Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

It was Martinez' fifth win in six tries a nd it put him ahead of H erreros 87 to 51 in th e title chase. Gerhard Waibel, who ran seco nd for th e fir st seven laps before dropping ou t o n the ninth, is third in po in ts with 44. Doerflinger has 42. The Sidecar class was th e fin al race of th e day and, although it was run in a driving rain, th e crowd was ecstatic watching fell ow cou n try me n Egb ert Streuer a nd Bernard Schnieders dominate the field. The final margin was 23.75 seco nds for th e World Champion L ucky Strike team with cham pionsh ip points leaders Steve Web ste r and Tony Hewi tt second on the L CR- Kra user a nd Krauser Racing's Al ain Michell J ean-Michel Frese team third . Webster/Hewitt lea d s Mi chel/ . Frese 50 to 42 with Streuer/Schnieders at 39 after their first win of the four-race-old seaso n. • Alt hough the fina l two classes on race day Saturday were run in the wet, two o f th e four qual ifying sessions for the 500s were run in the dry. Lawson's qualifying record of 2:12.7 (103.41 mph ) was safe u ntil th e fin al sessio n wh en Gardner clocked a 2:12.33 on h is final a ttempt. " We had a littl e bit of a p roblem wi th the front sp rings a nd fron t sus pe nsion , but we sorted it ou t in the las t session," Gardner explai ned. . If it rains, Gardner said, - "Everyo ne's in the same boa t. I'll j ust try to finish and ge t some poi nts." Gar dner qualifying fastest wa s no surprise; he's done it a t six of the seven races th is year. Second p lace a t 2: 14.0 1 (102.39 mph), however, was a shocker and his name was Kevin Magee. Magee, a 24-year-old Austral ia n who races for th e Ma rlboro Yamaha Deal er team in Au stralia, was brought for his first trip to Europe by Kenny Robert s and pu t aboard a T ea m R oberts, a lthough not Lu cky Strike-sponsored, ma chi ne. The bike itself was a 1986 model put together by P hil McDo. nald just for Assen. It was Magee's second Gra nd Prix, h is first being this year's Japanese GP a t Suzuka. Magee was fourt h fastest after the first day's qualifying during which he ha d to learn the circuit and th e machine. " I sti ll haven't got the track fully learned and I a m only just gett ing used to how far you can push the 500. You can go into corners a lo t deeper than yo u can o n my Superbike and I frightened m yself on o ne lap a t the .end o f the start and finish stra igh t because I go t in so hot I thought it wo u ld ne ver go ro un d , b u t it did and I gue ss that was my fastest lap. " . After the fina l ses sion, Magee admitted that he was as su rp ri sed as everyo ne else and gave most o f th e credit to Rob ert s. " He helped me with abo u t everything - the bike, the ' circuit. You have to think abo u t it a lot to sort it o u t. I'd been o ut on the same tire for about 10 la ps and I just went as fast as I could o n the ol d one. I wa n ted to come in and get a new one, but I ran out of time." H is o nly problem was a left forearm that was pumping up a fter a period of inactivity foll owing a recent crash. " If I get in th e to p five I'll be happy. If I ge t on the rostrum I' ll b e extremely hap p y." La wson ra n into a series of problems in the fin al session and his best lap wou ld ' come fro m th e seco nd ' session . "One o f the bikes quit running a nd theother had a carb pro blem that we co uld n' t figure out." , Crew ch ief Kel Ca rruthe rs was usin g a new set of carb uretors a nd different exha us t pi pes on Lawson's bikes [or Assen in the never-endi ng searc h for power a nd trac tability. The new carbs have a pilot circuit a B .~ Eventual w inner Anton Mang (4 ) hol ds off Reinhold Roth (2 4 ) and Sito Pons (2) in the 250cc class. a d j ustme n t sy stem a nd L a wso n found that they "seemed to help a little bit. T he new ca rbs jus t fine tu ne the mo tor. They make ita little easier to ride. We wa nted more in th e middle and we ho pe the p ipes give it to us. I think I cou ld have done a good time. We did a 12 here last year. We know we can go better than a 14. We'v e go t to find our co mbination and get ba ck in th e fray." Haslam, in what might be hi s fina l appearance on the NSR-H onda before switch ing full -time to th e Elf 4, was fourth fastest a t 2:14.27. " I tri ed th e Elf 4 a co u p le of times a nd as soo n as we get th e brak es sorted ou t we'll be a ll righ t." Hasl am said. About th e followin g d ay 's ra ce, Haslam said that "If it ra in s, I fan cy m y chances," Fr o m second-fastest Magee to n inth-fastest Tadahiko Taira, was a spread of on ly three-quarters of a second. Rob McEl nea was four th fastest and he exp laine d th at the times were slo wer beca use th e horsepower was d ifferen t on the frontrunning mach inery limiting cornering speeds. H e added th a t th e gap had incr eased between th e frontrunners-and th e ba ckmarkers mak ing it hard to ge t a clear la p in practice. " It's so frustrating. I ca me in after m y fast lap a nd I thought I'd blown it. I came u p o n one guy in th e back a n d o ne i n the ch ica ne . It 's so narrow." Still nursing the little fing er h e broke i n Yu gosl a vi a , McElnea th ought it wou ld become difficult to hold o n after ab out five lap s. "It's so hard to co nce ntrate." Sarron, sixth- fastest, als o adm itted to ha ving a hard tim e co ncen tra ting, b u t for a differen t reason. " Ara i analyzed my helmet after my crash in R ijeka and they said that the forc e of my crash was the same as if I'd been dropped on my head from a sixstory building." Still looking for the ri ght com bination was seven th fastest Mamol a. But he wasn 't op tim ist ic, "Wayne's bike accelera tes a nd handles bett er. Edd ie and I rid e harder than Wayn e, bu t he makes up ha lf a second a la p in acceleration, Ga rdner's go ing to . lea ve us. If it's d ry, he's go ne." When th e fir st a tte m p t to get started arrived it was not dry, but they De fending 250cc World Champion Carlos Lavado (1) leads Javier Carde lus (50) while Dominique Sarron crashes in the backgro und. went any ho w a nd Mamol a los t th e fron t en d in the chicane at the end of the lap , with Ca giv a's Raymo nd Roch e also cras hing o n th e first la p . Luckil y for Mamola, th e race was red-fla gged. "I he ld on to th e front end a nd it dragged me into th e sand. I thought the marshals were goi ng to stop me li ke they did to Edd ie last year so I held o n a nd go t goi ng again ." Mamola said. "Now it 's going to be a big decision about what we have to do, " he sa id during th e delay. " It looks lik e it could ram." Roche did not make, th e restar t. N o bi g d eci s ions were made, however, with all the riders going ba ck o u t o n sl ic ks o nce aga in . H aslam took th e lead from Law son , Gardner, a nd McElnea with Magee, Taira, Mamola , Cagiva's Didi er de Radigu es, and Ro th m an s Honda 's Roger Burnett following. La~"~v ll blew by Ha slam in the right-left, six th -~ear kink 'o n the fro nt stra ig h t start ing th e third lap on ly to ge t passed b y Gardner two laps la ter. At the end o f five it read Ga rdner, La wso n, H aslam, McEInea, Sarr on, T ai ra , Magee, Ma mol a, Burnett a nd de Radigues. The ra in h ad picked up to where i t h ad become dangerous a nd the riders to o k d ec is ive action . Has la m exp lains: "We all three pu lled even and look ed at each ot her as if this was daft to race in the rain so we sat up ." "One more la p ," Lawson began , "And we'd have all cras hed." The teams were to ld th a t th e race would not ag ain be red-flagged for ti re-changing so their tire cho ice wou ld be final. . Gardne r chose an in term edia te.cu t Michelin slick in the fro n t a nd a cut slick in th e rear. Lawson went with an intermedia te front a nd cu t slick in the rear whi le H asla m chose full ra ins front and rear. McElnea co mpromised wi th a hand-cut interrn e- 13

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