Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

Mamola's teammate Mike Baldwin was running a safe second until four laps from the finish when he crashed the Yamaha. Team Lucky Strike Roberts' Randy Mamola won the rain-sodden opening round of the 600cc championship; Mamola won by over 40 seconds. Japan's Takumi Ito gave Suzuki an unexpected trip to the winner's rostrum when he rode the new V-four to third place in its GP debut. World Championship Road Race Series: Round 1 Mamola wins Japanese.GP By Michael Scott SUZUKA, JAPAN, MAR. 29 Randy Mamola won a convincing firstround victory in the rain-soaked Japanese GP, while other favorites fell by the w,\yside, victims in one way or another of slippery 2 conditions on the difficult Suzuka circuit. I and his Rothmans Honda in Australian Wayne Gardner herited a lucky second place, after Mamola's Lucky Strike Roberts Yamaha teammate Mike Baldwin slid off while comfortably ahead of him with less than four laps to go, and Japan's Takurni Ito gave the new Suzuki V-4 an entirely unexpected third place, after last-lap drama saw both Ron Haslam and practice leader Niall Mackenzie crash out. Their misfortune lifted Pier Chili to fourth, while Haslam remounted to finish fifth ahead of Japan's Yamaha star Tadahiko Taira. Reigning champion Eddie Lawson, meantIme, started off badly, and got worse. After the first GP racing clutch start had seen the whole field take off safely, he ran off the track on the first lap, proof positive that Marlboro-Yamaha team manager Kel Carruthers' gamble on intermediate tires had not paid off. He. pulled in to change Ute back wheel, and rejoined over half a lap behind, but retired because he was making no impression on the race. It may have been another mistake. After a spate of crashes - there were only 15 finishers - Eddie would surely have been able to get into the top 10, and at least score a few points to gain some advantage over Freddie Spencer, who did not start. In a slightly drier 250cc race, Japan's Masaru Kobayashi, on a Honda NSR, led from SlartLO finish, a convincing demonstration of the value of circuit experience over the twisting track and risin~ and falling ground of this challengmg circuit. GP regulars SiLO Pons from Spain and Reinhold Roth from Germany showed their meule in taking second and third. Amazingly, both Honda NSR riders were on slick rear tires, but a drier first half meant that riders with potentially more useful wet weather or interniediate tires had lost their advantage when their tires overheated. The first Yamaha home was German Martin Wimmer's in fifth. Practice sessions had shown the new Hondas to have taken the lead in both classes. The new wide-angle V-4 NSR500, with Yamaha-style forward-facing carburetors, and exhaust power valves replacing the ATAC power chambers was faster than the virtually unchanged Yarnahas both jn acceleration and top speed, and handled well too.' While the returning Spencer circulated his NSR slowly in the first session, before retiring from the meeting complaining of pain from his Daytona shoulder fracture ("I'd like to ride, but nOl if I'm a danger to the others,"); new British Honda recruit Mackenzie was simply sensational. on his. He led practice from the firs t session to the last, circulating comfortably at consistent lap-record speed. His technique is quite different from that of the Americans~ instead of steering by sliding the rear wheel, he lays the bike over almost horizontal, to the extend that he was grounding the exhausts - an unexpected·problem. It paid bi~ dividends in corner and exit speed from the hairpin and the new chicane. ''I'm just riding in my usual way," the likeable 25-year-old Scot said. And when asked whether Spencer's and Lawson's opinion ~ that you could only win by sliding the rear - was wrong, he replied: "I'll only say so if and when I win my first GP." Gardner was working very hard to catch up on his identical Rothmanssponsored machine, while doing his best to appear unruffled off the track. "I'm keeping something in my pocket for the race," he said, and he does indeed have extensive Suzuka experience. But his words seemed hollow when he crashed while chasing Lawson in the pcI-Dultimate . session (to be frank, Mackenzie had also fallen in the same session, on the same bend). Gardner hurt his right foot, but-"nothing's broken." It took Lawson until the last session LO take second overall. "Honda's advantage this year seems to be the same as Yamaha's \Vas last year," he said ruefully. "We have some work to do to catch up with their speed." With Gardner third, Japanese riders Syunji Yatsushiro, on a Honda

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