Race Watch
RACE WATCH
Ogilvie and Miller Overcome Baja, Cars and Competition; Lawson Leads Superbike Points Race with Atlanta Win.
OGILVIE/MILLER WIN BAJA INTERNACIONAL
Bruce Ogilvie and Chuck Miller overcame two head on crashes to win the 1980 running of the Baja Internacional. This year’s course measured about 241 mi., which the competitors ran twice. Yamaha teamsters Ogilvie and Miller were second off the starting line but quickly took over the lead. Miller ran the first half of the course then turned the YZ465 over to Ogilvie for the back part of the loop. Five miles before the end of the lap Ogilvie hit a Blazer going the wrong direction on the course. The impact threw Bruce over the vehicle, off a bank. Dazed, he got back on the bike while gas leaked from the Blazer's fuel tank, and continued. The front wheel was square and the hub was broken, but he limped into Ojos Negros, the end of the lap, still in the lead. Bruce borrowed a complete front wheel from a competitor and Chuck Miller headed out on the first loop again. Near check point one, El Rayo, Chuck hit a car. The crash stuck the YZ firmly into the grill of the car and removal took precious minutes. With forks bent back into the headpipe and another front wheel wasted, Chuck limped into check one. A Yamaha
support van was stationed there and contained the needed parts. The Husqvarna of Terry Clark and Kem Park slipped into the lead while the YZ was being repaired the second time but Ogilvie and Miller had the lead back before Mike’s Sky Ranch, about halfway around the loop, finishing the race with an 8 min. advantage.
Bob Rutton and Jim Fishback piloted the first 250. Bob and Jim have won all three SCORE events this year. The YZ250 had one flat tire but otherwise no problems. They were 12 min. behind the winning open bike time of 15:09.
Second open bike was the Husky of Kem Park and Terry Clark. Class 20, 125cc bikes, was also won by Yamaha. The YZ of Kurt Pfeiffer and Mike Goodman finished in 16:28. Class 30 was the only class not won by a Yamaha. Richard Jackson and Dennis DeCamp took a 390 Husky to a win in 16:52 hrs. Class 38 was won once again by Dick Vick and John Watkins on a YZ465. Their time was 16:56.
The double loop course wasn’t liked by most of the motorcycle racers. The last of the cars—the slowest ones—had just
started when the bike leaders finished the first lap. Did you ever try racing 240 mi. behind race cars stirring up dust? That’s what the bikes were subjected to. Add the problem of passing any four wheeled vehicle on a road no wider than a VW and things get scary. These conditions, many rain damaged sections and lots of non-race cars on the course, caused more crashes and injuries than usual. Yamaha rider Larry Roeseler was one of the first. Dodging a car on the course, he ran into a tree rootfilled washout and bailed. The crash dislocated his shoulder and he had to ride one handed for over 50 mi. before partner Jack Johnson could take over and ride the 300 mi. left in the race. Other known Baja racers getting hurt were Fred Hansen and Scot Harden. Hansen broke a leg, hip, ribs and punctured a lung, having to be air lifted from Mike’s Sky Ranch to a hospital in San Diego. Harden separated a shoulder. Both riders evidently hit the same offending rock. Even with problems and the dust, bikes again won overall. Let’s hope SCORE never runs a loop event like this one again. We might run out of healthy riders!
SPENCER WINS LOUDON SUPERBIKE
Fast Freddie Spencer claimed his second straight Superbike Production win at Loudon, New Hampshire. The win moved Spencer from fifth to second place in the tight, five-rider battle for the Superbike Production Championship.
Team Honda’s Spencer beat reigning champion Wes Cooley (Vetter/Yoshimura Suzuki), who was still hurting from fracturing a tibia at Elkhart Lake, where his
knee hit a curb during the Superbike race there.
Kawasaki’s Eddie Lawson was third, passing teammate David Aldana late in the race when Aldana crashed. Aldana picked up his bike quickly and finished fourth, losing just that one place to Lawson. After the weekend, Lawson still led the points while Aldana was tied with Honda’s Ron Pierce for fourth. Pierce slid
from second in points to the fourth-place tie with Aldana as the result of a seventhplace finish with carburetion trouble.
Top privateer in the points after Loudon was Chuck Parme (Champion/Kal Gard Kawasaki), who finished fifth. That finish gave Parme a one-point lead over Berliner Motor Corp.’s Jim Adamo (Reno Leoni Ducati), who finished sixth at Loudon. >
LAWSON WINS ROAD ATLANTA SUPERBIKE
Eddie Lawson rode his Donny Doveprepared factory Kawasaki KZ1000 Superbike to victory at Road Atlanta, beating Wes Cooley (Yoshimura/Vetter Suzuki) and Kawasaki teammate David Aldana. With his win, 22-year-old Lawson from Ontario, California spread his Su'perbike Championship points lead to 13 points, with 85 points to Cooley’s 72. Aldana has 66 points in the standings.
Both Cooley and Aldana were forced to start from the back of the grid and charge through traffic, Cooley because his Suzuki blew up in the heat race and Aldana because he crashed in his heat race.
Honda’s Fast Freddie Spencer led the race until his CB750F-based superbike developed ignition troubles, and stopped running. Spencer’s DNF was especially disheartening to him after he notched back-to-back victories at the two previous Superbike races, Elkhart Lake and Loudon. >
SUPERBIKE PRODUCTION CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS AFTER ATLANTA
LOUDON F-1
Reigning AMA National Road Racing Champion Richard Schlachter streaked te victory aboard his Micro-Lon Yamaha TZ750 at Loudon, New Hampshire, win ning in front of one of the largest crowds in the race's history. The win marked Schlachter's first Na tional victory. Schlachter, 28, sold his busi ness prior to the start of the 1980 season in order to concentrate on racing.
Freddie Spencer led the first three laps of the race in on a four-stroke Honda F-l RS 1000 before he got sideways in oil from Ron Pierce’s blown-up Honda Superbike, which Pierce was riding in the F-l event. Thinking the oil was from his bike, Spencer pitted, then retired from the race. That gave the lead to Mark Jones on the JoCoMo TZ750, and Jones led for the first third of the race before Schlachter passed him to lead to the finish.
Jones then battled Nick Richichi for second, with Richichi taking second at the finish.
Gene Romero crashed out of the race when he tangled with an erratic lapped rider.
Bruce Mause won the 250cc Expert race, while AFM’s Thad Wolff won the
Novice event. 51
F-i RESULTS
