Cycle News

VOL. 53 ISSUE 23 JUNE 14, 2016 P103 who ran atop the series, with Cooley and the more establish Yoshimura Suzuki squad taking the cham- pionship in the end. So everything was on the line for Honda in '81. Spencer was heading to the World Championship Grand Prix in '82, so this was the last shot for the Honda/Spencer combo. Honda reconfigured its racing team, with Udo Gietl taking over from rider/ team manager Steve McLaughlin. They now had a season of experience and a full winter of develop- ment under their belt. Things didn't start out great for Honda. In the '81 season opener at Daytona, a fueling mishap dur- ing a pit stop caused a fire with Spencer dropping the bike and getting away. The crew quickly extin- guished the flames, but Spencer could only manage third behind the Suzuki's of Cooley and Graeme Crosby. Lawson was leading the race, but his fac- tory Kawasaki sprang an oil leak and he was out with five laps to go. Spencer then took victory at Talladega ahead of Lawson and left Alabama sharing the superbike points lead with Cooley. At Road America Spencer might have built a sub- stantial lead in the championship, but his Honda's throttle stuck with two laps to go while Spencer had a large lead and slid off the track and into a barrier. He was lucky to escape with just minor injuries. Law- son was the benefactor, taking over the lead after Spencer's crash and the victory. In the rain at Loudon, Spencer again had a good lead, but a lapped rider came down on him mid- corner and Spencer crashed his Honda with Lawson going by for the win. This time Spencer was able to remount and finish third. He nearly caught Cooley for second on the last lap. Spencer was now 10 points back from Lawson in the championship chase with Cooley still leading. Lawson won Laguna going away and more bad luck for Spencer as he dragged through the engine case on his Honda and battled an oil leak and had to settle for third. Lawson was still second in the stand- ings at that point, but now just two behind Cooley. Spencer was 17 points behind Lawson in third. Spencer rebounded and was unstoppable at Pocono and won going away. Lawson was second and took over the points lead after a Cooley DNF. Just 13 points separated Lawson and Spencer coming into Seattle and Spencer seemed to be on a roll after his dominant Pocono victory. Another victory at Seattle and Spencer would be well within striking distance of Lawson in the Daytona finale. Seattle proved to not only be pivotal on the championship fight; it was also finally the head-to- head race between Lawson and Spencer everyone had been hoping for. Spencer won the pole by virtue of his heat race win, which was faster than the heat Lawson won. Cooley tapped into the power of the Yoshimura Suzuki and led the early laps on the horsepower hungry SIR. But Lawson took over the lead on the third lap and Spencer got by Cooley a lap later. In the middle stages Lawson led with Spencer in his draft the entire way. With eight laps to go Spencer took over the lead, but couldn't shake Lawson. The rest of the race the two battled it out side-by-side or nose-to-tail, much to the delight of the crowd. Both knew what was on line. On the last lap, last turn, Lawson made his move. He'd had better drive onto the front straight all race and Spencer knew it. Lawson picked up the throttle early and went around the outside. Spencer guessed correctly on Lawson's move and intentionally ran wide coming onto the front straight. If Spencer were a dirty rider he could have forced the issue, possibly securing the title, but af- terwards he said, "I knew he was coming, probably around the outside. I moved over, but not enough, plus I didn't want to run him off the racetrack." And with the Seattle triumph the championship for Lawson was pretty much won. He left with a 17-point lead and needed only an 11th-place finish at Daytona to clinch the championship. Predictably Spencer won Daytona, Lawson taking a conserva- tive third to secure the '81 AMA Superbike Champi- onship. CN Subscribe to nearly 50 years of Cycle News Archive issues: www.CycleNews.com/Archives

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