Superbike Production

SUPERBIKE PRODUCTION

Fast Freddie Spencer finds the way around the Bakersfield Line

John Ulrich

"Maybe I should try that Bakersfield line,” said Freddie Spencer after his Superbike Production heat race at Laguna Seca. Spencer, 17, had just seen firsthand some of the tricks Ron Pierce, 30, has learned in 15 years of professional road racing.

Pierce beat Spencer in the heat race, just as he had beaten Spencer at Sears Point.

The key to Pierce’s victory in both cases was his tight, inside “Bakersfield Line,” named after Pierce’s hometown in California, and it successfully thwarted young Spencer’s every attempt to get past.

“It’s just like dirt track,” said Spencer, shaking his head. “If somebody gets out there on that groove and they’ve got power on you, you can’t do anything. I could go two seconds a lap faster if somebody wasn’t in my way. It’s frustrating, but it’s Up to me to find a way to get by real quick before he can get back in front.”

Spencer worried about offending his sponsor by admitting that his Kawasaki superbike wasn’t as fast as Pierce’s Yoshimura Suzuki, but that was no revelation to anybody who had watched the race. Pierce’s bike was a lot faster, yet the race was extremely close.

“I don’t know if I can hold him (Spencer) off (in the final race),” said Pierce after the heat. “He’s really smooth in the corners, and my bike was wobbling> and hopping up and down in the turns when we got going as fast as we did.”

Both Pierce and Spencer turned lap times in the low 12s throughout the fivelap heat, with Spencer nicking into the high 1 Is with a 1:11.89 on his second lap.

In the second heat, Pierce’s Yoshimura teammate, Wes Cooley, ran away from Spencer’s Kawasaki teammate, Rich Schlachter, whose Kawasaki superbike had less shock laydown than Spencer’s, and thus didn't handle as well. In the second heat, Cooley turned a best lap of 1:12.50. “I wish I had been in that first heat,” said Cooley afterwards. “It would have pushed me a little harder.”

But even being pushed a little harder didn’t put Cooley out front in the final. Instead, Fast Freddie found his way around Pierce by beating everybody off the line and slamming the door hard as Pierce tried passing on the inside of the first turn. So close and violent was Spencer’s cut-off of Pierce that Cooley edged past in the confusion, and the finishing order was set: Spencer, Cooley, Pierce.

The only question that remained was simply how fast Freddie could — and would—go. He answered it by doing exactly what he said he could do, given a clear track. Spencer started out turning low 1:11 laps, did one circuit at 1:10.9, and then circulated in front of a several-second cushion for the rest of the race, turning 1 Is and low 12s.

The racing was for fourth, between Schlachter, Harry Klinzmann, Steve McLaughlin and Chuck Parme. By the time it was all over, they finished in that order.

Fast Freddie, by winning at Laguna Seca, collected a $10,000 bonus to add to the $5000 bonus he got for victory at Sears Point.

That’s not bad money for a 17-year-old.