Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

Ron Haslam (9) leads Niall Mackenzie (11) in the midst of their fight over third place. which Haslam won. Eddie Lawson. Wayne Gardner and Ron Haslam celebrate after finishing 1-2-3 in the Spanish 500cc GP. third ( and his first career rostrum position). It happened in the righthander after the chicane. I was in mid-air and I thought, 'What a stupid thing this is. '" The only injury McElnea suffered was a bruised· right ankle which he said would not keep him out of the German Grand Prix in two weeks time. Haslam had the best view of the crash 'which he attributed to too much power to the rear tire. "I've never seen a bike throw a guy so high before," he said. Lawson's fast lap, a 1:51.35 averaging 84.74 mph, came on the sixth lap with Gardner benering it with a 1:51.08 (84.94) a lap later. Behind the top running two pairs of Gardner/Lawson and Haslam/ Mackenzie was a seven-rider group led by Chili. Behind him were Sarron, Mamola, Schwantz, Taira, Baldwin and Roger Burnett. And althoush there was no passing and re-passmg within the group, none seemed to have an advantage through the first third of the race. At the 10-lap point, Gardner's lead was 5.3 seconds over Lawson with Haslam and Mackenzie 15 seconds back of the leader and 10 seconds dear of the pack. Three laps later and Baldwin was out with gearbox problems while running ninth. "It was jumping out of fourth gear in practice on Friday," Baldwin said. "Yesterday it didn't jump out at all. Fourth gear just went in the real fast sweeper. Taira almost T-boned me. I was charging and could have caught up to those guys." Baldwm said that his tire worked about the same as in practice, which is to say not good. "We had two tires the same as we ran in the dry in Japan. The plan was for Randy to run one in the morning session and if he liked it I'd get that one and he'd get a new one. And that's what we did." Both Mamola and Baldwin used the bias-ply front tires and mid-race Mamola started noticing the front tire was pushing because it was too soft. "It should've been more stable, but it wasn't. They have to start making something before we can test it. Like in the fast fouTlh-gear comers, I was pushing the front end." Mamola added that about midrace the heat began to wear on h~m. Haslam had the same problem, but for a different reason. Unlike most of the riders, his leathers weren't ventilated. "I have a brand new set that just arrived, but they arrived back home,." the Elf rider explained. "Just after half distance 1 noticed the heat and it slowed me back a bit. I was basically overheating." . With half the race to, run, Gardner's advanta~e ha.d swell~d to seven seconds while hiS lap umes stayed in the high 1:5Is. Haslam led Mackenzie with Schwantz about 20 seconds back after moving into fifth, displacing HB Honda's Chili on the II th lap. Behind them were Sarron, Mamola, Rothmans Honda's Yatsushiro and Taira. At various points on the track it appeared that Mackenzie could reel Haslam in, but he never tried to force his way past. Haslam's lead was up to six' seconds at one point before Mackenzie gained it back and was right on Haslam's rear tire. "I thought, 'he's got to be coming somewhere,'" Haslam said. ") expected Niall to close more quickly and pu h me back to forth." But the challenge never came. ") never really felt comfortable enough to pass him," Mackenzie said. "I wanted to stay with him and if the opportunity came up I'd pass him. Ron had a diHerent gearbox in his. It was better in the slow corners and mine was more respectable in the fast parts. I think he had top speed on me." By the two-thirds mark, Gardner had more than 15 seconds on Lawson, although he expected a late charge from the World Champion. "Eddie is very good at coming back at the end," Gardner said. "I knew it was coming. What I was trying to do was get a 10-second lead. I was taking it easy and then Eddie threw the towel in. ) could have run at that pace all day." "The way Wayne rode made it look easy, but I was working hard," Lawson said later. "The first three gears on the Honda accelerate so hard and the combination with Wayne's riding made it diHicult." The order behind the leaders didn't change until the 25th lap when Sarron lost his brakes while running sixth and crashed in the lefthand sweeper while chasing Chili. "Chili is not a very regular rider," Sarron said. "Always sliding and changing lines. I was waiting for the last laps to pass him. I was saving my tires and mysel£. The rear brake pads went away almost immediately. I just started using the front brake and that was okay. Then they started to heat up and the Brembo guy thirIks they may have gonen air in the line. Anyhow, ) went into the corner and pumped the lever twice and on the second time it caught and threw me down." • A medical diagnosis was inconclusive, but Sarron believed that he had a cracked shoulder blade which would not affect him in the next race. Schwantz had over two seconds on Chili at this stage when his front bias-ply tire began overheating. "About four or five laps from the end, the front end just went away," Schwantz said. "The rear never really got bad. Earlier in the race I'd just sized them up and actually got Sarron earlier in the corner he crashed in." With the Suzuki still in the development stages, Schwantz thought he was down on top speed. "When I got a good fast lap in I'd be right around seven mph down on top end." The order of the top 10 had only two changes in the final six laps. Taira took over eighth from Yatsushiro on the 27th lap and moved to seventh when Chile crashed two turns from the end, after his rear tire went away. Chili was credited with Illh place just behind the first privateer, New Zealander Richard Scon, also Honda NS5()()-mounted. Gardner had lapped up to 12th place on his way to a 23.55-second victory over Lawson, who was over 25 seconds up on Haslam. Mackenzie was another 1.6 seconds back and 10 seconds ahead of Schwantz with Mamola sixth, Taira seventh and' Yatsushiro eighth. Gardner's average lap time, including the clutch start, was 1:52.069 which was faster than anyone's fast lap but Lawson. "When I went out this morning I tested a different tire that I'd run before and that's what I used," Gardner said. "Over the course of the

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