Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

o o I- :I: a.. IVl <[ a.. Z ~ ... >- m o b :I: a.. John Eidenberger (17) leads Jim Sherrill (1 88) during action at Blackhawk Farms Raceway..-Eidenberger finished the day with three wins. • Schwen wins Tenino RR By Jane Steele OLYMPIA, WA, AUG. 30 Yamaha RZ-350-mounted Alan Schwen took his first WMRRA paved oval road race victory at Olympia-Tenino Speedway tonight. Although Schwen has been road racing since 1983, lhis was his first time on the three-eighth-mile oval track, and he proved to be a fast learner. Schwen qualified wi!.h me fastest timeoflhenight, but was only slighl1y faster lhan Remon Suzuki's joe Davis, me currem leader in overall oval rrack poim standings. Davis took his GSXR, nicknamed the "Stealm Bike," LO an easy vicLOry in lhe trophy dash" with Schwen relegated to lhird place, behind Mike Meagher's Suzuki 550. Randy Grein won lhe heal race on his Suzuki 1100 superbike, after charging past Brian O'Toole, who had borrowed SCOll Frericks' Suzuki 550 for the nigh t. Davis. bogged on the line, hut managed to work his way back to second place, even though the emire field had half a lap headstart on him. Meagher took third, with O'Toole fourth and Schwen fifth. Main event action .saw Meagher grab the holeshot, with Davis right behind. chwen charged past'Davis on lap two, and by lap seven had passed Meagher to take the lead. By the time Davis slipped past Meagher, Schwen had put a considerable gap between himself and lhe rest of the field. Davis was able LO make up much of the distance, but was unable LO pass Schwen. Grein took third place, with O'Toole and Meagher rounding out !.he LOp five. Results 1. Alan Schwen (Yam); 2. Joe Davis (Suz); 3 Randy Grein (Suz). Eidenbergertriples at Blackhawk RR By Gordon Lunde ROCKTON, IL, AUG. 23-24 Expert road racer John Eidenberger continued his domination at Blackhawk Farms Raceway with three wins, a second and a fourth. Eidenberger has run away with the Midwest Region's races this year. Sunday's finals proved LO be SOl1)e of the best racing aU season. Eidenberger's three wins were runaways in Middleweight, Heavyweight and Un- limited Superbike. The Heavyweight race saw a new track record set by Eidenberger at 1:13:06 over the 1.8mile, nine-turn course. While setting records me Port Washington Yamaha rider was complaining of not having enough ground clearance on his FZ750 Yamaha. Both of his boots were ground completely through and me foot pegs were shortened a considerable amount. The Formula 2 final had Eidenberger starting at the rear of the grid after he dropped out of the heat race with exhaust system problems. Adding to his back row start, Eiden berger was run oU the rrack in turn one at the start of the race. Through turn four it was jiin Sherrill in first wilh Andy Fenwick in second and Charlie Buse third. Eidenberger was I 7lh out of 17 through the same turn on the first lap. By lap two he was 13th and continued picking up places each lap LO fourth place where he finished the race; the leaders having pulled too far away to catch in the 10 laps run. Sherrill, Fenwick and Buse ran the entire race in the same order. Formula I put everyone on their feet to watch a ballle between Eidenberger on his Port Washington Yamaha FZ750 and Gary Gibson aboard his North Shore Yamaha-Honda/ SpectrolTrimlMarushian FZ750. The two riders blasted away from the pack early and built a' considerable lead. Position swapping went on each and every lap of me I O-Iap ra e with both riders turning identical fast laps for the race at I: 14;71. Eidenberger hit hi on lap four while Gibson turned it up to match times on the final lap, with Eidenberger on his rear wheel for econd and Gordon Rudolph lhird on his self-sponsored Suzuki G XR1100. SCOll Reavis came up a double winner with the lOp nod in Lightweight 2 and RZ Challenge Expert races. The number two spot in the same classes was Brad Lowe on his Miller American-LBj Distributing/ SportS Villa Yamaha/Freedom Racing RZ3.~0. Reavis and Lowe rode hard consistent races with close finishes in both. Another double header was Chris Helland in Formula Twins and Supertwins Expert riding his Wheels Unlimited Ducati 750 F-1. Scott Williams on the Wheel Unlimited/Top Line Cycle Cagiva 650 finished second in both twins classes and Charlie Lang came up with two mird place finishes on his self-sponsored Ducati 500. Results NOVICE F·l: 1. Gary Giboon (Yaml: 2. John Eidenb8rge< (Yam); 3. Gordon Rudolph (SUl). F-2: I. Jim Sherrill (Y....): 2. Andy fenWick (yaml; Scott Gray earned $2000 by taking Suzuki GSXR Cup victories in the 750cc and Open Production classes at Sears Point Raceway. 3. Charles Buse (Varni. UNLMT SUPBK: 1. John Eidanberger (VarnI; 2. Gordon Rudolph (Sull; 3. Gary GibooniYam). HVYWT SUPBK: 1. John Eidanberger (Vam); 2. Gary Gibson (Vam); 3. Phil Schmidt (Yam). LTWr 1: 1. Brian French (Vam): 2. Fritz Kling (Han): 3. Charles Lang (Due). SUPTWINS: 1. Chris Helland (Due); 2. Scan Williams (Gag); 3. Charles Lang (Due). F·TWINS: 1. Chris Helland (Due); 2. Scon Willi· ams (Gag); 3. Charles Lang (Due). RZ CHALLENGE: 1. Scan Reavis (Yam); 2. Brad Lowe (Yam): 3. Eric Moe (YamI. MIDWT SUPlJK: 1. John Eidanberger (Vam); 2. Jim Sherrill (Yam); 3. Andy Fenwick (Vam). LTWr 2: 1. Scon Rea,"s (Vam); 2. Brad Lowe (Yam); 3. Ed Key (Han). Sears Point RR wins to Gray By Mike Scully SO OMA, CA, AUG. 31 SCOtt Gray waltzed away with a pair of victories in the 750cc and Open Stock division races at Sears Point, in AFM North's first race in almost three months. Gray, in his first race at Sears since his horrific turn nme crash at the AMA Camel Pro meet last May, LOok his Vance & Hines/Shoei/Fox/N. D./ jim Williams/Frank Thomas Boots/ J. Anderson tuned Suzuki GSXRs LO flag-to-flag wins, with lap times of 1:47 '3nd I :48 in the 750cc and Open class, respectively. "It was pretty eerie," said Gray. "Every time I went through nine, I was look in ' at those hay bales." While Gray was on his way to an 'easy win' in the 750cc race, a fierce battle for second was taking place between Malcolm Hill., Richard Moore and jeff Hagan, all on GSXRs. Hill, after wbat he termed "a horrible start," worked his TMC/Bel Ray/ Michelin/ .D./Cole Bro. GSXR into second place in front of the pack, but not \\'ilholll incident. A, the trio was exiting turn seven, H~II got sideways and Hagan, right on his rear rim, tried LO capitalize on the mistake and dove underneath. Bolh riders had good drives and were side-by-side going into the kinks and collided twice. Turn workers and pilots alike later remarked lhat they thollght a crash was inevitable. Hill stayed on the gas to take second place back and Hagan dropped off a bike length as the two entered me left hand turn eight. Hagan ran ou t of tarmac, wen t into the dirt, brushed by the hay bales and tried to re-enter lhe track as Moore, also on a Vance & Hines GSXR, finally got by the shaken rider to take over third spot. Hagan backed off the I :49 lap pace and settled for fourth. Pat Ryan seemed in a class all by himself as he walked away wim wins in the 750cc Superstreet and Formula One races. Sitting on the pole in FOne, with Vince Costa and jeff Stern to his right, Ryan lit his GSXR off at the flag' keeping to the inside all the way up the turn one hil!. After one lap, Ryan had built upa three-second advantage over the pack. Costa and Stern traded places a few times, with Stern outlasting Costa to take second place. jimjepson and Peter Wenslofffinished first and second, respectively, in both 600cc Stock and Modified Production. jepson's Modified Production win on his Yamaha Fj600 was very lonely as he was far out in front. By me late afternoon 600cc Stock race, Wensloff had picked up on something and was following jepson around like a shadow. jepson, not able to shake him, and WensloU, not able to get by ... just waiting for a mistake that never materialized. Eric Kondo, on his Fast's Palo Alto Yamaha Z600, had secured mird, while a ferocious battle continued between Skip Gatrell, Chuck Aksland and Kevin Crowther. Swapping places every lap, it all came 'down to turn I I, the last turn of the last lap. With Aksland leading the group into the hairpin II, Gatrell Ollt-braked and snuck underneath Akslancl ... nd was well on his way to a fourth place finish. "I thought it was a bad pass (I made)," said Gatrell, "so;1 slowed to let Chuck by before the flag." Aksland obliged and went on to take fourlh, followed by Garrell and Crowlher. 'Results F-1: 1. P. Ryan (SUl); 2. J. Stern (Suz); 3. V. Costa (Kaw). F-2: 1. G. Hedemark (Han); 2. C Hughes (Vam); 3. L TIlghman (Han). F-4: 1. C. Lynaugh (Honl; 2. D. Johnson (Han). F·T 750: 1. L. Steimetz (Nor); 2. E. Swortsfigure (Nor); 3. D. Gibbons (Yam). F-T OPEN: 1. A. Chambers (Due); 2. R. Weber (BMW): 3. H. Vanderford (Vam). F·SINGLES: 1. D. Doherty (Rtx); 2. M. Johnson (Suz); 3. P. Hipp (Vam). OVER 40: 1. A. Chambers (Due); 2. B. Riddle (Vam); 3. W. Wilson (Suzl. 750 STK: 1. S. Gray (Suz); 2. M. Hill (Suz): 3. R. Moore (Suz). 750 MOD PROD: 1. C. Crew (Suz); 2. C. Seher (Vam); 3. M. Edmonson (Suli. 750 SS: 1. P. Ryan (Suz); 2. J. Hagan (Suz); 3. B. Vangrin (Suz). 600 STK: 1. J. Jepson (Vam): 2. P. Wensloff (Vam); 3. E. Kondo (Vam). 600 MOD PROD: 1. J. Jepson (Vam); 2. P. Wens· loff (Vam): 3. J. Hoeppner (Kaw). 600 SS: , . G. Shopher (Kawl: 2. J. Litsey (Kawl; 3. M McClurg (Kaw). 450 STK: 1. B. Fairbanks (Vam); 2. D. Dee (Vam); 3. J. McCabe (Varni. 450 MOD PROD: 1. M. McDaniel (Vam); 2. D. Deveau (Vam); 3. B. Fairbanks (Vam). 45O.5S: 1. D. Pare(Vam); 2. D. Colbert (Varni; 3. J. Hatfield (Vam). OPEN STK: 1. S. Gray (SUl); 2. C. Steward (SUl); 3. M. Si8gel (Sull. OPEN MOD PROD: 1. M. Si8gel (SUl); 2. C. Below (Suz); 3. R. Loera (Kaw). OPEN 55: 1. B. Brinkman (Suz); 2. P. Vogel (Suz); 3.P. Krea. VINTAGE: 1. C. MelJNln (Matvt 2. S. Boren (Bull: 3. M. Green (Duel. 250 MOO PROD: 1. D. Doherty (Kaw); 2. D. Pare (Kawl; 3. K. Harris (Kawl.

• Cover