Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

Gary Goodfellow a.nd Katsuro Takayoshi (45) powered their Suzuki to second. Shigemasa Miwa and Masaru Syouyama (81) finished 21st. The Vamaha VZF750-mounted team of John Kocinski and Cal Rayborn '" finished third in their Suzuka 8-Hour debut. World Endurance Road Race Series: Round 5' Wimmer/Magee take Suzuka 8-Hour By Kel Edge SUZUKA CITY, JAPAN, JULY 26 .In sweltering conditIons. at the Suzuka Circuit, Yamaha at last scored a victory for the YZF750 Genesis when Martin Wimmer and Kevin Magee took the checkered £lag less than one lap in front of the Yoshimura Suzuki of Gary G 00 df e II ow an d . I,oca 1 b oy Katsuro TakayoshI. In a race where only 30 out of 61 finished, an incident just three laps from the end decided the result in favor of the Tech 21-sponsored Yamaha. Up to that point the Yoshimura Suzuki GSXR750 of New Zealander-turned-Canada resident Goodfellow and Takayoshi seemed to be holding off the works Yamaha challenge and were heading 'for victory., Australian Magee, who rode the seventh hour, had slowly but surely been dosing in on the Suzuki. When he p~lled in for.the final p~t stop and nder change over, he decided to . do an "Ironman" and stay out for the last session in the hope of catching Takayoshi. With just 10 minutes to go he was still 10 seconds adrift. Then poor, unfortunate Takayoshi collided with a backmarker and damaged the fairing in his off-track excursion. He was able to resume but at a reduced pace. While he was off, he could only watch as Magee sped by on the way to victory. The win marked the first by the Yamaha Genesis since their comeback to eilduronce racin~. Another Genesis finished third with Americans John Kocinski and Calvin R'.lyborn III riding the Kenny Roberts Lucky Strike bike. This was the first time that the two had competed as a team in an endurance race; Kocinski, however, cut his teeth endurance racing in tbe United States early in his young career. Where the race had been full of drama and surprise, practice had been very much as expected with the works Hondas in domination on their home track. Wayne Gardner, currently leading tbe 500cc World Championship, posted a time of 2 minutes, 17.489 seconds on the works bike he shared with Dominique Sarron. Second fastest was fellow GP rider and Honda teamster Niall Mackenzie with a time of 2:17.773. Surprise third quickest was Kevin Schwantz on the Yoshimura-tuned Olia Fiat Suzuki GSXR750 with a time of 2:17.902. Fourth fastest was the Magee/Wjmmer Tech 21 works Yamaha with 'a time of 2:18.013. Then came the works Honda of GP rider Shunji Yatsushiro with 2:18.995 followed by old sta~gers Kork Ballington and Rob Philhs on tbe factory Kawasaki with a time of 2:19.076. The Lucky Strike teamsters were getting to know the bike and the track under the 'guidance of the maestro himself, Kenny Roberts. He set the pattern for their practice sessions, 'gave. advice, looked after them like a father and was absolutely delighted with their qualifying time of 2: 19.480 seconds. Kocinski particularly looks like he has a great future ahead of him, especially with Roberts as his mentor. . Race leaders for so long, Goodfellow and Takayoshi were ninth quickest, with current World Endurance Championship leaders Herve Moineau and Bruno Le Biban in a not very satisfac,tory 14th. Australian Graeme McGregor and Zimbadwean Dave Petersen were 36th on the outpaced VFR750 Ikuzawa Honda while the Dutch Racing Team Leuven Kawasaki pairing of Johan Van Vaerenberge and Paul Ramon were just happy to be at Suzuka. This is only their first season of international competition and before the -race they found themselves in the happy posi tion of being joint second in the championship. The only unhappy occurrence of practice was the failure to qualify by the all-Canadian girl Nescafe Americana Team. During practice they had been steadily improving their times and taking the advice and help of people such as Roberts, Gardner, Schwantz and others. Finally, they found out they failed by Jess than three-quarters of a second. Ordinarily they would have been given a start, but somebody protested. and that was the end of the race for them. Worst was to Gome though ,because they then found out that a slower team had been ,granted a start under the seeding rule. For the Japanese fans the biggest disappointment was the withdrawal of their hero, Yamaha works rider Tadahiko Taira. Still suffering from his fall in practice for the french Grand Prix the previous weekend, he made a valiant effort in the Thursday practice session but was obviously in too much pa,inLtQ continue and his place in the Shiseido Tech 21 team was taken by 250cc ace Wimmer. For Wimmer this was a pleasant surprise as he had lost his previous partner Mike Dowson, who was still recovering from a cras!t in his native Australia. Gardner said after practice that he was here to win the race for HRC and to honor his committment to all his Japanese fans, but that his first priority was winning t 500cc World Championship. His aim therefore was to win, bu~ also to keep out of trouble and avoid injury. He also believed it would be very difficult to win the Suzuka 8-Hours for the third time in a row. In the past he had faced with two different riders, whereas this year would be the first time that he would have the same partner in" Dorrtinique Sarron. He did not feel particularly good about it and felt that something was going to go wrong, how prophetic his words were 'to be. At the stroke of 11 :30 a. m. the flag dropped and the 10th Anniversary Suzuka 8-Hour race got underway. Sixty-one riders sprinted to their machines and a deafening roar went up as the bikes fired and sped to the first corner. Ahead of the pack with a £Iier of a start was Schwantz on the Suzuki followed by Ballington, ' Wimmer and Gardner; four different factory bikes in the first four places. ' Fdur laps later, Gardner was at the front and setting a blistering pace. Schwantz' Suzuki expired after a further 15 laps with an unexplained mechanical fault. Gardner, meanwhile, extended his lead and by the end of the first hour-long session had built up a lead of one and a half minutes. A smooth pit stop and Sarron took over.

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