Clipboard

Clipboard

RACE WATCH

Never Say DNF

When a team is first overall in the SCORE Baja 1000, setting a 57-mph average for the entire race and finishing hours ahead of the next motorcycle, you would think they had a fairly smooth, trouble-free ride. Not so. Bruce Ogilvie and Chuck Miller won this year's race, but their ride was anything but trouble-free.

It all started when the ignition failed on their XR600 while Miller was on board. “Through the years we’ve found that's about the only thing that goes wrong on XRs, so we carry an extra,” Ogilvie said later. “But our spare didn't have an extra lighting coil, so we were running half the light we should have had.”

Then Oglivie crashed, leaving the bike completely lightless. He had to ride it in total darkness for about seven miles before getting that problem fixed. As if that wasn’t enough, the rear tire disintegrated later the same night, rendering the machine unridable. Ogilvie did the only logical thing-he simply took off the tire altogether and rode 22 miles to the next pit on a bare rim. His comment; “If you ever want to do something pretty radical, try going 65 mph through traffic on Mexican roads at night without a tire.”

Uh, no thanks, Bruce. >

Formula None

There’s a very good chance that Randy Renfrow won’t repeat as U.S. Formula One champion next year. But that’s only because there won’t be a Formula One champion next year, or even a Formula One series. The AMA has chosen to abandon that class and place more emphasis on Superbike racing. Formula Two also is gone, at least in its old form, although it has been replaced by a 250 GP class similar to the FIM’s 250 class in Europe.

Suzuki reborn

A t one time, if a 500 GP rider didn’t have a Suzuki RG500, he wasn’t going to win. But today, an RG couldn’t win unless every Honda and Yamaha in the race were struck by lightning.

That might change. Suzuki’s new XR71 GP bike was recently tested in Britain. And while it isn’t yet competitive, it has potential, according to test rider Niall Mackenzie.

The engine is a twin-crankshaft VFour that has both cranks rotating in the same direction. Currently, the machine is hindered by a lack of both top-end power and cornering clearance, but it is still in the early prototype stages.

The Yellow Horde

The three-man motocross team seems to be the wave of the Eighties At the full-factory level, Honda has David Bailey, Rick Johnson and Micky Dymond. Kawasaki has Jeff Ward, Ron Lechien and Eddie Warren, and Yamaha has Broc Glover, Keith Bowen and Jeff Leisk. Suzuki has a different philosophy, though. Its team consists of more young riders, more old riders and, for that matter, more riders. Bob Hannah,

Johnny O’Mara, George Holland, Eric Kehoe, Ronnie Tichenor, Donnie Schmit and Willie Surratt all will have full Suzuki support in ’87.

Championship Attitudes

“The only reason I ride is to have fun.” Terry Cunningham has a simple philosophy about winning enduros that recently took him to his fourth national championship. “When it stops being fun, I’ll stop racing.”

Cunningham must have had loads of fun this year. He and Husqvarna clinched the title at Delaware with two rounds still to go in the series. Kevin Hines was second in the series ahead of Randy Hawkins, David Bertram and Jeff Russell.

Cash in the clubs

Doug Polen isn’t a factory-contracted roadracer, and he doesn’t have a big racing department paying his bills. But in 1986, he made $90,000 from racing, almost all at the club level, which the Texan says “Ain’t bad at all.”

Most of the money came from Suzuki’s contingency program for wins in the GSX-R Cup races. But it’s not easy money. “I think it’s tougher than the AMA nationals, because the bikes are so equal. And it’s more interesting for the spectators, because they get to see some really close racing, instead of just seeing Rainey walk away from the pack.”

Next year he thinks it will be even tougher. “A lot of people saw how much I made this year and will be doing more traveling around.”

Then he adds, “But there will be more money, too.”