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Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/127994
Alook at the numbers in 500cc GP racing Statistics our son --- •. . By Dennis Noyes Photos by Gold & Goose hanks to Kenny Roberts' oldest kid, they're playing our song again. For the very few Americans who are on the Grand Prix scene, hearing the National Anthem fdr the first time in 61 races - and almost five years was a real tlrrill, reminding us of happy times not so long ago when it was news not when an American wop, bu.t when an American didn't. I've been covering Grand Prix r"cing since the mid-70s and fol1owing the championship from Europe since 1968, and I remember what it was like before Kenny Sr. came over. The Europeans said Americans only knew how to turn left, that our guys cou1dn't ride in the rain, and that all that sliding around on dirt ovals with a steel shoe was no way to prepare for serious racing. Let me tell you all about it. Pat Hennen, in Finland in 1976, became the first American to win a Grand Prix, and Steve Baker was the first to win a World Road Racing Championship (Formula 750 in 1977). Those two gave Europe an early warning, although we shouldn't forget that the first American to win a major international road racing championship should have been Gary Nixon on Erv Kanemoto's 750cc Kawasaki two-stroke triple. A timiJ,lgand-scoring mistake made in San Carlos, Venezuela, (and that was never correct- T Kenny Roberts Jr., pictured in the center with his crew chief Warren Willing, brought pride back to the United States with his recent 500cc GP wins in Malaysia and Japan. . ed) cost Nixon a title, the "European Formula 750 Championship." That crown went, unjustly, to the late Victor Palomo of Spain. Victor ~as a fine rider, but Nixon deserved that title. True American domination in the 500cc class began at the start of the 1978 season when Kenny Roberts Sr., on the black-and-yellow bumblebee Yamaha, showed up in the GP paddocks and put a quick end to Barry Sheene's two-year run as 500cc World Champion. • There was a time when Americans ruled 500cc Grand Prix racrng. Wayne Rainey (left), Kevin Schwantz (center) and Eddie Lawson (right) were podium regUlars. Career Winning Percentage In 500CC GP (1974 to present· riders with at least 30 starts in 500cc) Rider 1. Mick Doohan 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. Kenny Roberts Sr. Freddie Spencer Wayne Rainey Eddie Lawson KElVin Schwantz Barry Sheene Wayne Gardner Luca Cadalora Randy lvlamola SOOcc titles 5 3 2 3 4 1 2 1 0' 0 Starts Wins 137 58 62 83 127 104 97 102 73 145 54 22 20 24 31 25 19 18 8 13 Winning Percentage 390%. 37.9% 32.3% 28.9% 24.4% 24.0% 19.6% 17.6% 11.0% 9.0% Doohan would have to go SIX more races WIthout a win In order to drop back to second "' all·t[me 500cc wlI1nll1g percentage If Kenny Jr can keep the lid on M[ck he might jllst blimp his dad back up to the top of the list 111 career wlI1nll1g percentage After Roberts came Randy Mamola, Mike Baldwin, Richard Schlachter (in 250cc), Freddie Spencer, Eddie Lawson, Kevin Schwantz, Wayne Rainey, John Kocinski and Doug. Chandler. (Superbikers Fred Merkel, Miguel DuHamel and Scott Russell also got their cup of coffee in 500cc racing, and Mike Hale is currently getting a look with the Proton KR Modenas team.) Listen to this! Between the first race of 1978 to the final race of 1993, American riders won 137 of 223 GPs (61 percent). And if you really want to get an idea of what it was like during the glory years, dig this: Freddie Spencer, on the threecylinder RS500 Ho'nda, won the San Marino Grand Prix from Randy Mamola, on a similar bike, on September 5, 1982. From that day until May 19, 1985,28 races later, when France's Christian Sarron (on a Yamaha) beat Spencer (on an NSR500 V-four), the National Anthem boomed out after every 500cc race. And even though the streak was broken, American riders won all nine of the remaining races of the 1985 season. So from September 5, 1982, until Australia's Wayne Gardner won the opener of the 1986 season at Jarama on May 5, 1986, American riders won 37 of 39 GPs in the 'SOOcc class - or 95 percent of all races run. Gardner was the first of the "thunder from din" under" gang that gave our guys some serious rivals. Gardner, Kevin Magee, Mick Doohan and Daryl Beattie introduced a new flag and a ne anthem and, like our best riders, most 0 them (all but Magee) came from stron dirt track backgrounds. Wayne Rainey's career-ending crash a Misano in 1993, just a week before th U.S. GP, really marked the end of the firs American era. Wayne was leading th race and the championship at the time and the. title eventually went to Texa Kevin Schwantz on his Suzuki. (It's said that Schwantz won that title onl because of Rainey's accident, but thll isn't really a true or fair comment becau Schwantz had been leading the champi onship with a fairly safe margin until R was knocked off by Mick Doohan on th opening lap of the British Grand Prix. IIi hadn't been for that accident, Schwan probably would have won the 1993 tit! anyway.) II Rainey and Schwantz had been bitte rivals over their domestic and international careers, but the~e was grea respect and, eventually, friendshi between them. Rainey's crash and it tragic consequences spoiled racing f~ Schwantz. His heart was never really' it again. In spite of two wins in 1994, hi was no longer thinking about racing til way he had before. After finishing fif! and fourth in the two opening races b the 1995 season, Schwantz rode to a laq luster sixth place at the Japanese GP, and that was the last time we ever got to S number 34 in action. Career Pole-Position Percentage in SOOce GP (1974 to present· riders with at least 30 starts in 500cc) Mick Doohan Freddie Spencer Johnny Cecotto Kenny Roberts Sr. Kevin Schwantz Wayne Gardner Barry Sheene Wayne Rainey John Kocinski Luca Cadalora 137 62 34 58 104 102 97 83 57 73 58 26 11 18 29 19 18 15 8 8 42.3% 41.9% 32.3% 31.0% 27.9% 18.62% 18.55% 18.1% 14.0% 11.0%