Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

The F-1 start: Gary Goodfellow (4991. Dan Chivington (5331. Randy Renfrow (961. Kork Ballington. Larry Shorts. AMA camel Pro Road Race series: Round 8 Renfrow wins. F-1 at Mid-Ohio By John Ulrich Photos by John Ulrich and Randy Marrs LEXINGTON, OH, AUG. 3 Randy Renfrow used his Honda RS500 to beat a couple of guys on near-stock street bikes and win the Formula One race at MidOhio Sports Car Course. The riders on the second- and third-place street bikes were Dan Chivington and . . Larry Shorts, both ndmg Suzuki GSXR750s, stock-engined 8 but equipped with racing carbure· tors and exhaust pipes; they beat fourth-place William Knott on a Suzuki RG500 Grand Prix race bike and fifth-place RusseIl Paulk on a Honda RS500. . RenErow's victory came aEter early leader Kork BaIlington crashed his RS500 while running away with the race, and the win ensured that Ren£row will end the 1986 season with the most poims in the Formula One. class. In past years that would have made Renfrow the AMA Formula One Champion. But this year, points from Formula One and Supe.rbikeare theoreticaIly combined to crown a single AMA Camel Pro Road Racing Champion, and it's unclear what official distinction Renfrow's poims will earn him, if anything. Be that as it may, the way Renfrow saw it, he was racing forthe Formula One Championship; worrying about where he would place relative to Ballington and the certain knowledge that his finish at Mid-Ohio would be critical with a single Camel Pro road race left in the series made Renfrow a nervous wreck. In Renfrow's view, this. race at Mid-Ohio was the culminallon oE three years of hard Formula One work and would decide whether he ended the year champion or not. It was.a tough weekend Eor Renfrow. BaIlington stood the pressure oE the pOInts battle better than Renftow did; BaIlington entered the race 12 points behind RenErow, 91 to 103. Wayne Rainey, third in points beEore Mid-Ohio with 68, came to the track with a <;oIlarbone cracked at Laguna Seca and elected not to ride in Formula One, saving his eEEort Eor the Superbike class. While former AMA Formula Two Champion (1982) RenErow worked and sweated and looked preoccupied and nervous in practice, BaIlington was the fastest, smoothest, most confident guy in the class, riding the MacLean Racing RS500 Hondas prepared by Dozy BaIlington and Martin Carney under the supervision of Stuart roomey. Renfrow won the first heat race, finishing five laps in eight minutes, 47.907 seconds for an average speed of 81.832 mph, with Shorts and his street bike 2.086 seconds behind and Paulk third. Renfrow's fastest single lap was a I:42.60; Shorts' fastest was a 1:43.60. BaIlington won the second heat race, coming from behind Chivington al)d Gary GoodfeIlow (on another near-stock Suzuki GSXR750 street bike), winning in eight minutes, 24.479 seconds for an average speed of 85.633 mph. BaIlington's fastest single lap was a I:38.30 compared to Chivington's 1:39.81 and Goodfellow's 1:39..83. Ballington. took the lead with half a lap to go and finished 0.905 seconds ahead of GoodfeIlow. The relatively smooth, non-abrasive . surface of the Mid-Ohio track and a slick sealer applied to repair damage done by sliding race cars complicated tire choice for the field. BaUington and Renfrow both use Dunlops, and normaIly run radial rear tires. But neither could get the Dunlop radials to come up to normal racing temperatures - crucial for race·worthy traction - in the short practice sessions available before the racing started. BaIlington made the decision before the heat races to go with a Dunlop 639, a soft-compound bias-ply rear slick. Renfrow, meanwhile, ran.a radial in his heat race Sunday morning.ltdidn't work very weIl, refusing to hook up. But track temperature increased 20° C between the heat races run in the cool morning and the main run in the warm afternoon, and Renfrow gambled that the radial would reach normal operating temperature in the final and work much better than a bias-ply tire. Cbivington ran his usual Michelin bias-ply; GoodfeIlow Fan a Dunlop bias-ply, and Shorts entered the race on new, soft-compound Metzeler slicks. GoodfeIlow jumped his Suzuki into the lead off the start, closely foIlowed by Chivington. It took BaIlington less than a lap to take the lead, and the race looked to be under BaIlington's control; he just kept stretching it out. Renfrow quickly moved past GoodfeIlow and Chivington and puIled away. Behind them, Shorts ran by himself and put time on Paul·k, who ran nose-to-tail with Knott juSt behind, Knott running it in deeper, on an inside line, into the comers, Paulk, riding with a collarbone broken in practice at Laguna Seca, gaining it back accelerating off turns and running down straights. By the eighth of 25 laps, BaIlington had six seconds on Ren frow, who had another six seconds on Chiving- ton and GoodEeIlow, with Shorts a long ways Earther back. Ballington had built his lead simply by running Easter, starting right out with a second-lap 1:39.61 compared to RenErow's 1:40.14; GoodEeIJow ran a 1:40.88 that lap. Chivington a I :41.54. From there, Ballington clicked oEE I :39s while Renfrow did I :40s; by the time RenErow was imo the I:39s, Ballington was doing I :38s; when Renfrow got down to high I :38s, Ballington was doing low I:38s and got into the 1:37s as Renfrow finaIly realized his rear tire wasn't going to start working and decided to cool it. Renfrow slowed to I :41s and I:43s and then I:42s; Ballington puIled away, and GoodfeIlow and Chivington, turning I:40s, gained and gained. GoodfeIlow and Chivington had contrasting styles. Chivington, with plenty of time at Mid-Ohio, was smooth, charging but without a lot of sliding and chattering and getting out oE shape and getting into corners too hot and saving it; all those descriptions Eit GoodfeIlow's race. GoodfeIlow, with just very limited practice this weekend, was on the ragged edge to run at that pace with Chivington, and it showed as his bike hopped and jumped into corners and he struggled to stay with or pass or get in from of Chivington.1t was two diEferent approaches to the same lap time; Goodfellow's bike also was a little faster than Chivington's. The complexion of the race changed when BaUington hit a depression, a hole on the inside of the last corner on the 15th lap, the Eron t end of his Honda pushing, tueking under and sliding away and Ballington and bike hitting the hay bales protecting the outside Armco. A lap later, battling Chivington and GoodEeIlow, GoodEeIlow just in Eront, caught struggling RenErow, who reaIly slowed when he saw Ballington out, conscious that not crashing would give him an unassailable points lead; he'd say later that he was calculating points spreads in his head instead oE concentrating on what he was doing. There's a downhiIl right-hander at Mid-Ohio, caIled the carousel, and GoodEeIlow found himself right on Renfrow at the entrance, with the

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