Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

(Top to bottom) Runner-up Wes Cooley soaks Lawson with champagne. Jimmy Filice took the Formula Two race. Roberto Pietri (88) and Steve Wise diced in Superbike. Wayne Rainey came back from injury to finish third in Superbike. Eddie Lawson poured on the coals to lead the Superbike final from wire to wire. AMA Superbike Championship Series: Round 9 Yes 5.1.1., Lawson's back in business By Dale Brown KENT, WA, SEPT. 12 Despite missing two races due to neck injury, Team Kawasaki/Kerker's Eddie Lawson looked extremely impressive-atSeattle International Raceway as he dominated the 20-lap Superbike final start to finish and won easily. Yoshimura '1 . SUZU ki Plot Wes Cooley fll~. I ished second ahead of Lawson s 14 team ma te, Wayne Rainey, who returned to action a month after incurring a broken collarbone. Lawson's win gave him a hefty margin in the point standings, leading Rainey, 125-107. Cooley stands at third with 98. Honda's Mike Baldwin, who entered the race tied in points with Cooley, crashed and DNF. Now Baldwin's sole chance at the title lies with the final appeal of his Pocono disqualification, which will be heard Sept. 17. Behind the top three ran some of the best racing of the day with Honda teammates Steve Wise and Roberto Pietri dicing heavily before finishing fourth and fifth. Privateers Mike Spencer and Harry Klinzmann were right with them and wound up sixth and seventh. The two-day ~ro-Am event, spo!!- s~red ~y Olympia Beer and ASI DIS- tributing, was for the most part, wet . Saturday's amateur races, Sunday'S amateur races and the professional heats ran in the rain, with the sun only appearing steadily during the final events on Sunday afternoon. Still, promoter Claude Hammond drew a couple of thousand spectators. The heats were run in the wet , and Eddie Lawson gave a preview of his performance in the final by running away with the first heat. A surprisingly fast privateer, Suzuki-mounted Jeff Heino, ran second in the early going before falling victim to a Mik e Baldwin pass. Heino ended up third at the end of six laps, ahead of the other two -thirds of the Honda team , Steve Wise and Roberto Pietri. The second heat found two Suzukis - the Vance & Hines machine of Mike Spencer and the Yoshimura bikeofWesCooley - fighting for the early lead. Bo th , however, fell victim to spilled gas in the course's lower chicane, and were out of the race. .Wayne Rainey, th ird off the start, went on to win easil y, and he took the pole as well , riding on a slightly dr ier surface. H arry Klinz mann, on the Racecrafters Kawasaki, and Jimmy Adamo, on the Reno Leone Ducati, battled for second with Klinzmann eventually taking the nod. Thad Wolff (Suz) finished fourth . Sunshine signaled a switch back to slicks for the final. There, Lawson went fo r it from the beginn in g and led from th e first lap, with Bald win and Rainey trailing. Cooley, who had started on the back of the grid after h is heat race crash, had already moved up to fourth wi th Klinzmann fifth. . The race was only in its third lap when it lost Baldwin in turn eight. " I leaned it over too far and hit the motor on the ground, and that lifted up the tires," said Baldwin later. Lap five found Lawson securely in front as Rainey and Cooley began to tustle over second. Behind them, a four-way battle was beginning to brew between Wise, Pietri, Mike Spencer and Klinzmann. Cooley put Rainey behind him for good on the sixth lap, but he was unable to catch Lawson. That was partially because Lawson was flirting with Freddie Spencer's 1981 lap record of 1:27 flat, running times of 1:27.5 to 1:28 with consistency. Kawasaki-mounted privateer and local favorite Rhys Howard had his race end in a big way near the halfway mark. Going down the drag strip front straight, Howard's engine let go with a boom, littering the end of the straight with oil and debris and putting a fist-sized hole through the front of the cases. Rainey was still drafting Cooley at the time and was hit by a piece of Howard's engine, which struck Wayne 's still-tender collarbone 'and cracked his face shield, forcing him to slow down. Howard had been in the top 10 before his motor went boom, and after he was out the order was left at Lawson, Cooley, Rainey, Pietri, Wise, Spencer, Klinzmann and privateer Jon Woo (Kaw). Woo's motor soon went on three cylinders, however, . and he began dropping back. The final laps of the race saw little other than Lawson beginning to lap into the top 10, and Wise recapturing fourth from Pietri. The quartet of Wise, Pietri, Spencer and Klinzmann was nearly as tight as when the race began. Lawson had a big crossed up wheelie going out of turn nine before he took the checkered for his second consecutive win at S.I.R. "It went great; I still can't believe it," grinned Lawson in the winner's circle. "The bike was working so good. It 's so nice to come back and ride something that's working that good. It makes it a lot easier.·I felt like I hadn't been away. Rob Muzzy is doing such a super job, the bike is so dependable, •.t J' j J :

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