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Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/126977
After one hour the order read:
damaging the bike too badly to
Gardner, Wimmer, Goodfellow,
continue.
Tokuno and Mackenzie. Sarron
At the six-hour stage, Wimmer
continued where Gardner left oEE and
handed over to Magee; they were one
the position at the end of the second
minute and eight seconds behind
session saw the HRC bike .leading
GoodfellowlTakayoshi and everything looked set for an emotional
by nearly a minute from another
works Honda, that of Tokuno/
win for Pop.s Yoshimura. Kocinski!
Miura. Third was now Goodfellow
Rayborn sull held down third on the
followed by Magee/Wimmer; MackLucky Strike Yamaha.
enzie/Camp~ll, Ballington/Phillis
Gardner handed the bike over to
and Kocinski/Rayborn.
Sarron but said that it was not
The third session went along the
running cleanly and it was misfiring.
same lines. Gardner was. on the bike
Sarron went out but before too long
a second disaster struck the Frenchagain and maintaining a fast pace.
By now only second placed Tokuno
man. Once again, he crashed but this
time an eye-witness said that as the
and Miura and third placed Wimmer
and Magee were on the same lap. The
bike was .sliding along there was a
Suzuki of Goodfellow/Takayoshi
loud bang. The bike came to a halt
was now in fourth, fifth and very
in the gravel. Poor Sarron tried to
happy to be in contention was the
lift the bike back up but looked at
it first and saw the damage was too
Kawasaki of Ballington and Phillis.
great to continue. With a disconsoKawasaki were obviously very happy
late air, he walked slowly back to the
with the performance of their bike
in what is their comeback season of
pits and the anguish of his team.
endurance racing.
_
Gardner had been right, something had happened and he had lost.
The Suzuki team from France of
out on this coverted three wins in
Moineau and Le 'Bihan were sitting
a row. Even worse, Honda was losing
contentedly in eighth place, one
on their own circuiL
ahead of the Kawasaki France team
of Samin and Crine. MacGregor ~nd
At the seven-hour stage, the gap
Petersen were 15th but about to go
between Magee and the Yoshimura
out when Petersen lost the front end
Suzuki had narrowed to 23 seconds
and it looked very much as if we
going into the fast right hander at
might have a grandstand finish on
the end of the start straight; happily
our hands. This part of the race takes
he was uninjured.
place in dusk, so the riders have to
The fourth session was the one in
ride with their lights on. Also the
which the whole complexion of the
change from riding into the selling
race was to change. Up to the very
sun and near darkness is a problem
last lap of the session, the HRC
in itself. Behind the two fighting it
Honda was seemingly on its way to
out up front the others were more
victory. On the way to an outstandor less holding station.
ing three wins in a row was Gardner,
At the start of -the final eighth hour
the best loved foreign rider in Japan,
and the favorite son of Honda.
the order read: Goodfellow (175
Sarron was on board-and was on his
laps), Magee (175 laps), Kocinski
last lap before pitting, when inex- ... (174 laps) and Moineau (17!llaps).
By now the other contenders 10 the
plicably he crashed, totally, he said,
without reason. The bike slid into
World Endurance Championship,
the gravel and hit the large blocks
Van Vaerenberl?;h/Ramon, had
of foam rubber that are used instead'
fought their way up to nlntl\, but
of straw bales~
more importantly were now in the
As he tried to drag the bike out
points.
of the gravel a rope containing the
The amazing tearn on the track
was the Japanese team CBX.
foam blocks caught in the rear wheel
Nothing spectacular till you realize
and tail fairing. Frustratingly, the
rope would not budge, but after a
they were riding a Honda CBR600,
giving away 150ccs to the big boys.
titanic struggle he managed to get
the bike free and started.. He then
They had surprised everyone by
rode back to the pits with ·the rear
moving up to an astonishing sixth
place.
of the seat hanging down scraping
Up front thoul?;h, the real battle
the tarmac, as well as the end of the
was on between Magee and Talqlexhaust system.
yoshi. All eyes were glued to the
The whole terrible scene was
giant TV screen and on the stopwitnessed as it happened on a giant
TV screen at the end of the pits. Not
watch. It seemed that Ma~ was
going to catch the Suzuki as he
only was"it seen by the entire crowd
in the grandstand but also the
mana2'ed to get the gap down to 10
secon