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VOL. 52 ISSUE 23 JUNE 2, 2015 P165 RICH SCHLACHTER LOUDON 1979 Rich Schlachter was one of the homegrown Loudon aces that the regular national riders hated to come up against each June in New Hampshire. The Connecticut rider pulled double duty in '79 racing in both the old AMA Formula One Series as well as Superbike. He won the '79 Formula One title over Kenny Roberts and defended his title in 1980. Schlachter primarily concen- trated on Formula One, but he nailed down his one- and-only Superbike win at the '79 Loudon Classic. By 1979 the days of the sporting twins in Superbike were quickly fading. The big 1000cc Japanese multis had too much power and the handling was improving. Schlachter had a little luck on his side that day. He and Mike Baldwin, on a factory Kawasaki KZ1000, were battling for the lead when the race was stopped 21 laps into the scheduled 25 due to a red-flag that flew after Steve McLaughlin and Dan Chivington collided and both went down hard. Schlachter's victory on the George Vincensi Ducati was the last for the Italian maker in AMA Superbike for 13 years, until Doug Polen revived the marque in the U.S. when he started winning on a Ferracci Ducati 851 in 1992. THOMAS STEVENS MID-OHIO 1991 Thomas Stevens burst onto the scene in 1987 when he beat the nearly unbeatable Doug Polen in the Road Atlanta 600 Supersport race. The super-fit Floridian, parlayed his early success into a ride on the Kenny Roberts owned Nordica/Viceroy Yamaha AMA 250 Grand Prix squad. He languished under the shadow of teammate John Kocinski, but Terry Vance recognized his talent and signed him to the Vance & Hines Yamaha Superbike team in 1990. A spate of bad luck kept Stevens from finishing better than fourth in the standings in his rookie Superbike sea- son, but things were going more smoothly in 1991. Even though Kawasaki's Scott Russell and Honda's Miguel Duhamel stole most of the headlines, it was Stevens who was consistent and racked up valuable champion- ship points. Stevens didn't want to be a winless champion and at Mid-Ohio that day he reeled in local hero Tom Kipp late in the race, then held off a surging Duhamel to earn his sole Superbike win. He went on to edge Scott Russell by two points to win the championship. Stevens raced Superbikes through 1998 for Kawa- saki, Suzuki and Ducati, but never again climbed atop the podium. Stevens did occasional TV commentary after he quit racing and made a brief comeback in AMA Supermoto in 2003. STEVE WISE MID-OHIO 1983 Steve Wise has the distinction of being the only rider in AMA history to win national motocross, Supercross and AMA Superbike races. In addition, Wise twice won the popular ABC Wide World of Sports Super- bikers competition in the early 1980s, an event that featured the top motorcycle racers in the world from all disciplines. His Superbike win at Mid-Ohio in 1983 ranks as one of the most unlikely wins in the history of the se- ries. Wise had proven a fast learner in both Superbike and Formula One. In fact, he led the AMA Formula One point standings for most of the 1982 season before being nipped by veteran Mike Baldwin by just three points for the championship. Still it was quite a surprise when Wise took advantage of a crash by early leader Baldwin to win the Mid-Ohio Superbike race aboard a factory Honda Interceptor V-4. "My plan was to plant myself behind Baldwin and see what happened," Wise remembered. "When Mike crashed we were clear of the field and I backed it off and still had a good margin over Fred Merkel at the flag." Ironically, Wise's Mid-Ohio victory proved to be his last AMA Superbike finish. He crashed big at Road America a couple of weeks later and had to be air- lifted to a hospital in critical condition. Remarkably he returned to race at Laguna Seca a month-and-a-half later but crashed again and decided to call it quits. "At the time I was so focused on racing that the Mid-Ohio Superbike didn't mean all that much to me," Wise said. "But over the years it's really come to mean a great deal. It's really special to be the only person to ever win at top level in both motocross and road racing." CN Subscribe to nearly 50 years of Cycle News Archive issues: www.CycleNews.com/Archives