Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

-( The winner, Franco Unci ni (left). Kenny Roberts j oke. with Uncin i who t ied KR f or the point lead. (Below) Freddie Spencer. World Champ"lon.hlp.. Road Race Series: Round 5 Uncini wins Italian GP, Spencer second By Henny Ray Abrams MISANO , ITALY, MAY 30 Team Gallina Suzuki's Franco Uncini moved into a tie with Kenny Roberts for the 500cc class championship with a popular win in the Italian Grand Prix at Misano. The personable 31-year-old Italian took over the lead on .the fifth of forty laps and finished a comfortable 13 seconds ahead of 22 Honda's Freddie Spencer who in turn had sixteen seconds on third place Team Marlboro Agostini's Graerne Crosby. The top three fin ished in th e same order that they had qualified. Uncini's second win of the season, and second 500cc GP win ever, also broke Roberts ' str ing of four consecu tive Italian GP victories that dated back 10 1978. Robert s, wh o qual ified fifth fastest , ran second earl y beh ind fif th place fin isher Honda's Marco Lucchinelli, but was slow ed by tir e troubles an d wr estl ed the Yamaha OW-61 into fou rth. For HB International-sponsored Randy Mamola it was another fru stra ting weekend. After qual if ying fifteenth, Mamola started about 20th and wa s forced ou t aft er his Suzuki's front br akes sta rted to go on th e third lap. Roberto Pi etri, taking a break from the Superbike wars, didn't fare much better. After quarreling with th e organizers about gelling a start, he was allowed 10 practice only br iefl y a nd couldn 't sort out h is privateer RG500 Suzuki properly. H e just m issed qual ifying for the 30·man field, but sta yed to cheer hi s friends on. ' The 250cc rac e was an Anton Mang showcase. The German Kawasak i rider starte d so .p oorly th a t th e only thing beh ind him a t th e sta rt was the chase car. But wi th just a handful of laps rem aining he pulled into the lead and took th e win over Roland Freymond (MBA), and Je an-Louis Tournadre on th e Bimota Yamaha. Daytona Lightweight winner Rich Schlachter was ente red in th e 250cc class al so, but a wr ist injury forced h itn to pull off the . tra ck aft er two laps of q ualifying. , - "My wrist felt pretty good up until last week when I crashed twice at Jarama (Spain) and reinjured it. I just couldn't turn the throttle all the way on.". the Connecticut native said of h is Waddon Engineering-Rorax powered mount. ' Emerging victorious fro m a fierce stru ggle in the 350cc fin al was Belg ium 's Chevallier Yamaha-mounted Didier de Radigues. De Radigues spent th e race being hounded by Carlos Lavadoon the Venemotos Yamaha who was well a head of local favorite Mas simo Maueoni on th e Birn ota Yam aha. Ten-tim e World Champion Angel Nieto won hi s fourth stra ig h t 125cc GP on th e G ar elli after Ital y's Marco Vitali dropped out on the last lap -" . Second fell to P ier Paol o Bianch i o n th e Sanven ero an d th ird to Ital y's Palqzesse, In the 50cc cl ass Swi tzerl and 's Stefan Doerflinger narrowly defeat ed World Champion Span iard Ri cardo Tormo. The 50' s were the first to l ake 10 the 2.1 mile Santarnonica cir cuit. Doerflinger, wh o'd lowered h is o wn trac k record by three seco n ds in qual ifyin g , was a way fifth a t th e sta rt , but soo n flexed h is Kreidler 's muscles and m oved o ut as a slips trea m for seco nd place Tormo . The Swi ss rider was dogged by th e Sp aniard for most of th e race, but once Tormo lost hi s draft, Doerfl in ger was a ble to pull ou t a three seco nd ma rgi n o f victory, Tormo h ad 45 seco nds o n Villa's Lasua rd i in th ird a t th e end of th e 23 lap event. ' Angel Nieto spe nt a lmost the enti re 125cc race look in g back over hi s shou lder. As he did , bot h Pier Paol o Bianchi and i taly's Vita li wereable to catch up a nd overt a ke him. Bianch i fell la te in th e race whi le lead ing, but remounted and fin ish ed seco n d, scuffed leathers and a ll. Vitali wasn 't as lu cky and wa s out on th e fin al la p whil e in th e lead, leavin g N ieto to tak e h is fourth win of the year with almost a h alf minute lead over Bianch i a n d a lillie more on Pal azesse in third. The 250cc race started poorl y for Ton i Mang with an typ ica l back of the pack sta rt . Carlos Lavado had forged into a command ing lead almost from th e sta rt with Freym ond, Broccoli, an d Estros i battling for seco nd. Mang , wh o 'd qualified l l th set a new lap record o n th e 18th lap, p ro ving himself on th e m ove a nd he joined th e front-runn ers at th e 2/3 ' wa y of the ra ce. Lavado was KO' ed on th e 23rd of 33 laps wh en hi s Venernotos Yamaha seized on the Tramonto bend. Mang was out front on th e 30th lap, lost it briefly to th e ELF MBA of Freymond, but wa s superior at th e finish. Third went to points leader Jean-Louis Tournadre on th e Bimota Yam aha. Quickl y separating thems elves from th e pack in th e 350cc ra ce were th e ELF Johnson Chevallier Yamaha of Didier de Radigues and Lavado on the Venernotos Yamaha. Out fron t an d a lo n e th e two waged a seesaw bailie that ended in de Radigues ' favor. It wasn ' t for lack of effort o n Lavado's part th ough, as he bested hi s own lap record here with a time of . I:24.19 on th e next to th e last lap. Massimo Maueoni on th e Moto Club Rim in i P asolini Birn ota pl eased th e partisan cro wd with hi s third o ver 250 winner Mang. One one-hundredth o f a second wa s a ll that sep arated fast-qualifi er U nci n i from second-fastest Spen cer. Uncini pui in 69 laps of qualifying over the four sessions 10 only 49 for Spen cer and gained the pole position late in the final practi ce session. Graem e Crosby put the square-four Team Marlboro Agostini Yamaha in . third .a head of Spencer's teammate Lucchinelli on another'three-cylinder NS-500 Honda with Roberts an d hi s OW-61 V-four Yamahain fifth. Both Suzuki teams, th e Italian and Brit ish ones, were a t ha lf-str ength due 10 wrist inj uries to rid ers Loris Reggian i and Virgin io Ferrari, wh ose comeback ha s been hindered by th e injury he in curred while test in g at Willow Springs early th is year. Crosby's teammat e Graziano Ro ssi broke a collarbo ne in a qual if ying cras h an d will be out for a few weeks. With th e cu t-offa t 30 rid ers, Roberto Pi etri wa s left ou t a fter qualifyin g 34th. "When I got h ere th ey wouldn 't let me or Victor Palom o o u t on th e track a until it was too late. I had to sort out th e bike, practice and qualify in on e sessio n. My bik e wasn 't set up well and m y mechanic - Larry Worrell couldn 't come because he 's back in Los Angeles working on my Hondas," Pi etri said . At2:50 the green flag dropped with Lucchinelli immedi ately taking th e lead ahead o f Roberts, Sheene, Spencer and U nci n i gelling an unusually good start in fifth a fter bringing h is front wheel back to earth. " Fra nco n ever sta rts well ," team manager Roberto G allina exp lained. " He's 100 light, m a ybe 60 kil os (132 Ibs. ) with h elmet -a n d leath er s. Another 10 kil os is wh at he needs ." Once sta rted. h is weight is an o bvious advantage as the Gamma 2 Suzuki of his is unquestionably the fastest bike on the circuit. " I followed him through those two fast left-handers on the backstraight a nd he 'd just pull me . Those are fast fifth gear turns," Spencer said. " And I couldn 't ca tch h im ." Uncini took control on the fifth of 40 laps with Spencer, Lucky. Roberts, an d Sh eene in tow . Roberts was doing his best to keep his bike on the track , but it was o bvio us th at he wa s strugg lin g. Coming out o f the first left -h and bend a t th e end o f the front strai gh ta way h is rear wheel would jump for th e o utside o f the track as h e ca me o n th e gas. " T he rear tire was n' t wo rkin g," Roberts sa id . " I t was sliding th e whol e race. This new bike is proving harder to so rt out than we thought." Uncini was gaining momentum as he cutthrough the backmarkers. Every lap seemed to produce a new lap record as he and Spencer clea red a way from Roberts. Mamol a was trying to move up from a bad start. but froni brake troubles slowed his charge. "They gav e out on th e th ird lap. I tried 10 pump them up to stay in th e race, but I was eithe r running people o ff th e tra ck or running off it myself so I pulled in ," he exp la ined . Sheene wa s having trouble with h is J ohn Pl ayer Spe cia l Yam aha a nd came in for,two laps to check it over. H e went back o ut, but at a snail's pace, p acked it in a n d ca ug h t a pl ane back 10 England. "We don't kn ow wh at it wa s," hi s father Fran co sai d. " We' ve been having trouble with it a ll week, ch angin g flywh eel s, an d other th ings. But today it just gave up." Sheen e remains in "second" in th e point sta nd ings, behi nd th e tie for first. . T he halfwa y point passed with U ncini holding a three seco nd advan tage on " Fast Freddie." Freddie turned

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