Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

- ---- ~ ~ <.0 00 O"l Kork Bellington (99) lee. Gery Goodfellow and RUII Peu. (60); Bellington finished third. ~ 00 ~ t:: ;:3 ~ Thi. wa. the Formula One reee. Wayne Rainey (6) versus Randy Renfrow. on Honda RS500s. Both went fester than the old lap record. AMA Camel Pro Road Racing Series: Round 4 It's Rainey's turn in Formula One By John Ulrich Photos by Jim Quinn and John Ulrich ELKHART LAKE, WI, JUNE 8 Wayne Rainey used his Team Honda RS500 to win the Honda Super Cycle Weekend Formula One race at Road America in record-setting time, leading every lap. Randy Renfrow finished second with Kork BaBington third, both 'd' d RS500 Abo n 109 Hon a s: ~t 25,000 fans watched Ramey wlo 8 on a beautiful, sunny Sunday at the scenic, 4.0-mjle race track. Rainey set a new one-lap record at two minutes, 20.703 seconds for an average speed of 102.343 mph, breaking the record he set earlier in the day during his heat race. Rainey's racewinning time of 35 minutes, 30.824 secondsatanaveragespeedof 101.369 mph for the 15-lap, 6O-mjle final evellt also set a record. His margin of victory over Renfrow was 8.251 seconds. Rainey started out his Formula One day by winning his five-lap heat race to determine grid position in II minutes, 57.363 seconds at 100.367 mph, setting a heat-race record and being credited with the absolute motorcyclelap record fora 2:22. 160n his third lap. Scoring personnel didn't time riders behind the leader, and in actual fact, MacLean Racing's Ballington turned a faster lap in the heat while coming back from a slow start and whittling away two seconds from Rainey's early four-second lead. Ballington turned a 2:22.13 on the fourth lap and a 2:21.96 on thefifth to finish 2.212 seconds behind Rainey. Former Road America winner Miles Baldwin was third in the heat on his Yamaha TZ750. Renfrow won the second heat race at a much slower pace, unchallenged, in 12 minutes, 6.223 seconds and 99.143 mph, 14.340 seconds ahead of Dale Franklin.and the Dinosaur Rac11 ,j.J. ing Yamaha TZ750 and Gary Goodfellow on his GSXR750 LTD Suzuki. Renfrow's fastest lap was 2:23.50. The fast lap times in the first heat race made it look like the final would be a remake of the race at Sears Point - assuming Renfrow picked up some speed - which saw Rainey, Renfrow and Ballington race hard for the lead lap-aher-Iap. Renfrow had some trouble getting going in practice before the racing started, and his failure to reach race speeds hampered hjs bike set-up. By the time his lap times were close to competitive, there wasn't enough practice time left to tryout different transmission ratios and experiment with front wheel size. Renfrow switched to a 17-inch front wheel in early practice to slow down the steering to suit the initially slippery track conditions. As the weekend progressed. traction improved and Renfrow lamented the lack of time at speed to try switching back to a 16. Renfrow, like Ballington, ran a 3.25/4.50-17 KR 149 Dunlop bias-ply slick in a soft 639 compound on the front wheel. Both used 3.70/7.2OR-18 KRI08rearradials,Ballington'smade in England and formulated by Dunlop's British technicians for Grand Prix use; its compound was tagged 242C. Renfrow used the same tire in the heat race, but decided to use a tire formulated by D.nlop's japanese engineers and made in japan, with a compound labeled 899. A Dunlop spokesman described the tires as being two slightly different approaches to the same construction design and said the compounds were equivalent in performace at Elkhart Lake. o Rainey ran what one of IDS crew members said was the only available choice of Michelin tires in the sizes to fit Rainey's works Honda; the crewman called them "all-purpose tires." Rainey's combination consisted of a rear radial, 18/67-17 S1123, and a bias-ply front, 12/60-17 S0213. Perhaps more important than simple tire choice was Rainey's strategy entering the final; he decided to race on a set of tires he had scuffed in during practice, instead of starting the warm-up lap on brand-new tires.. Rainey's decision came over the objections of Michelin technicians; conventional tire wisdom holds that once a tire heats up and cools off, it loses traction, that a new tire is at its best the first time it rea5=hes operating temperature. But Rainey said he felt more comfortable with the idea of starting on the used tires, and figured that he could start faster and charge harder without waiting to make sure new tires were scuffed in. With far fewer left-handers than right-hand turns in the course layout, Rainey thought that the difference could be especially noticeable in the first few left turns of the race. If Rainey's reasoning llew in the face of established tire theory, his execution could not be faulted: he started fast and stayed out front, the time he gained in the first lap of charging making up for his slightlyslower lap times on the second and third laps. But while Renfrow turned a 2:22.08 and a 2:21.66 to Rainey's 2:22.44 and 2:21.67 on laps two and three, the race was essentially over even though Rainey's lead was only a second, and even though the two riders kept picking up the pace and going a little faster on each lap. On the fourth and fifth laps Rainey went 2:21.17 and 2:20.98 to Renfrow's 2:21.34 and 2:21.18. "I'd ride harder and harder and I couldn't get away," Rainey would say later of those early laps. "I kept wondering what was going on, and I just tried to ride even harder." Lap six was pivotal, Rainey c1iking off a 2:20.54 to Renfrow's 2:21 .54, his lead growing to two seconds. Rajney followed that by running four of the next five laps at 2:215 (with a single 2:22) while Renfrow turned four 2:22s and a single 2:21. Renfrow made up a little ground on the 12th lap with a 2:22. 10 to Rainey's 2:23.04, saw the gain and renewed his charge with a lap 13, 2:20.99. But Rainey pushed hard, too, and set the lap record at 2:20.72. Renfrow didn't gain, accepted second place, and cruised in with 2:23 and 2:25 to Rainey's 2:21 and 2:23. The numbers can show how and where Rainey got and protected his lead, how and when Renfrow attacked and why it didn't work. What they can't show is the visual difference between Rainey's winning ride and Renfrow's challenge. Renfrow looked like he was trying and working hard in the corners, braking late, charging in deep, the bike slipping and catching and slipping a little more as Renfrow hung on and corrected with the bars and moved his body, not accept- • ing tfie m sage' flE was' reieivihk: that he had attained the fastest cornering speed he could on that bike, that track and that set of tires and was now walking the edge of traction. Renfrow's bike was loose, and Renfrow hugged the tank and levered on the stubby clip-on handlebars, seeming to urge his hike on just by the way he leaned forward into the windscreen bubble. Rainey's ride, for all its speed, was smoother to the eye; his bike didn't try to walk off its line or side-slip like Renfrow's did. Rainey came to a corner, looked less frantic at the en· trance and apex but accelerated out hard, early. His bike was set up and working, and didn't even twitch at places where Renfrow had his hands full saving it. That was the race. Ballington started too slowly, he'd say later, and by the time he was turning 2:22s and 2:21s it was late, way too late, and Rainey and Renfrow had sped off into the distance early-on, while Ballington still turned 2:23s. BallinglOn's fastest lap was a 2:21.58, and he was unthreatened in thUd place. Franklin was a solid fourth after displacing fast-starting Goodfellow and Russ Paulk (on Renfrow's 1985 RS500 Honda) on the first lap; Paulk passed Goodfellow on that lap, too, but it would take Baldwin a few more laps to do so. Behind Goodfellow, Doug Chandler rode his Freddie Spencer Racing/ SuperTrapp-sponsored RS500 Honda to battle off Art Robbins on his Rothmans Honda Canada RS500 Honda and David Reed on IDS Yamaha. Franklin, alone in fourth, would afterwards point to front brake discs turned blue and explain that he had developed a new hard-braking technique, wrapping his forefinger all the way around the brake lever and grabbing it with his thumb as he pulled hard with IDS entire hand. The pull from the thumb gave him extra leverage, he said. The blue discs agreed. "Wayne got out front early and went ·real hard and I could never make it up," said Renfrow in the winner's circle. "At the beginning of the race I was trying ahsolutely everything I could to go as fast as I could. Sometimes I would look like I'd move up two or three bikelengths and then I'd lose the same two or three bikelengths the next lap. That was as hard as I could ride." Renfrow said his Dunlop tires worked flawlessly and thanked Dunlop as well as tuner Burt Bigoney and mechanic Ron Barrick, Starfire Racing, Dunlop, Shoei, Cam II, ND, Camel Pro and the race fans. "We didn't have any problems:' said Rainey. "The bike was totally fun to ride." Rainey endorsed his Michelin tires as providing the ultimate in traction and thanked the Michelin crew as well as the same large list of sponsors he mentioned after winning the Superbike race the daybewre. • Results ,. W_ Reiney CHanI, 2. Roondy "-*ow CHonI: 3. Korlt .... lingIon CHanI; 4. o.Je fnI...in (Y-t 5. R_I _ (Hant 8. Mi_ _ (Y8m); 7. G8ry GoodIe_ (5...,; 8. Doug Art RobbIn.CHont. 10. Devid _ a...- IHant I. (Y....t 11. WHIi.m ~ (5...,; 12. Dan Chivingtan (Suzl; 13. WHU.mHi""'*-(S...,;14._nMarr_($uIl; 15. St... _d(Y.ml; 18. Kath..... Cab.... (Sur!; 17. H.nry DaGouw (y.m); 18. Bob Wooda (Yamt. II. Patrldc U"".., (Y.ml; 20. Frad Gi.imo (SuzI. RACE DISTANCE: 15 _ . 8Omi'" RACE TIME: 35 minutaa. 30.824 -.cia AVERAGE SPEED: 101.389 mph CAMEL PRO ROAD RACE POlNTSTAHDlNGS: I. Frad _ .. (851; 2. W_ Rooiney.(84l: 3. Roondy Ranfr_. (521; 4. Korlt 8llllingtan. (Ut. 5. Gary GoodIalIow. 1311; 8. (TIEl a.- ~ I a F<....in. (27); 8. (TIEl Ruaa p..,lk/R_ MoM...- ter.(281; lD.John-'(25t II.Staver_. (221; 12. (TIEl NigaI GalalRich Amaiz. (I,.; 14. Mi 8IIldwin. (Ill; 15. (TIEllCevin _ntzIOltia La (18t 17. Dan ~ . 113t 18. Doug C"'_.CI2t.ll.(TIE)DougT_~-' (111.

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