Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

(Above) Eddie Lawson (2) leads eventual winner Wayne Gardner (4) and Raymond Roche (7) in early 500cc GP action in Spain. (Below) Lawson. Gardner and Mike Baldwin. World Championship Road Race Series: Round 1 Gardner wins his .first GP i~ Spain By Hanny Ray Abrams jARAMA, SPAIN, MAY 4 Australian Wayne Gardner, in his Rothmans Honda H~am debut aboard the NSR500 Honda, won his first ever Grand Prix in the Gran Premia de Espana after his teammate, World Champion Freddie Spencer, dropped out with tendonitis in .. . . . his nght wnst while holding a 10-second lead on the 15th lap. 24 Gardner, the first Australian to win a 500cc Grand Prix since jack Findlay won the 1977 Austrian race, passed second-place finisher Eddie Lawson on the Marlboro Team Agostini on the eighth of 37 laps and held on for a ,2.l-second win. Team Lucky Strike Roberts' Mike Baldwin and Randy Mamola finished third and fourth respectively. Christian Sarron, on the Team Gauloises Blondes Yamaha, was fifth. The best race of the day was the 250cc in which HB Venemotos Yamaha's Carlos Lavado picked up the pace two-thirds of the way through to post a 2.2-second win over Rothmans Honda's Anton Mang with Sito Pons (Caml?~,Hon~)andMarlboroTeam A~osum s Martm Wlm~er(Ya,!!a;ha) thud and fourth respectIvely, flmshing on the same second as Pons. Italian Garelli rider Fausto Gre- sini began the defense of his l25cc World Championship with a narrow win over fellow countryman Domenico Brigaglia with MBA's Ezio Gianola third. Spanish Derbi aces jorge Martinez, multi-time World Champion Angel Nieto and Manuel Herreros topped the field in the 80cc race. Of the top 10 riders in the 500cc class, only three, Spencer, Lawson, and Sarron, didn't change teams. New to the frontline Rothmans Honda team was Gardner. Former Skoal Bandit Suzuki rider Rob Mc£lnea joined Lawson on the Marlboro Agosini team, and Kenny Roberts signed up Mamola and Baldwin for his Lucky Strike team. Roberto Gallina signed up Zimbabwean, Dave Petersen and Italian Pier Chili for his HB Suzuki team and Australian Paul Lewis joined the Skoal Bandit Heron Suzuki team. Spaniard juan Garriga began the.campaign as the only nonjapanese-mounted rider on the Cagiva four-cylinder. That made II factory four-cylinder riders. Among the NS500 three-cylinder Honda riders, Ron Haslam moved to the EI£ Honda team, Raymond Roche joined Takazumi Katayama's Rothmans Honda team and Belgian Didier de Radigues stayed with tuner Alain Chevallier with sponsorship from Rollstar, an American publishing company specializing in the entertainment field. Spencer, fully recovered from the personal and physical problems that sidelined him at Daytona, and Gardner tested at jarama the week before the Grand Prix so it was no surprise that in open practice on Thursday they were the two fastest riders on the completely new' NSR Honda. The only visible difference were the white cast magnesium wheels, but other changes weren't visible. Both thecenter of gravity and powerband were lowered to make it more rideable and it lost about nine pounds through various weight-saving measures. Averaging 83.79 mph over the 2.06mile, 13-corner jarama circuit, Spencerwason the pole at l:28.48. Gardner was second at l:28.81 with Yamahas taking the next four ·spots. Lawson did a l:29.20, Baldwin l:29.24, Mamola I :29.39, and McElnea's best was a I :29.63 in the final of the four 45minute sessions. "In the third session we decided on the race set-up. My fast lap came with three minutes' to go in the session. We're set up for the race in the last session so I can see how it works doing a bunch of consistent laps," Spencer said. The choice for front tires was 16 or l7 -inch and he showed up on the grid with the l6. "The steering isn't that much quicker, but it gets from side-to-side better." After last week's testing, Spencer decided he would go back to last year's powerband. Gardner crashed, unhurt, late in the final practice session. "Falling off was stupid, but it's behind me. I tried too hard. I was too nervous because it's my first works ride." Gardner, whose bike shook violently going up the hill under the Firestone Bridge, was asked if he could keep up that· pace for 37 laps. "No, I don't think I can if it's hot and I don't think Freddie can. My ambition is to finish in the top three." Unofficially, Lawson's Yamaha W'lS the fastest at the end of the 90-yard front straight, clocking 163 mph, but he was struggling to find the right combination. "I changed everything in the last session," Lawson said. "Rebound, compression, pre-load, carburetion, gearbox. We've had a problem with carburetion all week." But his third place qualifying time didn't concern Lawson. "I think everyone is taking qualifying times too seriously. The guys that don't make mistakes are the ones that will finish up front. Freddie is good at that. If Wayne stays on the bike he'll be a factor. " With Michelin supplying tires to all of the top teams a pecking order has developed according to Gerard Fayol, manager of the Michelin technical crew. "We have four top develment riders who get priority: Freddie, Eddie, Wayne, and Randy. Christian, Mike, and Rob get second choice. It's difficult supplying tires at the beginning of the year because the riders haven't made up their minds as to what tire they like using the most. After the choice is clear the quantity will not be such a problem." Baldwin was trying a new rear radial tire in the last session after doing consistent 29s in the morning session. "That'll be the pace," Baldwin said. 'Tm confident in the 32-33 lap range I can do those times." Up front, Baldwin was using a bias-ply tire as was teammate Mamola, who fell off twice in practice, including the last session. "My ankle is killing me. I did 150K backwards into the haybales, putting a hole the size of a baseball in the wheel," Mamola said. ''I'm faster with the bias in front. It's easier to steer, but less forgiving. I just went in too fast." After the practice Mamola, who doesn't like this race track, walked the circuit with Roberts. "This track is a very demanding track to come to and say you're comfortable. I'm doing a second faster than I did on the Honda. It's going to be a long race. I just want to finish," Mamola said. After three days of brilliant, cloudless sunshine, race day was cloudy and drizzling, with temperatures in the mid-50s. All of the riders tried various hand-cut slicks and rain tires in the morning practice session, but when the riders gridded the track was cold and dry and all of the riders were on slicks. Before the start Lawson said "Freddie and Wayne will just go. We're just going to have to be ready for that. The bike has been starting. I'm going to take a lot of steps. I'm not going to take any chances." Turn one arrived and Spencer was first with Roche second and Lawson stuffing into third. Gardner was fourth, McElnea fifth, Gustav Reiner sixth, de Radigues seventh, and Sarron eighth. Baldwin and Mamola were botn in the back quarter or the 26-rider field. "I was too nervous at the start," Baldwin said later. "I didn't get the clutch in soon enough and it bogged."

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