Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/126636
Freddie Spencer's second '83 500cc GP w in put him firmly in command of the point standings. Kenny Roberts (leading) and Freddie Spencer had a terrif ic race until exhaust problems slowed Roberts. World Championship Road Race Series: Round 2 Spencer leads Honda sweep of French GP By Henny Ray Abrams &. Catherine Eman Photos by Abrams LEMANS, FRANCE, APR. 3 Freddie Spencer, of Shreveport, Louisiana, led a Honda sweep of the top three places at the French Grand Prix at LeMans, by piloting his Erv Kanemoto-prepared works NS500 Honda lO his second co nsecu. victory 0 f t h e young sea uve . h Id h r s~m. S pencer, woe. t e irst S IX laps, took the lead back for 20 good on the 14th of 29 tours when Marlboro Yamaha 's Kenny Roberts was slowed by an exhaust pipe problem . I hi f ' hi " n tS rrst top-t ree p acing smce his World Championship in 1981, Italian Marco Lucchinelli took a co m fo rta ble second and forthesecond lime this yea r Bri ta in's Ron Hasla m was third. Both are Team Honda members. Spencer leads the Wor ld Championship 500cc point standings with a perfect 40, ahead of Ro bert s and Has lam who are tied at 20. Both R o be rt s' teammate Eddie Lawson a nd Suzu ki's Ra nd y Mamola were the victims of a d isastr o us start . Lawson was hit by two o ther ri de rs and never got orr the line and Marnola's foot was run over, brea ki ng it. The raci ng was marred by the death of two riders: former Suzuki test rider Iwao Ishikawa and Switzerland's Michel Frutschi. In a free practice o n Tuesday, Ishikawa was hit on a fast part of the co urse by HB Suzuki' s Lori s Reggiani w hen Reg g ia n i's brake pads rep o rted ly came out u nder heavy braking. According to witnesses, Ishi kawa was not immediately a ttended to by medical personnel and his transport to a local hospital was delayed, lessening his chances of survival. Gusting winds and cold weather (about 42°) contributed to Frutschi's fatal accident. Coming into a top of . fifth-gear dogleg left-hander at about 145 mph, Frutschi lost the front end of his privateer NS500 Honda and went down. He was taken to a local hospital where he succumbed to mul tiple injuries. Ironically, his last a nd only GP win, came in last year's French GP at Nogaro which was boycotted by th e factories because of poor safety conditions. In only his second GP appearance, 18-year-old Brito n Alan Carter became the youngest GP winner ever by winning the 250cc race from the 31st spot on the grid. Carter moved into th e lead only three la p s from the end and took the win on his Mitsu i Yamaha over Jacques Cornu a nd F renchman Thierry Ra pi cau lt, both on Yamahas. Wo rld C hampion Stefan Dorflinger was a lmos t denied a chance to race in the 50cc class w hen track officials wouldn't le t him through the pit gates and onto the track for the start of the race. Waving their arms and pointing to their watches, the officials couldn 't be budged until Dorflinger's mechanic grabbed the gate and sent all three officials flying while the fast qualifier sped out for his warm-up lap. After that, and a few laps of following the leader, the Kreidler pilot moved to the front and beat runnerup Eugenio Lazzarini's Garelli to the flag with an average speed of 64 .82 mph. Third went to the F. K.N of Germany's Hagen Klein. All the honors in the l25cc class to be taken were had by Spaniard R icardo Tormo. After grabbing the pole posilion as fast q ualifier, Tormo went on 10 lead the MBA supremacy of the top nine p laces, a nd 17 of the 19 finishers. Raci n g on a wei, and slowly drying, track, the Spaniard was 35 seconds clear of second-place finisher J ean Claude Selini at the finish with third place Maurizio Vitali six seconds fa rt her adrift. T he greatest th reat to MBA 's domina nce evaporated when World Champion Angel Nieto pulled in with mechanical troubles after one lap. The sidecar race was a war of attrition and the number one survivor was the team of former World Champions Ro lf Biland and Kurt Wallisperg in the Yamaha-powered L.C.R. chair. They, too, were fast qualifiers by over two seconds and when the race started they left little doubt as to their intentions. The best that the British Barton/Birchall learn could hope for was a distant second, some 45 seconds back. World Champions Warner Schwarzel and Siegfried Huber made a last lap charge to get second but came up just three-tenths of a second short in their Lucky Strike Yamaha rig. On ly four teams finished on the same lap as the leaders andjust ten of the 25 sidecars finished the 22 lap race. For most of the riders. Saturday morning's practice session wou ld be the fastest. And when rain p lagued the afternoon session, the times were set wi th Frenchman C hristian Sarron a popular po lesit ter in the 250cc class o n th e So na uto-Ga u loises Yamaha. Second we nt to the Aus trian Bartol o f P a tr ick Fernandez wit h West Germany's Martin Wimmer in thi rd o n the Mitsui Yamaha. Deep in the3 1st spot was Alan Carter, the victim of multiple engine seizures. The 250cc race was the first 10 ru n after the lunch break for the 65,000 French Ianatics th ar .braved th e atro -