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VOLUME 59 ISSUE 24 JUNE 14, 2022 P129 States for a season, I said, 'Sure thing, let's give it a go.'" Ballington raced a MacLean Racing Honda RS500 three-cylin- der, tuned by Stuart Toomey and things got off to great start. The opening AMA Camel Pro Formula One Series race in 1986 was at Sears Point Raceway in Sonoma, California. The track was notori- ously dangerous in those days and Ballington, who was new to the track and to the RS500, started off conservatively. Clear through the qualifying heat races, Balling- ton chose not to show his hand and, in the paddock, there was some talk that perhaps the former World Champ was past his prime. In the National, Wayne Rainey blasted to an early lead on the factory Honda RS500. Kevin Schwantz ran second on a Yo- shimura GSX-R750 Superbike followed by Randy Renfrow on a Starfire Racing Honda RS. Bal- lington continued his measured approached and ran just behind the leaders, studying where he might make a move later in the race. Schwantz and Renfrow were battling up front. Rainey was having rear shock problems and dropped back. Meanwhile Ballington was there in third just behind the Schwantz-Renfrow battle, looking incredibly smooth and biding his time. Schwantz dropped out of the race with suspected vapor lock that starved his Suzuki of fuel. That meant it was a Renfrow-Ball- ington battle to the finish. Balling- ton finally pulled out all the stops with four laps to go and took the lead. Renfrow responded and the two swapped back and forth several times. Ballington's years of racecraft came into play on the penultimate lap when he waited and then found the perfect place to pass a lapped rider, leaving Renfrow stuck behind the rider for just one turn. That was all the gap Ballington needed and he won the race. It marked Ballington's first race win in nearly four years. Bob Mac- Lean told reporters that he was mad at himself for not believing more in his rider. "I should have known he would do this well, but I didn't expect it," MacLean said. "After all, the guy is a World Champion." "It was a fairytale ride," Balling- ton said of that Sears Point vic- tory. "I couldn't believe it. I hadn't lost the touch and it was a lot of fun. I was really getting along well with the RS500. It was the first well-sorted 500cc GP bike I'd ever ridden. It felt light and nimble, like the Kawasaki 350s I used to race but had the power of a 500. It was a real joy to race. We ended up getting drunk that night with Schwantz attacking me and us rolling around on the floor. It was just an unbelievably great weekend." The one rider who Ballington said really amazed him his first year of racing in America was Renfrow. "I'd never heard of Randy before," Ballington remembers. "And he turned out to be as tough of a competitor as anyone I'd ridden against, even at the World Championship level." And to make Ballington's point, Renfrow went on to win that final AMA Formula One Champion- ship over Kork in a season-long battle. Renfrow won four of the Wayne Rainey congratulates Kork Ballington after Ballington won his very first race in America at Sears Point in 1986. Randy Renfrow looks on.