Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

i w w "- en ..J <{ Z o ~ <{ z c:: W I- ~ <{ z o ~ o > en w l- e:: ::> o u o z <{ ~""";"-"''''5 (Above) Lawson; no problem . (Be- 5 low) Doug Toland's f ront t ire. ::> z :J: o -, vi ~ <{ c:: ll:l <{ ~ c:: > Z Z w :J: > ll:l en (Above) Eddie Lawson (4) leads Wayne Rainey (6 ), Kevin Schwantz, Mike Baldwin and John Ashmead in early Daytona 200 action. (Below) Jay Springsteen f inished fifth . . ~ o :J: "- AMA Camel Pro Road Race Series: Round 1 Eddie Lawson f ies at Daytona By John Ulrich DAYTO NA BEACH , FL, MAR. 9 Eddie L a wson wo n the Arai Sup erbike 200 a t Dayton a Intern a tion al Speedway at recordbrea king speed on his Yamaha FZ750-based race bike, leadin g a ll b u t th ree o f the 57 la p s on the 3.56-mile co urse. Lawson also qualified fastest and won his heat race , and he earned $20,065 for his victory in th e 6 main even t, w hich carried a $105,000 purse. Kevin Schwamz was seco nd on th e Yosh im ura Suzuki GSXR750, 51 seconds behind Lawson , with T eam Honda's Fred Merke1third and Wayne Rain ey fourth, both o n VFR750Fbased Superbi kes. Lawson' s victory marked Yamaha 's first Superbike win; since Superbike races now p ay points toward th e AMA Camel Pro Seri es Road Racing Championship, it a lso marked 19811982 Superbi ke Champion Laws on's first Camel Pro National win. T hree-time AMA G rand National Cha m pion J a y Sp ringsteen was fifth o n a Super T eam Yamaha FZ750, th e on ly finish er with 56 laps; Law son , Sc hw a n tz, 198 4-1985 Superbike Champion Merk el a nd 1983 Su perbike Ch ampion Rainey a ll co mpleted 57 laps; six th -p lace Rueben McMurter (Ya m) , seven th-place Vesa Kul la lah ti (Yam) fro m Finland. eigh th p lace J ohn Ash mead (H o n) , ni nthp la ce Anders An dersson (Suz) from Sweden a nd IOth- p lace Dan Wal ker (Ya m) a ll fin ished 55 laps. Lawson's race time of one hou r, 54 m inu tes , 49.656 seco nds for a n a verage speed of 106.030 m ph shattered the previo us reco rd s o f o ne hour, 58 minutes, 13.067 seco nds a nd 102.989 m p h set by Freddie Spen cer in 1985. Spencer n ever showed up a t Daytona a nd hi s en try wa s withdrawn ; H onda spokesmen said th at Spe nce r ha d a sin us in fectio n, had lost 15 pou nds recent ly, a nd had pe rso na l problem s; spokesme n a lso sa id th at Spence r's illness wa s m or e serio us tha n th e a n nou nced sin us infecti on. but refused to elaborate a n d said th at a ny furth er co m me n t would have to co me from Spencer , who was unavailable p rior to presstime. . Spence r's rep orted problem s co ntras ted sha rply with Law son 's lack o f a ny problems; th e res u lts o f Lawson's h ard training p rogram a nd hi s de termi nation were obvio us in h is m et iculous, h ard-ch ar ging approach to pract ice , q ua lifying a nd th e race itself. La wson qual ified o n th e po le wi th a fastest lap o f o ne minute, 56.228 seco nds , just 0.2 seco n d fa ster th an Ra iney's 1:56.423. That 's not surprisin g ; th e two hook ed up in qualifyin g a n d drafted around th e tra ck . Schwamz was third fastest a t 1:57.249, running a lone , with Yosh imura' s Satoshi Tsujimoto fourth at 1:59.032. Mik e Baldwin wa s fifth fastest at I :59.034 and Merk el sixt h a t 1:59.320. Q u a lifyin g was much closer than in recent years, with th e top six riders wi thin three seconds o f th e po le and th e top 10 within four seco nd s. The sp rea d from th e pole to 25th fastest was nine seconds, and th e slo west qualifier in the field of 80 riders was abo u t 12.seconds a lap slower than Lawson, fa r less than th e 30-seco n d qualifyin g sp read in 1985. With a mas sive 160 en tries , half th e rid ers nev er mad e it to th e 1986 start in g grid. Spe ed traps set up o n th e banking durin g p re-race practice rei n forced th e id ea that the Ya m aha of La wso n, th e H onda o f Rainey and th e Suzuki o f Schwamz were close in perfor ma n ce. T rap speeds ca n ' t be co nsidered a bso lu te measures beca use no t every bike is clocked every lap. Bu t Ra in ey was ca ug h t a t 171.42 mph , co m pared to La wson 's 170.13 mph a nd Sch wantz's 169. 17 m p h . Despite being in hi s first fu ll sea so n o f Su per bike rac ing, Schwa n tz wa s an ythin g but pl eased a t qualifying third fas test. " Da m n!" he said in th e Yosh imura pit a fter m aking th e fro m row behind Law son a nd Rainey. " I' m still thi rd. That real ly pi sses m e o H! " A by st and er rem ind ed Schwantz th at Law son wa s World Champion an d Rainey wa s Superbike Champion wh en Schwantz was still riding stoc k 600cc street bik es in club races, a n d suggested he relax a little. Schwan tz just sh rugged. Qual ifyin g was n' t th e end o f th e race prelim in aries. For th e first tim e, two $25,OOO-purse h eat races (paying $3500 to win ) were held to determine grid positio n for ride rs who didn 't quali fy on th e fro m ro w. (T he five fastest q ual ifiers were locked in to a from-row sta rt ). T ha t was good for riders whose machi nes blew up during th ei r timed qualifying session , a nd it a llowed rid ers to mak e cha nges p ri or to th e sta rt o f th e 200. Rider s wh o crashe d or enco u n tered mechanical p robl em s in timed qualifying and th eir heat race co u ld still get into th e ra ce, pl aced in th e third wave by p romoter o p tion based o n individual lap tim es turn ed duri ng a heat race. T hat 's how Da n Chivington , Anders Andersson, Do u g Tola nd , Jimmy Ad amo, Joh n Bettencourt, Kevi n Monahan an d others made it into the 200. R iders who just didn' t go fast enough in qua lifying or heats, bu t were close, made the alternate list; among those was Kat hleen Co bu rn, who, a long with Toni Sharp less, gathered considerable pre-race pub-

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