Fred Merkel smiles in victory lane after winning his very first AMA Superbike race at Portland International Raceway in July of 1983. Merkel won the race over Honda teammate Mike Baldwin and Sam McDonald, who finished third. “Flyin’ Fred” would go on to win the ’83 season finale that season in the fall race at Daytona as well and finished third in the final standings to Kawasaki’s Wayne Rainey and Baldwin. In the short span of just four seasons Merkel would go on to become the all-time wins leader in AMA Superbike scoring a total of 20 victories in the class. That record would hold for a dozen years until Miguel Duhamel eclipsed it in 1998. Several other riders have since passed Merkel’s outstanding win record, but they were helped considerably by the advent of the doubleheader AMA Superbike races that started in the early 2000s.
Fred Merkel smiles in victory lane after winning his very first AMA Superbike race at Portland International Raceway in July of 1983. Merkel won the race over Honda teammate Mike Baldwin and Sam McDonald, who finished third. (Dale Brown Photo/Cycle News Photo Archives)
Rider Files 
Fred Merkel saw this post and wrote on his Facebook page:
Thanks Larry! True story about that race, I don’t remember how I qualified but I remember I had way more speed on everybody that day and the team honda boss Udo took me aside and said what ever happens out there today do not pass baldwin and I thought to myself good luck with that one bud! So after brief discussion with merlyn and mike we decided differently and just before the race Udo said o.k game on so in the end it was an awesome battle with Rainey and baldwin but merlyn,Mike and I had a monster win! Smiles all around that day:)
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