Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

Austra lian Wayne Gardner rode the final two hours to give Honda the win after trailing the Roberts/Taira team for most of the way. (Above) New Zealander Greame Crosby rode with Texan Kevin Schwantz to take third (Below) The victors ce lebrate on the winner's rostrum. stage, fini sh ing fourth in th e Da ytona Superbike race in 198!. Since then , he ha s spe nt four years racing in Brit a in, th e last three on works H onda Formula One bikes. After winning the British F- I Championship back-to-back in 1983 and '84, Gardner em barked on a fu1l 500cc Ch ampionship ca m paign on a works NS500 triple at th e sta rt o f 1985. But unl ik e most o ther top 500cc GP riders, Gardner has a lso raced four-strokes during the year, winning an F-I race at Suzuka in Mar ch an d an end ura nce ra ce th ere in june. Wh il e Ro berts had battled up through the field in the first hour, " Gardner had pulled out a very strong lead over Coudray on the French Honda and Baldwin , with the French Suzu kis trailing behind run ning in formation . By the time Robert s pitted at the 50-minute mark, th ough, he had slotted the Yamaha into second place. Taira went out and quickly got on the pace so that when Masa ki Toku no took over fro m Gardner , the gap to the leaders bega n to close dramatica lly . Whi le Taira cou ld ma tch Roberts' times, Tokuno was three to four seconds a la p slower th a n Gardner. j ust over halfway through the second hour, Taira caught Tokuno and the H onda, passing for the lea d on th e run out of the hairpin. He then proceeded to pu ll away at th ree to four seconds a lap while Gardner sat watching in the pits, fuming that his strong lead had now turned into a deficit. In third place, Dominique Sarron had closed the gap to now-secondplaced Tokuno from 50 to 20 seconds when the second lo t of fuel stops came around. Robert s and Taira elected to change a rear tire, which meant a 49-second pit stop that allowed Tokuno to regain the lead befo re handing back over to Gardner. When Gardner went ou t to start the th ird hour, he was ru nning the " same rea r Dun lop he'd started on but Roberts h ad a fresh rea r Michel in radial and caught the Australian before he 'd got back up to race pace. But Gardner came back and two laps a fter Roberts had passed him , he was back in front . T he pa ir of them th en proceeded to turn o n a wheel-towheel d ice before Gardner finally got the upper hand and pulled away, driving the V-Iour Ho nda hard off the turns to build up a big enough cushion to prevent Roberts smoking him on the straight. Roberts co u ld afford to let him go, fray , Robert s was leading by 1:47 and Tokuno was a furt her 22 seconds adrift in th ird - almost a lap down. Gardner's team knew there was now on ly one possib le way for him to win - ride the fina l two one-hour sessio ns back-to-back. They put the proposition to Gardner, and he said he would try. " With temperatures in the mid-80s and high humidity, Gardner knew he was lett in g himself in for a lot of physical stress but was determined to try and win. To do that he had to pull a whole lap back on Robert s and Taira in two hours - a tall order in an yone's estima tion . With Taira and Tokuno pitting together, Ro bert s and Gardner came back out nose-to-tail and the crowd looked on in eager anticipation. Quickly settling into the groove, Gardner started clicking off 2:22 lap times - the faste st of the race edged away from Ken n y a nd set about the task of unlap pin g himself. His charge carried hi m pas t Dom inique Sarron, who had taken over from Ba ld win after G ardn er a nd Roberts ca me o nto th e track and by the en d of the seventh hour, the flying young Aussie ha d taken 50 seconds o ff Robert s' lead. It was a gutsy display, but that still left a mi nu te and 35 seconds to pull o u t of T a ira 's lead after Robert s pitted - if you didn' t count the possible pe nalty hangi ng over the Yamaha team. With 35 minutes to go, Gardner h ad whittled that back to a minute an d a few seco nds, and he was trimming more orr th e lead every lap. Taira kn ew Gardner wa s in relentless knowing by now that Taira would be a ble to easilv deal with Tokuno, Gardner's partner. just like a chai n , an en d ura nce rac e team is o n ly as strong as its weakest link, which Roberts was quick to appreciate. Late in th e thi rd hour, Gera rd Coudry crashed in th e fast right-hand curve a pp roach ing the hairpin, and with him went Honda's chances o f goin g into th e lead in " e en durance th cha m pions hi p. Befor e Suzuka, Coud ra y an d Igoa were tied on 27 points with the little-known Swedish Suzuki pair , Anders Anderson a nd Per j ansso n , but the Swedes didn 't look likely to beat the Honda pair, until Coudry decked it. Streaking past th e crash site on th e Yoshimura Suzuki, Kevin Schwantz reported what looked like a connecting rod a nd bits of a piston laying on the track. He specula ted that when the Honda had gone down, it had landed on its throttle, sticking it wide open and blowing the motor. Certainly Coudry had no success in restarting it and was un abl e to push it back to the pits. Gardner was beginning to expe rience bad rear wheel chatter tow ard th e end of the third hour, so a fresh rear tire wa s fitted when he pitted. That cost him the lead as Tokuno returned to the fray second befo re Baldwin p us hed h im down to third before he, too , pitted. Tokuno held second briefly, then Sarron came out of the pits, reeled him in and snatched the runner-up placing. Pitting j ust before the halfwa y point, Tokuno handed over to Gardner in a 50-second stop for fresh rubber front and rear so that by the time Gardner came back out, Taira pounced to lap him. A few la ps later, Taira was in for tires and fuel and Ro bert s went out, still leading, with Baldwin second, 26 seconds back and G ardner just ove r a minute in arrears of the flying Yamaha. Gardner was u nable to close on Ro bert s bu t got past Baldwi n for seco nd. Ro bert s was really sm oking in th is session , the fifth ho u r o f the race, and at one poi nt was one m in ute a nd 24 seco nds ahead o f Gardner, before Gard ne r closed it u p to j ust over a mi n u te. Ro berts ' lap tim es were a model of consistency, 2:24.59 for lap 115; 2:24.60 for lap 119. T a ira maintai ned a similar pa ce through the six th hour but aga in Tokuno dropped back, a n d Sar ron was up to second befor e handin g over to Baldwin with 2~ hours to go. Shortly aft er Baldwin rejoin ed th e purs uit bu t seemed u na ble to ma tch the Honda ace 's times. Then it ha p pened. The Yama ha puffed smo ke and slowed dramatically an d Gard ner was th ro u gh into the lead. Then he ha d to battl e fatigue and hypervent ila tio n to stay o n the Honda to the finish . Somehow he did it, and thousands of cheering japanese spectators sto rmed across the track to congratu la te him. An d that was almost the scariest moment of the race. With more fans pushing in an ever-tightening ring, Gardner was almost smothered and only quick thinking by his pit crew saved him. As it was , the Honda was knocked over and trampled in the melee. The crowd scene indicated the japanese felt they had just seen a giant-killing performance and Gardner was carried away exhausted, al most delirious, but victorious. For Yamaha, it was a bitter blow after such a brilliant showing and one can on ly speculate on the outcome ha d Gard ner not elected to carry the fig h t back to Rob erts and Tai ra in those final two ho urs. Many felt Taira had been pushing the bik e too ha rd in th e last session, a n d in fact , he apo logized to the crowd on th e fin ish line for his failure. T he Yamaha tea m felt the mo st likely cause of the bike stopping was some valves touch ing a piston o r pis to ns , an d fro m the ra tt ly sound of the motor when T aira got it to the finish line, that seems highly likely. For Robert s, and Yam aha , it was a case of so near, but so far. And for Gardner, it was unquestionably the hardest race of his life. • 15

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