Wes Cooley races the factory Kawasaki KZ1000 in the AMA Formula One race at Mid-Ohio in 1983. This race was an on-again, off-again rain race. Cooley and Honda’s Mike Baldwin were battling for the lead for most of the contest, with Cooley leading the first half of the race. Baldwin was on a Honda NS500 and briefly took over three-quarters of the way through on a drying track, with Cooley staying right on his tail. In the closing laps it started raining again and Cooley took back the lead on the more tractable Kawasaki, but with just three laps to go Cooley crashed on the incredibly slick-when-wet Mid-Ohio surface. Baldwin cruised home to a comfortable margin of victory over Steve Wise, on a factory Honda V45 Interceptor. Jeff Heino took third on a Suzuki RG500. It was an interesting time in AMA Formula One, which saw traditional two-stroke GP-based bikes up against 1000cc four-stroke production-based racers. This photo is from the Bert Shepard Collection.

Wes Cooley races the factory Kawasaki KZ1000 in the AMA Formula One race at Mid-Ohio in 1983. This race was an on-again, off-again rain race. Cooley led much of the race, but crashed late handing the win to Honda’s Mike Baldwin. (Photo from the Bert Shepard Collection)