u nd amaged bike and was quickly ba ck in th e running afte r losin g severa l posit ions. A la p la ter. Pons moved by Ro th to ta ke over seco nd p lace. but by this time Mang h eld a 25-second lead . Roth di sappeared o n lap II as he p itted with thrott le problems. but managed to ge t goi ng a lap down on Mang . At th e halfwa y mark in the 28-lap race, Mang led Pons by over 30 secon d s wit h Re nfrow , Eck l an d Greene fighting o ver third pl a ce. On lap 19, Renfro w sta rted to fad e as the cl u tch went away on his A.A H arper/ Dunlo p/ Shoe i-sponsored Ro tax. Ca rdus took over th e fif th spo t wi th J eff H eino sixth , a nd Brauneck seventh. O n lap 22, Roth sp un o u t exiting turn five wh ile tr yi ng to prevent himself fro m being lapped by Pons. but quickl y remo u nt ed a nd rode o n . As th e G ree nc/ Eck l ba tt le went to the finish line to start the la st lap , Mang was o n ly six seco nds from la p ping them. T h is is when th e flaggin g error took p lace. Ma ng took the wi n with Po ns seco nd a nd Eckl taking a co n trovers ia l third o ver Green e. Fifth p la ce went to Ca rd us wi th H eino sixth, Brauneck sevent h , L ong clim bing bac k to eigh th . Mertens n inth and Noe l 10th . The rela tivel y easy win may, however, be Mang 's la st a t Da ytona . With th e speedway's co m rnirmen t to Supe rbik es, Fo rm u la T wo has beco me a ra th er expensi ve support class for th e Europeans, co nside ri ng th e cos ts of trav el to th e U .S. According to Mang, he spent clo se to $ I0.000 in expen ses to come to Dayto na a nd left with only $4600. Mang , wh o has 32 G ra nd P rix wins to h is cred i t , us ually receives $ 10-12,000 for j us t a ppeari ng in European races, "Losing $7000 is no t th e wa y to make a living ," he sa id. " We a rc. n o t even a su p p o rt race if you co m pare prize mo n ey w ith that of even the Superbike heat s." Results FORMULA TWO: 1. Anton Mang (Han): 2. Sito Pon s (Hon) ; 3 . Harald Eckl (Hon); 4 . Don Greene (Han): S. Carlos Cardu s (Hon): 6. Jeff Heino (Han); 7. Doug Brauneck (Yam); B. Jo hn Long ( Hon~ 9. Stephane Mert ens (Yam); 10. Gary Noel (EM e); I 1. Ed Key (Han); 12. Edward Aleman (Yam); 13. David Curt is (Han); 14. Willia m Himmelsbach (Yam); IS. Gordon Hedemarlt (Han); 16. Chris McNe llis (Yam); 17. Robert DaWitt (Yam ); I B. Eugene McDonnell (EM C); 19. M ilte Payle (Han); 20 . And rew Leisner (Hon).

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