Race Watch
RACE WATCH
Husqvarna Wins Everything in Baja; World Series Plods Forward; Honda Builds Its Own Uni-Trak
HUSKY WINS IT ALL IN BAJA
Husqvarna domination of Baja races continued in the 1979 Baja 1000, with the Swedish make taking all five motorcycle classes and the overall win as well. Larry Roeseler and Jack Johnson teamed up on a Husqvarna 390 to take the overall win, finishing one hour, 21 minutes ahead of the next bike, another 390 Husky ridden by Scot Harden and Brent Wallingsford. Husqvarna also won the 250cc class 21 with Rick Finger and Jeff Kaplan and the 125cc class 20 with Scott Coutts and Scott Pfeiffer.
Husqvarnas also finished first in class 30 (for riders over age 30 on any size machine) with Dick Vick, John Watkins and Niles Ussery, and first in class 38 (for riders over age 38, any size machine) with Rod Gilliland and Zane Prather.
For the first time in six years the Baja 1000 returned to its original format, starting in Ensenada and ending in La Paz after running the length of the Baja Peninsula. In addition to ironing out the political problems that had turned the 1974-1978 1000s into shortened loops starting and ending in Ensenada, the SCORE organizers also cut back the pavement to about 80 miles of a 985-mile course. The race started early one morning and would end 20 hours later at about 2 a.m.
Because the fastest four-wheeled vehicles came equipped w ith six to eight lights and could reach 140 mph on the smooth sections of the course, many people predicted that the bikes wouldn't w in overall. The most serious motorcycle entries had two lights. But even so. Roeseler and Johnson made up time in the rough to beat the first four-wheeler, a Dodge pickup driven by Walker Evans.
Bill Tarling, riding a C&J-framed XR500 sponsored by American Honda Motor Co., was the first to leave the starting line. Tarling covered the 49 miles to the first checkpoint in 49 minutes, and maintained the physical lead until past the second check. But 150 miles into the race, with a six-minute lead, Tarling hit a washout just past the village of San Matais. Tarling jumped the gully but the rear hub hit the edge and exploded upon impact. Tarling nursed the bike back to Valle De Trinidad to replace the rear wheel, which took 45 minutes.
Gary Drean, on another C&J Honda, took over the lead and held it until past check three, about 250 miles into the event. After check three the order changed. The course became very rocky and many bikes punctured engine cases. Drean was one victim of broken cases as was the Honda of Morgan Malocco, running in the top four at the time. Drean slowed the oil leak by driving a piece of wood into the holed case. He was further slowed by a slipping clutch and a flat front tire but managed to make the half way point at El Arco just after dark. Partner Howard Utsey left El Arco with the Honda still in contention but a lighting coil failure ended their effort.
Husqvarna’s Larry Roeseler. and Jack Johnson, had drawn an 11th place starting position. Larry had started and was slowly picking off riders ahead of him. Another Husky Team entry, w ith Scot Harden and Brent Walingsford aboard started in fifth position. Both teams were riding fast, yet conservatively (for them. Some restraint has to be maintained when such long distances are covered.) Walingsford had taken the lead before check four but he also hit one of the numerous rocks, and the skid plate put a hole in the 390’s cases. While Walingsford was making emergency repairs, Roeseler took the lead and was never challenged again. Roeseler made the half-way point. El Arco, at 4 p.m. He rode the last 40 miles with a flat but still smoked everyone else. The Husqvarna pit crew put two quartz lights on the bike and changed the tires before Roeseler's teammate. Johnson, took over. Johnson held the lead all the way to La Paz with a minimum of problems—until he got close to the finish. Then the long hours of riding behind bright lights disoriented him and he missed the finish line. Johnson came through the finish line from the wrong direction at 1:58 a.m. Thursday 19 hours and 48 min. from Ensenada the fast way.
RESULTS
WORLD SERIES PROGRESS... MAYBE
B eporting on the London press con ference at which Kenny Roberts, Barry Sheene and friends announced a tentative schedule for their planned rider run World Series, the scholarly London Times described the Federation Interna tionale Motocvcliste (F.I.M.) as "remote and autocratic."
To most racing fans, that's typical British unders ta tern en t.
For KR and the series, that's the good news.
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World Series appeared last summer, when Roberts and journalist Barry Coleman told the racing press that they had signed the 40 top road racers in the world for a series that effectively dispensed with the F.I.M. Roberts said he and the other riders were poorly treated and poorly paid. The F.I.M can have the title, while the racers will put on their own shows, with much more money going to the men who ride, rather than the tiny amounts parcelled out by the F.I.M. clubs and organizers and promoters.
World Series is quickly becoming its own skilled organization. The press conference. which dazzled the mass media simply by the fact that the racers were willing to challenge the F.I.M. after generations of taking what they were given, was held in plush office in London’s fashionable West End. Host, so to speak, was the International Management Group, a sports management and promotional company; the people who deal with television and such for the likes of Arnold Palmer, and the sort of pros who come in handy when dealing w ith finance.
According to Coleman and Roberts, there will be 1980 World Series races at Imola, Italy; Donington Park. England; Zolder. Belgium; Laguna Seca, U.S.A.; Le Mans, France; Monza. Italy; Zandvoort. Holland; and Salzburgring, Austria.
But the required $200.000 purse has at least three European circuit owners worried, and sources at Laguna Seca, while declining to make an official announcement, doubt that they can pull off the race and pay the purse.
Laguna Seca is one of the most popular race circuits in the United States, and has been the scene of previous world-class road races.
But Laguna has enough spectator room for maybe 20.000 fans. If each fan paid $ 10 for his ticket, that’s $200,000 income against expenses of a $200.000 purse plus track rental, insurance, personnel, advertising and all the other things promoters must do to attract and please the crowd. That’s not even considering a reasonable profit for the promoter, and without profit, promoters and racetracks will not and cannot stay in business.
Where will the additional money come from? Where will the other fans needed to break even sit? Or park? Or spend the night (camping isn’t allowed at Laguna and hotel reservations are tight already).
Could even Daytona afford a world Series race, and if not, w ill fans in America. Linland, Spain and other countries where 100.000 people don’t go to the races get closer to the world’s best than two small paragraphs in the Monday sports section?
The answer may be big-money sponsorship of a given race, or television broadcast contracts in which a television network pays a lot of money for the rights to film and broadcast the race. That’s where the International Management Group comes in, and if they can find the sponsors or networks to pay a big chunk of the Wo. id Series race expenses, then it may all come together and work after all.
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There is another group involved in this dispute between World Series and F.I.M., and it’s not the promoters or the fans.
Rather, it’s the Japanese factories.
If Yamaha, Suzuki, Kawasaki and Honda all go with the World Series riders, if they invest their racing budgets in the riders’ revolution, the top racers will be there and the F.I.M.’s world championship will fade away.
But if the factories stick with the F.I.M., either ordering their riders to race F.I.M. or else signing up new talent to replace the breakaways. World Series vs. F.I.M. will make Roberts vs. Sheene look like Romeo and Juliet.
But despite prodding by Roberts and Coleman, there is no sign of World Series support from the Japanese factories. True, the U.S. distributor. Yamaha Motors Corp., U.S. will back Roberts in World Series, but the factory has tried to sign World Series-contracted Gregg Hansford to contest the 1980 F.I.M. Grands Prix. Hansford refused three successive offers, citing his binding World Series contract.
In informal, off the record discussions with Cycle World in Japan, racing department sources at Suzuki and Honda expressed doubt in the World Series concept and spoke only negatively of the concept.
“How can you ignore 75 years of racing tradition?’’ asked one Japanese racing manager.
“If it isn’t the same World Championship as before, it means nothing,’’ said another.
Citing lack of factory interest and the availability of rich racing contracts for F.I.M. racing, some riders have strayed from the World Series fold.
New Zealander Graeme Crosby, signed by Suzuki to race an RG500 in Grands Prix, plans on racing F.I.M. Crosby never signed a World Series contract due to uncertainty as to which class (250cc or 500cc) he would have to ride (a decision made by World Series promoters). And since the announcement of the World Series. F.I.M. officials have eliminated the starting money system and jacked up purse money by eight or nine times. That, according to Crosby, ends the biggest complaint leading to the World Series and thus makes F.I.M. acceptable again. “Kenny Roberts won the [1979] GP at Silverstone and won about $300.” said Crosby. “But ju~~i Silverstone in 198ft you can take home about S 18.000. So why support World Series now?"
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And Ton Riemersma. the Dutch Suzuki importer and sponsor of Wil Hartog, says that World Series-contracted Hartog will ride F.l.M. in 1980. Riemersma. also speaking in Japan. said that Hartog could make far more money and gain more publicity racing in the scheduled Grands PriX and the lucrative, big-start-money in ternational F.l.M. races that he could stay ing with World Series.
Unknown at this point is just what World Series will do to enforce rider con tracts in the event riders try to jump ship for the F.1.M. races. Legally, it would appear that World Series holds the aces. but whether or not World Series organizers want to be cast in the role of oppressors remains to be seen.
In fact just about everything remains to be seen. 1~ohody really knows what will happen. and we can't claim to have an inside line on predicting the future.
Except to say that we doubt that any body in racing will forget 1979-the year of the riders' revolt-for a long time to come.
SUZUKI GIRDS FOR DAYTONA
p ops Yoshimura announced in Japan that Wes Cooley, David Aldana and New Zealander Graeme Crosby will ride Yoshimura Suzuki 1025cc four-stroke racebikes in the Winston Pro Series Daytona 200.
In addition. Cooley and Aldana will ride Yoshimura Superbikes in the 100-mile Bell Superhike Production race at Daytona according to Pops. In making the an nouncements. Pops said that Cooley's ride was assured from the start because "He is like a son to me." But Yoshimura said it took intervention on the part of the Suzuki factory with U.S. Suzuki to free up the money needed for Yoshimura to hire Aldana.
Crosby. contracted by Suzuki to race Grands Prix and Formula One in Europe. cannot enter the 100-mile Bell Superhike race because he doesn't hold the AMA license needed for the national race, and can't get an AMA license without surren dering his Australian license. The 200-mile Winston Pro main event has international as well as AMA (national) sanction.
In testing at Suzuki's test track near Hammatsu. Japan. Crosby lapped 1.0 sec. faster on the Yoshirnura Suzuki than he did on a works RG500.
The latest 1025cc Suzuki racehike is equipped with a fully operational anti dive system on the front forks. The system works by closing a compression damping oil passageway. thereby slowing compres sion of the front fork and reducing dive under braking. >
SUZUKI GSX1100 WINS NEW ZEALAND SIX-HOUR
A Suzuki G SX 1 100 ridden by Dave Hiscock and Neil Chivas won the New Zealand Castrol Six-Hour Endurance Race, the bike's first event. Hiscock and Chivas ran away with the event, while a GSX750 finished first 750.
Unlike the plain-bearing 750 featured in this issue, the GS1100 (American market versions do not include the “X” designaron ) has a roller bearing crankshaft and an aluminum allov swing arm.
YANKS WIN DOWN UNDER
Two Americans competing in Australia's first stadium motocross took first and second place.
Mike Bell won the Summer Superbowl 8f Motocross held in Archerfield Astradome. Brisbane. Australia. Bell took the lead on the 10th lap of the 20-lap final race, run during pouring rain. Bell’s Yamaha teammate, Rex Staten, took second ahead of Australia's Steve Gaul and Sweden’s Pele Granquist.
HONDA PRO-LINK UNI/MONO
Joining the rush to single-rear-shock suspension systems is Honda, which unveiled the watercooled, 250ce Pro-Link at the Anaheim Stadium race. The system i§ simpler than Kawasaki’s Uni-Trak, with shock positioning and linkage differences.
