Roberts Ties Up the Championship; Baldwin Makes Traction Staten Thumps Four-Stroke National.

Roberts Ties up the Championship; Baldwin Makes Traction Staten Thumps Four-Stroke National.

RACE WATCH

KING KENNY HEADS FOR NUMBER TWO

King Kenny Roberts has a commanding 500cc Road Racing World Cham pionship points lead going into the last round of the series. Roberts finished fourth in Sweden, behind Barry Sheene, Jaak Middleburg and Boet Van Dulman, with Steve Parrish fifth and Randy Mamola—in his second 500cc ride—sixth on a private RG500 Suzuki. More important, points leader Virginio Ferrari didn't finish, the victim of his first mechanical failure of the year.

Ferrari was also out of the points in "Finland, where Roberts finished sixth behind Van Dulman, Mamola, Sheene, Mid•dleburg, and Christian Sarron.

“Winning’s not important now,” said Roberts after Finland. “The only thing that’s important is to finish ahead of Ferrari. Beat Ferrari.”

Yet Roberts won the British GP at Silverstone, coming from near last on the first Sap to lead on the fifth lap, and holding off Barry Sheene’s last-lap, last-turn drive to Vin by half a bike length. Roberts had pulled into the pits after the warmup lap drenched in transmission oil, but tuner Kel Carruthers was able to replace a loose plug before the start. Once certain his bike -would hold together, King Kenny showed why people call him King.

* To win his second championship, all Roberts has to do was finish 10th or better at the last round, in France.

BALDWIN IN TRACTION

Mike Baldwin spent several months in traction rather than have a steel plate inserted in his leg, which was broken badly in the Loudon Winston Pro Series road race. With Baldwin out, Fast Freddie Spencer has taken over Baldwin’s Kawasaki Motors Corp. Superbike and has been winning everything in sight. Noting that riding the KR750 Kawasaki has been the end of several excellent road racers’ careers, and knowing that Baldwin told one friend “I knew I shouldn’t have ridden that thing, I knew it!” after his Loudon crash, one has to wonder what Baldwin will ride next year. With Fast Freddie being offered big bucks from at least Honda (and maybe Yamaha as well), Baldwin may be Kawasaki’s only hope for success in the ever-more-popular Superbike Production class. But after his disastrous Kawasaki year, will Baldwin sign again with Team Green?

1979 FOUR-STROKE CHAMPIONSHIPS

Rocket Rex Staten thumped his way to victory in the Open Pro class at the 1979 Four-Stroke Championships, held at Carlsbad Raceway in California. Staten came back after having suspension problems in the first moto to put his thundering Pro-Tec Yamaha ahead of Jim Gibson’s Franks Racing Products XR500 in the second moto, taking the overall win.

Staten’s Pro-Tec TT500 has a bore and stroke of 90 x 94mm for a displacement of 598cc. The engine is extensively modified from the crankshaft up. Flywheels are machined out of chrome-moly billet and the connecting rod is chrome-moly with a bronze small end insert. The cylinder head is ported and flow-tested and runs a ProTec E-480 Magnum camshaft with a valve spring kit. The carburetor is a 38mm Mikuni, and the exhaust pipe a VA in. ProTec. Pro pipe with megaphone. With a stock ignition system, the bike develops a claimed 52 bhp at 6500 rpm and an amazing 29 bhp at 3700 rpm (on the same dyno, a stocker turned out a maximum of 29.7 bhp). The frame is from Dick Mann with 30° of head angle. Yamaha YZF forks give 10.6 in. of travel while 16.5 in. Fox air shocks deliver 9.5 in. of travel in the rear. Wheelbase is 58 in., claimed wet weight 240 lb.

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Gibson's bike had 12 in. of travel from extensively modified Maico forks held in place by Profab-machined aluminum billet triple clamps. Rear suspension on the Franks frame yielded 13.5 in. of travel with Ohlins shocks. Fiberal use of aluminum and titanium kept the weight down to 237 lb. dry. Engine mods included a new high compression piston, cam by Kennys Harmon and head ported by Flor-Rite Heads. The pipe was one of the quieter^ ones at the track. Power output was estimated at near 60 hp.

Team Honda's Larry Wosick rode a Bill Bell-prepared XR500 to a first moto victory. Wosick's Honda was claimed to have a stock XR500 engine with the optional hop-up kit installed. The frame was a, prototype unit with 12 in. travel, experimental forks on the front and Fox Airshox on the rear. Hubs were magnesium and titanium bolts abounded.

Turner's Yamaha had a nearly stock TT500 engine housed in an Aberg Replica frame with KYB forks and Fox Airshox4 giving 12 in. of travel at either end.

The two big surprises of the day were Team Honda’s enduro rider Rick Munyon finishing fifth in the Open Pro class on a works 250 machine, and Old Timers second place finisher Jim O’Neal managing a sixth place behind Munyon. He wasn't the^ fastest but was certainly the most experienced rider in the Open Pro class.

The I5l to 360cc class was nicknamed the “Kawasaki Class” as nearly all of the competitors rode new KFX250s in varying states of modification, with a couple of XL350 and XR250 Hondas thrown in. Three mini classes with no age limit on riders were run with the over-the-hill riders taking some of the wins.

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The best entertainment of the day was provided by the sidecar class with some terrific racing and death defying leaps from Carlsbad’s launching pad jump. John Palfreyman and Tom Lund roosted to the overall win w ith their Norton-powered three-w heeler ahead of the Whitney brothers’ Yamaha-powered machine. The side hacks put on a real show with lots of bar (and platform) banging in the turns and 20 ft. roostertails down the straightaways.

Lars Larsson and Feets Minert took their respective Old Timers class wins and J. Barnes rode a sweet sounding Triumph twin to victory in the Dinosaur/Vintage class.

The Four-Stroke Championships held annually at Carlsbad is a racing event unlike any other race in that two-strokes are simply not allowed on the premises. Some very good riding talent always shows up to ride the Open Pro class and more importantly, some of the very best examples of handcrafted machinery from all over the country are assembled for this race.

Four-strokes are becoming very popular and since a truly competitive four-stroke motocrosser can’t be bought from any manufacturer, four-stroke lovers are forced to build their own. Hence, some very good pieces of equipment are handbuilt to standards quite often much higher than any of the production two-strokes.

—Rich Williams

SUZUKI FIELDS ENDURANCE RACER

Disappointed and frustrated with chas sis problems at the Suzuka 8-hour endurance race, the Yoshimuras have de cided against entering their factoryframed GS1000 in the Bol d'Or 24-hour race in France. But the Suzuki factory, already committed to making an effort against the almighty Honda RCBs, will field a bike with an engine built by Pops Yoshimura. The Yoshimura crew will not be present at the event, and Yoshimura R&D riders Wes Cooley and Ron Pierce will not ride the machine.