Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

..... ... 0. < The start, riders running across the track to their bikes. (Below) The winning Honda en route to victory, with a 1985 engine. Riders from the first and second-place Rothmans Honda teams whoop it up on the winner's stand, surrounded by the crush of fans. Endurance Road Racing World Cha m~lonshl~ series: Round 1 Honda dominates at Le Mans By Peter Clifford Photos by Kel Edge LE MANS. FRANCE, APRIL 12-1!I The works Rothmans Hondas started the 1986 season as they had ended 1985, by dominating the Le Mans 24-hour race. A variety of rain, sleet, a touch of snow and freezing cold could not stop World Champions Patrick Igoa and Gerard Coudray, who, aided by Alex Vieira, led th e race 18 comforta bly o nce th e Son auro Gaulo ises Yama ha ridden by Christi an Sarron, Rich ard Hubin and Pi erre Eti enne Samin ha d been slowed by crashes a nd mechanical problems. Sar ro n qual ified on the pol e with a lap at I minu te, 38.6!1 seconds and th e Yam aha Gen esis , slig h tly modified an d hopefu lly more relia ble than the 1985 version , was much faster than th e opposition. From the start Coudray sto rmed into th e lead on th e Rothmans Honda Number One machine , follow ed by Pierr e Bolle on th e team 's second mach in e. Sa rro n was th ird, but o n lap four he swep t into the lead to a huge cheer fro m th e crowd pack in g th e start and fin ish gra ndsta nds. By lap six Sa rron was already passin g back markers a nd pu lling wel I clear of the Hondas. By th e tim e Sarron ended his fir st sessi on he was a minute ahead o f the H onda and had lapped all but th e first th ree. The bike looked as fast as it had at Suzuka and the Bol D'Or last year but in his second session Samin fell. Then Hubin had a serious crash which put them well back. Hubin fell at the long, sweeping La Musee' curve, then remounted only to crash harder at the next corner, his bike's brakes having been damaged in the first fall. Every piece of fiberglass on th e machine needed changing as did the brakes and lights, Further problems hindered the machine all through the race; the rear cush drive broke up and Samin even lost his visor and had to return to the pits. While the Yamaha battled back to finish fourth , the Number One Honda cruised on to win. The Number Two Honda ridden by Dominique Sarron, Bolle and J ean-Louise Battistini was sligh tly faster in pr actice, but Sarron fell on the warm-up lap and hurt his shoulder. He could not ride and although the bike started on lime with Bolle aboard, the two riders on their own could not match the Number One machines's pace for the full 24 hours. They also started with a handicap wh en Boll e had to return to the pits twice in th e first 15 minutes for duct tape to be removed from th e radiator, As Sarron had not co mpleted th e warm-up the team had not been able to judge how much tape was required to keep th e engi ne tem perat ure up under the cold condi tio ns. The Hondas were very simi lar to those used to win th e cha m pionship in 1985 with onl y minor cha nges. The team is still waiting for new VFR-based racin g engines. wh ich may not be ava ila ble befor e th e Su ztika Eig h t H our in J apan. BUI th e welltried Hondas ra n pe rfectly a nd the mech an ics o nly had to p u t gas in them a nd change the wheels. T hat's a very d ifferent story to 12 months previously, wh en the frames had bro ken , The works Suzu ki ridden by H erve Mo inea u , Bruno Le Bihan and Eri c Delcamp finish ed a good third but their teammates, j ean-Pierre Oudin, Jean Monn in a nd Er ic Sabatier were put out of action a t 4:04 a.m. Sunday morning when Sabarier crashed at high speed in th e right-hand corn er after the pits. He was lucky to escape with a broken collarbone; the team had been in fourth place at the time, three laps behind the first Suzuki. It was bad luck for Suzuki; in the dark, Sabatier must have run over the damp white line marking the inside edge of the track. Both Suzukis had been running without any problems except for a lack of power compared with the Hondas and the Yamaha, The Suzuki France-entered works machines avoided the rod and piston failures hitting so many Yosh imura engines but the privately-entered mach ine ridden by Graeme McGreggor, Jean Basselin and Luc Morel went out that way aft er little more than two hours. Their Benetton-sponsored teammates finished fifth with Christian LeLiard. Thierry Espie and JeanPaul Boinet sufferi ng onl y minor problems. The privat e Harris Yamaha ridden by Ken Irons. Matt Ozley and Vesa Kultalahti would ha ve been poised to take over fourth but Oxley also slid off under braking at the first hairpin and lost tim e getting back on the bike and making minor repairs in the p its . Later th e acci de nt was 10 cost them more dearly as damaged wiring shorted out with just over a n hour to go; Kultalahti had to push back to th e pits for repair as th e team dropped to seventh, • Results 1. Coudray/ Igo a/Vie ira (Hon), 748 teps. 1971 miles; 2. D. Sarron/Bolle/Battist ini (Honl. 742 laps. 1929 m iles; 3 . Mo ineau/Le Bihan/Oelcamp (Suzl, 736 lap s, 1914 miles: 4. C. Sarron /Samin/ · Hub in (Yam). 718 laps . 1867 m iles; 5 . Le Liard / 8o inet/Espie ISuzl . 718 lap s. 1867 mil es; 6. Mo u che t /Goy/Bouheben (Suz). 7 16 laps. 18 59 mi le s: 7 . Oxl ey / Ku ltalaht i/lron s (Yam), 71 2 laps, 185 1 miles; 8 . Brand /Fl ameli ng /Ben el man (Yam). 7 11 laps, 1849 miles : 9. Chev81ieri S avary /Cheva lley IHon) 690 laps, 179 4 miles; 10. Skold/Linden / Hagstr om (Ho n) 68 2 laps. 1773 miles . TIM E OF RACE: 23 hours. 59 minu tes. 34 .9 seconds . AVE RAGE SPEED: 82.13 mph FASTEST LAP: Coudrav. 1 minute 37.6 seconds. 97 .18 mph

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