Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/126979
West German Anton Mang won the 250cc Grand Prix on his Rothmans Honda; the win gave Mang a nine-point lead in the champ ionship. Former World Champion Freddie Spencer scored World Championship .points for the first time since 1985 with his seventh place finish. Randy Mamola finished third on his Team Lucky St rike Roberts Yamaha after holding down second early. England's Rob McElnea had his best ride of 1987 to finish fourth in the 500cc race; McElnea almost caught Randy Mamola for third place. th e front tucked under, then back off so it gripped again," sai d H aslam. I. Spencer kept pressing Haslam, but " my arm ' was hurting a bit, so I couldn 't cha lle nge him under braking, a nd I'd made a gearing m istake as well. They were too low, so th e back wh eel sp un so bad that I had to change up to third wh en I should have stayed in seco nd. That meant I cou ldn't pass him o ut o f th e comers either." Spencer's seventh place, 1.35 seconds down from Haslam, was hi s first top 10 finish sin ce he clinched the 500 and 250cc titl es here two years ago. " If I sai d I was satisfied with seventh place, th en I sho uld retire im mediately. But my shoulder didn 't hurt and I'm satisified with th at." De Radigues hung on to fini sh eigh th on th e Cagiva, whil e Kenn y Irons's a ttemp t to cat ch him on th e ever-im p ro vi ng Suzuki V-4 wa s foil ed. by slo w backmarkers.• Roger Burnett was 10th o n th e '86 H onda NSR, complaining that it was so slow he "co uldn 't even draft the Suzuki." There were a number of accidents. Syunji Yatsushiro was among severa l people who didn't make allowance for a full tank of fuel, and ran on at the end of the main straight, starting a chain reaction before he dropped hi s Honda NSR and retired. Sarron braked hard to avoid him , Taira ran into his back wheel, too k to the grass, and also fell , remoun ting in last place, and riding through to 13th. Sarron lost a lot of ground, th en cras hed half a lap lat er trying to make it up. H e hit hi s head again, su ffering a concuss ion for th e second tim e in two da ys. Pi erfrancesco Chili also cras hed his NS H onda while battling with Burnett and Irons, br eaking two toes. Skating o n thin ice if th ey ever wa nt an other GP , th e Sw edish organizers made a mess of the 250cc class for th e seco nd year running, Las t year it was th e race; this year o nly practice, when the fin al sessio n ran 50 minutes ins tead of th e usual 40, but some riders had not been told. After much argu ment, th e last 10 minutes were di scounted, which had a sign ifica nt effect o n some runners, es peci a lly An IOn Mang, who dropped from second fastest to 13th and third ro w on the grid. It made no difference to Luca Cadalora , wh o h ad whee led the seco nd Mar lboro Yamaha into a convincin g pol e positi on , almost a second clear of seco nd-p laced Carlos Cardus 's Honda NSR. This was some achievement, because on Sweden 's lo ng straight, th e V-twin Yarna has were conspicuously slower than the NS R Hondas, and he was making it all up on th e slow bends. Cadalora had also led th e first wet practice sessio n, whil e teammate Martin Wimmer was best in th e second session, fin ishing up fifth overall, in an amazingl y tight group which saw from second to 16th all within one second. Swiss veteran Cornu was third fastest, Patrick Igoa fourth, then Wimmer fifth . German Manfred Herweh pl aced sixth, leading the second ro w on th e grid, ahead of point leader Reinhold Roth, who was foll owed by Scotsman Donnie McLeod, wh o was eigh th fastest by dint of in sp ired cornering on the slow EMC Ro tax. Loris Reggiani was ninth and Maruizio Vitali 10th. Carlos Lav ado may have been even more depressed th an ever by his 12th .., place excep t for th e hairs-breadth tim e differen ce. There were other works rid ers even worse : Dominique Sarron was 14th and Sito Pons 18th , both on NSR Hondas. As for the 250cc GP, to the spectators, th e race was in doubt until the last bend. To winner Mang, there was no such question, and his tactics were masterful as he slowed the race down in the middle sta~es to pack his challengers into a tight grou p , th en escaped in the last two laps