Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

..J W Z ~ ~ a z <{ en ~ a: a:l -c ~ a: > Z Z w :I: > a:l ~ o :I: a.. Eddie Lawson gets sideways in his early-race battle with Christian. before pulling away and c losing to within 5 .27 seconds of w inner Freddie Spencer; it was too little too lat e. World Championship Road Race Series: RoundS Spencer wins twice in Belgium By Henny Ray Abrams S~A- FRA N CO R C H A M PS. BELG IU M, J ULY 7 Erv Kanemoto , the Ro thman Honda team 's chief mechanic for Freddie Spencer 's assau lt on the 250 and 500cc World Championships, was n ervous, he admitted, because at the two previous Grands Prix, Spencer had been denied double wins .A d ue to f rea k ci cIr~u ms ta n ce s. t th e Yugosl avi an round h e 18 struck a ha ybal e, a t th e Dutch T'T he was kn ock ed do wn by C h ris tia n Sarron . " You j us t wonder wh at 's go ing to go wrong next ," Kanernot o worried the morn in g of th e Belgi an GP o n th e n ewl y repaved 4.32-m ile Francorchamps circui t. Not 10 worry. Wh en th e last o f th e cro wd, o p tim istica lly estima ted a t 100,000, left lat e in th e su n-d renc hed day, Spen cer h ad romped 10 wins in bo th cl a sses. Ab o ard th e Honda RS250R-W, wh ich was unveiled for th e pr ess on th e Friday eveni ng of th e race weekend, Spen cer, who 'd qual ified 1.64 seco nds faster than Ven emotos Yamaha's Carlos Lavado, quickly ope ne d up a ga p which wou ld str etch to 12.7 seco nds over Lav ado a t th e end of th e 16-lap, 69-mi le race. It wa s hi s fifth 250cc win in a row a nd h e's now won six of eight races. With four rounds to go, Spencer leads AnIOn Mang by 34 points, 104 to 70, with Martin Wimmer third a t 69andLavadofourthwi th 6I.Shouid Spencer cl in ch the 250cc title a t th e Brit ish Grand Prix he will likel y abandon th e class a nd concent~ te. o n th e 500cc races for th e two rema in ing ro u nds in Sweden a nd Ital y. Whil e Marl boro Yamaha 's World Champion Edd ie La wson was bei ng held up in th ird pl ace beh ind th e un iquely unorthod ox rid in g style of 250cc World Champion Ch ris tia n Sar ron of Sonauto G a ul o ises in th e 500cc GP , Spencer wa s cruisi ng on a clea r track to a m ar gin of vic to ry th at was 5.27 seco n ds a t th e end o f th e 86.4-mile race. Lawson finall y pulled away from Sarron o n a bo ut th e 14th o f 20 laps and once clear open ed up a margin th at would be over 30 seco nds at th e finish . Sarron held onto third, Ro th man Honda 's Wayne Gardner wa s the best of th e three-cylinder Honda NS500 rid ers in fourth, and Lawson's teammate Raymond Ro ch e wa s fift h. Ro thman Honda 's Randy Mamola, again ridin g with a live televisio n ca m era mounted in hi s fairing, fell whi le chasi ng Ro ch e, providing spectac u la r video but not much in ~h e way o f sa ti ~ fac t io n. a nd , m o~e Im portantly, POint s. MIke Ba ldwin was bri efl y in th e to p 10, bu t was slow ed by tire troubles and fini sh ed just o u t of th e points in 11th. Spencer's gap over Lawson in the 500cc title cha se was back a t 10 points with Sarron moving back into third with 62 10 Gardner's 61. " No t a bad day at th e office," a beaming Spencer quipped at th e postrace press co n ference. Fast 125cc qualifier Fausto Gresini, on th e Garelli , survived a protest over his engine's displacem ent to win his second 125cc GP of th e year. Second, on the LCR-Krauser was Bruno Kneubueh ler and third, the best placed Belgian of th e day, was Lucio P ierro n iro , on the MBA. MBA's Pier- Paolo Bian ch i, fifth today , leads Gresini, 69 to 64, in the title cha se. Ezio Gi anola, who didn 't race h ere, is third with 42. The Sidecar GP was th e most exciting race of th e day with form er World Champion s Rol f Biland and Kurt Walti sper g a n d th ei r Rothman ' s Krau ser ri g being hounded by World Champ ion s Eg bert Streuer a nd Bernard Schnieders in th e Barclay LCRYamaha. Two laps from th e end the # Du tchman Str euer steered h is way past the Swiss Biland and when Biland bo bbled o n the last lap in th e ch ica ne i t was St reu er wit h a n easy win . Th ird went 10 th e Krauser LCRYamaha of Werner Schwaerzel a nd Fr itz Buck. Biland/Waitisperg hold 50 p oints to SchwaerzellBuck 's 49 a nd Streu er/Schnieders' 43. The ru n ni ng o f th e Belg ian Grand Prix wa s pUI into doubt by th e ca n cela tio n of th e Formula One ca r GP which was ca nceled five weeks previous 10 th e motorcycle ra ce because th e recentl y repaved tra ck was breakin g up badl y after only o ne practice session. That su rface, only a month old, was completel y tak en up and a new er surface was laid and tested a week and a half before th e rac e a nd pron oun ced fit 10 race on by a group o f rid ers a nd mechani cs. However, the group said , if th e tra ck. began to break up a fter th e rig oro us testing by the 200 rider s in th e four cl asses-especia ll y th e sideca rs-s-the n th e FIM had th e op tio n of cance lin g th e race. Once th e tra ck was opened for practi ce, mOSI fears were put to rest beca use the top q ual ifiers were a t leas t a seco nd under th e track record in each class. ' In the 250cc class, Spencer was over three seco nds under the track record and th e top nine were all under it. Spen cer was over three seco nds better than th e old mark in th e 500cc class , a lso. Three of the four 250cc qualifying sessio ns were marred by wet weather and a ll but two o f th e 36 riders from a field of 50 th at qualified turned in the ir best tim es in th e first sessio n. Spencer 's 2:26.03 wa s 3.52 seconds better th an Manfred H erweh's 2:29.55 of la st yea r. Avera g in g 99.5 mph. Spen cer wa s 1.64 seco nds better th an Lavado, riding the new beam-framed Yamaha , with Mang, on the modified producti on Honda RS250, 2.68 seco n ds behind Spencer . Parisienne's Pi erre Boll e wa s fourth fastest just a 10th of a seco nd bett er than Yam aha's Wimmer, whoa lso used th e new bike 10 qualify fifth at 2:39.30. " We took all the best pa rts from the th ree bikes we had , the IWO o ld o nes and the new one, and made one good bike which is the on e I co ncent ra ted on," Wimmer said. "The new fram e is maybe on e kilo (2.2 pounds) lig h ter , bUI 30% more rigid . It 's more stable and handles better and you ca n go harder , but not one and a half seconds harder. You need a n ew engine for th at. I know I ca n ' t ca tch Freddie, so I'll ra ce with Toni and Carlos. " Wimmer also sa id he didn 't think Yamaha would introd uce their Vtwin 250cc engine this year with the Honda so far ahead. " Wha t' s the point?" h e asked. Lavado, who also made one bike from th e best of th e bits, said of Spencer. "Just once I'd like to see him ride a Yamaha. Then maybe he 'd sweat too." A speed gun placed on the lo n g uphi ll on the front straightaway showed that, indeed, Spencer's wasn't the fastest machine. Mang was tops at 145.41 mph with Spencer second at 143.54 and Lavado and Herweh tied at 142.3. "II's true tha t he may not be the fastest at th e top end ," Wimmer said, "but h e gets th ere much quicker th an a nyone else." The hol esho t and every in ch of th e 250cc race was Spencer 's R un in bri llian t 80° sunshine, Spencer established th e front running p ace in th e 2:36 seco nd range, just over what h e qualified a t, a nd pulled a wa y at about a seco nd a lap. Man g a nd Lavado had th eir own batt le going for seco n d a nd behind th em a batt le for fourth began a mong Ca rlos Ca rd us, Boll e and Stephane Mert en s. Wimmer, wh ose bik e didn 't fire im med ia tely a t th e start, was m ovin g up. American Form ula T wo Ch ampion Don Green e, on th e D'Hol da /Eurocycle H onda , was just o u tside th e top 20 a fte r qu alifyin g 29th . Green e would ret ire two laps before th e en d o f th e race. Clearl y, Mang an d Lavado wer e pulling eac h other a lo n g, but even so , at th e halfway ma rk th ey were 11.5 seconds behind Spen cer who backed off a bo u t a second a lap and cruised 10 the win running 2:37s. Wimmer had joined Cardus and Boll e in a battle for fourth so me 23 seco nds behind th e Mang-Lavado or Lavado-Mang, because it changed severa l times a lap, duel. Belgium's hope, Mertens, h ad dropped out at th e halfway point and a lap la ter Wimmer was iri fift h . One more go -around an d he wa s in fourth with Card us h anging tough for a lap or two before Wimmer set himself free, still 20 seco nds behind third place whi ch wa s decided wh en Mang's Honda began misfiring on th e 12th lap, g ivin g Lavado second permanent ly a nd a five-second cushion a t th e checkered flag.

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