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/126982
Eddi e Lawson (1) lead s t he 500cc pa ck into tu rn one w ith tea m mates Rob McElnea (5) and Tadahiko Taira (2 1) in tow. World Championship Road Race Series: Round 12 MaR1ola, Lawson 1-2 in San Marino GP BV Henny Ray Abrams MISANO ADRIATICO, ITALY , AUG . 30 Using a new construction Dunlop rear tire built only five days prior to the race, Team Lucky Strike Rob erts' R andy Mamola drove away from T eam Marlboro Agostini's Eddie · Lawson to cap tu re th e San Marino G rand Prix on th e Ad ' . S an tamornca uto romo . In Italy. It was Mamola 's first 10 Grand Prix win o n a dry tra ck since the Sa n Marin o Grand P rix a t .Mugello in Sep tember of 1984 and it provided som e vindication for th e team whose decision to run Dunlops was questioned from the start of th e season. " It's real fru strating to watch somebody dri ve away from yo u," World Ch ampion Lawson said aft er finishing 3.96 seco nds back. "T he whole race I was just getting more pissed off and I wa s trying not to let it affect my riding," Mamola also sligh tly clo sed th e gap on championship points lead er Wayne Gardner on the Rothmans Honda who finished third today , almost 35 seconds back. With three rounds to go Gardner leads Mamola 145 to 124, with Lawson third at 115. Lawson 's teammate Tadahiko Taira kept up his late-season charge with a fourth today ahead of Rothmans' Shunji Yatsushiro, Rothrnans Honda ~ r i ta i? ' s Roger Burn ett, HB H o nd a s Nl a~ M a c k e nz ~ e , a nd So na uto C auloi ses Blondes Christian Sarron. Afte r qu al ifyin g si xt h o n a mach in e whose power curve didn 't su it his riding style, Honda 's Freddi e Spencer's .stri ng of bad lu ck co ntinued. Wh ile running sixth o n th e fourth lap, Spencer was run into fro m beh ind by HB H onda 's Pi er Francisco Chili wh ile brakin g a t th e end of the sixth -gea r, 160 mph back stra igh tawa y and cras hed heavil y send ing hi s machine 10 feet into th e a ir. H e wa s un con sci ous for a number of minutes, then taken by helicopter to a neruo-surgi cal unit in a Bologna ho spital. After a CAT scan and X-rays he was released th e following morning with various bumps and bruises and is expected to be at the Port ugese Grand Prix a t Jarama, Spain, in two weeks vtirne, Chili wasn 't as fortun ate. He reportedly suffered a fractured right wrist, a fractured left foot, contusions of the left hand a n d various abrasions. The best racing of the day, as usual , was in th e 250cc class, bu t the ba ttl e was fo r seco nd. From th e second lap o n, Aprifia's Loris Reggia ni ran away from th e fi eld, winning by close to eigh t seconds with th e sort of dominance rarely seen in th e 250cc d ivision. Fast qualifier L uca Cada lo ra o n the Marlboro Yam ah a di dn't have as easy a day. After flooding th e engine on the lin e, Cad al ora was second to last in the 35-rider field into turn one of th e 30-la p, 65-mi le race. But .. cha rging from th e back of th e field he se t th e fastest lap of I: 12.82 - minutes (95.366 mph ) o n the 12th circui t and by the 21st he was into second p lace a hea d of a fierce battle for th ird wh ich went down to th e fin al lap and went to Carnpsa H onda's Sito Pons. Dominique Sarron on the Rothrnan s H onda was fourt h ahead of Cadal ora 's teammat e Marti n Wimmer a nd points lead er Anton Mang on th e Rothman s H onda. Mang wid en ed h is lead over HB Honda 's Reinhold Roth in the race for his fifth World Ch ampionship. Roth, riding with a sho ulder broken the p revious wee k in th e Czech Grand Prix, faded to ninth after leading th e first lap of th e race. The point co unt reads: Mang-117, Roth9 1, Pons-75. Ital y's Garelli factory rider Fausto Gresini, who has already won the 125cc World Championship, won hi s 10th ra ce in a ro w with a co m fo rta b le 33 -seco n d lead on second place August Auinger on the LCR-MBA . AGV-mounted Paolo Casoli was a di stant third. With one race remaining G.oesini look s to become the first rider in the history of Grand Prix racing to win every race in the season. The 80cc GP went to Derbi 's Mariuel Herreros, beating Krauser's Stefan Doerflinger by 3.68 seconds after 45.5 m iles of racing. Third went to Ian McConnachie, also on a Krauser. Herreros' fellow Derbi rider Jorge Martinez, who earlier this month clinched th e World Championship, crashed on th e 14th la p. Timed practi ce in th e 500cc class on the 2.16-mile co urse provided the surprise of seeing Yamahas in the top four spots ah ead of a pair of Hondas. Lawson set th e fastest time with about six minutes to go in the final 40-minute sessio n, clocking a I:18.99 minutes (98.782 mph ). His time was exactly one-quarter of a second faster ' than second-fastest Marnola's and slightly less than ha lf a second faster than third-placed Taira's. Lawson, who' s often said that "qualifying doesn't mean that much," fel t he could have gone faster. " I co uld n 't get a clear track. I ran into so much traffi c." - He explained the presence of th e Yamahas in th e top spots by saying, "The top three guys are t rying real hard." He added that he believed th ey'd solved hi s seaso n-long carburetion problems by " gea ri ng th e bike so it will get through that. I have to sh ift a n ex tra time that the Honda do esn 't . Our bike comes on about 8500 rpm a nd th e Honda powerband is much broader. " Mamola , who was fastest thro ug h the first three sessions, runni ng co ns is tent ly in the low 19s, felt co nfident eno ug h to sit out most of th e final session, after having turned a lap of I:19.24 in the third session. "We already had th e bike settings yesterday," he said. " T here was no point in goin~ out again and wearing out the bike." Mamola had set the fastest time o n a used tire that he 'd run the day before. According to Dunlop technician Peter Ingley, the tire is of a new construction wi th a ligh ter sidewall that co untered the chattering Mamola had while accelera ting out of corners last week in Brno.· Lawson's teammates Taira and McElnea were next fastest with McElnea noticing he had to use the front wheel more than usual., Gardner was an uncharacteristic