Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

World Champion Marco Lucchinelli will try and defend his title on the Honda NS500 triple. 22. cooling the middle, Forward-racing cylinder. Freddie's arrival o n th e GP scene has been too long dela yed , bu t now th at he's her e, we must ho pe Honda can provide h im w ith a machine to match his ta lent. Surpri singly, it appears that th e two joint number one rid ers o n th e Honda team will be joined by a thi rd rider on the NS500 stroker - Takazurni Katayama. who appeared to have fallen From gace aft er his two years of tribulations on th e NR500. Spencer's instant success on the bike at Laguna Seca last July, foll ow ed up by his superb ride at Silverstone wh en h e held an unchallenged fifth place for many laps, seem ed to have n ixed " Zoo m in g Taxi's" chances of Future rides. Now, a p p are ntly, he's ba ck in favor again , a lbeit onl y a s back-up rider to th e o ther two. If he can recapture th e Form of his 250 and 350cc rides Five yea rs a go, we may all be in for a su rp rise. Honda a p pears to be running two GP efforts this seaso n , for at present they plan to persevere with th e NR, probably with test rider Ade or p erhaps Britain's acknowledged F ourstro ke king Ron Haslam a boa rd. Spencer showed th e bike to be p er fectly compet it i ve with cust om er Suzukis in th e right hands, a n d whil e Hasl am' s main priority is th e Formula One TT title, he could yet make h is markon the GP scene . Fr om th e sta nd po int of Brit ish fans , though , H aslam 's contin !led though lu cr ative em p has is on F oul:.:..__ stroke racing deprives th em o f th eir best hope as Barry Sheene's successor as U n io n Jack-bearer in th e GPs. It 's obvious he hanhe tal ent to be a GPwinner, yet i t' s wa sted on downhome racing in a minority class. Sponsor Mal Carter sh o u ld have sent him out into Europe yea rs ago; now, it may be too late. Against th e Hond a unkn o wn quantit y are ranged th e 1981 co ntestants, all no doubt benefitin g fro m a close season of testing and developm en t. Ch ief cont end ers -m u s t be form er World Champion s Kenn y Roberts and Barry Sheene, eac h eager to regain th e crown For a la st lucrati ve fling before ret irement a nd. no doubt, th e pleasure of runnin g th eir own team with a younger rider a board . Roberts in particular must fa ncy h is ch ances, now th at he's no lon ger ti ed to th e uncompetit ive Goodyear rubber th at cost him th e '8 1 titl e. By th e end of last season, th e OW54 sq uare-Four Yamaha was m ore th an a match for its Suzuki ri val s , as Sheene's victory in th e last GP of the year in Sweden showed. Faster than th e Suzys in a straight line, th e Yam still needs to sh ed some we igh t, even in all oy-fra me guise. Exp ect Rob erts to grid in Argentina on a bike we ighing no more th an 264 Ibs. a nd with the benefit of Dunlop or Mi ch elin co vers , h e should be right in co ntention from the word go. With th e sa me crew line-u p he ad ed by Au ssie Kel Carruthers, th e Roberts eq u ipe has a sett led lo ok unl ik e a n y of its ri va ls, a nd though harsh words were p as sed after th e Dutch GP debacle, Kel's threat to pa ck it all i n as was rumored at Silverstone seems to have eva p o ra ted. I tip Roberts to regain th e 500cc title, if only because he wants it eve n m ore tha n a ny o f th e o thers, a nd ha s the bike a nd tea m to do it with , Barry Sheene will run him close, though . Having lost Akai as his main sponsor, the future of th e Sheene te a m looked in the bal ance b y December, and th ere wa s even th e possibilit y he'd ride w ith Team Agostini at one sta ge. But by th e time yo u read th is, a new mult i-thousand pound sponsorship deal will have been a n no u nced, enabling Bazza to go it a lo n e agai n in '8 2. Th is time, however , he'll be without Am eri can tuner Erv K anernoto, widel y ' accredited as being th e man behind Sheene's renaissance in 1981. Erv has left to join th e Honda GP effor t, and though I doubt that an individualist in the Kanernoto mold will find true happiness in a factory team wh ich will probabl y em p loy mor e m echani cs th an anyone else put togeth er , h e deserv es his own big payday, Wh ether Sheen e will be n earl y as co m petitive with o u t him is open to question. If yo u see some early-seaso n breakdowns, yo u'll know wh y, Barry still has the ski ll and fir e to win, but I just doubt h is back-up this year. Mark him for a to p five place in the title race. Also OW54-mounted will be th e French Yamaha team , sponsored by Gauloises and running former World Endurance Champ Ma rc Fontan in place of th e erra tic and accidentprone Christian Sarron . Fontan's the best French bi g-bike rider at the moment, but I'm not a lo ne in wanting to see Patrick Fernandez on a 500. Final recipients of th e square-four works machin ery will be th e newlyformed T eam Agostin i, funded by Marlboro for th e I 5-t imes former World Champion to run with Kiwi Graerne Crosby aboard. Croz's sacking by an ungrateful Suzuki team , evidentl y prompted by former teammate Randy Mamola 's manager Jim Dovl e ma de lat e season headl in es. Ii n ow a p pears as if th e Mark McCormick or ga n izatio n m ay have been behind th is cra ss piece of antiPR whi ch has se vere ly dam aged Suzuki 's image both in the UK and Australasia, for Mamol a 's one of their "clients," Wh at ever , the surprise move left th e current World TT FI ch a m pion without a ri de in th e GPs, since th e " han ds off" clause ap pa re ntly ex ten ded to Crosb y being provided with a works RG500 G amma 2 Suzuki fro m a ny so urce a t a ll. At o ne stage, i t appeared h e wa s dest ined for relative o bsc urity a nd tw o seasons of ridin g four-strokes for H onda in Ameri ca . T he n Sheene cli nc he d h is sponso rship deal , Agostin i n eeded a potential GP wi n ne r as hi s lead ride r, a nd for bett er or worse, Croz wa s th e o n ly o n e arou nd . Uncharacter isti cally tigh t- lipped a bout th e seq ue nce o f events, Croz will probabl y have an Italian number two , per haps Graziano Rossi. Wha tever, the sight of the Kiw i settin g o ut to show Suzu ki j us t wh at a bi g m istak e they mad e by hi s resul ts o n the track will be o ne o f th e h ighlights of the season; mak e no mistak e, Croz mean s bu siness, a nd if th e Eu ropean su m me r shou ld p rodu ce a series of wet races, the world 's leadour-stroke rider and prin cipal in g F rain specia list will mak e a lot o f beat m g. As with a ny n ew team, th ou gh, the big qu ery is whether Ago can as sem ble th e right personnel. We sh all see, but meantime his own undoubted ex pe rien ce a nd racing ex pe rtise, which he' s kept up to date while playing unsuccessfully a t racing cars th ese la st four years, will be a big factor. Against the Yamaha phalanx will be ranged an equally impressive factory Suzuki squad, headed by last yea r' s championship runn er-up Randy Mamola. Many people's tip - m yself included - for the '81 'crown , Randy led the world till he came to Holland after the mid-season break and sh o wed he's not yet the co m p lete a ll- rou n de r yo u' ha ve to be to win th e World title. What was th e key factor in this pivotal race? Rain , and plenty of it. Mamola hates the damp conditions, and at Assen he fell off in the wet and was lucky not to be inj u red. Randy is nearly unbeatable on a dry track that he feels comfortable with. Whether he will ever match Roberts ' unparalleled ability to give 'e m hell no matter what th e conditions remains-to be seen, At the end of '8 1 he had the best all-round bike, and shoul d start '82 in the sa me competitive state. Thanks to a stute bargaining by his manager Doyl e, he's now sole Number One in th e factory Suzuki squad, with teammate Virginio Ferrari runner-up to Roberts by a narrow margin in the '79 series - rescued from the dold rums of the uncompeti -

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