Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

Yamaha's Taira pushes the bike in the Suzuka pits. for th e j apanese factories the pres tige of winn ing in front of their home crowd seem ed of much grea ter importance. The Fren ch Honda and Suzuki teams co ul d get on with th eir battle for th e cha mp ionship - the factories wo uld fight to win th e event. Accordingly , Honda had its domes(Above) Mike Baldwin (2) shared a works Honda with Dominique Sarron and finished second. (Below) Kenny tic test rider T akao Abe partnered by Roberts teamed with Tadahiko Taira, set the fastest qualifying time and led until the Yamaha FZR750 broke. Keiji Kinosh ita on another RVF750 V-four; H iro yuki Kawasaki partnered Shinichi Ueno on a second Yamaha '2:22.297 lap. With only 0.17 seco nds between th eir qu a l if ying tim es, . FZ750and Suzuk i was rep resen ted by Roberts a nd T aira emerged as the Yosh imura rider s Shosuke Kita and mo st potent and even ly-ma tched team Satoshi T sujirno to . in the race. It was a promo ter's dr eam . Factory After Friday's qualifying sessio ns, versus factory, Roberts versus C ardthe re was more practice before the ner, Intern ational s versus j apanese final time trials Saturday. Roberts .. . and 241,000 fan s turned up to was hard at wo rk, switchi ng back wat ch . wards and forwards between the two By then, Roberts had sur prised works bik es he a nd Taira had at their everyo ne with a 2:19.956 qualifying disposal. And while th e veterans of lap to gr ab pole pos ition in the final the World Endurance Championsh ip session o n Saturday. T here was little - th e Fren ch Honda and Suzuki doubt Kenny had a p sychological team s - put th e final tou ches to the ir advanta ge. Even so, many questioned th e Yamaha 's ability to go th e disma chines, th e Yamaha mechan ics were hard a t work checki ng and reranee, pointing out that in the last checki ng th e smallest details. four japanese Formula One races, Yamaha was deadly seri o us about th e FZs had only made it to th e finish on ce. its end ura nce racing debut. By contracting Roberts for th e race, it had Gardner had indica ted he felt confocu sed more attention on the Suzfident a bo ut getting int o th e 2:19s on uka even t th an ever before. the Honda if he had to, but ad mi tted After Gardner had won th e Suzuka th at Rob er ts' qualifyin g tim e had 2oo-kilometerrace ona works RVF750 taken him by surp rise. H e had felt H onda V-four in June, his photo certain no on e would better his own a p pea red o n th e huge billboards used lap time, and as a result, he hadn 't gone out in th e Saturday sessions. to promote the Eight-H our, th e th ird round of th e 1985 World Endurance But qual ifyin g times for an enduChampionsh ip. ranee race ar e largely irrelevant -it's And with Roberts ' entry, the profin ish ing th at co unts. meters j u mped at the chance to build And with an hour left to run. up th e event as a Yamaha-Honda batRoberts and T aira looked like finBy Mike Esdaile d e, with Gardner facing th e vast talishers as well as winners. TheShiseido ent of Roberts. Yamaha hadn 't missed a beat and SUZUKA CITY, JAPAN, J ULY 28 Apart from Roberts and Gardner. they had turned in an almost copyth e race boasted the best international book race. 0 line-up in its eight year history . Texan Almost, because shooting for a Kevin Schwanu partnered 1980 race good getaway from the LeMans start. winner Graeme Crosby on a YoshiRoberts appeared to stall the bike and mura Suzuki GSXR750; three-time had trouble getting it to fire up. As winner Mike Baldwin shared a works the field streaked awa y, his japanese Honda with Frenchman Dominique mechanics raced out and pushed him Sarron; Australians Rob Phillis and off the grid to get the Yamaha to fire lead and Yamaha's chances of strated that two-stroke or four. he can Kevin Magee teamed on a Moriwaki into life. victory in its first endurance still !Oa.tch it with anyone. CBX750; reigning World Endurance That was Kenny 's first problem. . forav were lc ki d His ume was the second fastest of Champions Patrick Igoa and Gerard Not only did he have to fight his way racmg or~y ~ere 00 mg goo . the session, bettered only by the Coudry were hunting for points on through the field - he also had to The Shiseido-backed FZ7502:20.799 . lap clocked by Honda's their Honda France RVF750 V-four face the prospect of either a one-lap based works Yamaha they shared was Wayne Gardner. And whereas Ausand Suzuki France turned up with or one-minute penalty, whichever quite clearly the fastest bike on the tralian Gardner is almost a veteran of 1983 world champions Herve Moithe FIM jury felt the most approtrack. and both riders had used it to the Suzuka circuit, this was Kenny's neau and Richard Hubin on one priate, for his assisted start. devastating effect. first race on the demanding 3.23-mile works GSXR750 and jean Pierre And his second problem was After turning a 2-m inute. 22.470 co urse. Oudin and Patrick de Radigues on Gardner. second lap on the eighth of 12 qualiWhile Gardner slipped off to cool another. Gardner may not yet be well known fying laps on the Friday morning his heels in the pool , Taira went out A round of the World Endurance in the U.S. , but it was here he made before the race. Roberts haddemon- ·.• , in the second session and reeled.nll a.,....__ ChampionshipiLZDa¥-have.been.b,..............Is first step onto the international . Gardner wins after Roberts breaks · . G oing Into t h e f' I hour f the 1985 Suzuka Ina Eight-Hour World Championship endurance race, Kenny Roberts and Japanese corider Tadahiko Taira were holding a strong 14

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