A story request, my, my. Well, it so happens I have something that I wrote up a few years ago. A little editing for this audience and here we go! A quarter of a century is a long time. Get comfy folks while I rock in my chair and reminisce...

Some of you already know Sears Point, but for those who haven't been there or seen the track, here's a short description. Sears is a difficult, technical track with a split personality. Turns one through six (the Carousel) are tight and bumpy with lots of elevation changes, blind corners and an off-camber turn 4. After the Carousel, which is a blind-entry fall-away down-hill more-than-180-degree left-hand sweeper, the track opens up a bit and becomes faster. There are only a couple of high speed sweepers: turn 10 and the big turn that crosses the start/finish area. Today the AMA adds a chicane to slow the bikes down through that area, but in the late 70's that part was run as a single fast sweeping left turn. It's a working racers track. Whatever you get at Sears Point you have earned with your sweat.

The bike I rode was Dale Newton's 900SS Ducati. It was called a 900 but it came with a 864cc motor, and Dale had built a swell race bike out of it. Let's see if I can recall the changes we made... The bike had Morris mag wheels, high-rise exhaust with reverse cone megaphones (it sounded GOOD!), Ducati's Imola camshafts, Harry Hunt aluminum brake disks, Koni or S&S shocks an inch longer that the stock ones, and Goodyear racing slicks. Other than that the bike was pretty much stock. It didn't have much top speed but it had gobs of torque, and I had won the first ever Sears Point AMA Superbike race in 1977.

Two weeks prior to the National we were racing in a club race at Sears when one of the stock pistons finally gave up the ghost, coming apart in turn 9 with a clatter that could be heard in the pits. Ugh. Once again Dale had to fix a broken bike. But fix it he did, and we showed up at the National with a fresh engine, bored out to 883cc from the stock 864cc, and fitted with a pair of high compression Venolia slugs. This was the only real change we made to the 1977 bike. There is a photo of it on a friend's website, but his server is down right now. I'll have to get the URL of the photo to you all later.

Practice showed two serious competitors. Wes Cooley had got the Yoshimura Suzuki GS1000 going really well, and Mike Baldwin was riding a really fast Moto Guzzi 850 LeMans tuned by the famed Reno Leoni. (Note: back then the displacement rule was 1025cc or less for all bikes; twins, triples and fours all had the same limit.)

On Saturday there was a five-lap heat to set the grid for the main. Wes Cooley got the holeshot on the Suzuki, with Mike Baldwin on the Guzzi in 2nd. I got my usual merely average start but moved up to right behind Baldwin in the esses on lap one. I pulled alongside him exiting turn 10 when his motor backfired and stopped. Mike pulled immediately into the pit lane and I put myself on Wes' rear tire. I probed a bit but Wes was riding well so I didn't push the issue. I could go faster -- I thought about nailing him in turn 10 but he was taking a rather early apex and a wide exit. "It's only the heat race, I've got a front row start, don't get stupid" I told myself. (Later Wes was quoted as saying, "I could hear a big twin on my tail, and figured it was Ritter or Baldwin, so I blocked as best as I could.") We were turning times in the high 1:51 to low 1:52 range, and it felt pretty easy. I was sure I could go faster, and felt pretty confident about Sunday's main event. I later heard that Baldwin's Guzzi was running a total loss ignition system, and someone in his pits had forgotten to replace the battery after practice. He ran out of spark and would be starting from the rear of the pack, a break for the rest of us.

The main event was 16 laps. I got a poor start again, 5th place into turn two, while Cooley got the hole shot and started to disappear. I got past Harry Klinzmann on the San Jose BMW in the Carousel on lap one, grabbed third from Dennis Smith (Suz 1000) on lap two, and caught and passed Reg Pridmore's Kawasaki on the 5th go-around. I'm in second now and really pushing hard, expecting to see Wes Cooley pretty soon. The bike is slidng both wheels through the Carousel -- I'm yelling in my helmet at the tires, "Stick, damn it, stick!" I can go no faster, and still no Wes. Dammit, where is he? The starter signals five more laps go and I still can't see him. Damn!

Then, lap 13, I see him ahead in turn seven. What's this!? He's slowing. He's coasting to a stop!! Yow! I'm past! I've got the lead! WahHoo! A quick look back -- nobody in sight. Whew! I can back off a click. Coming around through turn 11, I see Dale (my sponsor) running out to the pit wall, his index finger high in the air. I gave him a little wave to let him know I was aware of the situation. As I pass Wes, with his bike parked and his helmet off, he grins and gives me a big thumbs up.

The bike ran flawlessly the last three laps and I finished 12 seconds ahead of Pridmore's Kawasaki. Klinzmann brought home the BMW in third, and Keith Code twisted his wrist well enough to finish 4th on another Kawasaki. Mike Baldwin made a good run, starting from the rear of the grid to get up to 4th before his Guzzi broke. (Mike didn't go home empty-handed, though -- he won the Formula 750 race on his TZ750 Yamaha.)

It was a joyous but sobering win. I turned faster lap times than in 1977, and also turned _more_ fast laps than in 1977. But Wes was even faster. He set a new lap record, and would have won if his rear sprocket bolts hadn't sheared off. The Yoshimura team had figured out how to make their bike handle, and Kawasaki wouldn't be far behind. It was an early warning to those of us campaigning European twins -- we had been competitive due to the fact that our bikes had a good balance between power and handling. There was no way that the current crop of Ducatis, Guzzis and BMWs could match the in-line fours in power.

But that was a worry for later. Now it was a time to rejoice, drink some Champagne and kiss the trophy girl!

Respectively submitted,

SSPaul