Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

Spencer (191 leads Toni Mang (51 in 250cc action. Spencer went on to claim his second double in as many weeks. (From leftl Runner-up lawson ponders as Spencer isall sm iles, Third place finisher Christian Sarron look s on, Lawson was di sappointed with hi s place next to Spencer on th e front row grid. Recu rr ing carburetio n problems have hampered th e Yamaha effo rt and th e altitude o f Salzburg was no h elp. The OW-81 would nOI pull cl eanl y throu gh th e gears, although it was fast er th an th e threecylinder Honda 's o n top speed, but only barel y. Unfortunatel y, Baldwin was forc ed to play ca tch -u p afte r being hit on th e start by Thierry Espie. " I sta rte d m y bi ke a n d Espie wh eelied a nd lanced his wheelan m y back . H e rode by me and tore th e sleeve off m y leathers . Then he hit my hand a n d caught the handlebar and spat me to the ground." The ha nd Espiestruck was Ba ld w in 's right hand, which was injured in a practice spi ll a t Mugello, and which he had to have Xvrayed after the race. R a in drops had begun fa lling wi th two laps 10 go in th e 250cc race and th e sp ri nk le con ti n ued into th e beggi ning o f th e 500cc race. Ma mol a got th e holesh ot wi th Sarron secon d, Lawson th ird, fo llowed by H asla m , Di dier de Rad igues, a nd Spencer. Sarron roo k th e lea d on the th ir d la p with Lawson seco nd, Spencer th ird, and Ma mola fourth. As a quartet they m o ved away from de Rad ig ues, H a slam, and Boer van Dul rnen . Lawson took the lead for a lap and on the fifth la p Spencer took over. H asla m and de Rad ig ues were alone for fifth /sixth with R ot h m a n H o n d a Br i ta i n ' s Wayne Gardner in seventh ahead of Rot h ma n Honda's Takazumi Katayama , van Dulrnen, th e Skoal Bandit H eron Suzuki of R o b McElnea a n d Marlboro Yamaha 's Raymo nd Roche. Turning lap times in the mid I: 18's, just orr their qua lifying times, th e lea d foursome began 10 pull away from th e now trio of H asl am. de R ad ig ues on th e Elf Johnson Honda. and Gardner . The gap from fourthp laced Mamola 10 Haslam was nine seconds on the ninth lap whi ch was Spencer's fastest at 1:18.18, just .05 seconds orr hi s pole position winning time. Lawson turned a 1:18.56, averaging 120.696 mph , a lap later, a time that was two- tenths be tter tha n h is q ual ifying time. At about a ha lf a second a la p , Spencer began to p ull away . H e had 3.1 7 seconds on the twelft h lap with Lawson leading Sa rron and a gap 10 Mamola. Gardner moved to fifth with Hasla m a nd de Radig u es holding on a nd farther back Roch e moved int o eig h th ahead of Ka taya m a. The d rizzle increased on the 13th lap and the riders slowed .slil!'h th :; . .' 1) I . t! ~ L 1 1 Th e gap from Spencer to Lawson narrow ed and three laps lat er th e race wa s sto p pe d. S ince it wa sn 't 75%o ver it co u ld not be rul ed co m p lete a n d th e remaining laps wo u ld have to be run . " It would ha ve been better to sto p it a lap o r two ea rl ier," sa id Spen cer, exp la ini ng th at " the tra ck is a lig h t co lor a nd unl ess it 's real wet it doesn 't look wet. " Mamol a sa id, " It was bad because th e drops go t big . but since the gr o und was warm from it being hot a ll day th ey'd eva pora te. The lap before th ey sto p pe d it it wa sn 't raining that hard. but the nex t lap th ere were big drops. 1 think th ey sto p pe d it a t the right time. " Lawson was having brake problems and used the time be tween the races to sort th em out. " I went hig h in th e corner a t the en d of th e fron t , straigh t a nd went orr the track and in to the di rt a litt le bit. I' d p ut o n the front brake a nd it wo u ld begin to gra b then it wo u ld fade. T he re was . no way 1 co uld get it stop ped," sai d Lawson . As for a speed race, Lawson ad ded, "His (Spencer) bi ke is very fast . If 1 got a be tter drive out of the corners I cou ld catch him. " The rac e was stopped a nd was supposed to re-start about 35 minutes later at 3:20 p .m. It was announced by rider rep Mike Trimby that all riders would be given a lap to test their tires and ch a nge them if needed. Then th ere would be a warm-up lap aft er which tires could not be ch anged before the remaining 14 laps of th e ra ce. A game-of stra tegy was played out on th e grid after the fir st test lap with teams undecided about tire choice. Lawson , Mamola, and Spencer a ll ended up choosing hand-cut slicks in th e rear with intermediat e fronts. Sarron ch ose a slick rea r and intermediate front , but cha nged 10 an intermediate rear aft er th e seco nd warm-up lap. A discussion, often quite vocal , followed during whi ch severa l riders noted that they were told they co u ld n' t cha nge th eir tir es and that th e race should be starte d. The Honda Brita in team of Gardner and Has lam chose full rains because it was that or slicks; no intermediates were available on the li ne. The rain pi cked up again on th e warm -up lap and almost an hour a fte r th e ra ce wa s stopped th e secon d half of th e fin al wa s wav ed o ff, H aslam ro cketed into th e lead, but would quickly fade and event ua ll y be lapped. His and Gardner's tires were shredded si nc eth e 1 Ick was0/ wet , but. tlb. l l ,'".tra l , . ; 1 .... ' , '.J, . the rai n I wa s ver y li ght. Most o f the second leg th ey spe n t just trying to hang on as th eir Iactorv Honda s sna ked th ei r way throu gh th e bends and o n to th e straig h ts. Quickl y, th e foursome from th e fir st race, Law son , Sarron , Spe nce r a nd Mamol a , speara ted th em selv es from th e pack. De Radigues wa s fend ing orr van Dulmen with McEI n ea and Baldw in close behi nd for sevent h . Mamol a wa s th e fir st victim o f th e pa ce set by th e front -runners. " 1\I y engi ne was tuned for top speed . We h ad it so th at th e power reall y ca me on strong at 10,000. Us ua lly it sta rts to come on strong at a ro un d 8,000. This one had less on the bottom and more on to p . 1 didn't have eno ug h low end to stay with them in the wet . I'd lose it in acceleration." Spencer was try ing to keep his bike between th e barriers w hi le his front en d had other plans . "The front en d was pus hing so ba d," he bega n . " It 's the worst feeling in the world. You 'd turn the front en d a nd feel nothing through the clip-ons, T he fast lefth ander up top was the worst beause you 're going so fa st a nd trying to ge t th e bike turned. The wh ole race was wierd." At th e 10 of 14 lap mark. Lawson led Spenc er with a lmost 12 seconds to Sarron , another 12 to Mamola, and yet a no th er 12 10 Bal d win -Mc-Elnea duel. . Wi th Spencer having won the fir st leg by 2.18 seconds after a losing a few seconds by slo wi ng down due to th e rain, Lawson had 10 beat Spencer by 2.19 seco n d s 10 win the race on aggregate time. As th e laps counted down th e gap widen ed a bit and Lawson, riding at an inspired pace, got some needed h elp in tr a££ie. However, coming down the sweeping righthander at th e end of th e ba ck stra ig h taw ay h e on ce again ran into traffic in th e person of Kat ayama a nd that wa s th e difference between defeat an d victory, Kat a yama sta yed ahead of him through th e infield ch ica nes and he was held up just en o ug h to cos t him the race. "Three on e-hundredths of a second," said Lawson . "Katayama just stoppe d in front of me a nd 1 had nowhere 10 go. All through the ch ica ne I had 10 foll ow h im ." First Lawson , then Spencer crossed th e line an d those wit h sto p wa tches, including crew ch iefs Kel Carruth ers .o f Yam aha and Erv Ka nerno to o f H onda kn ew th e score. By 0.03 sec o n d s th e win wa s Spencer's. I:1~e. usually co n serva tive Law on I had.• ,taJkeLn1 of J )d/'ffprel1t I -n.: a o'I f . J i IJ l J "I ~ ( " proarh to th e second segm ent. " Whe n 1 wa s right behind him (Spe nce r) I co ul d move up o n h im . H e co u ld draft me a bo u t th e sa me place I co u ld get h im . One tim e h e ca me by a nd I wa s leaning 10 th e left in th e Iast lefth ander and just hi s momentum...a t th at speed especiall y... but si nce the bikes are so wide and th ere's suc h a dead a ir spot th at it would lift my bike u p a lilli e as h e went by. II wa s th e sa me when I went by him : ' As th ey pulled in aft er th e ran ' both men had rai sed th eir fist s. " I kn ew it would be cl ose," sai d Spen cer , a nd it wa s. "The Yamahas run good here . At this a lt itu de a n engin e is going 10 lose some torque." Sarron, with a pair of thirds had th e third bes t aggregate time, a lbeit 34.86 seconds behind Lawson. However, because he, R och e, and Yamaha's J ap a nese Champion Tadahi ko Taira had changed tires after the o££icia I warm -up lap, th ey were protested by Honda. The protes t was disa llowed , but Sarron was angered by Honda 's m ove. "The president o f the FIM jury and the director of the ra ce bo th told me 1 could change tires. All of the jury p eople sa id we co u ld. When you see someone change you follow . We should all be together. I chose the wrong tire i n th e end so i t did not help. I went from a full -slick to an intermediate. 1£ 1 had won, all right, but I chose the wrong one and didn 't dela y the start. You cannot blame the pilots. I didn' t ask 10 Slap th e race and I didn 't co m p la in wh en th ey did," sa id Sarron. • Results SOOcc: t . Freddie Spe ncer (Hon); 2. Eddie tawson (Yam); 3 . Chr istian Sarron fVam) : 4 . Randy Mamol. (Hon); 5 . Rob McElnea (S uz); 6. Didier de Radigues (Hon); 7 . M ike Baldw in (Hon); 8 . Boet van Dul m en (Hon); 9 . Tadahiko Tai,a (Yam); 10 . Ray· monel Roche IVam) . 500cc POINT STAN DINGS: 1. Spencer (691 2. : Lawson (59); 3 . Sarr on (46) ; 4. Gardner (33 ): 5 . Haslam (2 6): 6 . M amola (25). 25Occ: 1. Fred die Spencer (Hon); 2. Anton Man; (Hon); 3 . Fausto Ricci (Hon) : 4 . Mani" Wimmer (Vam): 5 . Loris Reggiani (Apr ): 6. Hans Lindner (Rotl; 7 . Juan Garr iga (Cobl; 8 . Pier BoUe (Par): 9 . Carlos Laveda (Yam); 10 . Siegf ried M inich (Yam). 25 0cc POINT STAND INGS: 1. Spen cer (59); 2. M aog (501: 3 . Wim mer (41 ): 4 . Lavado (34 ): 5 . RIcci (22): 6 . Carter (1 8). 125cc: 1. Gausto Gresl" i (Gar); 2. Au gust Auin ge r( M BAI: 3 . Ezio Gia nola (Gar); 4. Pier Paolo Bian · chi (M BAI; 5. B. Kneubuehler ILCR); 6. O. Lieqeois (KLS); 7 . L. Piet roniro (M BA); B. H. Ol sson (ESW): 9 . A . Waibel (Wai) : 10 . J .C. Seli n; (MB A). 125cc POINT STA NDINGS : 1. Bia nch i 148 ): 2. Gr es;" i (39 ); 3. Gianols (30) ; 4 . Aui nger (4); 5 . Kneubuh ler (23 1: 6 . 8rigaglia (18 ). SIDECAR: 1. Biland/ W alt isberg (Kre): 2. Schwer zel / Buck (Yam); 3 . W eb ster / Hewitt (LeR); 4 . Streu - . sr/ Sc hnieders {Yam}; 5 . Zurbruegg /Su rbruegg (LCR); 6 . Ba rton /BirchaU (Vam): 7 . Bayley/ Nixon (Yam); 8. Hueg li /Sc h utz (LeRI ; 9 . Kumand/ Oiehl (Yam); 10. Steinhausen/Hiller lARD). SIDECAR POINT STAND INGS: 1. Schwarzel/ Buck (2 7): 2. Bila nd / W alt i sperg (231; 3 . Web star / Hew," (22 ): 4 . Str euer/ Schn ieders 11 81; 5. Zur . I br~"\l~'Zp.'l'f"e9g11 ~~·I . \.1\ I l r J ' I ',·" ,,, II • , , .:

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