Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

Kenny Roberts put the Lucky Strike Yamaha VZF750 into second at the start. but teammate Mike Baldwin crashed in the fifth hour. Wayne Gardner (seen here) teamed up with Dominique Sarron aboard a Honda RVF750. The pair dominated the race. leading from start to finish. Texan Kevin Schwantz prepares to take over the Yoshimura Suzuki GSXR750 from Satoshi Tsujimoto. They qualified fifth. finished third. Michael Dowson (17) leads Takumi Ito in mid-race action. Dowson and fellow Australian Kevin Magee finished second on a Yamaha YZF750. World Championship Endurance Road Race Series: Round 3 . GardnerjSarron all the way/in Suzuka B-Hour By Ross Inglis Photos by Atushi Beesho SUZUKA CITY. JAPAN, JULY 27 The story of the '86 Suzuki Eight-Hour was the story of Wayne Gardner, Dominique Sarron and a very special Honda endurance bike. Nobody seemed to know what was inside tlie winning HRC R VF750 that was supplied to Australian Gardner and his French partner, Sarran. But .4 3 "t" everyone in the pits knew it was fast. Clyde Wolfenden, the Team Honda Australian race boss, explained it this way: The Gardner/ arron machine was an '86 R VF, the three other RVF in the race were '85 bikes. Efardner-mm eH-ccruIWr-~opply. any information on the bike. ''I'm doing the same times as [ was at this stage last year," he said the day before the race. "The bike is good, of course, but [don't know what's in the engine. All [ know is that it's an R VF750." Fair enough. But Gardner's qualifying time - and it was almost two seconds under his 1985 mark-backed up the pit lane gossip. The bike rocketed around the 3.6-mile Suzuka track irr-2-minotes: 18:923 secmrds, mor than a second clear of Kenny Roberts' second quickest clocking of 2:20.19, That domination tran lated into race day. [n front of over 150,000 spectators, Gardner hot away at the beginning and left everyone else to son themselves out in his wake. When he handed the Honda over to Sarron after an hour and two minutes, he gave the Frenchman a lead of over 30 seconds. Sarron held that gap over Mike Baldwin and, alter another hour, gave the bike back to Gardner to do more of the same. In fact, the Honda team never looked like it was going to lose. When Sarron collected the che kered flag at race end, he had a gap of two laps and about half a minute over the eventual econd place fini hers, Kevin Mageeand his Marlboro Yamaha teammate, Suzuka newcomer Michael Dowson. What happened to the heavyweight opposition, the Kenny Roberts and Christian arrons of the road racing world? Well. the Lucky Strike team of Robens and Mike Baldwin seemed to stan the race already resigned to losing. Their '86 Yamaha Genesis YZF750 was beautifully presented and was said to be much improved over last year's bike, but it just wouldn't handle the way the Americans wanted. "We're just trying to get this bike to go around corners," Baldwin said before the race. "The basic problem is that it's too long. It'll turn in, but as soon as you get the gas on it heads straight into the grandstand." In fact, the handling problems accounted for Baldwin paning company from the YZF during practice on Saturday. Baldwin, a three-time winner of the Eight-Hour, jacked the bike's rear suspension up as much as possible in an effon to get around corners more quickly. He hit a bump on one cornet and bdrh'wheetn:al1lE' 0[£ the ground, throwing Baldwin into the din. Baldwin wasn't hurt and the bike appeared to suffer no major damage. At the stan Roben soned it into second place after a tussle with the YZF750 of Christian Sarron, and seemed ready to stay there for good. Neither Robens nor Baldwin could make any impression on the Honda of Gardner and Sarron. Nor could anyone else threaten them seriously for second position. Two minutes shon of the fifth complete hour Robens pitted. The Lucky Strike tearn filled a new rear tire and sent Baldwin oUlto do what he could to the more than one-minute gap Gardner had on them. He headed 0[£ down the track and then, to his horror, the bike topped dead underneath him. Baldwin came to a halt in front of a packed hillside jut before the Dunlop Bridge, climbed 0[£ the Yamaha, in pected it quickly and then slaned pushing it up the road, Gardner pilled about 10 minutes later, just as Baldwin was coasting his dead motorcycle down the pit road. The Yamaha, which had been the only bike still on the same lap as Gardner/Sarron, was now 0[[ the leaderboard, The team traced the error to a fuel line that had been badly secured at the last stop. Baldwin scorched out of the pits again, although his l6-minute stop and the compulsory penalty he incurred for shon-cutting the circuit on the way back had put his team right out of the race. Then 40 minutes later. with just over twO hours left to run, Baldwin crashed while passing a slower rider. He stalked away from the fallen Yamaha, the Lucky Strike effon now completely finished. The other major international Yamaha effon. the hise'do-b~cked_ YZF150T f CY.Ustian· art-on and jaP.'"

• Cover