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
.;... 0. < Marco Lucchinelli took second in the 500cc GP. hi s h ighest fin ish s ince 1 9 8 1 when he won the World Championship. Guido Paci leads Marc Fontan and Barry Sheene in the ir duel for s ixth . Fontan won out. cia us weather co nd i tions that ranged from ea rly morni ng snow. 10 rain , 10 overcas t skies and wi nd . Jacques Cornu got th e jump on Rol an d Frev rnon d, Alfonso Pons, Pat rick Bolle , World Champion JeanL ouis T o urnadre and Jacques Boll e. Ma rt i n Wi m m er got a dece nt sta rt ,but missed a shift and was passed by a bo u t 20 riders, a nd ba ck in 3 1st p lace, th e dimin utive Carter exploded from the n inth ro w of the grid to begin his march for war d. Cor nu and Pons tr aded the lead back a nd forth with a pack of the next best four lurki ng in their wa ke. By the halfway point Thierry Ra p ica u lt had taken o ver th e lead from Cornu, a nd Carter had broken into the top ten. but a lm ost saw h is race end when he clipped Wimmer from behind. " My bike jumped out o f second gea r." Wimmer stated , " an d I pull ed th e clutch in as Carter ca m e up behind me. He had no where 10 go so he j u st hit me a liule, but saved it . A spa rk plug electrode broke soon aft er that and m y race was over. " O n the 17th of th e 24 laps Carter wa s into fift h , behind Belgian Didier de Radigues on the Cheva llier , and got by a la p later. A few la p s later a nd , with th e explicit encouragement of the fan s, he mov ed in front of Corn u for the lead. " He's good, bu t he shoul d n't be doi ng th is we ll," a n in cr ed u lous Brit ish journal ist sa id . " It' s o n ly hi s seco nd Grand P rix ." Ca rter, wh ose o lder broth er Ken ny races spee dway, sa id alter becoming th e fir st Briton to win a 250cc race si nce Ron G ould d id it I I yea rs ago, " I feel grea t, After a ll th e p rac tice problems we had , everyt hing went perfectly. " Corn u a n d Rapica u lt fi nished second a nd th ird wi th de Rad igues and Britain 's Tony H ead next across the lin e. Selling th e pace fo r th e 500cc class Ron Ha sl a m . w ith a third in the South Afr ican GP , added another t h ird in France . He a nd Ke nny Roberts are t ie d for second in championship points. Luc c hi n elli, Spencer and Haslam celebrate . from the fir st qualifying session o n , wa s th e Kel Carrut hers-t uned Marl boro Yama h a of Robert s. Fastest in the fir st sessio n , h e bettered it in the afternoo n session bv a fu ll two seconds a nd stay ed in the to p spo t with a lap of 1:36.80 seco n ds over the 2.63 mi le lon g Bugatti circui t, In the th ir d a nd final dry session , Spencer knocked a seco n d off his time, bu t it was n 't good eno ugh 10 cha llenge Robert s. " We ' ve worked o n getti ng speed up in the co rn er s," sai d Spencer. " beca use we have 10 ma ke up for a li ttl e less ho rse po wer tha n some of th e o ther bik es. One o f th e things that helped was the 16-inch rear wheel. But this is a stra nge ' co u rse because yo u have a flat -out sixth gear str aig h taway a n d three first -gea r co rne rs so it's hard 10 get th e gearing ri ght ." Ro n H asla m was third ah ea d of Eddie Lawson. also on a bright o ra nge a nd white Ma rl bo ro Yamaha , with form er cham p Lucchinell i fifth a head o f reig ni n g cha m p Fra nco U nci n i and hi s teamma te Rand" Mamo la . U nc in i had swi tched back toa n '82 frame after havi ng problem s wi th this yea r's bi ke and was fa stest in the fina l sessio n wh ich was ru n in the rai n. The weather would p la ya big part in the outcome of th e race a nd whe n th e ri ders awoke Su nday morning 10 win ds h ie lds ca ked with snow, the p redic tio ns of . the experts wen t o u t th e win dow. But by racet irn e th e track was d ry a nd co ld. Afte r two warm-up laps 10 get a look a t th e tr ack a nd wa rm up th e ti res, th e field was set for the dead engine sta rt with a lte rna ti ng rows o f . four a nd th ree ri ders . Wh en th e g reen light w as flash ed , off went Spe ncer, H aslam a nd Lucchi ne lli , with Roberts close beh ind. But fo r Marn ol a , Lawson a nd Unci n i the day was over. "T he bike sta rted fine o n the wa rm up la p , but it wasn ' t goi ng 10 start fo r th e race. I roo k a few ex tra steps to ma ke su re it would sta rt and it didn 'I. Alan Carter. at the age of 18. became the yo ungest -ever GP w inner w ith hi s 250cc victory, And first Rand y hit me from behind wh en he got run into . then this guy ca me past me on the right so fast th at I co u ld n ' t see who it was . He hi t rnv a rm a nd it m ust have been locked beca use I turned the fo rks to the lock a nd the ha nd lebar broke off. I' m lu cky he d id n 't tag me. H e mu st have been goi ng 70," said La wso n . T he ri de r he didn ' t see wa s Guido Paci wh o ca me up fro m a sevent h row g ri d SpOI. " T h ose Hondas start so fast th a t Paci was o n me befo re I knew i t. Pel landi ni h it me from th e rig ht side th en Paci ran over m y foo t and brok e m y footpeg o ff a nd I ca ug h t m y Ioot un der th e rear tire o f the bik e. T h en he bounced o ff me a n d hi t Eddi e. I started the bike. but I knew th e race was o ver because I didn 't have a foot ยท ' peg , Th e foot didn 't hurt so bad a t first , but Dr. Costa set it and I sh ould be OK for Monza (th e Ital ia n GP o n April 24)," said Mamola . Unc in i's lu ck wa s o nly slig h tly better . He jumped o n the bike thinking it had started. when it hadn 't , a nd when he hopped off to ge t going again , i t fouled a p lug, effectively purri ng h im out of the race. Obl i vious to the mi sfo rtun e , Spencer was co nce ntra ti ng o n stayin g o u t fro nt, bu t Robert s h ad o ther ideas. O n t he th ird la p h e overtook H aslam for seco nd an d th e two Am er icans began a di spla y of rid in g magic th a t left no o ne disappoin ted and man y sta rt led. Sta lki ng Spencer in cessa nt ly, Roberts mad e hi s m o ve in a flat -out ri gh t-h and kink j us t after the g ra nds ta n d straig htaway. " He went by me like I was sta nd ing , still ," Spen5er sai d. "For so me reason he back ed o ff th ere a nd I kept th e gas on," Roberts ad ded. " I was n't sure if he wa s h avin g th e same problem as I was with tires," Spencer said. " It was so co ld that it took a few extra la ps for th e tir es to get working rea l we ll. Wh en I was going up th e stra ig h ts I had everythi ng tu cked in, m y elbo ws, my knees , m y hel met, an d I was still freezing." Has lam, ru n ni ng third had ru n' in to a simi lar problem . " My ha nds went n um b after four laps it was so co ld, a nd I drop ped back to fifth. Then I got some feeli ng back an d started 10 mo ve u p ." Robert s and S pe ncer ha d pu lled so me space o n th ird-placed L ucchi ne lli wi th Hasla m a nd Fre nch man Marc Fo n ta n next in lin e as the Cagiva o f Virgi nia Ferrari tried 10 break th e Japanese domi na tion. Next up were th e G B Suzuki o f Kei th H e uwen and th e H ero n Suzuki of Barr v Sheene. By the 12th lap, Ro ber ts had pulled a litt le over a seco nd on Spence r who had 5 ~ seco nds on " L ucky," wh o in tu rn , had 13 on Has lam . La p after lap the fight cont inued with Ro ber ts holding the ad va n tage o n the seemingly faster Yamaha. Bu t i t wa sn 't entirel y so . " T ires were n't the problem today, horsepower was . We always need more horsepower. We los t some in the alti tude o f South Africa and we're tryi ng 10 get it back. My bike's he avier so it wasn ' t affected by the wind as m uc h, " sa id Rober ts. The dogleg of the " Che m in a u x boe ufs" s t ra ig h t w here Frutsch i cra sh ed , was g iving th e Honda riders fi ts. . "The wi nd was blow in g in g us ts so . hard th ere th at if yo u were leaned over too m uch it would tak e yo ur front wh eel OUI. I th in k that's wh at happen ed to Frutschi ," sa id Spen cer. "I h ad to sq ua re th e co rner o ff to get th rough it sa fely." On th e 14th lap, th e rac e was effecti vel y over. R oberts' m uffler had blow n a ho le in i ts side, ca us in g a misfire a nd gi vi ng th e lead back 10 Spencer. " End o f ra ce," a n o bser ver said, and he was right . (Con tinued to page 29) 21