Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

CR Support Dealer Fast UPS Service Daily ORDER BY PHONE TOL L FREE (800) 647-5700 (Nationwide including Hawaii) (800) 356-5700 (Wisconsin) C .O.D . or Charge to Visa ·MC _ -... ~,"" Cedarburg, WI Doug Brauneck (left) and John Wittner (ri ght) and Mota Guzz] were a highly-successful team in 1987. Interview: Pro Twins Champions· Dr. John and Doug Brauneck Talking shop with the Doc and Bionic Brauneck (f) < <; - e-e See Our Full u.e of '88s ASIS . HONDA' MOTORCYCLES··ATVs MOTORSCOOTERS'''POWER EQUIPMENT We stand behind 011I' pradacts so.-.. wIIere service_aM -uM1II 68580 Ramon Road Palm Springs, CA 92264 Financing Ava ilable O.A.C. (6 191 3 2 4 -5 6 33 From In di o call 341 -3252 SUPEIUlI~ Specializing in Custom Paint.- Fiberglass Repair - Plastic Welding Factory Color Match 205 S. Main Street Santa Ana. CA 92701 (714) 650-5214 TRI-STATE M/C Motorcycle & ATV Ice Racing New Burg, NY January 3-17-31 February 14-21 Sponsored by McDonalds & New W indso r Recreation Dept. 58 Info (914) 427-2248 ~~rhr-, By Paul Carruthers Photos by Henny Ray Abrams, David Dewhurst and Kinney Jones Calling Doug Brau neck 's and tuner John Wittner 's 1987 Pro T wins Championshipwinning season an upset would be an understatemen t. Unless of course yo u happen to be either one of the enthusiastic title-holding pair ffecti I k "B' a . ~;tlonate y nown as 10me Brauneck and Dr. John. They had a feeling they could pull it off. With it being the AMA Pro Twins Championship, the pair showed up at Daytona in March with a pushrodtoting, shaft-driven Moto Guzzi 1000cc transverse V-twin which had evolved from a 850cc Le Mans. They promptly went through the speed traps on the famed high Florida banking at 153 mph - without a fairing. Come race day , Brauneck brought the bike up from a poor starting position and finished sixth. At this point the rest of the field wasn 't exactly losing sleep over th e dynamic duo and the "Italian Stallion 's" chances of taking the title. Dr. John, however, was playing it cool with seemingly more surpnses up his sleeve. "I was ecstatic," Dr. John said. " I couldn't have gone home any happier." Then cam e Road Atlanta. Brauneck rode the red and silver Guzzi to a second place finish. Suddenly, the pair had a point lead th ey would never relinquish. An upset was in th e making. Enthusiasts and fell ow com pe titors, however, began to tak e notice a t Brainerd, the third round of the series. Despite running on on ly 10 pounds of oi} I?ressure, the Guzzi and ~rauneck h':llshed second behind nvals Ducat! and Jimmy Adamo. "That's how strong the Guzzi is," Dr. J o hn says. Round four of the series at Loudon saw the two take their first win of the year. "I went into the race thinking I could win it," Brauneck said. "But when there were five laps left to go, I was still looking at a plus one on the board and it was changing from plus one to plus zero every lap. I didn 't know if somebody was going to pull out all the stops, and do something to get around me. " Brauneck followed the Loudon win with another at Road America when Adamo crashed. "On the fourth lap h fell down on the fastest part of the track," Brauneck recalled. "Right there we were just feathering it back the slightest amount. He pushed the front wheel out and when he hit the hay bales they started coming at me on the track. That's how close I was to him. It shook me up a little bit because for the next couple of laps he was still lying there; he'd never moved th at I'd seen ." Adamo escaped with a separated sho ulder. The next round of the seri es was held at Laguna Seca . Former World Champion Marco Lucchinelli was there, and Brauneck fin ish ed second. During ro und seven at Mid-Ohio, Brauneck crashed two turns from the finish line when he encountered oil on the track; he remounted and finished seventh. In Memphis, Brauneck finished third and followed that with a third at the final round at Sears Point. The championship belonged to the underdogs. The rider Doug Brauneck must love Mondays. For the 31-year-old Georgian, whose nickname is Bionic, the average AMA/Camel Pro Series weekend must be torture. He rides a Du tch man Racing Suzuki in Saturday's endurance race before jumping to a Jo hn H a s ty-sp o n so r ed Ya maha T Z250 for the 250 Grand Prix class o n Sunday, and finally wrapping up the weekend on Dr. John's Guzzi. "As a privateer, the more races yo u finish the more money you tak e home," Brau neck said logically. "Unless it was extraordinarily ho t, Doug had no trouble at all ," Dr. John added. "Doug has a lot of basic physical strength. He recovers more quickly. Doug tends not to beco me dehydrated, and he bounces back with full energy the next day ." Brauneck has been bouncing back for quite a while. His II-year career has been mostly spent riding TZ250 and TZ750 Yamahas in AMA Nationals. He has' been a consistent top 10 finisher aboard mostly uncompetitive machinery. In 1987, he showed his ability to not only win, but also win while providing Dr. John with valuable feedback on the handling characteristics of the Guzzi. H e also served as a stabilizer for the excitable Dr. John. " Doug is a really good guy to get along with," Dr. John said. ' "I'm enjoying this relationship; he balances me because I'm very excitable. Dou g is more relaxed about th e whole thing which helps keep me in balance. "He is also an exceptiona l developmen t rider. I need a development rider and Doug and I have a way of working with chassis development. Doesn't riding several different bikes in one weekend get a little confusing? "I used to ride a TZ250 and a TZ750 and, believe it or not, it's easier to rid e the three motorcycles

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