Suzuka 8-Hour
Suzuka 8-Hour
RACE WATCH
Matthew Miles
BACK IN 1985, KING KENNY Roberts came out of retirement to contest the Suzuka 8-Hour endurance race. Less than 30 minutes from the end of that marathon event, the Yamaha FZR75O ridden by Roberts and Japanese teammate Tadahiko Taira expired, effectively handing the win to a determined young Aussie named Wayne Gardner.
Seven years later, Gardner, now in the twilight of his career, teamed with fellow Australian Daryl Beattie to win the 1992 Suzuka 8-Hour by a slim 32-second margin over the Yamaha-mounted duo of Kevin Magee and Niall Mackenzie. It was a record fourth Suzuka win for Gardner, and according to the 32-year-old, his final race at the Honda-owned circuit that lies approximately 150 miles southwest of Tokyo.
“This is my last time,” said the 1987 500cc world champion before the race. “If I can win, it will be for the fans.”
Considered by many to be the most prestigious motorcycle roadrace in the world, the Suzuka 8-Hour originated during the mid-’70s and drew international attention in 1978 when Americans Mike Baldwin and Wes Cooley won the event on a Yoshimura-prepared Suzuki GS1000. Presently, the race, which is also the third round of the FIM World Endurance Championship, draws top riders from around the world, and is an opportunity for the Japanese manufacturers to showcase their finest four-stroke racing hardware.
Gardner and Beattie may have won the race, but it was three-time world champion Freddie Spencer who created the greatest stir, finishing fourth after qualifying third-fastest. Two weeks prior to the race, Spencer went to Suzuka to test the bike that he would be racing, the same Honda RVF750-the works racer the streetgoing RC30 was patterned after-that carried Mick Doohan and Gardner to victory in 1991.
AUSTRALIANS WIN, AMERICANS SHOW SPEED AT JAPAN'S GREATEST ROADRACE
“I wasn’t sure how quick I would go,” said Spencer. “But I knew a 2:13 lap time would be good. After riding the machine the first day, I felt I could go quicker, maybe a high 2:12.”
And that’s exactly what the 30year-old Louisiana native did, dramatically sliding both ends of his factory-prepped, Mister Donut-sponsored machine around the 3.6-mile track in an unofficial time of 2 min-
utes, 12.5 seconds, eclipsing Doohan’s old lap record by nearly a full second. In qualifying, however, the best he could manage was 2:13.1, third quickest behind two Japanese teams.
“I think with a ’92 machine, I could have been a second or so quicker,” said Spencer. “When I did the 13.1, I’d been blocked by another rider. It’s hard to get a clear qualifying lap, and if you catch someone like I did, if you have to roll out even a little bit, you lose at least a half second.”
Fast Freddie wasn’t the only American at Suzuka. In all, 15 American riders qualified for the race. AMA Superbike front-runners Scott Russell and Thomas Stevens qualified their Kawasaki ZXR75OR 11th, with grand prix regulars Kevin Schwantz and Doug Chandler on a Suzuki GSX-R in the 25th slot. Unfortunately, their factory-prepped machine lacked the necessary power to match the rest of the field.
“We were struggling with the new engine,” said Chandler. “The bike handled fairly well, but going through the first and second gears off the corners, we were really down on acceleration. Our bike was a little heavy, too-about 20 pounds more than the other bikes.”
Directly behind the Schwantz and Chandler duo after qualifying were Californian Richard Moore and Japanese teammate Masato Mogi on a kitted Kawasaki ZX-7R. Americans Randy Renfrow and Dale Quarterley put their extensively modified Honda RC30 in 34th place, followed by Honda-mounted John Choate and Jun Maeda in 38th and Suzuka firsttimers Tommy Lynch and Jason Pridmore on their Tsukigi-sponsored Kawasaki in the 39th position. Four spots later was the Honda RC30 of > Rick Kirk and Robbie Petersen in front of Danny Walker and Akira Shiina on a Ducati 888. Rounding out the 60-rider field were Ducati-mounted Jimmy Adamo and Eric Moe.
Absent from the grid was the factory Ducati effort of World Superbike Champion Doug Polen and teammate Giancarlo Falappa. Reportedly, their entry had been pulled after the decision was made to wait until next year, when endurance racing rules switch to World Superbike specification.
“It would be nice to ride in the 8Hour,” said Polen. “It’s one of the most important races of the year no matter if you’re a Japanese or a European manufacturer.” >
At the Le Mans-style start, Daryl Beattie grabbed the holeshot on the OKI-sponsored Honda RVF750. Spencer’s bike initially failed to start, and at the completion of the first lap, he was 22nd, directly in front of Schwantz. Ten laps later, while challenging for 10th place, Spencer crashed.
“It was frustrating, because it shouldn’t have happened,” said Spencer. “I was trying to get around (English rider) Terry Rymer. He got cut off by a backmarker and then he moved over right in front of me. I hit the brakes and straightened up and ran off the track doing about 70 or 80 miles per hour. I made it through the sand trap, but there was hardly any room between the sand trap and the tire wall, so I had to lay the bike down.” Spencer, uninjured, was soon up and charging, although a crash by his teammate late in the race meant that fourth was as high as the duo could climb before the checkered flag.
Soaring temperatures and high humidity led to difficult conditions for many riders, including 1991 AMA Superbike Champion Thomas Stevens.
“It was indescribable,” said Stevens. “I lost 10 pounds that day. The first half-hour of my session would go well, and then I’d get so tired, I’d have to slow down or I was going to fall off. It was the hardest physical thing I’ve ever done. And mentally, I’d say the same. Endurance racing in America is hard, but nothing like the level of the 8-Hour. I was happy to take part and happy to finish, but it was a helluva lot of work.”
With a track temperature of 130 degrees, tire life was short.
“We were doing roughly 24 laps per session,” Stevens continued. “The front tire wouldn’t really go away too bad, but the rear was only good for about six laps. After that, they were pretty much gone. You had to just hang on and slide around.”
Stevens and Russell finished 10th riding one of two FI-spec factory Kawasakis, a considerable change from the ZX-7R-based Superbikes they ride in AMA events.
“The FI chassis is completely different from the superbike chassis,” said Stevens. “I found it pretty difficult to ride. One of the major things was just being able to get the bike to where it would slide controllably. The Suzuka circuit is a very hard course as far as bike setup is concerned and we struggled to get the bike to work better. We could make it go over the bumps, but then it wouldn’t want to go through the fast stuff. And vice versa.” Also aboard a Kawasaki, albeit a privateer effort, was Jason Pridmore, who currently is second in AMA 750cc Supersport racing and not used to racing in front of more than 100,000 spectators.
“When I got there, I couldn’t believe it,” said the 22-year-old Pridmore, whose father Reg, was a three-time AMA Superbike champion and raced at Suzuka in the late ’70s.
“It was very intimidating. It was a whole new world.”
Even crashing, Pridmore found, was a different experience at Suzuka.
“When I picked up the bike after I crashed, the crowd went crazy. I thought someone else had crashed and was about to slide into me. I couldn’t believe the fans went that nuts just because I picked up the bike.”
A long pit stop to fix the damage eliminated the team from the top 20, but Pridmore was still pleased with the team’s result. “We finished 41st, and our mechanics were crying with joy, ” he said. “I don’t know what would have happened if we had finished in the top 20.”
Three of the top four finishers were on Honda’s venerable RVF750s. Aside from improved top-speed performance, the latest RVFs were quite similar to last year’s race-winning design. In its current form, the RVF is powered by a V-Four, 16-valve engine producing a claimed 155 horsepower.
At 303 pounds, the Honda is said to be 20 pounds lighter than even the > very light works Ducati V-Twins.
While Schwantz and Chandler may not have found the right combination on their factory GSX-R750, the Yoshimura-prepared Suzukis performed very well. According to Japanese rider Masano Aoki, who qualified one of the two Yoshimura entries in second and finished fifth, the new liquid-cooled machine had power equal to that of the RVF down the straights, and at 312 pounds, was only 9 pounds heavier. Throughout the race, overheating that had plagued air-and-oil-cooled GSX-Rs in previous years was never a problem, good news for U.S. racing teams eagerly awaiting the stateside release of the liquid-cooled GSX-R750.
Yamaha’s effort was spearheaded by Magee and Mackenzie riding a works YZF750 that may just be the prototype of the long-rumored FZR750/OW02 sportbike, which reportedly will have the revised Deltabox chassis, the inverted fork, the six-piston brake calipers and the 20-valve engine of the YZF, but not the exotic magnesium, titanium and carbon-fiber components.
Kawasaki’s works entries, too, could give us clues as to what the 1993 ZX-7s will look like, right down to the ram-air induction system used by the racebikes. Honda’s RVFs, on the other hand, were little changed, indicating that the rumored successor to the aging RC30 probably won’t show until 1994.
But perhaps the most important thing learned at Suzuka is that Freddie Spencer, written off as an enigmatic, unpredictable has-been by many so-called experts, is back on track and hungry for bigger things.
“To race again in the grands prix would be no different than what was needed to participate in the 8-Hour, which was to have a well-organized team with a competitive machine,” said Spencer. “I would like to have the opportunity to go back into the world championships, and I think Fm ready to do it, preferably with a ’93 factory Honda. I think my Suzuka 8Hour result proved that anything is possible.” □
500cc GP turnaround for Rainey
The 500cc Grand Prix World Championship Series looks as if it might come down to the wire, after all. Series point leader Mick Doohan, who splintered his leg at the Assen GP and might not be fit enough for the final two events in Brazil and South Africa, is now forced to watch his once-commanding lead over Wayne Rainey shrink week by week.
At the British GP held at the golfcourse-like setting of Donington Park in early August, Rainey inched closer to Doohan with a second-place finish. Rothmans Honda pilot Wayne Gardner won, his first 500cc GP victory since his home-country Australian GP win in September, 1990. Rainey finished less than one second behind the Australian veteran, closing to within 22 points of Doohan in the process.
Gardner’s British GP victory was an emotional one, as he had announced during Friday qualifying that he would retire from motorcycle roadracing at the end of the 1992 season. The British fans were apparently equally moved, spilling onto the track as the riders completed their cool-off lap and surrounding the winners. Rainey was actually knocked from his machine by the overzealous fans, bruising his knee and missing the rostrum celebration.
Points leader Mick Doohan’s medical situation is apparently worse than originally thought. The Rothmans Honda ace has been flat on his back in an Italian hospital since the Assen crash and the subsequent operation to plate bones in his right leg. Complications developed when doctors discovered that the skin on the leg wasn’t healing properly. After an unsuccessful skin-graft operation, which involved the use of real and artificial skin, Doohan’s doctors surgically attached the front of his left leg to the affected area of his right to speed up the healing process. Doohan’s legs were to be separated just after the British GP, with the hope that he would be able to race the final two rounds in Brazil and South Africa.
If Doohan can suit up for those races, he’ll still have to finish in the top five if Rainey wins both GPs. So, what looked like a runaway season for Doohan may yet turn into Wayne Rainey’s third consecutive world title.
U.S. roadracing roundup
With just one race remaining in the 1992 AMA Superbike Series, the Superbike title chase is heating up in a big way.
Coming into the Mid-Ohio National in early August, Team Muzzy Kawasaki rider Scott Russell brought with him a 17-point cushion over Jamie James of the Vance & Hines Yamaha team. After securing the pole over Fast by Ferracci Ducati-mounted Doug Polen by a scant four-hundredths of a second, Russell had the race firmly in hand until a dead battery put an end to his weekend. Polen then inherited the win, followed by Muzzy Kawasaki’s Thomas Stevens and RC30-mounted Tom Kipp.
A Russell win would have put the 1992 Superbike championship practically in the bag for the Muzzy Kawasaki camp. But with the MidOhio DNF, the points spread separating Russell and James as they head into the October 11th finale at Texas World Speedway is down to just 4 points, 102 to 98. Defending Superbike champ and Russell teammate Thomas Stevens stands third with 87 points, while Mid-Ohio winner Polen, > who still has an outside shot at the title, is fourth with 83 points.
Texas teenage roadracing sensation Colin Edwards wrapped up the 1992 AMA 250cc Grand Prix Championship at Mid-Ohio with a runaway win over his Southwest Motorsports Yamaha teammate Chris D’Aluisio. KeNny Roberts Jr. finished third, while Robbie Petersen and Honda RS250-mounted Jimmy Filice rounded out the top five.
Sadly, the Mid-Ohio weekend ended on a tragic note. Vance & Hines Yamaha team member Larry Schwarzbach, who earlier in the day had beaten the Honda CBRs in the 600cc Supersport event-the first nonHonda win since September, 1990crashed 10 laps into the Superbike > final and was struck by Steve Crevier’s Honda RC30. Schwarzbach sustained major head injuries in the crash and was airlifted to a trauma center in Cleveland, Ohio. He was pronounced dead two days later, on August 4, 1992. Larry Schwarzbach was 27 years old.
“He was a good man,” said Vance & Hines co-owner Terry Vance. “He had desire, determination, and his talents were just beginning to bloom. With time, I’m sure Larry would’ve been one of the best. We’re going to miss him.”
A fund has been set up to benefit the Schwarzbach family. Contributions can be sent to the Larry Schwarzbach Fund, 14914 Inverrary, Houston, TX 77095.
Camel Pro Series tightens
Team Harley-Davidson’s Scott Parker will have to put together some excellent late-season finishes if he’s to win a record-setting fifth Camel Pro title.
Parker brought a fragile, 13-point lead into the Oklahoma City round of the series. That lead was to shrink dramatically as Parker collided with teammate Chris Carr’s downed motorcycle and crashed violently on lap 21 of the final. Parker was catapulted to the outside of the track and sustained facial lacerations and a severely bruised knee. Carr, who remounted to finish eighth, drew within seven points of Parker, but felt understandably upset about the incident, saying,
“I want to beat Scotty on the track, not like this.”
Honda-mounted privateer Will Davis grabbed the Oklahoma win, > his second consecutive Camel Pro victory and only the third of his career. Dan Ingram and Ricky Graham, both mounted on Honda RS750s, followed Davis home.
Chris Carr continued his total domination of the Peoria TT the following weekend with an unprecedented fifth straight win. Carr diced with Graham throughout the final, finishing two bikelengths ahead at the finish and, more importantly, racked up 20 championship points in the process. The win was a especially important, because Parker elected to sit out the Peoria round and rest his torn knee ligaments, therefore scoring no points.
With just five races remaining-four mile events and one half-mile race-Carr leads Parker by 13 points. Mile events have traditionally been a Parker forte, though considering his bruises and Carr’s hunger for his first-ever AMA Grand National Championship, the race for the 1992 Camel Pro title is certain to be a good one. Stay tuned.
Stanton bags 250cc national title
Well on his way to a possible triplecrown season, Team Honda’s Jeff Stanton clinched the 1992 AMA 250cc National Motocross Championship with a runner-up finish at the final round of the series in Troy, Ohio. Combined with the 1992 Supercross Championship he bagged just weeks earlier at the Los Angeles Coliseum, the 250cc title puts Stanton two-thirds of the way toward U.S. motocross’s triple-crown-Supercross, 250 and 500cc titles. Last year, JeanMichel Bayle became the only rider to accomplish that feat.
The 250cc outdoor title was Stanton’s third. Rick Johnson and Tony DiStefano share that achievement, and only Gary Jones, who won the 250cc title four times, has more.
Stanton began the final leg of his triple-crown quest on a positive note with a second-overall finish at the opening 500cc national championship event at Washougal, Washington. Two-time 125cc National Champion Mike Kiedrowski won the overall aboard his Kawasaki with 3-1 moto finishes, but because Kiedrowski and Stanton each scored one moto victory, they are tied in the standings with 45 points apiece. □
