*** RACING *** It was a cold and damp Easter... ...all the way back in 1986 when Ron Haslam was given a stock VFR750F, a brand-new model in the UK taken straight out of the showroom, to ride in the 16th annual Translatlantic match races between the UK and the USA at Donington Park where the newly built loop was in use for the first time. With around 90hp on tap, Haslam took on some of the best riders in the world who were on race-tuned superbikes. The annual races showed many changes. The series of eight races was to be run for the first time at the newly extended Donington Park circuit with the Melbourne Loop built to allow the circuit to reach the minimum length for Grand Prix. A new innovation was a microcamera attached to Roger Burnetts Honda that gave ITV viewers the chance to get a riders eyeview of the circuit. The series also introduced us to US style Superbikes. These were tuned 750cc road bikes with strict rules to maintain the looks of the bike they were based on and replaced the GP machines such as the Honda NS500 triples on which the likes of Wayne Gardner (an honorary Brit) and American Randy Mamola had fought it out the previous year. Hondas VF750 was a proven race winner in the hands of US Superbike champion Fred Merkel, whilst Rob McElnea was equipped with the Yamaha FZ750 on which Eddie Lawson had won at Daytona. Many riders were mounted on the GSXR750 from Suzuki. The UK team was packed with some of the best riding talent in the country. GP riders Rocket Ron Haslam and Rob McElnea on the Marlboro Yamaha were backed up by experienced UK based riders Keith Huewen, Steve Parrish on the Loctite Yamaha and Roger Marshall on the Rothmans Honda VF750. The youngsters included the highly talented Kenny Irons who on a privateer FZ750 took pole, Roger Burnett on the other Rothmans Honda and Paul Iddon who on the other Skoal Bandit GSXR750 also made it onto the front row. By contrast, the US and Canadian team was seen as weak and lacking in talent. Kenny Roberts, Freddie Spencer, Eddie Lawson and Randy Mamola were all missing, and riders like John Ashmead, Dan Chivington and Michel Mercier were all but unknown this side of the channel. It wasnt helping that many of them were riding borrowed machines. But two new names had surprised the UK riders with their speed in practice - Kevin Schwantz and Fred Merkel. At the last minute, Honda UK stepped in and stopped Haslam riding a race-prepped Suzuki because he was contracted to Elf-Honda in France. As a substitute they provided him with the then brand new VFR750, complete with silenced exhaust system, mudguards, tax disc and horn. In typically blunt fashion, Barry Sheene, who was in the commentary box with Barry Nutley, called it a bloody disgrace and expressed incredulity that Honda had presented Haslam with a standard roadbike than anybody can go and buy out of any shop. Sheene expressed fears about ground clearance and Haslam decided only to race if it rained. The opening leg confirmed all the pre-race talk. Haslam stayed in the pits, Schwantz crashed out whilst leading after picking wets on a drying track, McElnea, Burnett, Irons, Parrish and Chris Martin cleared off at the front and only Merkel showed in the top six for the American team to leave the score at 57-9. Between legs a full supporting cast of races saw Steve Webster win in the sidecars, Ken Dobson beat racing journalist Mat Oxley by a mile in the one make Honda Formula V challenge featuring VF500s and a Le Mans start, and Paul Lewis on the Skoal Bandit RG500 take on the two Rogers on the NS500s and Trevor Nation on another Suzuki in the 3 round mixed 2- and 4-stroke Superbike race for up to 1300cc bikes. For race two, Haslam was out on a damp track but it wasnt wet enough and he trailed round at the back before pulling in. Up at the front, Schwantz and Merkel worked their way past Irons, Martin and Burnett. In a scary incident, the race was not stopped as Skoal Bandit rider Martin went down hard and was still being treated in the middle of the track as the riders went past on the next two laps, whilst the course car carrying a doctor drove round in the middle of the pack and then parked at the hairpin for yet another lap. Schwantz and Merkel were not distracted and came in one and two. By the start of race five on the second day, despite the efforts of Schwantz and Merkel the score was up to 177-87 in favour of the UK. Merkel took the lead but half way round the first lap the damp track caught out both riders in yet another of the incidents that stick in the memory of this action packed weekend. Merkel got the back end crossed up and ran on to the grass whilst Schwantz was nearly thrown off the bike taking avoiding action allowing McElnea to slip into first. To McElneas evident astonishment, Schwantz eased himself back in the seat and recovered the lead within moments, whilst Merkel himself passed McElnea into second a couple of laps later. Both Americans were slithering and sliding to stay ahead of McElnea before Merkel took it a bit too far, dropping it on the very last corner, remounting to finish down the field. In the wet in leg six Ron Haslam was out on the underpowered VFR, and the crowd standing in the icy showers at Donington and thousands more on TV watched and cheered as Haslam made one of the most astonishing rides of all time. The race bikes pulled out huge distances on the straights only for Rons riding ability to reel in racer after racer on the corners, passing Parrish and Irons in the closing laps to finish in an astonishing fourth. Even Ron couldnt catch Merkel, Schwantz and Burnett but the points score now stood at 256-140 in the British teams favour and the match race was all over. By race seven, the question was could anyone catch Schwantz and Merkel? Apparently not, as they were in one and two at the end of the first lap and it stayed that way to the flag. Burnett fell and only McElnea could stay near them and came home in a distant third. Going into the final race eight (in the video) the competition for individual highest points scorer for the £5000 prize was still up for grabs. Schwantz led on 72 points, Roger Burnetts consistency had put him in second with 65, with Merkel on 64. Haslam was back out on the VFR in pouring rain on the warm up lap, but the sun was out for the start. Merkel opened up a first lap lead which by the end of lap two was most of the length of the Dunlop straight, followed by Burnett and Schwantz, and once more, incredibly, Haslam in fourth closing in on the two riders ahead. At the Melbourne Loop in lap four Haslam slipped past Burnett into third and set off after Schwantz but after a few nervous looks over his shoulder Schwantz maintained the gap to win the overall prize from leg winner Merkel, with Burnett fourth in the race and third overall. So what was so important about these races? First, the match race series showed the way racing in the UK was to go. Within a couple of years, four stroke racing was with us in the form of World Superbikes, the British Superbikes came along a couple of seasons later and that spelled the end of Grand Prix 2-strokes at the top level in domestic racing. Kevin Schwantz went on to win the 500cc World Championship in 1993, whilst Fred Merkel stuck with 4-strokes and won the WSB championship on an RC30, a development of thate VFR750 ridden by Ron Haslam. Of the British riders, Burnett went on to get a works Honda ride in 500 GPs without really quite doing himself justice, whilst Kenny Irons was tragically killed in a warm up lap accident at Cadwell Park just as a Grand Prix career seemed to be opening up for him. The bikes featured in the races became definitive models. The GSXR750 was a race and sports riders favourite, and in its various oil- and water-cooled incarnations has won hundreds of races and its distant descendant is still a popular choice today. The FZ750 only had a couple of years success on the tracks before it was replaced by the OW01, but the innovative 20 valve motor with its distinctive forward canted block lives on today in a highly modified form in the R1. The VFR750 itself went on to become one of Hondas most successful models of all time, and developed into the VFR800. Coming on the back of the relative failure of Hondas first V4 range, with engine problems striking at the VF1000 and the VF750 which, for all its track success was an unreliable disaster on the road, the redesigned VFR750 with gear driven cams was something of a gamble for Honda. Giving a VFR to Haslam in a major televised international event was an even bigger one. Was it a shrewd marketing strategy by Honda UK? The plain black VFR with its distinctive yellow race plate (everyone else was using the FIM standard black numbers on white) stood out amongst all the colourful race bikes, and Haslams performance on the bike was outstanding. When the phone lines opened on Tuesday morning, virtually the entire batch of 800 VFRs sold out. https://youtube/watch?v=eEXkXEKER-8&list=UU3WJA5o_53e6qYJH5pHs2NA
Posted on: Sun, 20 Apr 2014 09:40:46 +0000
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