Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

Baldwin " t th e margin-at seven- Kep seconds th roughlap six wi th Rich ichi holding a good margin on Mil es Bal dwin in th ird. Homch ick had Wise breathing on h is neck wi th Cool ey and Wo lff a distance bac k. Pi etri had moved ahead of Klinzmann for eighth with Doug Bra uneck in 10th . The avera ge speed at th e end of five laps was 97.967 mph. By the 10th la p, Ba ldwin h ad increased hi s lead to ' 10 seconds over Richichi with Ri ch ich i holding a sim ilar margin over the Miles Baldwin/H omchick battle for third. Wise, Cooley and Wo lff were dueling over fifth until Wolff overshot tu m one and had to take a ride down the escape route. Baldwin had picked up th e pace, avera ging 97.993 mph for 10 laps. At th e halfway flags, Baldwin had lap ped half of the 39 ri der field. T he best battle was the Wi se/Cooley or Cooley/Wise tussle which wa s taking place all over the track. Wo lff, having recovered from his bra king mistake, was trying to move fro m hi s seven th p lac e spot and ge t back with Cooley/Wise. Pietri and Klinzm ann were al so ha ving a good figh t over eigh th. Steve Baro n had moved into 10th . Cooley had broken away from Wise on the 18th lap with Wolff pu tting in a.strong ride to close the ga p on Wise. Meanw h ile, Ba ldwin was still slicing his way through traffic and was closing on Klinzrnann , who was running ninth. Ri chichi crashed on lap 18 leaving Miles Baldwin in second, 45 seconds ad rift. Homch ick, Cooley, Wise, Wolff, Pietri, Klinzmann , Baron and Brauneck made up the top 10. The average speed a t the end of 20 lap s was 96.834 mph . Second place wasn 't the place to be in the final laps. First, Miles Bald win cras hed hard, sustaining a possible concussion , giving second bri efly to H omch ick. " I saw Mi les go down," sa id H omch ick, " and I knew I had seco nd so I deci ded to cool it. The nex t th ing I kn ew I was slid ing along the tra ck. I too k a pretty ha rd rap on th e head, but the bike was alright so I got back on. The crash cost me at leas t five positions." Pietri's ride in seventh ended on lap 23. H e had brushed a slow er rider on the course and ripped the flu id line on the anti-d ive unit on the for k. T h is sprayed fluid on the rear tire, ca using P ietri to almost go do wn as the field started lap 23. He headed to th e pits. The shuffle of riders left Wise in second, trailed by Cooley. Baldwin cont in ued his determ ined riding style to easily take the checkered flag. • Results FORM ULA ONE: 1. M ike Baldwin (Han): 2. Steve Wi se (Han); 3. Wes Coolev (Suz); 4. Thad Wolff (Suz); 5. Harry Klinzman n (Kaw) ; 6. Mark Homchick (Yam); 7. Steve Baro n (Yam); 8. Doug Brauneck (Yam); 9. Rich Chambe rs (Yaml; 10. Norm Smyser (Yam); 11. Hap Eaton (Vam); 12. Dave Schlosser (Yam); 13. Jeff Heino (Suz); 14 . Rhvs How ard (Kew l; 15. Greg Smrz (ya m); 16. Boon ie Knon (Yam); Glen laRock; 18 . Rueben McMurter (Kaw ); 19. Joev Osowsk i (Kew); 20 . Jeff Hagan (Yam). Time: 46 min.• 31.296 sees. Average Speed: 97 .603 mp h (Record). AMA GRANONATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPIWlNSTON PRO SERIES POINT STANDINGS: 1. Ricky Graham (162 ); 2. Jav Springsteen (115); 3. Terry PooveV(114); 4. Scan Parker (11 1); 5. Randy Goss (108 ); 6. Gary Scon (83); 7. Ale x Jorgensen (73); 8. Steve Wise (69); 9. Steve Morehead (64); 10. Bubbe Shobert (63); 11. M ike Kidd (61); 12. Steve Eklund (58); 13. Ted Boody (56); 14. M ike 8aldwin (52); 15. Wes Cooley (46); 16. Tim Mertens (44); 17. Eddie Lawso n (42); 18. Weyne Rainey (37); 19. (TIE) Nicky RichichilThad Wolff (28). FORMULA 1 POINT STAN DINGS: 1. Steve Wi se (56); 2. M ike Baldwin (52); 3. Wes Cooley (46); 4. eddie Lawson (32); 6. Nickv Rich ich i (29); 6. Thad Wolff (28); 7. Wayne Rainey (26); 8. (TIE) Mark Homchick/Dele Singleton (23); 10. (TIE) Rich Chambers/ Kennv Roberts (20); 12. Freddie Spencer (19); 13. John Bettencourt (18); 14. Randy Mamola (16); 15. (TIE) Miles Baldwin/Steve Gervais (14 ); 17. (TIE) Harry Klinzmann/Robert o Piatri (13); 19. Dave Schlosser (11); 20 . Steve Baron (10). AMA GRANONATIONALCHAMPIONSHIPIWlNSTONPROSERIES MANUFACTURER POINTSTANDINGS: 1. Harley-Davldaon (232 ); 2. Honda (169) ; 3. Vamaha (98); 4. Suzuk i (6 2); 6. Kawa saki (58); 6. ean-Am (40); 7. Maico (11); 8. Triu mph (6).. , . __ n. AM A Superbike Championship Series: Round 7 Baldwin wins, loses LO NG POND, PA, AUG. 8 T he outcome of the Kawa saki Superbike Challenge at Pocono will be up in the air un til an appeal on the disq ualifica tion of winner Mike Baldwin for usi ng a front tire not listed on AMA's approval list is ru led upon. The race fin: ished with Baldwin leading Wayne Rainey to the checkered flag and Roberto Pietri taking third. For H onda 's Bald win it was his second win in as man y hours as the racing program had been ch anged due to th e threa t of rain and Baldwin, plus many o thers, had only 20 minutes to rest between th e fin ish 'of the Formula O ne event and the Su perbike start. " It al ways feels grea t to win , but winning twice in o ne day is great," said Baldwin in the wi n ner's circle, " I don't mind taking h ome Kawasaki 's trophy at all. Lately, it seems like I've been getting stuck in second. Today, I wasn't going to settle for that. " "I go t close a co uple of times," said Team Kawasaki 's Ra iney. " H owever, it seemed that Mike would get away every time. Traffic was a help and a problem. I had a ball and it was a great race. " Pietri, another T eam Honda rider, was all smiles in the winner's circle. " We made a Honda sandwich of Wayne," said P ietri. " Mi ke a nd Wayne got away from me early and I couldn't catch up." The dis qualificati on centered upon a protest by T eam Kawasa ki of Baldwin's use of a Goodyea r 16 inch fron t tire. The ide ntification number of the tire does no t appear on the listing which the AMA uses to check on manufacturer appro ved tires. " Goodyear told us it was an approved tire," said H onda team manager Udo G ietl, " so we used it. It wasn't intentiona l. We were misinformed. In fact, we used the same tire on the Form ula One bike. It's only Superbike tires which need approval. " . "The tire wasn't o n th e approved list so we pro tested . It 's as simple as that," said Kawasaki 's Rob Muzzy. " We had also been offered the tire." . "We felt we had a q uantit y sufficient to serve all th ose who wanted to use the 16 inch tire," said Goodyear's Ch uck Kerns. "T herefore, I believe we met the AMA 's requiremen t. It's an im proved version of an ear lier com p ound so i t h a s a different number . H onda earned th e wi n . It's a shame a rule interpretat io n may take the victory away." Eddie La wson, th e seri es leader, was absent from th e ra ce. He is home recu pe ra ting from a broken verte bra in the lower back. Lawson will be ou t ano ther four to six weeks. Baldwin, Rainey, Steve Wise, Wes Cooley and Pietri held the fron t row for the start of the 15 lap, 42 m ile event. On the green flag, it was Wo lff - from the second row - giving way to Baldwin into the first two turns of th e infield . Ra iney then shouldered his way past to tak e th e lead . Bald win was back in fro nt by the end of the first lap with Ra iney, P ietri, Wise, Wolff, H arry Kli nzma nn and Cooley in tow. Rainey continued to p u t pressure on Baldwin in rubberband style, closing to Bald win 's rear tire and then drop ping back again. Traffic q u ickly began to play a part, allowing th e Baldwin/Rainey . duel to gel away. (Top) Mike Baldwin led Wayne Rainey home in Superbike, but his w in was protested for use of a possibly illegal front tire. from P ietri as P ietri pulled out a lead on Wise/ Klinzmann in fourth . At the end of five la p s, Baldwi n had used slower ri ders to move aw ay. from Rainey. T he pace was hea ting up wi th Bald win hustling a long a t a 95.927 mph average spe ed for the first five laps. . Baldwin had a 20-yard lead on Rainey at the halfway flags wi th Pietri, Wise, Klinzm a n n , Wolff and Cooley stretched ou t behi nd. Lynn Miller, Rhys Howard 'and Rueben McMurter fill ed out the top 10. At th is point, the fin ish ing positions were set. Rainey seemed content to stay just a short dis tance behi nd, waiting for a mistake by Baldwin. The pair had drawn well ahead of Pietri. There were no real battled taking place other than for first, although Wise was trying hard to Close on Pietri. Rainey pushed Baldwin in the tight infield turns and also on both power straights. On lap 13, he intensified his probing, closing upon Baldwin's rear tire many times in the infield. Baldwin sought to use traffic as a block on Rainey, but Rainey sliced his way through to stay close. . As Baldwin took the wh ite flag, he he ld a 50 yard gap. Rainey closed that to 20 yards and then to 10 in .the in field . Baldwi n p ulled it o ut again on the backstretch and p ut a slower bik e between himself and Ra iney as th e two hit the ch icane. This move gave Baldwin th e edge he needed and he pulled out to a two second margin over Ra in ey as th e two too k the ch eckered flag. Baldwin 's 96.594 mph pace broke Freddie Spencer 's 1981 track record. Results 1. M ike Baldwin (Han); 2. Wayne Rainev (Kaw); 3 Roberto (Han); 4. Steve Wise (Han); 5. Harry Klinzmann Piatri (Kaw); 6. Thad Wolff (Suz); 7. Wes Coolev (Suz); 8. Lvnn Miller (Kaw ); 9. Rhys Howard (Kaw); 10. Rueben McMurter (Kaw ); 11. Jeff Heino (Suz); 12. Rich Chambers (Kew); 13. Marvin West (Suz); 14. Ed Mullineaux (Kaw ); 15. Duncen M il· cetic (Suz); 16. Dennis Brown (Suz); 17. Vince Hill (Kew ); 18. David Kieffer (Kaw ); 19. Andrew Linde · man (Kaw); 20. Jerry Dean (Due). Time : 26 m.in .. 6.317 sees. Average Speed: 96 .594 mph (Record). SUPERBIKE CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES POINT STANDINGS : 1. Eddie Lawson (105 ); 2. Wayne Rainev (94); 3. Wes Coolev (71); 4 . Roberto Platr i (70); 5. Mike Baldwin (62); 6. Thad Wolff (57); 7. Steve Wise (53); 8. Harry Klinzmann (49); 9. Rich Chambers (39); 10. Rustv Sharp (21); 11. Freddie Spencer (201; 12. Harry Vanderlinden (14); 13. Ron Miller (13)1; 14. Jon Woo (12); 15 . David Aldana (11); 16. (TIE) Joey Osowski /Ernie Kicklighter (9); . 18. (TIE)RhVS Howard/Mike Spencer (8); 20. Norm Smvsar(7). ~odlng appeal. II

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