Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

Roger Marshall (601) puts the Skoal Bandit Suzuki in front of fourth place finisher Rueben McMurter's Yamaha. John Ashmeed and Gary Goodfellow battle for fifth late in the race; Goodfellow took the fifth piece money. 8 Champion Fredd.ie Spencer was a short one. After breaking the lap record during qualifying and earning the pole position with a time of one minute, 54.572 seconds (an average speed of 111.86 mph), Spencer did one too many practice laps. In an effort to set stilJ a faster time, Spencer went back out and encountered a fallen Carry Andrew. Spencer couldn't avoid Andrew's bike in the International Horseshoe section of the track· and the factory Honda star found himself flying through the air and finally on the ground with "a cracked clavicle" (collarbone). "When he (Andrew) started com- ing out of the comer I was going to cut to the inside to pass him," Spencer said later from his hotel room. "I don't like passing on the inside for that reason. They either crash or go wide. I was going really slow about dead center in the corner. I was just to the left and back of him not more than four or five feet behind. His front end must liave turned under because the bilr,e went down right in front of me and he was to my right. My first reaction was to lean back and stand up sort of like a ramp. The next thing I knew I was down. "That's the hardest I ever hit the ground. I think I was trying to protect my wrist because I brought my arm up under me-..I never saw anybody fall that slow, I was probably only going about 30 or 40." Spencer's absence puta direct focus on the anticipated Rainey vs. Schwantz, Honda vs. Suzuki and Dunlop radial vs. MichelIn radial battles. It was Schwantz winning the qualifying wars as he inherited Spencer's vacated pole position with a lap of one minute, 55.194 for an average speed of 111.256 mph. Rainey was only .279 off Schwantz' pace with his 1:55.473. Tsujimoto had his Yoshimura Suzuki in at third fastest with a 1:55.765 while Honda's Bubba Shobert slipped into the 56-second range with a 1:56.539. Team Suzuki Sweden pilot Anders Andersson rounded out the front row. jimmy Filice put his Yamaha on the inside of row two with England's Roger Marshall, Reuben McMurter, Gary Goodfellow and Polen closing out the permanent front two rows. No matter how these riders fared in the heat races, their grid positiom wouldn't change for the 200 miler. Schwantz didn't hide the fact that his fast' time was done on ultra-soft Michelins and that he would use them in the five-lap Camel Challenge. "You bet I'll use them," the Texan said. . After Spencer's crash, Honda decided to give his engine, which was brought over from japan and accompanied by two japanese engineers, to Shobert. "It blew up in' seven laps," Shobert said. "My lap times weren't any better with it arryhow. It felt a litt.l.e better on acceleration, but mine was faster through the traps." Shobert also summed up the Dunlop tire situation. "This is really . the first time that I haven't known what I'm using," he said. "I just come in and ask, 'Will this last 200 miles?' and they say 'Yes'. I tried one that was a little softer and they said it would go 200 miles, but it felt a little greasy. They all feel like they ~ve the same amount of traction, but 1I'S just which one lasts the longest." Filice encountered problems with the new Yamaha ~750onTuesday when it· threw a rod. "It scared the heck out of me when it locked the rear wheel, "he said. The FZR with its full fairing was geared a full three teeth taller than the ~earing Lawson used to win the 200 10 1986, according to Yamaha's Tim Norton. The fairing, however, was giving Filice fitS. "Whenever I'm 'tucked in I hear noises. So now I've been sitting up so I can't hear drem." The Michelin tires were being praised heavily by privateers. "I don't see how there could be a better one (tire)," Californian Sc~m Gray said. ''I'm two seconds faster with this tire."

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