Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

Connecticut Yankee, Part One: A Guzzi in Superbike!? could say that Darien, Connecticut's Mike to be a popular one among the AMA Grand Baldwin was Superbike when Superbike National big guns. wasn't cool. "I remember that after the race, a bunch of my Why? Maybe because Baldwin, now S I, has friends came over and told me that Romero and Roberts and a bunch of guys who would never watch the distinction of being the only rider ever to that race were standing on top of a motorhome and win AMA Superbike races on a Moto Guzzi, which cheering for me on the Guzzi because, with the pipes it might give you some indication as to just how uncool had on it, it sounded like a Harley XR750," Baldwin at Pocono [Pennsylvania], they the class was in its formative years - or maybe too cool. remembers. "It did sound pretty good." Either way, a lot has changed since those early days had this Ducati that they really wanted me to race," Baldwin finished fifth in the inaugural AMA Superbike "I actually rode in the very first Superbike race ever, in Baldwin says. "It was a souped-up factory bike called an '75," Baldwin recalls. ':At Daytona they ran an Amateur season in 1976, but he did even better in 1977, finishing NCR, which was like the HRC of Bologna This Ducati day on Wednesday, and they ran a Superbike Production third after a bit of controversy at the Loudon round. looked like a 750SS from about 20 feet away, but up "I was actually close in points with [Reg] Pridmore, and race on Thursday. Everybody had red numbers on white close... The engine cases were sand-cast, and there was I was actually leading the points, but what happened was special shit on this thing everywhere. I rode the Guzzi first plates, which back then signified that you were a Novice, I was going into the last turn, and I was racing Ron Pierce and then the Ducati, in practice, and they [Berliner] wantwhich was kind of funny because I was a Novice that year, [for the lead]," Baldwin says. "He dove under me in turn but in the Superbike race they let us ride 750s on the high ed to get the Ducati into the race, so that was what I rode 10, and I made a real wide entrance and a real tight exit banks at Daytona, which they never did otherwise. I rode in official qualifying. We won our heat race, but right after to cut inside of him coming out of the turn to pass him, a Moto Guzzi in Superbike Production, and then the folthe heat race, we got protested by [Steve] Mclaughlin or which I did. In the middle of the turn, 1 hit a bump, lost Pridmore - one of those guys. lowing year they made it a full class called Superbike." the front end, slid across the track, just missed him and Sponsored by Italian bike importer Berliner, Baldwin "See, back then there was this huge East Coast vs. hit the hay bales probably 10 feet from the finish line. actually fared quite well on the "Goose," which vaulted West Coast rivalry," Baldwin reflects. "I remember that "He won the race, and I was laying under the bike," him out of the ranks - if not out of the saddle a time or was when there was a Cycle News East edition, and we Baldwin remembers. "Reno Leoni, who was my tuner, two - of New England's AAMRR club circuit and into the all ran those, 'We don't care how the hell they do it in was standing at the start/finish line, giving pit signals. He AMA National limelight. California!' stickers on our bikes. Anyway, I think they ran across the track and picked the bike up. I told him, "I remember that the Guzzi we had was a box stock protested us over the dry clutch or something. They 'No, no, no! Don't touch it. I have to cross the finish line protested us after the heat race but before the feature." LeMans," Baldwin says. ':All we did was take the air filters myself.' So I pushed the bike across the line and got secoff. We didn't have a modified swingarm, so we couldn't Baldwin says he told the AMA that he would simply even run a slick. We were actually running treaded tires ond, but then Pridmore's team protested me, and the revert back to his Moto Guzzi for the feature, but the front and back, so I was slipping and sliding all around. But AMA docked me a lap, which put me back to sixth. That AMA would not allow it. it was cool, because I used to "They said, 'No, you have to run production classes at all Baldwin (43) leads Wes Cooley (34) on ride the Ducati. You didn't qualify Baldwin's first AMA the controvt!rsial Berliner Ducati NCR in the AAMRR club races." on the Moto Guzzi,''' Baldwin says. National title came in 1978. Formula One in 1978. For a kid who once vowed Baldwin competed in the feathat he would never even think ture on the Ducati, under protest, of doing such a thing after witand he led the race most of the nessing his first road race, way before being nipped by Wes Baldwin progressed through Cooley on the last lap and finishing the ranks in the mid '70s quite second, only to later have the quickly, sometimes quicker position taken away. than he would have liked. "The AMA and I used to have "It used to be just like dirt our differences," Baldwin reflects. track, where you had Novice, "You go through their history, and Junior and Expert," Baldwin there's one foul-up after the says. "I made enough points other. And some of the guys who to turn Junior in '76, but then work there now say things in lost me the championship. The difference was those they did away with the Junior class and came out with print, and you wonder. I can give you an example: That points. The AMA officials were standing right there, guy Kerry Graeber was being interviewed in a roundthis lightweight Expert class on 250s. 50, after my looking at me, and they saw that I didn't push the bike, table discussion [in Cycle News] about track safety, and Novice year, I was thrown into the cage with Kenny but they said, 'Oh, he had help getting the bike off of they were talking about Brainerd, and he goes, 'Well, Roberts, Gary Scott, Yvon Duhamel, Steve Baker and all the top stars, on 250s, which was a little bit of a shock. I him.' I was going to fight it, because it was a safety issue this track has an excellent safety record.' Well, sorry Mr. Graeber, but maybe you weren't there when two guys remember at Loudon I was able to work my way up and versus an assistance issue, but whatever." In 1978, Baldwin focused more on the Formula One got killed right in front of me on the main straight pass Roberts to get third." The '76 season was to be a breakthrough year for class, a move that rewarded him with his first AMA because of an AMA foul-up." Baldwin went on to land a factory Kawasaki ride in National Championship, but the '70s were still the Baldwin, who managed to pilot the Guzzi to his first 1979, but a badly broken leg suffered in a crash ended Superbike years for him, and it seems as though the AMA 5uperbike win at Loudon, New Hampshire, on his run with Team Green prematurely and quite bitterly. words "Baldwin," "Superbike" and "controversy" were June 20, 1976. Bad as that injury was, it marked a real step, ironically "Back then, 5uperbike was not the main event," indelibly linked. "I took the Moto Guzzi to a couple races in '78, but I enough, into the second part of a rather colorful career. Baldwin says. ':All the top guys, like Romero and Roberts Tune in next week, when we continue our chat with and those guys, they wouldn't even dream of getting in wanted to race in Europe," Baldwin says. "So I rode at Baldwin, who talks about Formula One, how he raced on the 5uperbike race because those bikes were street Imola in the Cup of Nations and to the [Trans-Atlantic] Match Races. I rode the F750 race at Laguna and also at both sides of the pond, scored some trick tires, and also bikes. They used to sneer at them." blows the lid off the top-secret $5 deal of the century. 01 But Baldwin's victory that day apparently turned out Mosport [Canada]. Y OU 94 MAY 18, 2005 • CYCLE NEWS "But:::~::~:~!!!!~~~~~~

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