Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/142443
King Kenny Roberts rode t o a 2-1 score in the two Form ula One heat s and won hi s 30th AMA AMA Grand National Championship/Winston Pro Series: Round 15 King enny lassoes Laguna Seca By D ale Brown Phot os by Mark Kariya and Lori :ryson MONTEREY, CA, J ULY I I King Kenny Roberts made his annual appearance before a hometown northern California crowd a successful one as he and his V-4 Yamaha OW61 posted a 2-1 perfor- 6 mance in the two 100 kilometer segments to win the Champion Spark Plug 200 at Laguna Seca Raceway: When fir st heat winner Fred die Spencer, ridin g th e Honda NS500 , dropped out of second segment with a cracked cylinder head, Roberts was left to cruise alone to the fin ish for his 30th AMA Grand Nation al win. N~tional. Suzuki 's Randy Mamola trailed Roberts in both legs to post a 3-2 second overall. Finishing behind the two 500cc GP bikes, Wes Cooley took th e Yoshimura Suzuki four-stroke to third with 6-4 placings. GS Performance /Castrol /Shoei-sponsored Nicky Richichi earned himself topprivateer placing with a 7-5 fourth . Rounding out the top five was Honda 's Steve Wise , who rode his inline four to eighth and sixth place finishes. Wise also took th e points lead in th e U .S. Road Racing Championship, 40 points to Cooley's 33. Eddie Lawson and Mike Bal dwin , 1-2 coming into the event, bo th DNF. Lawso n, in fact , crashed near the end of th e seco nd heat and wa s taken to a loca l hosp i ta l fo r X-rays , whi ch proved negative. A weekend cro wd of over 40,000 spectated under sun n y skies. The on ly h itch in th e two-day program came during the first Formula One heat , whe n a hillside brush fire grew larg e eno u gh to pour thick smoke over the race track and get close to the trac k, forcing a red flag on the 15th of 33 laps-The fire burned five acres. Heats Mik e Baldwin, on the Team Honda FWS 1000cc V-4 took an early lead in th e fir st of two five-lap heats to determin e starting position for the following day 's race. But on lap two he was out with , mechanicals, and Randy Mamola and Freddie Spencer were left to dice for the lead. They did, with Spencer leadi ng the final th ree la ps for th e win. At 5:50.603/ 97.546 mph, the heat wouldputSpencer on the pole for the National. He was trailed by Marnola, Wayne Rainey, Harry Kl inzmann and Roberto Pietri. The second heat was a duel between Eddie Lawson and Kenny Roberts on their 500s. Lawson had Roberts for a shadow on the first two laps, but the three-time World 500cc Road Racing Champion moved out on lap three and held it to the finish. The clocks recorded this one at 5:53.450 /96.761 mph. First segment As the first segment gridded, the tire war was warming up. Polesitter Spencer had the Michelins that have proved successful so far th is yea r, while Roberts had a brand new profile Dunlop on the rear. The tire, built in London on Monday and received in Monterey on Thursday, had a rounder profile for more of an "accelera tion patch" when the bike was straight up and down. Mamola and Lawson had the next two spots to make th e top four all 500s, with Rainey filling out the front row on his Superbike. After the warm-up laps, one spot _ on the fron t row was vacant - Lawson was on' pit row and mechanics were working on the KR500. Initial reports were that it seized , but it did get going again - three laps after the field had left. Steve Wise came from the outside of row two to share holeshot honors . with Spencer. Roberts assumed second behind Spencer before th e lap was