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Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/126916
~ ~ _. <.0 00 O"l ~ ~ ~ C'.f V C ;:s ~ Rainey led early in the Formula One race, but dropped off the pace to finish third behind Renfrow and Ballington. as the leading duo pulled clear. Renfrow showed a wheel here and a wheel there, but Rainey re'mained in control to lead Renfrow across the line by a scant 0.214 seconds. Trinder held onto third, finishing in front of local Edgar Hinton and Paulk. The second heat saw another f1agto-flag win with Goodfellow going the distance. The New Zealander led Chivington into turn one with Ballington not ·far behind. Ballington shot by Chivington on the outside in turn three and started gaining on Goodfellow. Ballington would pull close to Goodfellow on the uphill rise behind the pits, but Goodfellow would make up for it by braking hard going into turn seven. Ballington got close on the last lap and was even closer in turn 10 on the final go-around, but it wa Goodfellow's race by 0.103 of a second. Chivington held onto third with Greco finishing fourth and Dale Franklin fifth. Rain on Thursday and Friday meant a shortage of practice, a fact made evident by what Renfrow called "a very wide variety of sprocket sizes in the pits." Rainey seemed confident prior to the start and said "we should get into the sevens on the F-I bike." Renfrow, meanwhile, thought tires might be the key factor. "High sevens are a possibility, but it depends hoW' hot it is. Yeah, I :07s if the tires are okay." Thirty-four riders lined up on a variety of machines for the start of the Formula One final. The front row included Rainey and his Michelin radial-clad Honda GP bike, Goodfellow's· GT Racing GSXR750, Renfrow's Dunlop-clad RS500, Ballington's Dunlop-clad RS500 and Trinder's somewhat outdated Suzuki RG500 Renfrow said before the race he was a little worried about the faststarting Rainey repeating last week's Elkhart Lake holeshot, and pulling away to an instant lead. Renfrow's worries soon turned to reality; Rainey blitzed the field off the stan and built up an near-instant 0.7-second lead as the pack climbed the hill. Renfrow was second at the end of the first lap followed by Goodfellow, Ballington, Chivington and Trinder. Going down the hill for the second time, Rainey had opened up a 1.2second lead on Renfrow as Ballington got by Goodfellow. Ballington pulled close to Renfrow, and by the fourth lap the two were in close company with Rainey and his ailing Honda. Lap five saw the leading duo of Rainey and Renfrow turn a I :09.1 lap as the duo began to put distance on Ballington; by lap seven Ballington trailed by a full second. It was also on lap seven that Ren- frow took the lead from. Rainey as the two navigated through traffic in turn four. Renfrow turned a I :08.9 lap on the ninth go-around and on lap II he led Rainey by almost a full second. Trinder, meanwhile, had caught his travelling compani'on Goodfellow and went by going into turn 10. Renfrow was using traffic to his advantage, slowly pulling away from Rainey, who was soon feeling the challenge from Ballington. The 15th lap had only 1.3 seconds seperaiing leader Renfrow from thirdplace Ballington. The 18th lap saw Ballington make his move around Rainey, but he trailed Renfrow by 1.8 seconds. Trinder dropped out on the 17th lap with no transmission oil and no 'third gear, moving Goodfellow into a solid fourth. Suddenly on lap 20, Ballington was past Renfrow a' Rainey slow Iy faded. The end of the 22nd lap saw Renfrow trying to dive under a lapper in turn 10 and running onto the dirt/grass on the inside of the banked right-hander. It didn't seem to faze the 118-pound Renfrow; he was soon back on the gas and on Ballington's rear wheel again. Renfrow took the lead going into turn seven after the downhill on lap 27, and led the rest of the way. Ballington pushed and pushed, but could find no way around the hard-charging Renfrow; Ballington kept looking for a Renfrow miscue that never materialized. The two crossed the finish line almost together, 21 seconds ahead of Rainey. Goodfellow heldon .to take fourth with Paulk finishing fifth. "The Dunlops worked great; even on the dirt over there they worked great," Renfrow told the large New Hampshire crowd. Renfrow had completed the 38-lap race in a record-setting 43:49.55 for an average speed of 83.254 mph. "At one point I looked up and saw Wayne' board and it said plus zero," Renfrow said. "So I knew Kork must've been right behind Wayne. Kork did ,the same thing at Sears Point. He was never quite on pace in practice and in the heat race at Sears Point it was the same way. About a second off a really fa t race pace, but in the race he's right there. He did the same thing this time and I wasn"t surprised wben he passed me." "I hada bitoftrouble(with lapped riders) in the last corner, starting the second-to-Iast lap," Ballington said. "I was right with him around the back and I was just trying to push the guy as hard as I could in the last few corners, but the pace was so hot there was nothing much I could do." Does Ballington set up the others with his off-the-pace practice and heat race times? "Nah, I wouldn't do a thing like that," Ballington said, laughing. "I rode as hard today as I Renfrow gets a champagne shower from Rainey after winning the F-1 class while Miss Camel Unda Hullund looks on. did at Sears and I won there. These guys are more in tbe groove than they were at Sears." • Results FORMULA ONE, 1. Randy Renfrow (Hon); 2. Kork Ballington (Hon); 3. Wayne Rainey (Hon); 4. Gary Goodfellow (SUl); 5. Russel Paulk (Hon); 6. Dan Chivington (Suz)~ 7. Marco Greco (Hon); 8. Miles Baldwin (Yam); 9. Michel Mercier (Suz); 10. David Reed (Vam); 11. David Old (Hon); 12. Larry Shorts (Suz); 13. Henry DeGouw (Yam); 14. Jim Tribou (SUl); 15. Mike Harth (SUl); 16. Jeff Atwell (Yam); , 7. Kurt Liebmann (Yam); 18. Edgar Hinton (SUl); 19. Lee Raciot(Yam);20. Martin Morrison (Suz); 21. Vincent Bigley (Yam); 22. David Keiffer (Due); 23. Dale Franklin (Yam); 24. An Robbins (Han); 25. Steve Trinder (Suzl; 26. Tommy Sloan (Yam); 27. John Bulawa (Kawl; 28. Walter Nitto (Suz>; 29. James Adamo (Due). FORMULA ONE POINT STANDINGS, 1. Randy Renfrow (721; 2. Kork Ballington (65); 3. Wayne Rainey (46); 4. Gary Goodfellow (37); 5. Russell Paulk (36); 6. Dale Franklin (27); 7. Miles 8aldwin (25); 8. Steve Trinder (22); 9. Marco Greco (18); 10. (TIE) Doug Chandler/David Old/Dan Chivington (12). AMA Formula Two Road Racing. Championship: Round S: It's Greene again in F-2 By Bruce Newton LOUDON, NH, JUNE 15 Don Greene scored his third National Formula Two victory in four starts at the Kawasaki Classic meeting at Bryar Motorsport Park, and for once he didn't bave Randy Renfrow to contend with. Greene, the defending National Formula Two Champion, took his Arai/Dunlop/Kal-Gard/Bates/Fox/ ERC-sponsored Honda RS250 to an 11.653-second win over local Expert J e(f Heino and fellow Californian Rich Oliver, while Renfro~ crashed his Team MacLean Honda on lap II while running second. Even while Renfrow was up and running, however, Greene looked dominant, sweeping quickly to a five-second lead by lap 10. "Randy had brand new tires on at th~ stan where as lhad already scuffed mine in," Greene explained. '''So I decided to push it uaight from the start line." The heat race results did 'not indicate that such a lop-sided finish would take place, particularly considering the great dices Greene and Renfrow have had recently. Greene scored an easy 6.688-second win over Shoei/Kosman/SuperTrapp/Fox/ND/Lockheed/D.unlop/ ERC-sponsored Oliver in the first heat, taking six-minutes, twO seconds to complete five laps. It took Renfrow just three seconds more to demolish the second heat, winning by 9.436-seconds over Doug Brauneck's Spondon Yamaha. It was obvious that Greene and Renfrow were going to be the riders to beat - particularly, as other riders were quick to point out, that there were only two riders equipped with Dunlop radial slicks. The radials were much more e[fective and lasted longer than the normal bias ply tires on Loudon's abrasive surface. Another important area to consider at Loudon was fitness. The 32-lap final around the tight little track was going to be a tiring affair; Renfrow was probably a slight favorite going into the race because he is 40 pound lighter than Greene. Bu[ it was not to be. Renfrow got the jump into the first corner, but by the time they completed the first lap Greene already had a slight lead over Renfrow, Oliver, Heino, Bill Himmelsbach, Chris McNellis and Brauneck. Greene immediately dropped into the I: II bracket and pulled away from Renfrow, who in turn was making a break from New Hampsbire resident Heino, who had Oliver, McNellis and Ed Key on his tail. By the 10th lap Greene had a very comfortable lead on Renfrow, and on the following lap his margin wa greatly increased when Renfrow lost the front end in turn two. "It just tucked the front end," Renfrow said. "I just kinda blew it." Renfrow had worn the skin down to the knuckle on his right hand. That left Greene with a 12-second lead over Heino, who was in turn slightly ahead of Long Beach Yamaha/J&D Stoess Racing/TCP/Dun- 9 ...