Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

.V T E·· . IN AG .. AHRMA NationaVCORSAMoloclassica Willow Springs In atio alRaceway tern n (Left) Chuck Huneycutt raced to victory in the 500 Premier and 350 GP clas ses. (Above) Eddie Mulder was unbeatabl e in Saturday's AHRMA dirt track National. By Andy Saunders 'I J ROSAMOND, CA, APR. 28-30 sually the desert w ind com es from west, but on Mayday weekend the real wind on the race track was from the East, as the Over Racing racing team dominated the weekend's classic competition, scorching to five victories and setting new lap records in the si ng le-cylinder class at Willow Spri ngs Raceway. Billed as the Corsa Motoclassica , the first running of the Willow Springs festival of vintage motorcycling, the event featured an AHRMA National flat track event, a regional TI, a swap meet, vintage concours and two solid days of . road racing, on the ultra-fast 2.5-mile Willow course. . The Over Racing team, with six bikes shipped over from Japan, took four victories, but man of the event was local rider Kevin Johnson, who took seven first-p lace trophies home, afte r a series ' of inspired rides in the 22-race road race event, including one finish where he won two first-place trophies in one race. The first ever AHRMA (American Historic Racing Association) race weekend at Willow Springs Raceway, 80 miles north of Los Angeles, offered a little of everything to vintage motorcycle fans. "In a few years this event could be bigger than De l Mar," said AHRMA executive directo r Jeff Smith. While it may be expecting a bit much to attract tho usands mor e people out to an old motorcycle gathering on the outskirts of the Mojave desert, no one cou ld deny the variety. On Friday, vintage race beginners could sample the asphalt with a race school conducted by multiple AHRMA Champion Dave Roper: Friday night , veteran racer Eddie Mu lder organized a regional-level TI on the grounds of the track. Saturday and Sunday were both road race da ys, with an AHRMA National flat track race (also organized by Mulder) happening Saturday night. The flat-track, held at Willow 's l /4-mile dirt ova l, featured a Dinosaur race and 15 other vintage and modern classes. Man of the event was Mulder, as h e showed he's lost none of the racing skill that gave him his first victory in the Big Bear end uro 35 years ago, at the age of 16. The wily racer and full-time stunt coordinator even made starting from the back an advantage. Penalized for jumping the start and made to start a few yards back, he blasted through the start line at full speed as the other riders were barely dropping their clutch hands. The three-day weekend clashed with the AMA Superbike races taking place 200 miles north at Laguna Seca, resulting in a dearth of local race entries for this event, but there were still a number of Sout hern California racers on hand, who hop ed that thei r local knowledge wou ld win out. They should have paid Kevin Johnson to go to Laguna. AHRMA's sole road race event on the West Coast this year drew entries from all over the country, with many teams driving 3000 miles for the event, but the most impressive single showing was by the Japanese Sound of Singles and Battle of the Twins racing team, Over Racing. According to team owner Sato-san, there was a big enough gap in the singles and twins racing season in Japan to justify the team shipping all their racers over for the Willow Springs event. The bikes were impressive: Over is a supplier of aftermarket racing parts to the Japanese market, and their trademark is the highly polished oval aluminum tube frame at the heart of each bike. The bikes included two very special TOM Yamaha twins, bored from 850cc up to 870cc, two XTZ Yamaha 660 singles (bikes descended from the SRX 600 single that has not been available in the U.S. for several years) and a lone Ducati 900cc twin, al so in Over's trademark frame . Unfortunately, the Japanese origin of the engines meant tha t all of Over's Yamaha-based singles and twins were ineligible for BEARS, but the team was later to show most of the BEARS racers a clean pair of heels . The Willo w Springs announcing team o f Scott Fabbro and Kenny Kopecky were completely bowled over by the speed of the Singles racers, by the shine of the best vintage bikes, and by the fri endliness of th e competitors . There were no race 'Faces evident, and even the hardest competitors had time for a laugh and a joke together off-track. Two racers were wa rned abou t excessive weaving, but they were both on the same team, racing against each other. • This year, the Team Obsolete vs, Barber Racing rivalry that so enlivened AHRMA raci ng last season is gone: In protest against official decisions that he feels cost his team the tit le last year, Team Obsolete boss Rob Iannucci isn't fielding any premier class bikes. Barber Racing have the top of the class to themselves, so they are providing the competition with d ing-dong battles between team riders Stephen Mathews and Ch uck Huneycu tt. There are no team orders in this pit, althoug h nu mber one rider Mathews perhaps gets the slightly faster machinery. On Satu rday morning, the new asphalt at Willow Springs was sticky, dry and giving excellent traction. The only problem was the wind. The California Zephyr roared out of the west all day , winding up the nerves of the East Coast racers who'd never before experienced Willow's wind. Saturday's program was for 11 vintage and classic races, some combining more than one class: The event card would be duplicated on Sunday. It was a three-cornered Barber Motorsports vs. Team Obsolete vs. West Coast British Racing race in the 350 GP event on Saturday, as Mike Green on the WCBR Du ca ti 350 sing le too k the holeshot in front of Roper on an AJS 7R and Huneycutt on an "Australian-built CB72 Honda. Roper closed on Green over the first two laps, and looked to be within an ace of passing the Ducati rider by the end of lap three, then Hu neycutt upped the pace and slipped past the leaders in a five-bike melee in ultra-fast tum one, as the 350 GP riders came up on the first wave of 500 Sportsman class racers, who had started 30 seconds before. Once in the lead , Huneycutt was u nassailable, and Roper held" on to second place. In Sunday's race, Roper took the lead from the start, with Hu neycutt pressing him . In the high-speed sweeper, turn eight, Huneycutt revealed the su perior speed of his Honda, drafting past the AJS, but being repassed by Roper as he drafted in tum. Green's bike sta rted to misfire, and he pulled into the pits to swap bikes, planning to use his 250 Ducati in the class. Unfortunately, AHRMA officials prevented him restarting. The battle for the win continued into the fifth lap, when again the lead ing pair started passing 500 Sportsman-class riders, and Huneycutt used the riders to block Roper, pulli ng ahead for a narrow, three bike lead in to tum eight on the last lap, a lead he kept to the flag. On Saturday, Ralph Auer took the SOO Sportsman lead from the start, and Timothy Stancill on a '72 Honda 350 held off the advances of Ken Lighthouse

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