Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

Randy Mamola used his works NS500 to finish second, hanging off radica!ly in every corner. turn and it doesn't accelerate as hard, although it's better on the top end. The four's more reliable and I.could probably go almost as fast on it, bUI the weight of it would tire me out and it would be hard on the tires. Ron (Haslam) tried the four but was a second and a half quicker on the three. " And what did Yoicru Oguma, the on-site head of Honda Racing Corporation, think? "He left it up to us. No pressure at all. The most important thing right now is the championshipand itdoesn't matter which bike I r"ide as long as I can win," said the defending World Champion. On Sunday morning, Spencer woke up with a headache, Mamola with stomach cramps, and Lawson was soon to have his problems too. Spencer skipped the morning practice session, letting Roche run in the tires and chain on the champion's bike. Lawson wheeled out both of the fluorescent orange and white number "4" machines. He hadn't decided which to ride and at the end of the session decided to ride neither. And both. "We took the engine out of one bike and put it in the other frame and changed the forks and rear suspension," said Lawson, who in effect created a hybrid he hadn't ridden before for the race. The start was typically Honda: Mamola, Roche, Lawson and Haslam in front of Lawson, Lawson's teammate Virginio Ferrari and Cagiva's Herve Moineau. Haslam overshot the hairpin at the end of the backstraight on lap two letting Lawson into fourth as Spencer went into the lead. "Freddie was smooth!" said Mamola. "I knew who was coming and I braked early and left it open for him and at the last minute he came under." Two laps later, also in the hairpin before the long downhill front straight, Spencer came out of the first gear corner on the gas and slid violently toward the edge of the track, a sign of impending tire problems. Ferrari retired a lap later with Yamaha's Japanese 500cc champ Tedahiko Taira moving into sixth ahead of Wayne Gardner. Although the order would change, the race was already decided. "By lap four the Dunlops were gone," Lawson began, noting that . his fastest lap of the race was the fourth. "The bike richened up and going into the corners it would load up. Coming our it was only running on a couple of cylinders. I had to back off; I had no choice. It was frustrating going that slowly. I'd turn the throttle and it would go sideways as I watched the people disappear." Mamola earlier had said to Spencer, "I give it five laps and we'll be spin'ning:; And lsure enough Spencer's fastest lap was the fifth of the 20-lap, 86.2 mile race. "It's normal for these Michelins to go after five or six laps," said Spencer. "On the downhill turn I would go in wider so it wouldn't 'push the front end. It would be more 'of an arc. Randy tried the same lines and said they worked for him." The difference between a Michelin and a Dunlop having gone away is that the Michelin, although worn, still slides predictably whereas the Dunlop, as Lawson said, .....drops off all at once. I get four laps: two to scrub the tires in and two at speed." For the record, Lawson held third until the ninth lap. After getting behind, Lawson dove under Roche entering the hairpin. Roche countered by cutting to the inside as he exited the corner. They both powered out, the Honda standing on its rear wheel next to the Yamaha for the sprint down the hill. Lawson cut back to the inside in a daring move halfway down the hill and Roche, bearing in, almost collided with Lawson as they accelerated down the hill in sixth gear. At the bottom dip before heading for the uphill right, Lawson held the throttle on a little longer and kept the advantage. But not for long. At the halfway point, Spencer had almost nine seconds on Mamola who had four on Roche. Lawson was close, but fading, although comfortably ahead of Haslam. The pace was slowing into the 2:34-35 range as the leaders began to work traffic. Haslam, using a softer rear tire than Spencer and Mamola was starting to gain on Lawson, but lost him to a group of backmarkers. Fifteen laps into the race and Spencer was easing up, still seven seconds in front. Mamola had three on Roche who had nine on Lawson and was stretching it. Taira and Garner were holding sixth and seventh with the Suzukis of Sergio Pellandini and Barry Sheene next best. As the race wore down, Roche sped up. On lap 17 he was four seconds behind Mamola, cutting the gap to 2.7, 1.6 and then one second flat at the finish. He seemed to get stron er as the race wore on and appeared to be the only European comfortable with sliding his Honda France/Total 'machine the way the Americans do. "He was riding a little better than at Assen," said Lawson. Spencer's winning margin was 5.71 seconds, but it could easily have been more. "I woke up tired and my head was hurting," Spencer began. "And I started the race tired and it was hot out there." "I felt bad from the beginning of practice this morning," said Mamola. "I had a problem with stomach cramps. In the middle of the race I was feeling like,it was gqing to come The world's toughest rider/tuner combination: Fast Freddie Spencer and Erudite Erv Kanemoto. Eddie Lawson's pit crew tells him he's eight seconds ahead of Haslam, with one lap to go. up and it made it harder to concentrate and race," Sliding both ends of the bike didn't help matters any for ·the Californian. "I had problems all week with the front end sliding. I don't like the front end and I don't like the circuit. The front end is too light." To compensate Mamola was banging more off the side with his opposite foot several inches off the footpeg. Haslam had half a minute on Taira at the end with Lawson 10 in front. Besides back markers he was slowed by engine troubles. "The engine started pulling a little gearbox oil into the cylinders," said Haslam. So the next race is the British GP at Silverstone, a track that's favored the Yamahas in the recent past, on August 5. "I still feel we have a good chance for the World Championship," said Spencer. "Randy and Raymond are riding well. I'd say it's about 50-50. Everyone is going to be well prepared for Silverstone." Deciding which engine configuration he would race in England was still a long way off. "They built the four to race this year and the only way to improve it is to test and race it as much as possible." He paused and then added, "But it's going to be difficult to improve." As to his chances, Lawson was not optimistic. "Dunlop's going to have to do something very soon or we can't think about the championship. With these same tires, the best I can do is fourth or fifth finishes," No sooner had the checkered flag fallen than the worst-case scenarists began computing the possibilities for the last three races. Should Spencer win all three, to go with the five he's already won, and Lawson finish fourth- in each, the title would be Spencer's by one point. However, the chances of that happening are remote, at .Qesv,

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