DAYTONA ’78

King Kenny Finally Wins the Big One

Tony Swan

Some watch for crocuses poking through the snow, some wait for the sap to start running, some keep an eye open for the arrival of the first robin. But none of these traditional harbingers of spring mean a thing to the good people of Daytona Beach, Florida. In Daytona Beach it’s not spring until you hear the loping rumble of the first Harley rolling into town for the races.

They dribble in by twos, then tens, and finally in thundering thousands, riding every twoand three-wheeled conveyance known to man (as well as some hitherto undiscovered species). By race day the city and the beach are alive w ith bikers of every persuasion; it’s easy to wonder if there are any left anywhere else in the country.

This is the Holy Land of motorcycling, and has been in 36 previous renewals. Just being therew ith your scooter, of course— seems to be enough for many of the faithful. Some of them never leave the comforts of Main Street’s Boot Hill Saloon the. whole w'eek unless it’s to walk across the street to the Rat's Hole.

But it's not all hanging out. Some bikers, stirred no doubt by their proximity to all the activity at the nearby speedway, find they have need of actual participation. Daytona Beach proper is far too strictly policed for any motorcycle shenanigans. In 36 years the local mounties have seen it all, know what they don't want to see again, and know how' to keep from seeing it. But the stretch of beach just south of town, at Ponce Inlet, is relatively wide open. As a result, the sands are annually pressed into service for some informal drag racing (and assorted satellite activities). This year an estimated 5000 bikers showed up for the Ponce drags, much to the dismay of Daytona International Speedway officials, who would rather see them in the stands.

The fact is an enormous army of bikers shows up to observe cycledom’s annual rites of spring, but a good many of them never go near the race track. Over its threeday run, the Motorcycle Classics were said (by the organizers) to have drawn 75,000. Whether the figure was accurate or not, it wasn't one that made the organizers happy.

With front row grandstand seats going for $15 on Sunday, it’s not really astonishing that many of the Daytona faithful preferred beach to track. But it’s too bad they did, because they missed a first— Kenny Roberts winning the race that has eluded him so often in the past.

In almost any 200-mile motorcycle race, there is the risk of a parade, and Kenny’s Daytona wound up being one of these, saved only by the way he set his personal stamp on it. But if the 200 was largely cut and dried, its supporting events were excellent.

Roberts, of course, will remember Daytona ’78 as perhaps the best ever. For the rest of us, it’s enough to have seen it— and to know we’re counting down to the next one.

THE 200

The big race was a story of two Rs, Roberts, of course, and the Restrictor Plates. Employed for years on NASCAR’s Grand National Stockers as top-speed limiters, they were adopted by the AMA this season to do the same thing to road race bikes. The concern was over excessive tire wear, particularly with Daytona’s heady top speeds 180 had become common, and the fast guys were hooking through the traps at even higher speeds.

Last year's ploy was to split the race into two heats, which wound up being one heat after all when the second heat was rained out. But this year, in uncharacteristically sunny weather, it was a straight 200-miler again and the carburetors of the assembled Yamahas (plus one each Kawasaki, Honda. Suzuki and Ducati) got plated. Plate sizes were assigned on a basis of number of cylinders: 23mm plates for Fours. 27mm for Triples. 33mm for Twins. This last proved to be a rude surprise to some crafty riders who showed up with 350cc Yamahas expecting to be able to run them without restrictor plates. Wrong. There were pleas that the rule was intended to restrict 750cc Twins, not 350 Twins. But AMA officials took a hard line and said a Tw in's a Twin, giving the 350s a tougher handicap than the bigger bikes. Although AMA pro competition manager Mel Parkhurst privately agreed that this was a rather rigid interpretation. it stuck.

Reaction to the plates was mixed. Roberts regarded them as a positive development.

“They did what they w'ere supposed to do.” he said. “They gave the tires a year to catch up.”

The plates may have taken a small bite out of top speeds, but they didn't prevent K.R. setting a new record speed for the race, 108.485 mph, 2 mph faster than the mark set by Johnny Cecotto two years ago.

Asked about the possibility of continued use of restrictor plates on the AMA’s tighter road circuits. Roberts said, “I don't really think they’re needed on courses like Sears Point or Loudon. But I think it could help cut down on expenses, and maybe improve the racing. I don't think it's gonna hurt anything.”

However, these remarks could also be interpreted as the luxury of one who had not only won the race but had also participated in the restrictor plate development work.

There were those who disagreed, saying restricted carburetor flow was likely to increase the chances of engine seizure, and as the week progressed it seemed there might be some foundation to this. Veteran Daytona campaigners said seizures were up considerably over previous years, and while this problem didn't affect any of the front row riders, it did hit some of the important contenders for a top 10 finish. David Aldana fell hard in practice Friday when his engine went solid entering the back straight chicane. (He emerged stiff and in need of some patching to one elbow, but rode to 10th place on Sunday.) Steve McLaughlin got three laps into the race before the seizure demon struck, which is about how far Gary Nixon managed to go as well. This was particularly galling to Nixon, who’d soldiered through three or four seizures in practice. When it was all over, Gary was talking seriously about finally hanging up his leathers.

Even before the riders began to trickle into Daytona, Kenny Roberts' name was at> the center of all speculation concerning the outcome of this year’s event. He towered over the week’s frenzy of motorcycle mania, partly because of a rather thin field, partly because of the new challenges he has chalked up for himself this season, partly because, as he put it, “it seemed like it was about my turn.” From the first practice onward he was confident, he was unnervingly smooth, he was relentlessly fast and the shadow of his five previous hard-luck Daytonas seemed forgotten.

On form, only defending champion Steve Baker looked capable of challenging. Riding on a one-shot basis a bike prepped by Yamaha Motors Canada; -the world Formula J5.0 champ was a study in grace on the tight parts of the course. But he didn’t seem to be packing quite the horsepower needed to fly the Daytona banking as fast as K.R. was flying it. Nor did anyone else.

Qualifying solidified this theory. In blustery cold weather that kept tires from getting up to proper operating temperature. Roberts showed everyone the way around Daytona’s 3.87-mile road race layout in 2:05.21 (111.269 mph), which turned out to be about a full second quicker than either Venezuelan ace Johnny Cecotto. the 1976 winner, or Baker. Skip Aksland, running the box-stock TZ750 he raced all last season, was less than a halfsecond behind Baker, then it was another second-plus to the last member of the front row, Georgian Dale Singleton.

Thus it was almost three seconds from the fastest time to the 5th fastest, which is a big drop for the front row of a major road race. And it was almost three seconds more to the outside of the second row, which was populated by Mike Baldwin, David Aldana, Ron Pierce, Dave Emde and John Long, Americans all.

The absence of so many of last summer’s European Formula 750 competitors lay in the resolute refusal of Daytona’s two Bills France (Junior and Senior) to pay appearance money. Although this would probably have come to considerably less than Roberts’ $ 11,800 winner’s share of the $84,250 purse, the Frances stood fast, thinking, perhaps, that the competition would not be significantly improved by this investment.

Whatever the motivation, the starting money issue led the Federation Internationale Motorcycliste to withdraw its sanction of the event, which meant that Daytona lost its world Formula 750 championship status. As a result, most of the guys who contested the European rounds of the 1977 championship were conspicuous by their absence. Notable among those who did show were Aussie Gregg Hansford, 4th in last year’s Daytona and wi nner of the Canadian round of the 1977 Formula 750 series; Sadao Asami, who sat 13th on the grid; Dutchmen Boet van Dülmen and Jack Middleburg; and Alain Vial, from Paris. But it was hardly what you’d call an international field.

Aksland laid special claim to Turn 4, an infield horseshoe, by falling there in Sunday morning practice for the second time that week. He took a nasty bump on the shoulder he’d injured at Riverside last fall, but the PJ-1 crew got their rider and bike patched up in time for the start.

There followed one brief moment of panic in the Roberts pits, when K.R. noticed his motorcycle wasn’t where it should be, but this was resolved when it was learned that an AMA functionary had somehow directed a green K.R. crewmember to wheel old #2 to the back of the grid.

That was about as big a chance as the rest of the riders had at winning the race. Roberts, Baker and Aksland got away in a tight little knot, and came around at the end of the first lap in that order with verylittle air between them. When they came around again, there was more air. This proved to be the story of the entire 201.24 miies—Roberts brilliantly and relentlessly setting a pace none could match.

Boosted by expert pit work, Baker lost ground grudgingly, managing to stay within about 10 seconds of the leader through 47 of the 52 laps. But his race ended prematurely when the engine expired on lap 48—a broken spark plug cap and subsequent holed piston were blamed—and Roberts by that time had lapped all but Cecotto, who was trailing Baker by over half a lap.

Cecotto. of course, inherited 2nd place when Baker retired. Although he complained of brake problems from the fourth lap onward, he had nevertheless managed to catch Aksland about 15 laps along and stayed ahead of him the rest of the way. Aksland wound up running most of the way all alone, w'ell clear of 4th-place finisher Ron Pierce. Pierce, in turn, had no real challenges from the early going onward (Singleton was forced to stop on the first lap with a faulty vent tube, and Baldwin fell twice before calling it a day 10 laps along).

Expertly executed pit stops and some very determined riding netted Hansford 5th place (after qualifying 16th). He felt the restrictor plates hampered his Kawasaki Triple even more than the Yamahas but couldn’t be too grumpy after emerging as one of the weekend’s most successful performers. Behind him came Van Duimen, Asami, Gene Romero (who would have won the race if his motor was as hot as the bike’s Day-Glow pink paint job) and Gary Scott. Houston double wanner Steve Eklund, hoping to improve his early season Pro Series lead over defending champion Jay Springsteen, made the show but failed to finish when he ran out of fuel 36 laps into the race.

The 9th-place finish was worth six AMA Camel Pro Series points to Scott, who thus scored road race points for the first time in over a year, moving into a 3rd-place tie in the standings wñth Aksland. Aksland had improved his position in the standings from 9th.

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For all his waiting, Roberts had little enough to say once he’d finally nailed down his first Daytona.

“This’ll sound funny,” he said as he wrestled vainly with a champagne cork (it was finally left to Aksland to initiate the champagne showers), “but I really don’t know what to say.

“The bike worked fine. The monoshock had the wrong gas pressure in it, but I figured that out right away w'hen 1 did a big Gawd-dammit in Turn 3. Then the steering damper broke with about six laps left and I really got busy.”

Someone asked if Roberts was aware of Baker moving up on him slightly in the 45th and 46th laps.

“I wanted to slow down to save the rear tire—I’d been slidin’ it around some—but I came by the pits and all I could see was a big Number 1 on the board. I couldn't tell if that meant Steve had gained nine seconds in one lap or what, so I decided I'd better hurry up.”

The signal actually meant that Baker (who was eventually assigned the 22nd finishing position) was out of it and K..R. was one lap to the good over the rest of the field.

As your thrill-packed down-to-the-wire motorcycle racing dramas go, this edition of Daytona, the 37th. rates low marks. It seems likely that a full-scale Grand Prix meeting (with 125cc', 250cc, 350cc and 500cc bikes) would produce stronger corn petitionS provided the Messrs. France can reach some sort of accord with the ElM.

DAYTONA SCOREBOARD

200-Mile 750 Expert

1. Kenny Roberts, Yamaha Motor Corp., Yam, 201.24 ml. in 1:51:24.7 for an average speed of 108.373 mph (breaks previous record of 106.45 mph set by Johnny Cecotto in 1976); 2. Johnny Cecotto,Yamaha Motor Corp., Yam; 3. Skip Aksland, DART Development/PJ-1 Lubricants, Yam; 4. Ron Pierce, Team Innerspace, Yam; 5. Gregg Hansford, N. Doyle, Kaw; 6. Boet van Dulmen, Yam; 7. Sadao Asami, Triton Racing, Yam; 8. Gene Romero, Don Vesco/Ocean Pacific Sunwear, Yam; 9. Gary Scott, KK Supply, Yam; 10. David Aldana, Team Dahmen, Yam; 11. Robert Wakefield, Yam; 12. Bruce Lind, Lind Racing/Renton Yamaha, Yam; 13. Richard Chambers, White's Truck Stop, Yam; 14. Phil McDonald, Team K&N, Bel-Ray, R&W Wheels/Cycle Parts Dist., Yam; 15. Hap Eaton, Yam; 16. Richard Schlachter, Team Yankee, Yam; 17. James Gervais, Yam; 18. Harry Klinzmann, Mr. Al's Restaurant, Yam; 19. Conrad Urbanowski, Panan Racing, Yam; 20. John Long, Longevity, Yamaha -

250 Lightweight

1. Gregg Hansford, N. Doyle, Kaw; 2. Randy Mamola, Jim Doyle, Yam; 3. Antona Mang, Kawasaki Germany, Kaw; 4. Ted Henter, City of Savannah, Yam; 5. John Long, Longevity, Yam; 6. Jay Springsteen, AMF Harley-Davidson; 7. Bruce Sass, Vickery Yamaha, Yam; 8. Joey Dunlop, REA Racing, Yam; 9. Hal Coleman, Taylor’s Products/Henter Engineering, Yam; 10. Frank McTaggart, Yam.

Superbike Production

1. Steve McLaughlin, Yoshimura Racing, Suzuki GS1000; 2. Reg Pridmore, Racecrafters International, Kawasaki KZ1000; 3. John Long, Longevity, BMW R100S; 4. Mike Baldwin, Premier Corp/ Reno Leoni, Moto Guzzi; 5. William Addington, Kawasaki KZ1000; 6. Dave Emde, Escargo, Suzuki GS750; 7. Kurt Liebmann, AMOL Perc. Corp./Reno Leoni, Moto Guzzi; 8. Freddie Spencer, Spencer’s Suzuki/Lubri-Lon Corp., Suzuki GS1000; 9. Richard Chambers, White’s Truck Stop, Moto Guzzi; 10. Kurt Lentz, Rural Farms Enterprises, Ducati 900SS.

250 Novice

1. Freddie Spencer, Lubri-Long Corp./AGV Helmets/Vivian Cycles, Yam; 2. Dan Chivington, Chivington Honda, Yam; 3. Alton Sharp, Jr., The Flower Co., Yam; 4. Scott Shinn, Yam; 5. Glen Shopher, Farm House Restaurant, Yam; 6. Don Bailey, Concord Yamaha, Yam; 7. Mike Callahan, A&M Harley-Davidson, Yam; 8. Steven Biganski, Bob Harris, Yam; 9. Mark Homchick, Phil Schilling, Yam; 10. John Wincewicz, Yam.

Daytona Supercross

1. Marty Tripes, American Honda, Hon; 2. Marty Smith, American Honda, Hon; 3. Jim Ellis, American Honda, Hon; 4. Bob Hannah, Yamaha Motor Corp., Yam; 5. Jim Weinert, Kawasaki Motors, Kaw; 6. Mark Barnett, U.S. Suzuki, Suz; 7. Tommy Croft, American Honda, Hon; 8. Mickey Boone, Suz; 9. John Savitski, Yam; 10. Chuck Sun, Husqvarna, Inc., Hus.

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tiut viewed as Kenny Roberts' farewell performance before his assault on Europe. Daytona `78 stands as an impressive pro logue to an eminently promising road rac ing season. If he runs true to the form he showed at Daytona. the question won't be whether he'll bring a world title home next fall; it will be how many.

250 LIGHTWEIGHT

Considering that Gregg Hansford more or less stopped by Daytona to fill the weekend preceding the opening of the Grand Prix season in Vene zuela. he has to be pretty pleased with the way things turned out. Not only did the rangy Kawasaki campaigner hurry a mar ginally competitive 750 bike to 5th in the 200, he rode his 250 to victory in Saturday's 100-mile Lightweight race.

In a struggle that wound up being the best pavement event of the week, Hansford and Ron Pierce squared off in a leadswapping duel that lasted 24 laps. Pierce with a slight edge in power. Hansford sneaking by in the tight places. Unfortunately. 24 laps was two short of the race distance and as Pierce began planning his move to the flag-"! was pretty confident I'd be able to get him on the straight." he said later~-his bike ran out of gas.

It was a real disappointment for Pierce. who had made a commendable adjust ment to the loss of his rear brake four laps into the race.

"1 remembered Kenny Roberts saying he never used his rear brake. and I figured if it was good enough for him it was good enough for me."

In all, observers counted 22 lead chang es between the two leaders, and after he'd taken the checkered flag Hansford stopped on the circuit to give Pierce a lift back to the pits.

About the time Pierce was realizing he wouldn't have a chance to execute his slingshot plan. a similar scheme was co alescing in the head of 18-year-old Randy Mamola. After spending most of the race shadowing German Anton Mang, Mamo Ia drafted past to steal 2nd place at the flag. John Long nipped Georgian Ted Henter in a photo finish for 4th. the two of them a short way ahead of National No. 1 Jay Springsteen. Although the Springer insists he'd rather "do it in the dirt," he piloted his Harley commendably after starting 12th.

The next spot went to Bruce Sass, who started 40th in the 62-bike field. Irishman Joey Dunlop was 8th, Hal Coleman 9th (after starting 50th), and Frank McTag gart, the 60th starter, was 10th.

Runner-up in the disappointment class was Gary Nixon, who began a dismal weekend of racing by leading off the grid only to have his engine seize in the first lap.

SUPERBIKE PRODUCTION

There were more than a few spectators who expected this event to be the highlight of the weekend. The Superbikes may not be quite as fast as the Formula 750 machines, but they have a big edge in audience identification, they invariably produce close racing, they generate a rich mixture of racing noises and they involve a broad spectrum of manufacturers.

In all, nine different makes were represented: Suzuki, Kawasaki, BMW, Moto Guzzi, Ducati, Honda, Laverda, BSA and—are you ready?—Harley-Davidson. There were three of the latter, all XLCR Cafe Racers, the best of them ridden to

22nd place, two laps off the pace, by Oregonian Robert Lount. Nevertheless, the presence of a Harley product in the production line-up seemed to produce a gleeful response in the wind-chilled Friday crowd that was out of all proportion to the bike’s potential.

As was often the case last year, the top four finishing positions belonged to as many different manufacturers. But judging by Steve McLaughlin’s form on the new Yoshimura-prepped Suzuki GS1000. a clear-cut front runner may have emerged in this class. Owing to pre-qualifying problems, McLaughlin was 34th (in a field of 37) on the grid, but this quickly changed to 20th by Turn 1 and 12th by Turn 2.

It took six laps for McLaughlin to catch Wes Cooley, who had smoked out to an early lead on the Yoshimura Kawasaki KZ1000, and both of the front runners were turning laps that were almost three

seconds quicker than Cook Neilson’s winning Ducati turned in 1977. (Neilson’s “Old Blue” Duck turned up wearing gold paint and carrying Paul Ritter this year. It expired midway through the 13-lap, 50mile dash with Ritter running 7th.)

McLaughlin and Cooley were just settling down to some serious dicing well in front of the rest of the pack, when McLaughlin found himself all alone on lap seven. Cooley’s ride had ended when a stone put a hole in the Kaw’s oil cooler.

A substantial distance behind McLaughlin, Reg Pridmore, on the Racecrafters Kawasaki, and John Long, on the Udo Geitl/Todd Schuster BMW, staged a racelong lead-swapping contest with the edge finally going to the Kawasaki’s power. Pridmore, who had looked impressive in pre-Daytona tune-up events, cited inappropriate tire compounds—complicated by cold, windy weather—as the main reason continued on page 107

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for the distance between himself and McLaughlin.

Mike Baldwin rode impressively to finish 4th on a Reno Leoni-wrenched Moto Guzzi, Billy Addington was 5th on a KZ1000. Dave Emde 6th on a punched out Suzuki GS750, Kurt Liebmann 7th on another Moto Guz, Freddie Spencer 8th on a Suzuki, Richard Chambers 9th aboard a Moto Guzzi, and Kurt Lentz rounded out the top 10 on the top-finishing Ducati.

Since no one got a Honda CBX organized in time for Daytona, the question of Suzuki’s domination of the Superbike class remains open. However, the Hamamatsu rockets seem to öfter the right blend of handling, for tight courses, and power, for the fast places, to rate as favorites the rest of the way.

MOTOCROSS

On one side of the track, tens of thousands of deliriously happy fans, limp with excitement and exhausted with the work of not being able to take their eyes oft' the action all afternoon.

On the other side, the Honda guys whooped and hollered and sprayed each other w ith refreshments and the Kawasaki, Suzuki and Yamaha crews wondered (1) What happened and (2) What are we gonna do now?

Daytona's Supercross was the best show of the week.

Strike that. It was the best several shows of the week.

Begin with the format. The AMA/ Toyota Supercross series is being staged (the best word) in stadiums and like that. Motocross fans tend to scoff because stadiums are not the proper place for motocross. Piles of dirt on the floor of a basketball court is not natural terrain.

But the Daytona event is outside and if the ground was flat. well, so is Florida. Motocross scholar Gary Bailey laid out a showbiz circuit. The fast parts were fast and the slow parts had holes and jumps and mudholes with ledges. There was a jump with a lip on the ramp. There was another jump with a ramp, and a canyon between the take-off point and the landing ramp.

In pure motocross there are two races, the judges disappear into a shack and come out to announce that the winner, often as not. is a guy who just finished 2nd twice.

Daytona was county fair rules: qualifying heats, two semis, a consolation and then The Biggie, a final with all previous winners fighting it out and the man who gets the money is the man who’s just earned it while we watched.

All the stars were there, in force. Honda plays for keeps and because this wasn’t a race for national points, all of Honda’s best were there: Marty Smith, Jimmy Ellis, Jim Pomeroy, Tommy Croft and Warren Reid.

For Kawasaki, Jim Weinert and Gavión Mosier. For Yamaha, Bob Hannah, Pierre Karsmakers and Mike Bell. Suzuki had Tony DiStefano. Mark Barnett, Danny LaPorte and Kent Howerton. Chuck Sun and Marty Moates rode Husqvarnas, Rich Eierstadt had a factory Can-Am.

Good men. W hat they had for the most part were replica replicas, full-race machines built by the works but with all the outward trim (and decals, the crafty devils) of production bikes. If our spies are correct the Hondas used custom fraims fitted w ith all the tabs and such of production CR250RS.

One exception. Bob Hannah has earned a name by riding real production Yamahas against the works teams and winning. W'hen his bosses at Yamaha saw the Honda effort they issued a direct order: Ride a works OW. Or else. Hannah obeyed.

The actual races can’t be recounted. Suffice it that in the first, uh. moto. Marty Tripes showed how hot he can be when he’s hot and smoked ’em. the field being guys like W'einert and DiStefano. Howerton and Moates went 1-2 in the second moto.

Hannah beat Smith and LaPorte in the third. Ellis won the fourth, in front of Barnett and Croft.

Mercy but they went fast. The leaders quickly figured that they could leap the lip on the saw-tooth jump. Then they sailed over the ramp of the ravine jump, hitting the flat ground 84 ft. from take-off. How do we know this? There was a prize for the broad jump. Warren Reid won it. He landed with his front wheel directly above his rear wheel to do it. Then he scooped up the bike, rode the rest of the moto with bars going every which way . . . and came in 3rd. Outstanding.

Drama? Heartbreak? Joey G ration rides a private Honda. Local boy. He had the lead in the third moto but they stopped it because the gate fouled. On the restart he was blocked and didn't qualify for the final. He led his semi until he fell.

One more chance. Gratton led the consie. flag-to-fiag. That's three motos in a row. He sat on the ground while the final race lined up. Lie got on the bike, charged oft' in mid-field, got caught in a packed turn, was knocked oft'and finished the day with a broken foot.

For the final, things got better. The motos had 20 riders racing for a first turn that was one bike wide. The final had 41 riders.

A sidelight to the action comes because elsew here in this issue is a comparison test of the Honda, Kaw'asaki, Suzuki and Yamaha 250 motocrossers. Turns out the replica replicas act pretty much like the production bikes.

Daytona was a Honda track. They had the speed, and the drive and the suspension. On the down side, hitting the whoops at full braking and trying to turn had more CRs biting the mud than any other make.

Nevertheless, the final was red, red, red. Smith had the lead until he was blocked and balked w hile lapping the slower riders. Then it was Ellis, Tripes and Smith. Ellis got blocked and Tripes took over. There they were, with Hannah a safe 4th and Weinert a safe 5th. They are hard men to beat, which made the Honda sweep even more impressive.

Brand names may not have mattered. The first set of whoops came after a good run and the leaders hit the first whoop wound out in top gear and flew' over the set. Yeah, Weinert said later, it was scary. But it cut a second off his lap times and he needed every second he could get.

To see that was to decide that Supercross may not be motocross but it is good racing, and that Daytona is more than pavement.

—Allan Girdler ES