Soup :: On this week in racing history: May 27 by Dean Adams

On This Week In Racing History: May 27
freddie wins, the joker is recognized, and russell jumps ship
by dean adams
Thursday, May 27, 2004

Freddie Spencer, riding a Two Brothers Racing Honda RC30, won the Texas World Speedway AMA Superbike race on Sunday May 31, 1992. The win was Spencer's first wet-weather win since his win at Silverstone in 1985, the season in which Fast Freddie won both the 250 and 500 world crowns. In Texas—very close to Spencer's home in Shreveport—Spencer put the Mike Velasco and Kevin Erion tuned Honda V4 on the pole and won the race by over ten seconds. Second place was Dale Quarterly on his customer Kawasaki Superbike and Pascal Picotte on the Ferracci Ducati.

Also, the ever-antagonistic Jon Ekerold won the 250 GP race at Paul Ricard in France on May 29,1977. As were most period races at 'Ricard, this one was a good race, but the story is of the man: Ekerold was one of the last men to win a world championship as a privateer, and moreover was well known for not suffering idiots. He didn't waste one moment before labeling many of the factory stars of the era—including Barry Sheene— pompous asses.

Jon Ekerold was a very credible rider, and in fact, he won the 350cc world championship in 1980 using a Yamaha TZ350 engine in a Bimota frame.

The month of May used to mean World Superbike racing at Donington Park in England. In 1995, Carl Fogarty doubled at Donington on his Ducati 955 Superbike, paving the way for him to become one of the most popular sporting stars in England in the 1990s. The '95 WSC event at Donington, however, is probably more infamous today for something that happened off-track. American Scott Russell (Muzzy Kawasaki) showed up limping for practice, saying he had taken a spill on his mountain bike. Russell led the first race but DNF'd the second with a mechanical and only after the event did the truth come out: Russell had injured his foot when he tested and crashed the Lucky Strike Suzuki GP bike in Czechoslovakia.
Long story short: Schwantz retired, Russell got the call, Muzzy lost his A rider, and Russell was sued but in the end, escaped from Kawasaki "scott-free" as they say.

ENDS

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