Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

Australian Wayne Gardner opened up a big lead and then cruised in to w in the Swedish Grand Prix for his fifth w in of the season. Defending World Champ ion Eddie Lawson and his Yamaha gave chase to Gardner. but ended up two seconds short at the finish line . .World Championship Road Race Series: Round 10 Gardner "perfect" in Swedish Grand Prix By Michael Scott Photos by Malcolm Bryan AN DERSTROP, SWE DEN, AUG. 9 . "Everything went perfect," said Wayne Gardner after he had won his fifth Grand Prix of the season at the twisty and bumpy Anderstorp circuit, opening up his World 26 Championship point standings lead to 19 points over d R an d y M I an showi amo a owmg a complete ret urn to form after his defeat in Britain the week before. Gardner I~ from the third lap on and did so with such comman.d that he was ab le to slacken off III the closing stages, allowing defending Worl d Champion Eddie Lawson to get within tantalizing but ultimately frustrating striking distance of his Roth mans Honda . "My tire choice was fine, the bike went great. My only problem was a bug on my visor," the 27-year-old Australian said. Gardner was quickest through the bends, and fastest along the long airstrip straightaway - every inch a winner. Lawson got past Mamola after half-distance, his Marlboro Yamaha perhaps a little quicker than thirdplaced Mamola's Lucky Strike Yamaha. It was the fourth time in five races that the same trio has stood on the victory rostrum. Freddie Spencer's comeback continued, as he managed his first points-scoring finish in two years. Although he could manage no better than seventh, he was pleased to have made the checkered flag. "My bike wasn't quite rig ht, but at least my physical condition was okay ," said Spencer. The day before, Toni Mang had won a nail-biting 250cc race, to take the championship points lead again, whi le both Martin Wimmer and Jaques Cornu were lucky to survive a horrific crash. The weekend saw Fausto Gresini win his eighth 125cc 'G P of the year to clinch the World Championship title wi th two rounds still to be run. Gresini's domination of the 125cc class was high lig hted by the fact that at Anderstorp he finished nearly a half of a minute ahead of his Garelli teammate, Bruno Casanova, who is a solid second in the po int standings. A second p lace finish i n the Sidecar GP by Brits Steve Webste r and Tony Hewitt was good enough to clinch the World Ch ampionship tit le. . The first 500cc practice session was run on a wet track and was dom inated by Mamola on his Dunlop tires. Rather more surprising was second fastest time, admittedly one second slower, turned in by Ron Haslam on the Elf 4. Alas , things got worse for the shy Briton on the unorthodox French"machine. By the th ir d session, he was down in 12th, and having trouble bo th with his . Honda NS R factory engine and the experimental AP-Lockheed carbonfiber fro nt brake. In the final session he switched to the stock Honda NSR bike, chopped two seconds off to place seventh, then high-sided on a slow bend, banging his hand as .he fell. Haslam was fit enough to race, but undecided which bike to use. "If it's dry, the Elf's brakes aren't good enough for me to ride close to other .people. If it's wet, it doesn't matter too much." Meanwhi le, after his abortive and spasomadic Donington performance of the prev ious weekend, Spencer was doing exactly the opposite, ridin~ hard and fast throughout all practice sessions and even spending a lo t of the third one in company with Lawson, whereas he usually makes sure he's alone. He used Lawson as a marker to set best time in the third session, and he was defin itely back in a big way. Bu t in the fourth session, Gardner pulled his fast one out of the bag, going almost a second quicker to make sure of the pole position. The on ly other person to break 1:36 was Lawson, pushing Spencer to third. All had their stories. Gardner: "We had an electrical problem and a suspension problem at the start. I kep t making the springs harder, and I was getting a lot of chatter. Now I've softened it, and it seems to wor k weli. I had a few beers last night, and listened to some (Bruce) Springsteen tapes : and that made me feel better." Lawson: "I had a bad tire and h it traffic in the last sessio n ,'the n the rear brake sprung . a leak and squirted fluid over the tire. I·wou ld have liked the pole, but for a few . hundredths of a second it's not worth getting pissed off." Along with other Marlboro ru nners, L awso n ha d swi tched to AP-Lockheed brakes by the last session. "They're more predictable than Brernbos ," said the World Champion. But it was Spencer who was the tal k of the track, and while he said nothing more than his usua l bland and predictable far e, th ere was no

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