Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

.. .. ~ ~ .... Freddie Spencer (3) leads Kenny Roberts (4)acroSl the Jarama finish li ne after a face long duel. Roberts and Spencer provided the 65.000 spectators w ith t he best race of the season thus far. World Cham~ionshi~ Road Race Series: Round 5 Spencer nips Roberts in Spain By Henny Ray Abrams JARAMA, SPAIN, MAY 22 Afte r th e fiercest battle of th e G ran d P rix season, Honda 's Freddie Spencer nip p ed Yamaha's Kenny Rober ts by half a second to win th e Spanish GP at Jarama. "Either one of us could have won it," Sp en cer said after his wi n f 0';lrt h WIn i t h e Ii races r~n In IV~ this season. The VIctory In- 24 creased his lead in the World Championship point standings t021 points over Roberts, 68 to 47. Finishing third, 3 I seconds behind Roberts, was H onda 's T akazum i Kala' yama. Fourth, 27 seconds behind Kala yama, was HB S u zu ki 's R a n d y Mamola. Mamola m oved to third in th e point standings making America ns 1·2·3. - World Champion Franco Uncini took fift~ aboard h~s works Suzuki XR45, wuhRoberts Marlboro Yarnaha teammate Eddie Lawson in sixth. . Sixridersdueledfortheleadinthe 250cc race, but when the checkered flag fell it was Frenchman Herve Guilleux on a Kawasaki five seconds in front of Frenchman Christian Sarron, who was just ahead of West Germany's Martin Wimmer. Spaniard Sito Po ns was a popular fifth . In the hearts of the 65,000 fans lining the 2.06 mile long, seventeen tu rn course, the race of the day was the 125cc GP and they we re elated when I l -time World Champion Angel Nieto brought the home standard in first, a quarter of a second ahead of Garelli teammate Italian Eugenio Lazzarini, Italian Sanvenero rider Pier Paolo Bianchi was third. Lazzarini's consolation came in the 50cc race which he took from defending World C hampion Stefan Doerflinger by 19' seco nd s, with Spain's Jorge Martinez third on a Matrakit-Bultaco. In winning their respective classes, both Nieto and Lazzarini strengthened their leads in the World Championship points chases. The normall y clear Iberian skies were dappled with clouds during qualifying on both Friday a nd Saturday, and the temperature never went much above 60 degrees; even on race da y. But there was never any rain and when the 250s were finished sorting out their gearing on the tortuous co u rse in th e fi nal p ractice session, Fren chman j ea n -Fra ncois Balde had th e p ol e p osi tio n nex t to Chevallier te amm a t e , Bel gi an Did i er d e Radigues. Wimmer qualified h is Mitsu i Yamaha third. For th e fir st six lap s o f th e 3 1 lap race, a six-man p ack co ns isting o f Wimmer, Guilleux, de Radigues, Sarro n , Alfonso Pons a nd Alan Carter moved in unison aro un d th e tra ck . T he fir st o ne out was Carter who cra sh ed wh ile in si x th with de ' Radigues leading. Sarron took over d for a ,wh ile, but th e Belgian de R ad igues took th e lead back until dr opping o u t with gear bo x problems a t th e 2/ 3 mark. Guill eux took o ver a nd was never headed, stre tch ing hi s lead o ver Wimmer as the ra ce wore down until Sarron got by [or third. r For GuiIl eux it wa s the second win of th e yea r a lo n g with th e season open er in South Afr ica. And both Sa rro rr's an d Wimm er's finishes were th eir best o f th e yea r. It also va u lted Guill eux into th ird in th e tit le ch ase behind Carlos Lavado, who finished seventh, and de Radig ues. From the first practice session of the 500s on it was a question of " W ho' ll catch Freddie?" and no one could. Spencer whittled his times down to one minute, 29.87 seconds, in the third session with Ro berts half a second off the pace. Bu t Ro bert s im proved on his third sessi on time and finished qualifying in seco nd with a 1:30.21 best lapofthe 66 he ran over the four 35 minute sessions. Third and fourth fastest were Honda riders R o n Haslam and Katayama with Mamola fifth ahead of the final Team Honda member Marco L ucchinelli and Yamaha 's Lawson. "This track 's so hard to gear for," said Roberts as he pored over gear ratio tables. "You've got that set of corners in the back where you go left then hard right through the slow corner, then you acce lerate up the straight and have to get to the right side of th e track to go into th e fast uphill left. My front wheel's coming up as I come out of the slow corner, but Freddie's just sp in n in g his rear tir e." The su n beat down on race day with the temperature just rea ching into the 60s and heating up the bumpy track surface. As the 32-man field hopped on after the dead engine push-start and made the firs t righ tat th e end of the start stra ig h t, the fast start i ng Hondas of Haslam, Spencer, Lucchinelli and Katayama led the way with R o berts right in the pack and Raymond Roche, Uncini and Lawson slightl y behind. Lucchinelli 's bike started vibrating badl y on the front straight on the second lap and h e pulled to a stop at the entrance of turn one with a broken crankshaft bearin g. Spencer was pulling space on Haslam until Ro ber ts set the Englishman back a notch and set his sights on Spencer. Katayama and Roc he had their own battle for fourth and Mamola, Uncini and Lawson contested 'sixth . O n the seventh of 37 laps, Roberts J blistered the track record with a 1:29.57 lap, averaging 82.73 mph . To better the qualifying time during the race is unheard of in Grand Prix racing and it was indicative of the pace Roberts and Spencer were trying to keep up on the track. Two laps la ter and R o bert s was in front after passing " Fast Freddie" in the slow right-hander before the uphill. It appeared that Spencer let Ro berts past, but Spencer denied it, saying, "T he rear tire usually goes away gradually, bu t this one went away ra pidly. I looked down to see if I h ad a n oil leak, since the rea r end was sliding,

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