Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

·R fa ~ ...... ...... The start of the race . with Christian Sarron (6 ) crashing and aboutto take out Freddie Spencer. Ron Haslam (5) is out front; D idierdeRadigues (9) escaped the crash. as did Boet van Dulmen and Edd ie lawson (1). (Below) Winner Randy Mamola . Road Racing World Championship Series: Round 7 Mamo/a first at Assen; Spencer, Lawson crash By Peter Clifford ASSEN , HOLLAND, J UNE 29 In the m ost dram a tic grand p rix of the sea.son . Christian Sarro n bro ug ht down World Ch am p ionsh ip points leader Freddie Sp encer on the firs t lap of the soaking-wet Dutch TT at Assen. Reigning World Champion Eddie Lawson crashed in the pouring rain at half distance while lying second 8 and Randy Mam ola went o n to a clea r-cu t start- to-fin ish victory th at made it two Dutch TTs in a row for hi m and a clea n sweep for th e Rothmans Honda team wit h Ron Haslam second a nd Wayne Ga rdn er th ird . Ma mo la was in abso lutely unbeat\ , .L I I _ . 1 t .,1 CL,1,. _ _ .1.1 a ble form a nd never mad e a single m ist ak e; but he was still lu cky to win 'as his bik e virtuall y ran out of fuel on th e las t la p . "It just sta rted cough ing a nd would not rev abo ve 10,000 rpm ," Mamola sa id. " Apart from that I had no problems . After the German Grand Prix wh ere m y viso r misted u p so bad tha t I co uld no t sec, we p ut a n ai r tu be in th e front o f m y hel met. T he wea ther was so bad in practice here we had plenty o f time to get it sorted r ~ r '" J .. ~. ' :)0 . } \ ;. ,_1 T {~ ! a ou t a nd it worked fin e. All I had to do in th e race was keep m y conce ntra tion up. I just kept talking to m yself, 'yo u' re doing fin e, now thi s is the one wh ere yo u run it in wide', just for cing m yself to keep up th e co ncentra tion beca use I never saw anyone else." La ter at th e prizegiving Mamola mad e a well -received gen u ine gesture in his sho rt speech. " Last year I won th is ra ce for j ack Middleburg, and I won it for j ack aga in th is year. We m ust not for get him. " The sentimen ts were a p p reciated by the Dutch crowd who had seen a displa y of wetweath er rid ing equal to anything put on by the late rain expert , Middleburg. Lawson was the one who was kicking h imself after the race. " It was just m y fault , th ere a re no excuses. I just got into the corn er too high , orr line. a nd touched th e white linejust befo re peeling into th e co rn er. Those white lin es a re ice a nd th e front end just tu cked under. I got it back but by th en the co rner was turning and I had no room to mak e it. It's my fir st mistak e in three years and I guess I sho uld be a llowed one," said the crush ingly-d isap po int ed Lawson. It must have been some relief to Spe n cer's team wh o had a lrea dy met him walking back a fter h is first-lap fall. " I had j ust tu rned into th is slow right-hander and crash! I go t hit from th e side . I didn 't even see Christian com ing. H is bike kn ocked m in e t ( .J ' ~h ) ~. • I J. } ~ J, I ~~ . ) \ I ..... o u t from under me and my arm got ca ugh t betw een h is handlebar and th e fairin g. I was lyin g on top of it as it slid orr th e tra ck. " For a moment a t th e tra ckside. lookin g down a t hi s damaged bike. Spencer understandably seemed on th e point o f losing th e incredible coo l th at he seems a ble to maintain no matter wh at th e situa tio n. "Look at th e bike," he gaspe d in despair as he set a bo u t trying to bend th e clutch lever back into an o pera ting position. " I had a go a t stra ig h ten ing it," said Spen cer lat er, " bu t I co uldn' t get any adj ustmen t in it to make it work." Sarron apo logized profusely but nothing could undo the damage as Spencer walked back to the pits seeing Lawso n ea t aw ay a t his cha m p io ns h ip lead. Sito Pons and WoI£gang von Muralt had touch ed and fallen on the seco nd corner. Mike Baldw in had worked his wa y up to ninth wh en he fell on lap eig h t and Christian Ie Li ard was heading for World Championship points when he a lso fell o n lap seven. Baldwin had been doing well a fter missing two sessions of practice due to hi s dash back from th e States a fter riding three AMA races. He ' stilI qualified 14th a nd was lying in 11th pl ace on lap seven . which would have seen him in the points by the end of th e race had he not fallen a lap later comin g into the chicane. " I just had a ll sorts of trouble," Baldwin said. " First wat er got into th e throttle a nd I was havin g to take two handfuls to get it open. Then it got onto th e carbureto r slides and they start ed sti cking open . I was having to use a little more brak e to get it stopped going into th e corners. That would hav e been okay but I had the Michel in intermediate on and I needed the full wet a nd I just lost it. I had a look at th e row of cras hed bik es over at the tech shed a nd a lmos t all of them have a n intermedi ate on th e front." Le L iard 's new teammat e o n the Elf H onda , end u ra nce rider Pierre Etienne Sa m in , rod e a grea t race to come th rough from II th on th e fir st }~/.} .!., 1 f r1·ll~tLf r i r r •

• Cover