Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

The 500Cc Austrian GP gets underway with Lawson (2). Mamola (6). McElnea (9). Gardner (4) and Spencer (1). World Championship Road Race Series: Round 4 a". Lawson the way 'in Austriali.GP By Hanny Ray Abrams SALZBURG, AUSTRIA, JUNE 7-8 Team Marlboro Yamaha's Eddie Lawson led every lap of .the Austrian Grand Prix at Salzburg for his third consecutive 500cc vic- , tory 'in the four-race old '86 GP road race .series. Flawlessly riding the KeI Wimmer finished sec,ond with Team Carruthers-prepared Yamaha Rothma~s Katayama sJean-FrancOis 'Balde third. Mang fell LO the first d Rothmans Lawso,n pass~ practice session on Thursday, injurHot:l da s FreddIe Spencer soon ing both feet and chose not to con- 16 afterthestart of the 30-lap, 79.I-mile race to post an 11.5-second win over Spencer's teammate Wayne Gardner. Team 'Lucky Strike Roberts' Randy Mamola overcame a bad start to finish third ahead of Christian Sarron of the Gauloises Blondes Yamaha team and Mike Baldwin, also of Team Lucky Strike Roberts. Spencer's chances of repeating as World Champion were· effectively ended when he pitted while running second to Lawson on the fifth lap to replace a broken steering damper bolt. After the damper was secured, Spencer re-joined the race a lap down and hnished ~6th in his first race since the opening round in Spain a month ago. The win gives Lawson a 57-39 points edge over Gardner with four of II races completed. Baldwin is third with 36 points, one point ahead of teammate Marnola. The numbers are similar in the 250cc class where HB Venemotos Yamaha's Carlos Lavado leads ROlhmans Honda's Anton Mang 57-39afLer Lavado won his third of four GPs this season. After a midpack start, Team Marlboro Yamaha's Martin ... ~ ~. ~. ~ tinue. With his second, Wimmer moved to within a point of Mang 39-38 with eil/;ht races left to be run. After early race leader August. Auinger dropped out, Carelli's Luca Cadalora cruised to his second win in a row in the 125cc GP and the top spot in the tiLle race. Second on an MBA was fellow Italian EzioGianola with Bruno Kneubueler.of Switzerland third on an LCR. Cadalora leads World Champion Fausto Gre-. sini, who dropped outon the J Oth lap today, 46 to 42 after: four races. Gianola is in third with 32 points. Derbi factory riders Jorge Martinez and Manuel Herreros took top honors in the 80cc GP with Martinez winning by just over seven seconds. Third went to Pier Paolo Bianchi on a Seel. Martinez, however, trajls Herreros by four points, 46-42. Krauser Racing's . World Champion Stefan Doerflinger, fifth today, is third with 35 points. Reigning World Champions Egbert Streuer and Bernard Schnieders had an easy time winning the second sidecar GP of the young season, finishing 9.81 seconds ahead -of the Seward LCR of Steve Webster and Tony Hewitt. Krauser Racing's Alain ..; Michel and Jean-Marc Fresc finished ·third. Barclay's Streuer/Schnieders have a perfect 30 points with Steve Abbott and Shaun Smith. fourth her.e, second with ·18 and Michel/Fresc third at 15. After many years of listening to complaints that Salzburg was one of the most dangerous GP circuits, the track management decided to implement some changes. Where there was _ formerly a flat-out, sixth-gear rightha,nd kink two-thirds of the way dow'n the front straight called the Emcokurve, a first/second gear chicane was installed. And on the elevated top'portion of the backstraight, where the 500s approach ·180 mph, a left-hand.kink was straightened giving the' riders a straighter approach to the d,Clwnhill right-hand Fahrerlagerkurve (paddock curve). The riders welcomed the second alteration, but universally condemned the chicane. Among the compLaints were its oneline narrowness" the placing ofhay. bales on the approach to it, the placement of the ambulance on the outside of itin the Ii ne of a fallen rider, and the fact that in qualifying you had to go almost straight into it while entering fifth-gear traffic. Going down the slip road inside the chicane solved the last problem and the ambulance and haybales were moved, but the riders stillthoughi it too narrow and awkward and asked that it be made more fluid before nexryear's race. Among the casualties of the chicane was Gauloises' Sarron who was rear-ended by Gardner in the final, and only dry, practice session. Sarron., who's already crashed twice this year injuring his left foot, was taken to the mobile medical clinic, where he was joined by a concerned Gardner after the incident. 'I just went in a little hot and bumped him," Gardner admitted. "I told him I was· sorry, but I had nowhere to go." Sarron, who didn't like the chicane before the crash, liked it less afterwards. Leveraging the bike through the turns was extremely painful. especially the left-handers. "The worst one is the left after the chi.cane," he said during an impromptu press conference from the seat of his pit bike. "I should be tutkeq in, but 'instead I'm sitting upright i'n th-e seat without a lot of controL and wobbling badly. I can barely use my foot in the left-hand corners." He e.nded up sixth in qualifying, juSt inside the second row on the grid. The. first row was Lawson at 1:22.06, Mamola at 1:22.74, McElnea at L:22.77 then Gardner (L:22.88) and with a I :23.01 was Spencer. As usual, Lawson tried to minimize the importance of qualifying. "When you get four or five guys running together in the race there will be a lot of drafting and passing. At a lot of tracks like Nurburging and Rijeka you can get away. Here, if you get away they. can catch you," Lawson said. "The top five guys are all on the same second. Freddie will be right up there. Randy will go good, so will Gardner. If Christian didn't get hurt he'd be right there_" He predicted the pace would be high 1:22s. Gardner agreed, adding that gearing for the long uphill backstraight was critical. "If you don't have the bike right, you're in trouble. Especially when we get into traffic." Gardner added that although his right leg, injured in a start-line incident at Monza, "isn't 100%, it hasn't bothered me at all." . Next to Gardner on the grid was Spencer, who suffered through the final practice session with a clutch that wouldn't disengage, overheating in the process and lowering corner speeds. But the bigger question mark than the clutch was his right wrist. Spencer had been icing it down between sessions and had an aerosol can of cold spray to numb it before and during each session.. "It bothered me going into the chicane and on the downhill back part of the track. It puts so much pressure on it that the muscle swells and pinches off the ner-ve and I lose feeling in my hand." With only one fully dry practice session, Spencer wasn't sure if the wrist would make the race distance. Making the distance was also on Baldwin's mind. He had three motors go bad during practice and was hardpressed to set the bike up properly. "It's not geared right on the front straight, the back chute, or coming OUt of the chicane. We're playing catch up. It's not a tough circuit, but it's a peculiar track because it's like no other one we see." Due to his foot injury, Sarron was permitted by the FIM to have one of his mechanics give him a push-start at the beginning of the race. Hawever, instead of the sixth spot where he qualified, he was put on the back of the grid, but on the outside. He had a clear shot up the side of the pack and got away about sixth in the 33-rider field. . The holeshot was Spencer's followed by Roche, Gardner, Baldwin, HasLam, Gustav Reiner, and Lawson. But by the time they came out of the chicane toward the end of the Straight, Lawson was second. "Going into the chicane I was seventh. I stuffed about five guys and bounced off Roche. I wanted to catch Freddie. I JUSt went up the inside. It was 'a desperate move, but it had to be done. I couldn't let him get away. We went • around the right-hander at the bottom and Freddie looked back and saw me and I knew he couldn't believe it," Lawson said. ' "Usually you can feel yourself being drafted," Spencer offered. "There's a slight pull backwards. I never even fe\.t that. Eddie JUSt went around me on the outside in the left as we went up the hill. It reminded me of 1983 when I was on the three-cylinder and Kenny went by me on the four." Spencer settled in behind Lawson with the pair running low 1:23s as the track.became completely dry and the tires, Heated '\ip. Gardner Was' ,

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