Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

(Above) Mike Baldwin leads Fred Merkel wh ile exiting the chicane. (Below) Kevin Schwantz finished second behind Lawson. (A bov e) Rainey and Lawson enter the chicane during t he early stages of t he 200. (Below) Schwantz (left) and Lawson celebrate. liciry for being women racing Su pe rbik es. Coburn wa s sixth a lterna te. Sh arpless wa s n ever close. Neither made the grid for th e sta rt . Tire wars were in full swing before, d uring and after qualifying. Lawson and Ra iney were both on Michelins; Lawson 's Yamaha ran a 2.50x 17 front wheel and a 4.50x18 rear wh eel; Ra iney's Honda ran a 3.00x17front wheel and a 4.50x18 rear wheel; both ca rr ied 16170-18 Michelin S042 1 rea r tires. Dunlop-cont racted Schwan tz's Suzuki ran 2.75x18 front and 4.50x18 rear wheels; he started with a Dunlop rear tire, switched to a Michelin for quali fying, then tried a lat e-arriving Dunlop 3.7517.00-18 KRI08 J DI250 in his heat race . Schwantz declared the ne w Dun lop to be the best o f the th ree he'd tried , and elected to ru n it for the race. Tsujimoto also switched from Michelin to Dunlop for th e main event. Bal dw in , meanwhile, spent the week trying to ma ke hi s Yamaha work w ith a 16-inch front wheel, fina lly switching to a I r the morni ng of the final. He was also on Michelins. Merkel's Honda ran a 17-inch front and a n 18-inch rear all week . and he sta yed on Dunlops for th e duration. J immy FiliceputhisTeam Yamaha FZ750 o ut in front of the first heat race, bu t Lawson was past by th e second turn of the first lap; Lawson had almost five seconds on Filice by the start of th e second lap. Mike Baldwin had enco untered ignition problems off the start and went in and ou t of the pits several times while mechanics tried to find a nd fix th e pro blem. Dan ny Chivington was th ird behind Lawson a nd Fili ce befor e slowsta rt ing Schwantz p assed and started running down Fili ce. It took Schwantz several la p s to secure second p lace, and by that time, Lawson was 10 seconds ahead. On th e sixth o f 15 laps, Schwantz's Suzuki broke a connecting rod on th e back strai ght. That left Lawson wa y out front an d Filice alone in second. Behind, four -time (250 and 350cc) World Champion Kork Balli ngton (Suz), R icky Or la ndo (H on ), Chivington, Super Team 's Lan ce Jones (Ya m) and McMurter raced. Toland (Su z) had alread y p it ted with a dropped valve. Chivington's bike threw a rod. Lawson went on to win by a bo u t 40 seconds wi th an a verage speed of 107.670 mph; most o f Lawson's la p s were I :57s and I:58s, th e fir st five being I:57s. Filice had 26 seconds on Ball ington, who had 10 seconds on battl ing Orlando and Jones; J ones won that scrap for fourth pl ace. " I was cruising th e who le wa y," Lawson said aft erwa rds . Ra iney won the seco nd heat, leading all th e way , but h e didn 't run as fast as Lawson d id an d h e didn 't stre tch a giant lead on th e seco ndplace battle betw een T suj im o to and Merk el. Ra iney ran his entire race at a mix of 1:58s and 1:59s, pulling o u t six seconds, then seven seconds, then eight seconds on th e dual between Japanese Formula One Champion T sujirnoto a nd Merkel. Mer kel tried gelling underneath T uji moto o n th e fifth lap, but Tsujimot o ca me down and sla m me d th e door.h ard. Merkel's probes were unsuccessful until the pair en countered a lapped rider in turn o ne lat e in th e heat ra ce; Merkel got past and stayed in front to th e finish . .Behind Tsujirnoto and Merkel cam e a fantasti c bat tl e between Springsteen, Camel Pro Series Grand National Champion Bubba Sh obert (H o n), Dale Quarterl ey (Ya m) a nd Ashmead, with Kosar Racing's Ollis Lance moving up from th e second wave to battle Bettenco ur t, The co ntrast between th e riding st yles u sed by Springsteen and hi s imm edi at e competition was interesting; Springsteen didn't hang o ff as much , and didn't seem to need to . At th e finish it was Ra in ey, Merkel, Tsujimoto, Springsteen , Shober t, Quarterl ey and Ashmead. Comparing their own radar-gun measu rements from th e two heat races, Rainey's mech anics n ot ed th at Lawso n's Yamaha was reach ing 165 mph at th e sta rt / finish line, versus Raine y's 163 mph. Th ey blamed the di fference on an error in gea ri n g. Pl enty of rider s had m ore to worry a bo u t than geari ng. A ra sh of GSXR 750 Su zu kis with Yoshimura en g ine kits had ex p lo ded , a n d a t least seven o f th ose su ffered di saster when co n nectin g rod bolts broke two or three th reads below the shoulder. It turned o u t th ere were two grad es of rod bolts, unmarked o nes th at broke, a nd ones wit h fou r punch marks th a t didn ' t break. T han ks to a shortage o f spare parts a nd strict adheren ce by Yosh imura R &D to the ir no-warranty p ol icy , many Suzu kis wo u ld reach th e sta rti ng grid with largely -stock engines. Schwantz and Merkel; champagne wars. . The stage was set for th e Daytona 200. The fastest rid ers co u ldn ' t go 200 miles on their ti res; cre ws for Lawson , Ba ldwin, R a i n ey , Merk el, Schwantz and others had practiced wheel changes; a good ref uel i ng and wheel-change sto p wou ld ta ke less than 20 secon ds. If a ll went well , on e wheel change would do it. Fo r riders w ith slower lap times a nd less-p owerf u l bikes, a single rear tire wou ld last 200 mil es, but th ey'd still need tw o gas sto ps . Some riders had additional problem s addi n g to th e stress of calcu la tin g bailie pl a ns and stra teg ies. Ada mo wouldn 't make the race; h e wa s hurt in a BoTT co ll is io n o n Fr ida y. Pl enty o f riders could worry abo u t th eir , bikes' en gines, wh ich had blown up 7

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