Race Watch
RACE WATCH
CYCLE WORLD
Honda finds the power
After three years of trying, Honda’s dirt-track effort finally is on the right track.
It seemed that way, at least, at the third and fourth dirt-track races of the Camel Pro season, the Ascot TT and the Sacramento Mile.
Word in the pits at Ascot was that Honda had been working extensively with the XL600-based TT bikes since the Houston series openers, trying to coax more power from the engines. In time trials, the work proved worthwhile as Honda teammates Bubba Shobert and Doug Chandler set the firstand second-quickest lap times.
In the final, 18-year-old Chandler proved his Rookie of the Year standing last year was well-earned as he slid his Jerry Griffiths-tuned 600 around the Ascot course to take the checkered flag first. Shobert, riding a bike tuned by ex-Kawasaki Superbike crew-chief Rob Muzzy, led the race until the fifth lap when engine trouble forced him out and allowed Chandler to take the lead. Second was perennial TT threat Alex Jorgensen on a Ron Woodbuilt 560cc Rotax, with the whole Harley-Davidson team, Scott Parker, Randy Goss and Jay Springsteen, behind him.
Bolting together a winning TT bike is one thing, but building a machine for the meat and potatoes of the Camel Pro series—the miles and half-miles—is quite another. In almost three years of flogging the CX500turned-sideways-andpunched-to-750cc engine, Honda had recorded only two wins on the miles and halfmiles. Last year’s switch to the air-cooled, Shadow-based RS750 V-Twin gave the Honda camp some encouragement, but a win eluded them.
Not this year. Ricky Graham, who had missed Ascot because of a heel injury suffered while play-riding, disregarded his doctor’s orders and suited up for the season’s first mile at Sacramento. Right off the trailer he gave proof that the Hondas were going to be competitive, very competitive. Graham’s timetrials lap was almost a halfsecond quicker than anybodv else’s.
In the final, Graham battled with Harley-Davidson riders Ted Boody, Jim Filice and Terry Poovey, but in the end it was Graham who hobbled to the victory podium.
To be sure, Graham is a talented rider, determined and gritty, but his RS750’s performance at Sacramento shows that Honda has finally achieved parity with the previously all-conquering Harley-Davidsons on the long tracks.
From here on, the Camel Pro series is going to get very interesting.
Mamola’s comeback: an Easter parade
l?andy Mamola, forced out of road racing when he couldn’t find a ride for the ’84 GP series, is un-retired. And he did it in dramatic style, winning three of the six races in the Easter-weekend Transatlantic Match Race series in England.
Mamola, riding a works three-cylinder NS500 that he is leasing from Honda, was the top scorer in the series and led the Americans to a 259-136 trouncing of the British Commonwealth riders. Freddie Spencer won two races, and team captain Kenny Roberts was the winner in the other race.
According to Jim Doyle, Mamola’s manager, this is the first time Honda has leased out one of its front-line race bikes. The deal includes a Honda race mechanic to look after the bike. Doyle said he is looking for outside sponsorship for the five-man team. Mamola will contest the remaining GP races, starting with the third round in Spain. With a two-race deficit, Mamola doesn’t have much hope of winning the championship but Doyle thinks a third-place finish isn’t out of the question. Mamola will also ride the bike in the U.S., at Laguna Seca.
The good news of Mamola’s return to racing and the U.S. team’s victory in the Match races was tempered somewhat by injuries to several U.S. riders. Spencer crashed while leading the fifth race and may have reinjured his ankle. Wayne Rainey fell in practice and also injured his ankle. Both plan to be ready for the Spanish GP.
More seriously, Wes Cooley, who’s had more than his share of broken bones in recent years, crashed and suffered a fractured vertebra. The injury kept him in England several days after the races, but isn’t expected to cause any permanent damage.
Spencer roars back
Three weeks after a practice crash that took him out of the first GP of the season, defending 500cc World Champion Freddie Spencer blasted back onto the scene with a convincing win at the second round in Misano, Italy.
Team Marlboro Yamaha rider Eddie Lawson, winner of the first round in South Africa, finished second, 20 sec. back. He still leads the 500cc point standings, five points ahead of Honda rider Raymond Roche and 12 points ahead of third-place Spencer.
Middelburg dies after road-course crash
Outch roadracing star Jack Middelburg died April 3rd, two days after suffering severe head injuries at a Dutch championship race.
Honda-mounted Middelburg, a top privateer on the GP circuit, was trying to pass a rider to take over first place
when he fell. Three other riders were involved in the crash.
The crash, on the public-road course at Tolbert, prompted a meeting between FIM representatives and Dutch government officials to discuss safety on public-road tracks.
Middelburg was 31 years old. He had won two Grand Prix races and finished seventh in the standings twice.
Bailey, Ward O’Mara roll on
W ith six InSport supercrosses,three AMA outdoor nationals and two AMA supercrosses completed, three names keep popping up in the results column: David Bailey, Jeff Ward and Johnny O’Mara.
Team Honda’s O’Mara leads the InSport point standings with wins in Anaheim, Atlanta and Dallas.
Yamaha’s Rick Johnson is in second, nine points back.
On the AMA-sanctioned side of the fence, Bailey has put his factory RC500 Honda into the winner’s spot in all three Open-class outdoor nationals so far and won the Daytona supercross. Ward and O’Mara have traded wins in the 125cc outdoor nationals, although Kawasaki’s Ward did win the second AMA supercross at Talladega.
In the overall point standings, Ward leads O’Mara by six points in the 125 class, and Bailey has a 20-point advantage over Broc Glover in the 500 class.
In the AMA’s Grand National Championship point standings—a combination of outdoor motocross points and supercross points—defending champion Bailey is leading, Ward is four points back and O’Mara is third,
39 points off the pace.
The AMA’s 250cc class is not so cutand-dried. Currently leading is Alan King, last year a Suzuki works rider and this year riding a production Honda for Team Tamm. King has placed in the top three in all the 250 outdoor races so far, including a win at Hangtown. Seventeen-year-old Ron Lechien, Honda’s newest addition, is second in the point standings, trailing by just three points.
points.
With more than half the season to go in both the InSport and AMA schedules, it’s too early to make predictions. But O’Mara looks tough in the InSport series, and don’t bet against Bailey in the AMA 500 class. Ward and O’Mara appear set for a fight to the finish in the 125 class, Either rider could stop Bailey from repeating as Grand National Champion.
And if Alan King can keep his momentum up in the 250 class, we may have a real privateer-whips-the-factories Cinderella story in the making.
Race Watch Calendar 1984
World Championship MX Series
World Championship Road Race Series
World Championship Endurance Road Race Series
World Championship Trials
Camel Pro Series
AMA/WERA Endurance Road Race
InSport/Wrangler Supercross
AMA/DRAGBIKE Drags
IDBA Drags
NMRA Drags
AMA Superbikes
AMA Hare Scrambles
AMA National MX
AMA/NATC Trials
Canadian CMA Events
Other Major Events
