Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/126901
9 « '" J: u a: « lL ;:;: W " C z « CIl ;:;: « a: « '" ~ a: > z z w :I: > '" CIl ~ o :I: lL collide in the BoTT race; Adamo (Above) Gene Church f inished third . (Below) BoTT winner Marco Lucchinelli (6 1 B) stuffs second place man Paul Lewis (6 10) ; Adamo follows. crashed hard near start/finish Battle of The Twins line. and walked away with severe Lueehinelli, Biller, JohJJson grab BoTT wins By Paul Carruthers DAYTONA BEACH , FL, MAR . 7 Italy's 1981 500cc World Champion Marco Lucchinelli came ou t of semi-retirement to dominate the Grand Prix Battle of The T wins class at Daytona International Speedpavement rash on both hands. 18 way on his Team Leoni Cagiva. In the Heavyweight Modified portion o f the program, he ld la ter in the day, Fred Ei ker powered his Moto-Guzzi to the win while Peter Johnson h eld off the Lightweight field on hi s Cagiva Alazura. Lucchinelli, who has signed to drive in seven Formula 3000 car Grands Prix for th e Cosworth Ameri ca na Jeans team in 1986, got back on a bike after finishing second to Harley-Davidson's Gene Church last year ; this time. Lucchinelli took a fairl y easy win on th e Cagi va. The 31-year-old Italian broke the one-year-old average speed record held by Church by averaging 104.006 mph for the 75-mile event. Second place went to Australian Paul "Angry Ant" Lewis on a Quan tel Sport-sponsored Cos worth (which was accompanied by former motorcycle and Formula One car World Champion John Surtees) after his battle with Jimmy Adamo ended in a top-speed collision; Adamo cra shed hard on the banking before the start/finish line. Third place went to defending Grand Prix class cha m p Church. In the Heavyweigh t/Lightweight Combined race . Eiker and his Renn- sport G u zzi took ove r the lead fro m Har ley- Davidson's 1985 BaTT Champion Dave McClure for good on lap seven and cruised in for the win. Johnson (AMOL Motorcycles/ FBF), meanwhile, battled for the entire race with Eric Ginn's Duca ti America Company Ducati before taki ng the win. The Grand Prix class started under sunny skies on Friday prior to the two 50-mile Superbike Hea LS and when the pack entered turn one they were led by Adamo, Church and Lucchinelli. Lap one ended with the top four dicing hard into turn one with Adamo leading Lucchinelli, Lewis and Church. As the four entered the banking for the second time, Lewis showed the power of the Cosworth engine by streaking past the others to gra b the lead going in to the chicane. Dan Chivington, alter only six la ps practice on the Austra lian, Bob Bro wn -o wned Ducati, was up to seventh place and chargi ng hard. T he top four, however, were beg inning to stretch a lead over the fiel d with Lucchinelli tak ing the top spot for the first tim e on lap three after a coll ision with Lewis in turn one. Lap fo ur saw Harley-mounted Roger Reima n pull ing off the track with a blown motor in turn five after battling early-on with Chivington. On the fifth lap, the leading trio of Lucchinelli, Lewis and Adamo started pulling away from Church, who seemed to be slightly down on power. By the seventh lap, Lucchinelli had begun to pull away from the field and opened up a 3.8-second lead on the fierce Lewis/Adamo battle. The Australian, who was teethed on England 's short courses, and Adamo were testing each other all over the track with the two bumping bars and fairings several times in turn one. On lap 10, Adamo went high on the banking and came down hard as Lewis moved up; the two collided and Adamo was knocked off his bike as it went sideways, the front wheel at full lock; Lewis said he was leading and that Adamo hit him in an effort to either slipstream or pass before the start/fi nish line, and that Adamo clipped the rear of Lewis' Coswort h . Adamo, on the o ther ha nd, said he was leading and Lewis hit h im as he went by. "I was in front of him," Adamo said later. "As he came by he banged my front wheel and cocked it full lock. I didn't know I was going to crash, but I was going to punch him out anyway after the race. The only way Lucchinelli got away was he tboned Lucchinelli in turn one and when he slowed down Lucchinelli got away. Then I was st uck with him. He kept running into me, and I was actually rolling off going into the chicane. trying to give him some room. To have to ride next to him is like impossible." Adamo suffered severe pavement rash on both hands and at press time had undergone nine skin grafts in a New York hospital. He was otherwise uninjured. "It got hairier and -hairier out there," Lewis, who suffered a broken little toe in th e incident, said after the ra ce. "He just did a silly th ing, he went up high trying some super trick line. He hit me and I just gassed it u p ; it 's a good thing the Cosworth is so heavy." Lewis also had a run -in with Lucchinelli. "His elbow pulled my clutch lever out going into turn one," Lewis said. " H e wanted to win that race didn't h e? I wasn't about to risk a Grand Prix season on one race." Following the Adamo crash, Lewis slowed considerably with a combination of a failing clutch and the relief