Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

George Babor t o p ped Pro Stock after qualifying 15th. (Above) Bobby Baker lost to Jon Baugh in the Funnybike final. (Below) Willie Foster (second from left) won Pro Comp;sponsor Superbike Mike is second from right. IDBA National Championship Drag Racing Series: Round 1. . Baugh, Foster andBabor tOP$ at G~eensboro By George Huffman GREENSBORO, NC, APR. 26-27 Jon Baugh, Willie Fos ter, an d George Babor had to out-distance new world record h olders a nd some of the fastest raci n g in eighth-mile history to ta ke home th e win in Funnybike, P e n d Pro Stock rero .omp. a spectively at the IDBA season opener. While some competitors . . k df were ru~nlng qUIC er an a,stl'!, ('ons lstl' ncy . and ~rcat reacuon umes were the ticket . Qualifying' opened o n Saturda y with somerhiug notircabl y larking: 110 T op Fu el . Foul' T op Fuclers will be invited to fou r IDBA ra('l'S a s a n vxh ibition series, This left the Funnybikes as th e fastest o f the fast a t Greensboro and they set about provin ~ that just lx-rause i h « T op Fuelers wer en 't th ere , th at wasn 't a llY rl' a ~on for anyhod y to ~l't th e idea that th"y weren 't ~o i n~ to sel' SOl Ill' vcr y fast pa sses. Bobby Baker's Martin Cycll'! Star R a cin~ Ka wasak i would jump o u t first to th e rune of a ·1.77 to equal the T op Fu el record held hy Elmer 24S Trl't l. That wo uld bt, j ust the firs t fo r Bak er as lu - would eventual ly 10wl'I th e boosted Funnybike record to a '1.75 from its o ri~ i na l li me of ~ .80 lu-ld by th e t urbochargt-d G I' / MTC/ Mr , T'urbo Kawa saki o f G ary Falla, wh o had a lx-iun ifu! -1.78 pa ss to qual ify in th e Sl'C ond spot . There\verethreenewETandmph records set in P ro Camp. The top 1985 man in Pro Camp , Jim Dodich , opened th e season by setting the B/GN record in qualifying at 5,07 at 142,85. Dodich did hold th e B/ G record at a 5.28 but with the pro liferation of th e extremely fast Harley-Davids ons of Jim McClure and Bob Spina th e B/G class was done away with in favor of the B/GN class, which a llo ws Dodich to run a slightly smaller motor with nitrous oxide injecti on, while hi s chassis may remain th e same, Spina would also have a great weekend by smash in g McClure's o ld eig h th m ill' recordof5.3 1 at l 32. IOwith a5 ,16 a t 139,53 o n ly to do mo re damage to the record ' in elim ina tions. Neal La ne, a board the ex -Bo b bv-Baker turbo Kawasaki , took th e Kaw as aki of Floren ce/Star Ra cin g Kaw asaki and set th e B/GT record a t 5.08 at 141.28, While T erry Vance was not in attendan ce due to his new road ra cing comm itments, two of his customers were taking a lo t of liberties with his eig h t-m ile record. Vance held the Pro Stock record with a 5.28 at 132.93; by the end of qualifying J erry Meyers had lowered th e ET to 5.27. a n d Dave Schu ltz o n hi s Nitrous oxide-revitalized two-stroke Kawasaki had buried th e mph with a 135.74. Round one of Funnybike saw Baker put a no show by Don Raybuck to good use by digging down and co m in g up with a beautiful 0.153 second reaction time to ca rry th e big Kawasaki to a record-setting 4.735 a t 155.70 . This wou ld be as close as a n yo ne would get to Bo O 'Brochta's FIBB mph record of 158.46. Mark Miller's BHP/Mr. Turbo Kawasaki negated the initial holeshot of Den n is Strickland and held h alf a wheel through th e finish line. Jon Ba ug h cut a perfect lig h t of 0.001 on Falla only to see Falta break at the 100 foot mark. Baugh spent the rest of the pass taking it easy. . Joh n Sands took a very easy bye run on his fuel -injected Honda. Ro u nd two saw Mark Miller up to face Ba ker; Miller had to get out first because he was having trouble getting th e rear tire to hook up. As of Saturday night he was only 0.08 off Ba ker 's blistering pace but after the 4.92 pass in the first round the tire spin seemed more a problem than ever. When the last yellow blinked Miller was out with just th e slightest whisps of smoke coming off the rear tire and got a good lead on Baker. Then, about 200 feet out, Ba ker began to pull Miller. At half track Baker motored by , taking th e win with a 4.752 a t 155.17 to Miller's 4.941 at 151.51. The Orient Express entry of Baugh got a big leave on the Honda of Sands a nd never looked hack , Baugh 's 4.860 a t 153.32 was more th an enough 10 seeun- the win a!r-linst Sanda ' ·1.9 1 a t ·12. 18. . - When the lights came down for th e Funnybike final. Baugh's Orient Suzuki blasted out on Baker with a 0,065 reaction time to Baker and his 0,234 reaction time. Bak er ran 4.818 seconds; Ba ug h won with a slower 4,86 at 151.51. The first round of Pro Camp saw th e three records that fell on Saturday go even deeper in th e record books, Dodich lowreed the ET of his new B/ G N record to a 5.03 but combined with a rea ction time of 0.332 allowed Star R acing 's Drake to advance 10the next round. Dodich came 10 th e line with lilt' Cycl t' Tt,(" Kawa saki sound ing lila' it \\~IS running' ou t of fuel and Drake was out anti gOIIt'. Eventuul winner Fostl'r's Suzuk] wou ld have an easy time wi th Jim Cooper and take the win with a 5.14 at 136,9810 Cooper's 5.46 at 135.74, Neal Lan e co ntin ued to work on the B/GT record, Lane dropped the record to a 5.0-1 in his pa ss against th e very interesting looking " Fas t by Cast" twin-engine Kaw asaki two-stroke of Floyd Huntz a nd would adva nce to th e next round. Spina 's big H arley-Davidson made th e Pro Camp pass o f theweekend agai nst J ohn Sachs. Spin a a nd Sachs lef t th e lin e like th ev were welded toget her, the n when Spi na dropped th e H arl ey into seco nd gear he pulled ahead a n d never looked back. Spina turned an in credible 5. 10 at 140.62. T h e mph would be a new record but th e ET wa s so much lower th an anything he di d thi s week end th at he would have to back up th e 5.10 10 get that as th e record. . Th e Pro Comp sem i round found Fo ster's Brit e Eyes / S BM/ McG a th Suzuki up to face th e Suzuki of Drake. qua lifying o n ly O,05s apart on Saturday. Drake was o n a turbo bike and Foster was o n a large di splacement car bu reted bike. Usu a lly a turbo bi ke will sta ge last su they Qave few extra seconds 10 r ev the motor to really get th at turbo spinning. But Foster wasn 't having any of that and wou ldn ' t stage, This left Drake with nothing 10 do but 10 go a hea d and stage and 'h o pe he could sp in th e turbo up before Foster co u ld stage. Drake got ou t on Foster fir st but turned his slo west pass of th e weekend, a 5.22 at 136.36 to Foster's 5. 118 at 136.57. Spina made it easy on Lane by red-lighting. Foster took th e Pro Camp final o ver a broken Lane, The first round o f th e l6-bike Pro Stock field saw top qualifier Jerry Meyers make quick work of Lance Boyer. while Ed Dohrmann, R ich ard Smith, and Steve Miles went down in defeat 10Lester J enkins, Dave Schultz, and George Babor respectively. Marty Blades, Pizza John Mafaro, George Bryce, and Charlie Gressman wou ld also advance to th e next round. The second round saw Jenki ns co me out hard on Meyers only to see h is lead gobbled up and Meyers ride past. Next out, Schultz's big mph cou ldn't keep h im in front of Babo r. Blakes aced out Mafaro wi th a reaction time of 0.287 to Mafaro's 0, 186, ET bein g 5.362 for Blades an d 5.46 for Mafaro. Bryce eased by Greesman. For the semis, Meyers faced Babo r and Blades spent pan of his birthday with Bryce. As of noon on Sunday Ba bo r hadn't been down the track. Mike Murdoch had the ex-Barry Kogut mount in his truck and asked Babor to ride th e bike; Babor qualified 15th. Meyers had been running a full 10th o f a seco n d faster than Babor. That 's just th e a mo u n t o f time that a good h ol eshot ca n n egate. Meyers want ed to !?;t't o u t fir st or at least even with Babor but jumped to a red light. It may have been Blades' birthday but no one was giving him anything. If h is last pass with Mafaro had been close, this pass with Bryce was easi ly as close. Try Blades' reaction time of 0. 113 to Bryce's 0.135, Blades' ETwas 5.402 to Bryce's 5.39. The final saw Babo r cut a nearperfect 0.077 light to Blades' 0.22 1, a margin that Blades never co uld make up. Babor went 5.442 at 132.25 to Blades' 5,82 at l25 .52, Super Comp as won by Pau l Gast over Pete Barnhart. Tom Sud ma n of SI. Mary , Ohio, took ho me the .Pro Cas crown , J Super Gas was taken by Jeff Shea ly over th e Suzuki of Da n Bro wn . The Harley-Davidson of Doug Han took all the honors in Competition Eliminator. National Number One Irby Finley took the Super Eliminator on his Yamaha. • , '" 1 .". ~J ' l HI •• U . ' ., '1. • .'

• Cover