Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/126923
Newly-crowned World Champion Eddie Lawson (2) leads Wayne Gardner (4) as the two lap Alan Jeffrey (58) in the Swedish GP. Mike Baldwin (11) gets the Lucky Strike Roberts Yamaha on the grass while passing Ron Haslam (5); Rob McElnea leads the duo. World Championship Road Race Series: Round 10 Lawson takes Swedish GP and Championship By Hanny Ray Abrams ANDERSTORP, SWEDEN, AUG. 9-10 Marlboro Yamaha's Eddie Lawson won his second 500cc World Championship with a decisive win in the Swedish Grand Prix at Anderstorp, the penultimate round of the 20 World Road Race Championship. The Californian battled I with runner-up Wayne Gardner on the Rothmans Honda for half of the 30-lap, 75-mile race before pulling away in traffic to a 16-second win and an insurmountable 124-105 points lead over Gardner. ''I'm real happy for Yamaha, for Marlboro and for the team," Lawson, the 1984 titlist, said after the race. "They worked real hard and the bike was running real fast. It was very important that we win. You have to· keep your head. Mainly what I was thinking about was keeping it on two wheels. It was a difficult race." Third today went to Mike Baldwin on the Team Lucky Strike Roberts Yamaha after a race-long dice with Lawson's teammate Rob McElnea. Team Katayama Rothmans' Raymond Roche was fifth aboard the absent Freddie Spencer's NSR500 Vfour Honda. After a second last week at Silverstone, Belgian Didier de Radigues slipped to sixth, Niall MacKenzie on the injured Paul Lewis' Skoal Bandit Heron Suzuki was seventh and Team Lucky Strike Roberts' Randy Mamola, riding with a broken shoulder, dropped well behind Gardner in the battle for second in the World Championships with an eighth place finish. Mamola has 95 to Gardner's 105 with Baldwin fourth at 70 and McElnea fifth with 60. The final 500cc Grand Prix is in two weeks time at Misano, Italy. Also clinching his second World Championship this weekend was Carlos Lavadoaboard the HB Venemotos' TZ250 Yamaha. Lavado, the 1983 champion, made the proper tire choice for the changing weather conditions and rode an intelligent and tactical race to finish almost four seconds ahead of title challenger Sito Pons on the Campsa Honda in a race that was stopped two laps early and then protested. Team Katayama Rothmans' Jean-Francois Balde was third after leading early on. Lavado finished the day with 124 points, Pons with 96 and Balde 63. "I am very happy to win my second championship and I will be back next year to make it three," the popular Venezuelan said before taking the World Champion's traditional involuntary dip in the tracks ide swimming pool. World Champion Fausto Gresini kept alive his chances for retaining the title by beating points leader and Garelli teammate Luca Cadalora in 125cc action. Cadalora now leads Gresini 98 to 89 with two rounds remaining. Ducados' Domenico Brigaglia fini hed third today 26.72 seconds behind Gresini and holds third in .the point standings with 69 points. The Krauser Racing sidecar team of Alain and Jean-Michel Fresc leapfrogged to the top of the World Championship tables with a win today giving them a 69 point total. Dropping to second with 61 points was the Webster-Hewitt team who pitted to repair gear-changing problems and finished 15th. Also dropping down after dropping out were World Champions Egbert Streuer and Bernard Schnieders who seized their Barclays' LCR Yamaha on the 19thof23 laps. They fell to third with 60 points. Two riders have controlled the pole position in the 250cc class this year. Lavado had six and Yamaha Marlboro Team Agostini's Martin Wimmer earned his fourth here with a lap of 1:39.73 on the2.5-mile, eightcurve Anderstorpcircuit. Lavado was second at 1:39.77 and Garelli's Maurizio Vitali was third at I:40.23. The only others on the same second as Wimmer were the Armstrongs of Niall MacKenzie at 1:40.23 and Donnie McLeod at 1:40.28. An hour before the start of Saturday's 250cc race the 17,000 fans on hand were drenched by a passing shower which left the track wet and puddled. When the riders gridded the sun was out, but all pulled into the pits on the sighting lap, run just before the warm-up lap, for tire changes as the clouds rolled in and the rain began at the top of the narrow track. Tire choice would be the deciding factor with Lavado going with a cut slick on the rear and an intermediate on the front. Wimmer had the same combination with Sito Pons going with an intermediate on the front but a slick on the rear. Balde gambled wi th slicks front and rear. Lavado jumped into the lead and led by five seconds on the fourth of what would be a 22-lap race. Belgian Stephane Mertens led a fight for second ahead of Siegfried Minich, Vitali, Balde, Stefano Caracchi, Pons, and Alan Carter. Wimmer had dropped to 23rd trying to avoid Pons, whose brakes had failed, and run-