Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

(Left) Fa s t Fre d d ie Spencer m a d e it t h re e in a row, (Belo w) Ke n ny Roberts le a d s Ra ndy Mamola (6) and Spencer ea rly in t he ra c e. World Championship Road Race Series: Round 3 Spencer, Mamola & Lawson 1-2-3 Italian GP By Hanny Ray Abrams MONZA. ITALY, APR. 24 Honda's Freddie Spencer led compatriots Randy Mamola and Eddie Lawson to an unprecedented American sweep of the top three places by winning the Italian Grand Prix a t Monza, h is thirdconsecurive G P win of th e year. Spen cer took over th e lea d for th e first time on the 20th of 16 24 laps wh en Ken ny Ro berts. wh o'd led most o f the race, fell right in front of Spencer whil e trying to overtake a bac kmarker in the fast right-hand " Para bo lica " turn. R o berts never let go o f his Yamaha Marl bo ro OW-70 a nd got goi ng aga in in fourth place on ly 10 ru n o u t o f gas o n th e final lap . Along wi th Suzu ki's Mamol a a nd Yamaha 's La wson, th e fo u rt h a nd fift h riders - Suzu ki's World Cham p io n Fran co Unci ni a nd H onda 's T ak azum i Kata yama , put in th eir best fin ishes o f th e year. T he win gives Spencer .a com ma nding 25 p oint lead (45-20) over Roberts an d H asla m wh o a re tied for second in th e quest for th e crown . H a slam wa s a lso a victi m o f misfortune whe n he seized a cra n kshaft bearing o n h is Honda NS-500 wh ile r unning in thi rd j ust 3/4 o f a lap fro m th e finish. Mamo la m o ved into fo u rt h wi th 18 points. " I feel p ret ty good abou t the race a nd we have a lillie cus hi o n to wo r k wi th now, bu t rem ember . that there are still n in e races left," sa id Spencer. T he o minous, th reat en in g skies o pe ne d u p o n the ea rly a rrivers 10 th e " Au todro rno, " sending most ru n ni ng for cover a n d a lso seve rely affecting th e size of the enth us ias tic crowd. Mo st o f th e riders o p ted for intermediate tir es to run th e wet , morning pract ice sessio n in, but wh en race time came for th e 50's, the fir st race of the da y, the track was mostly dry as th e 40 tiddlers paddled safel y aw ay . True to form , fast qualifier World Champion Stefan Doer£linger took command early from former cha m p Eugenio Lazzarini, but when Doerflinger was forced to pit for a gearchanging adjustment, Lazzarini didn 't waste any tim e esta blish in g himself out front. The Garell i rider gav e his fellow countrymen their first win of the season, with a 20 second margin on th e Villa of Cl audio Lusuardi. Dutchman George Looyesteyn broke th e Italian stranglehold on the podium by bring- ing h is Kreidler home in third. The win moved Lazzari ni into th e World Champio ns hip 50cc points lead with 27 to Doe rflin ger's 15. Spain's l l -tirne Wo rld Champion, Angel Nieto, continued his assa u lt on the record books with a hardfoug ht win in the 125cc class. The Spaniard ba ttled with R icar do Torma and Lazzarin i for the en tire race, lead in g from th e ten th lap 10 th e checkered £lag afte r 181a ps o n th e 3.6 mi le co urse. Never a ble 10 sha ke tea m mat e Laz zari ni, he fin ish ed four seco n ds a hea d wi th Ezio G ianol a a dista nt third . It was Nieto's 78th GP wi n, second o n ly to G iacomo Agosti n i's 122. Cl earl y, th e m ost .competiti ve a nd unpredi ctabl e class in G P racing is th e 250cc class. N o rider had repea ted a top th ree fini sh from th e first GP in Smit h Afri ca 10 th e seco nd o ne in Le Ma ns and wh en th e smoke cleared at Mania , three n ew faces were smi ling a nd spraying champagne. It was a war of a tt rit ion and n one of the to p three q ua lifiers finis hed. A body cou nt at the end showed th at o n ly 18 of th e 40 starters finis hed a nd there were five accidents i n th e first set of tu rns a lo ne, which too k o u t, among o thers, LeM ans winner Alan Carter, h is teamma te Don ny Robinson and So riauto-Gau lo ises rider Christia n Sa rron, seco nd fastest q ualifier. Leading the pack into th e slow left-bander at the end of th e sta rt straight was West G erman Mitsu i Yamaha rider Martin Wimmer. Close beh ind we re Venezuela n Carlo s Lavado, th e Bartol o f Pat ri ck Fern andez, Alfonso Pons on a Kobas, and Manfred H erweh , a lso Yamahamounted . Coming out of th e final turn onto . th e front straightaw ay Wimm er missed a shift and let a lot of riders by. Lavado led, oblivious 10 the cra shin g going on behind him. Christian Estrosi p itched it away at the end of th e front straight, th e fast est part of th e co urse, and nei ther Sarron nor Ca rter co u ld avoid him. Herweh and Pons mov ed up to challenge Wimmer a lo ng with Lavado's teammate Ivan Palazzese. It was Palazzese and Pons swap p ing the lead back and forth from th e eigh th to th e final lap when Pons ran into into th e back of him taking both out a n d handing the victo ry 10 Lavado. The Ven emotos rider was well clear of Fr en ch Cheva llier rider Thierry Es p ie a t th e finish and third fell 10 Manfred H erweh . Three ra ces, nine places, nine faces. Tak ing over the po ints lead was fift h-placed J acques Cornu, whose 24 are tw o berr er than D id ier de R ad ig u es' (n inth here) 22. L avad o vaulted in to th ird with th e wi n, but was less exu bera nt when th e organizers fa iled to produce a co py of hi s nat io nal anthe m during th e postrace ceremony. Wi th rai n effectively p urr ing a damper o n Friday's q ua lifyi ng sessions, it came dow n to th e two h a lfhour sessions o n Sa tu rday for the riders to set th ei r grid p ositio ns. Wasti n g no time at all, Roberts wen t o ut in the morni ng sess io n a nd, with th e exp lici t .agreem ent of the cro wd, kn ock ed off o ne record lap a fter another. Eac h new lap brought a low er tim e and wh en th e sess io n was o ver the three-time Wo rld Cham p ion a nd Iour-tirn e Ital ian G P winner had low ered Marco Lucch in elli 's track record by 312 seco n ds to I :52.69 a t a n avera ge speed of 115. 156 mph. Next to th e flamboyant Lucchinell i, Roberts is by far th e m ost p opu lar rid er in Ital y. A wav e o f choruses of " Keeen n n n neeeee" £low ed arou nd th e co urse as th e Californi an -ran h is orange a nd white Marlbo ro Yamaha harder an d deeper into th e co rners tha n mos t of hi s p eer s. Added to h is enormous po pularit y was h is first G P appeara nce on th e Marl bo ro team which is based at Agostini 's wo rksh o p j ust a few m iles from th e track . " It beats the heck o u t of m e," Robert s a n swered 10 the q ues tion of hi s popu larit y, but a lo ngt ime It al ian race o bserver offered th ese o bservations : " W ha t Kenn y brought to racing was a sense of profess io na lism a nd showmans hip. Befor e h e came the ri ders were j us t raci ng for themselves , but Kenny real ized that the fans ,were th e ones who made it possible, so h e'd g ive th em a whee lstand whenever i t was possibl e a nd th ey lo ved it. " Roberts got off hi s bike, a lmost oblivious to the exci teme nt a ro und him, with the best time by ninetenths of a seco nd ov er HB Suzuki teammate s Rand y Mamola and Franco Uncini with the Hondas of H asl am , " L ucky" and " Fast Freddie" next. Spen cer never goes all out until th e last sessio n and, true to form, he blitzed thi s o ne , but ca me up twotenths of a seco nd short o f Robert s afte r bein g p lagued with throttl estic ki ng problems in th e fir st session . " Let me tell you, i t's n ot a lot of fu n to co me to th e end of th is straight away and realize that yo u r bike's still runn in g wide open ," Spencer said. Ma m ol a cl u ng to th ird a head of Lucch in ell i with th e seco nd Marl boro Yamah a o f Eddie Law son in si xth a hea d o f H aslam . Mam ol a wa s p leased with hi s time for two rea sons: o ne, is th at he was riding w ith a broken foot an d two, is th at h is m ech a n ics had bu ilt him a new bike and it was working beau tifu lly . " We went from havi ng the wo rst bik e on the track three weeks ago at LeM an s 10 having oneof the best. We got a new frame which uses curved downtu bes instead of two straight sec tions a nd it 's a wh ol e differe nt bik e. We" 'e been experi me nti ng wit h a 16-i nch rear wheel an d it's worki ng rea l good. a lso . I'm n o t rid ing any better tha n I was at LeM an s, bu t the ' bike is so much beuer th at my times ar e better. We just go t th e frame tw o wee ks ago and you have to g ive m y mechanics a lo t of credi t because th ey worked th e whol e tim e to get it ready," sai d-Ma mola . The front ro w was made up o f th e top five ac tive GP riders (Grae me Crosb y is temporari ly retired) with Roberts th e lone Yamaha o n th e pol e, Spe nce r a n d Lucch inelli holdin g th eir NS-500 H ondas in second andfifth, a nd th e Suzu ki XR-45 Mark Ill 's o f Mamol a a nd U nc in i in third and fourth. With th e su n beating down o n th e tra ck a n d th e m er cur y hovering around th e 65° mark, th e gr een , white an d red It al ian sta n da rd was waved and th e 6 1st G ran Prem ia d ell e Nazioni was under way for th e 500's. T he fas t-s tarti ng H ond a s o f Spencer , H aslam , L ucc h ine lli a nd Kat a yama surrou nded Mamol a a t th e sta rt wi th Roberts a nd Lawson close behi nd. T he fro nt stra ig htaway at Monza en ds in a chica ne wh ich sta rts with a hard left fo llowed by a h ard ri ght, a stre tch o f 100 yards of straight tarmac fo llowed by a quick left -righ t an d o n . to th e n ex t co r ner. It 's a section tha t ha s 10 be ridd en rig h t o n th e edge of th e po wer band a nd a ny distr act ions ca n kn ock you ou t o f your posit ion or off yo ur bike. " It was ha ir y th rough th ere," sa id Roberts. "A clutch sta rt m ight have been better si nce we all would have been more even off th e line and not trying to spee d through everyo ne ," Sp encer eme rged o ur front , but Mamol a soon took o ver with Robert s in third a nd H aslam in fourth. Lucchinell i was a short di stance back and ah ead of a pack o f four which incl uded Katayama. in hi s first ride a fter breaking his ribs in South Africa; Lawson; the fir st privateer Raym ond Roche, on a product ion NS -500 H onda, a nd U ncini. On th e th ird lap Mam ola low ered, th e lap reco rd, th en after Roberts led • laps fou r a nd five, low ered it a ga in

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