Superbike Production

Superbike Production

Fast Freddie Jumps Out Front While Pierce and Cooley Come From Behind

John Ulrich

Two days before the Sears Point Superbike Production final race, Fast Freddie Spencer had never ridden the Kawasaki Motors Corp. KZ1000 Mk. II racebike prepared by Randy Hall and wrenched by Dennis David.

That fact didn’t keep Freddie from beating the most talent-laden Superbike race in history, easily. How competitive was the racing? So fast and furious that three-time Superbike Production champion Reg Pridmore could manage no better than seventh place.

More than including the best racing seen among the Superbikes this year. Sears Point sounded the death knell for Twins. Spencer and Loudon-winner Richard Schlacter were poached ofi' Ducatis by Kawasaki. That left 1978 Sears Point winner Paul Ritter on the San Jose BMW (forsaken by Harry Klinzmann for the Racecrafters/Action Fours Kawasaki earner this year) as the only Twin rider of notable speed, and Ritter finished 11th. If any of the AMA tracks is a track for the lighter twin-cylinder race bikes. Sears is. Yet four cylinder Suzukis and Kawasakis dominated everything.

Not all the fast bikes were ridden by Riders with big bucks sponsorships, either. Chuck Parme, riding his own early Kawasaki (which finished second in the AFM six-hour) with help from brother Larry, was fourth going up the start hill, and Dennis Smith on the Kevin Donnelly/Del Amo Suzuki GS1000S was fifth. Superbike .racing has become the class for the masses. Parme finished sixth, notable not only because of the quality of rider and machine needed to beat him, but also by the amount of trouble it took for those riders and machines to get past. One combination which didn’t get by was reigning champion Pridmore and his Vetter Kawasaki.

Four riders dominated the heat races: Freddie Spencer and Ron Pierce (Yoshimura Suzuki GS1000) in one race and Rich Schlacter (Kawasaki Motors Corp. KZ1000 Mk. 11) and Wes Cooley (Yoshimura Suzuki GS1000) in the other.

For the entire five laps of the heat. Pierce held off'Spencer in spite of brake problems which made it impossible to predict exactly what the front brake would do going into a corner. Sometimes, Pierce said later, „the lever would come into the bar with little or no resistance—other times the same pressure would lock up the front wheel.

Meanwhile, Spencer was having clutch trouble, especially downshifting. But while lap times were a bit slow in the 1:50 and J:51 range, the pair had a good race. Pierce won by using his infamous “Bakersfield Line,” a very tight, inside approach which allows a rider to brake deeper into a turn, Tmt which requires a slower apex speed than a traditional line.

It’s so different from Cooley’s lines that Yoshimura mechanics geared Pierce’s bike 14:49 to use second, third, fourth and fifth gears compared to Cooley’s bike’s 14:42 to use first, second, third and fourth. The beauty of a strategically-used Bakersfield line is that it’s good for stuffing past a rider in front on the offensive and makes passing almost impossible on the defensive, since it intersects any wider entry line. Every lap at the rough, tight turn 1 1 hairpin. Spencer would pull outside Pierce on the brakes, only to find any attempt to pass blocked by Pierce’s bike halfway around the turn. Spencer had a choice going into that turnhold position or rig for ramming. Spencer settled for second.

Cooley pulled away from Schlacter in his heat race with lap times a couple of seconds faster than in Pierce and Spencer’s heat, but a fiat front tire sent Cooley off the track and into a ditch. When Cooley crashed, Schlacter won the heat.

Yoshimura mechanics succeeded in fixing Cooley’s bike’s crash damage and in sorting out Pierce’s brakes in the hours between the heats and the main event, and Dennis David changed the clutch in Spencer's bike during the same time.

“My main problem is going to be with the clutch,” worried Spencer before the start. “You know, whether or not I can get a good start. Plus finding a way to get around Pierce if he gets out in front. Plus there's Richard (Schlacter) and Harry (Klinzmann). It ought to be a good race.”

The starter caught both Pierce and Pridmore off guard with their bikes in neutral, and Klinzmann led the field up the hill. A few turns into the race Klinzmann bobbled when his tires slid and his bike went into tank slappers. and Spencer stuffed his way past. Spencer was out front and pulling away, turning two fast laps to establish a cushion ( 1:47.9 on the second lap. 1:49.6 on the third) and then settling down to consistent 1:50 lap times (1:50.0. 1:50.6, 1:50.9, etc.)

Cooley was going just as fast as Spencer and working harder—the heat race crash forced Cooley to start dead last, and he sliced his way through traffic with a vengeance. reaching 10th place by the end of the first lap and fifth by the end of the fourth lap. holding his pace, turning 1:49.8, 1:50.7. 1:50.1. 1:49.9, 1:49.8, 1:50.1.

By then, Cooley had caught up to and spurred on Pierce (who had gotten away in 10th place), and the two went around, underneath and through traffic one after the other. Pierce’s times dropped instantly to match Cooley’s, and his Bakersfield line made him impossible to pass.

About halfway through the 10-lap race (shortened from the scheduled 16 laps due to time lost cleaning up a massive Novice heat race pile-up), the Pierce-Cooley dogfight hooked up with a similar battle between Klinzmann and Schlacter, the result being four laps of the tightest, fastest heads-up racing ever seen in Superbikes. All four antagonists turned times fast enough to win. It was a certain case of having the right times at the wrong time— Spencer was already too far in front to catch.

Consider one single lap in the race. Klinzmann led the group, and two different people at two different track locations timed Cooley and Schlacter at an identical 1:49.8 while a third timed Spencer—outfront and cruising—at 1:51.1. Pierce and Klinzmann were side by side with Cooley and Schlacter.

“1 looked back and could see these three heads and just thought ‘Oh no,’ ” Klinzmann said later. “I just took off. but those guys were going for it and I just couldn't keep up the pace. 1 couldn't go any faster because the tires got really hot and wouldn’t hook up anymore. Schlacter passed me, then all of a sudden Pierce passed both of us. Then Cooley. It was incredible.”

Pierce stretched a little distance on Cooley when Cooley got sideways on top of the hill, and Schlacter was having nothing to do with fourth place if he could help it.

Turn 11, last lap. Schlacter drives outside and around Cooley, and looks to be exiting in front. Cooley glances over, sees Schlacter’s front wheel, and grabs a handful that sends the Yoshimura Suzuki’s front wheel rocketing for the sky even though Cooley’s still got the bike leaned over. Cooley holds on. setting the wheel down for a split second as he shifts into second, and it comes up again in third gear. It is spectacular and is plenty effective, for Cooley outdrives Schlacter and takes the checkered flag third, behind Spencer and Pierce.

Steve McLaughlin didn’t start the race, parking his Racecrafters/Action Fours Kawasaki after hurting his knee in a practice crash. David Emde was nowhere in the results, unhappy with a spare Vetter Kawasaki that slid, wobbled and misfired.

And the champion, Pridmore? “Reg did a 1:50.7,” said Pierre des Roches, his tuner. “He went fast. It just wasn’t fast enough. There were a lot of fast guys out there.”

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