Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

lawson, Mamola and Gardner celebrate on the San Marino w in ne r 's rostrum ; .the w in was Mamola's third of the season, but f irst in t he dry. Fre d die Spencer discusses practice with tuner Erv Kanemoto. 12 lap wi th a burn t cl u tch. A lap later and McElnea was out for th e da y after losi ng the front end in th e final left ha nd bend exiting onto th e front straig h ta way. T en laps into the race a nd Suzuki 's Kenny Irons dr opped out after hav in g fouled a spark plug on the sta rt lin e a nd never clearing it. Also dropping o ut ear ly in th e race was Elf 's R on H a slam who reinj u red th e ankl e h e broke in qualifyin g. Lawson had as much as ' a two second lead which went aw ay on th e fifth lap with a near ge t-off in th e first corner. " T ha t's wh en th e lead went to zero," he said. " My head was o n the ta n k a nd m y feet were in the air, jus t like a t Brn o. To m y a maze me nt, I wa s sti ll goi ng in the righ t directi on. There was no savi ng it. " A la p la ter a nd Mamol a set th e fastest lap of the race, a I :18.98 (97.679). Ma mola dogged h is fell ow Cal ifornia n for another f ive la ps befor e passing him a t the start -finish line at th e sta rt of the 10th lap. On the same la p Gardner got by Taira , bu t was 8.4 seco nds behind Ma mol a, bu t 14 seco nds ahead o f the four-rider battle for fou rt h a mong Burnett, Yatsu shi ro , Sa rron, a nd Mackenzie. Gustav Rein er a nd Marco Ge ntile would soo n move into ninth a nd 10th where they would finish . By now , Gardner kn ew that it would be a long day. " Every corn er I was slid ing into a nd ou t o f it. Once I backed o ff, it came a little better. I saw Rob and T a ira in front o f me a nd I kn ew I cou ld bea t the m ," he sa id. Mackenzi e, in th e thick of th e battl e for fifth, was dea ling with fro nt end cha tter 'tha t ca me up after about 15 la ps in the race. Sa rron was having similar tro u ble. " Righ t from the start my engine did not wo rk properl y. I guess th e trouble came fro m the valves. I had no power in acclera tio n a nd to make it worse m y front end wa s ver y unstabl e in braking," the frenc hman said. By th e halfway mark of th e 35-lap. 76 mile race, Mamola was still less than half a seco nd in front of La wson with a nother 16 back to Gardner who was plus-three on T ai ra with Yatsus h iro / Sa rro n / Bu rnett/ Mac kenzie a lmos t 40 seco nds beh ind the leader. La wso n was tryi ng hard to stick with Mam ol a , but was seeing big differ ences in tra cti on. " H e was slid ing, but he co uld drive o ff the corner. Coming out o f the bend on the backstra igh t is sixthgea r wide open. He cou ld go through without backin g off, bu t I had to back o ff sligh tly and could n't keep my momentum up." Lawso n said. T he order in the top four didn ' t cha nge in the second half of th e race. a lt ho ug h the battle for fifth con tinued righ t down to th e end. Yatsus hiro, o n th e 1987 NSR5 00 Honda, managed to ho ld o ff Burnett, riding the 1986 model NSR. At th e finish , Yatsus hiro wa s just .44 seco n ds a head with Burnett .18 in front of Mackenzi e and half a seco nd ahead . o f arro n. Mackenzie ad mitted that he didn 't ge t through traffi c as well as the others and that may have cost him a place or two. " We ca me up o n so me ba ckmarkers in th e fast .Ieft a nd Roger go t in their draft on th e stra igh t and o u tbra ked me," th e Scotsman sa id. Fourth -pl a ced T aira , 41.71 seconds behind Mam ol a a t th e end , als o co m p lained o f traffi c. "T here were backmarkers that th e co u rse marsh al was showing th e blue flag to , but th ey didn 't move over," he said. " I started feeling the tire sliding . badl y about lap 20," he ad ded. The only thing Gardner said he ma y have mad e a mi stak e o n was th e tire choice. He was using the same rear tire as La wso n, but it didn' t hook up q ui te as well a nd h is near 35-d ef ici t a m o u n te d to abo ut a second a lap. "Every corner it was sliding a nd sp in ning. T he Honda does n ' t wo rk as we ll here as th e Yamaha. The Dunlops a lways worked good here. T hey've mad e progress," the champi onship lead er said. Of th e re ma ining races he said, ''I' m sure we can win again. I'm ope n- m inded; abo u t it. It's a bit o f a relief to ge t 10 good po ints. I'm g lad to ge t th is o ut of the way ." Law son th ough t he, also, mi ~ht have chosen too soft a tire. "I think it was hotter today tha n in p racti ce," he sai d. "T hey j ust kept going away. I was taki ng cha nces and getting sideways a nd I cou ld see th ere was no need . I started to come in to th e corners low to stand it up ear ly coming o u t," but he co nceded .tha t it did n't help m uch. " I was o utbraking him ," he conti n ued, "b u t it was for nothing, really, because the tire was spinning." T hat may have been because he said he was slightly undergeared a nd would overrev in Mamola's draft. H e spent the last 25 la ps hoping that Marn ol a mi ght get " over enth u siastic," bu t he d idn ' t a nd Marnola took his th ird win of the season. "Most people tho ug h t I couldn't win un less it was ra ini ng," Marnola sa id, add ing that if he " wins in the rain. it 's m v tir e. If I wi n in th e drv, it 's my tire:" . Bu t he co uldn ' t den y th at the tir e worked superbly. "Every lap, but abo u t three orfour , was in th e 19s. We weren 't going to ru n on the far edge of th e tire. When I gas sed it the middle part of th e tin.' hooked up better. Wh en I too k the lead I thought Eddi e was going to pass me. Then I go t a plus .8 a nd plus .9 a nd it got up to plus 1.9 with 10 la ps to go." Curiousl y, he felt just the opposi te of Lawson on bo th gearing a nd braking. " I th in k he was geared a little ta ller than me. Wh en we'd ba nk it over in the sixth gear tu rn I'd gas . it and he could n ' t. Normally, the Ya mah a revs to 12,000. Mine was go ing to 12,500, 12,700. H e wasn 't brak in g that good, eith er. I tried pa ssing h im three ti me s, b u t I cou ld n ' t because I still had a full tank ." Fortuna tely. hi s for earms, which had bo thered him in practice and which he iced down before the rac e, didn 't bo ther him , although he sa id h is left hand went a little n umb. " We' re just taking it o ne race a t a time. What I'm looking at is to win th e last three races," he said. Coincid entall y, with three races to go in th e 250cc clas s the leader, Anton Mang, has a 21·point lead on second-p lace, Rein ho ld Roth. Roth qualified fifth quickest with Mang 12th-fastest beh ind pol esitter Luca Ca da lora. But with the top 16 riders a ll qualifying on the same seco nd with th e next lIon the nex t second , th ere was no clear favorite. Ro th go t the holes hot and led briefl y before Reggia n i took over on th e second lap movin~ Ro th int o th e eig h t-rider pack battling for second. As Reggia ni sai led clear for the win the order behi nd him constantly ch anged . On lap three it was Roth , Wimmer, Pons, Mang, Sarron, Carlos Ca rd us, Stephane Mertens and Ivan PaIazzese. Cadalora, after a horribl e sta rt, was lDth a fter passing 21 riders in the first four la ps. On th e 10th la p Reggian i's lead was close to four seconds with Ro th hanging in ahe ad of Sarron, Mang, W i mm er, Pons , Mertens, and Manfred H erw eh . Cadal ora was in 12th a nd, on th e sa me lap, Cardus retired . The fast lap went to Cadalora on th e 12th .lap as he moved into I I th place a nd near th e pa ck racing for seco nd . Three laps later , a t th e halfway mark, Cadalora had picked up five spo ts with the draft and was seven th just behind Merten s. One lap lat er he was fifth, the following lap fourt h an d on la p 19 he was in thi rd . Wh en he moved into second on th e 21st lap he was just ahead o f Mang with Sarro n fourt h ah ead o f Wimmer, Rot h, an d Pons. Immedia tely he opened up a gap on Mang, a ltho ug h he was over 10 seconds o ut o f the lead . On la p 24 Sarron crossed the fini sh lin e in third. Lap 25 a nd Wimmer was th ird. Lap 26 it was Sarron again fo r two laps with Mang taking over o n la p 28. Po ns moved into the fin a l spot on the po diu m o n the 29th la p and held o n. Sarron was a close fourth ' wi th Wi mmer weavin g up th e fin a l run to th e flag to avoid being passed by Man g. J uan Garriga had moved into seventh ahead of H erw eh with Ro th slowing to ninth and Patrick Igoa lOth. " I had the rear tire sliding from a bo u t lap 12 a nd that spoiled m y speed onto th e back stra ig h t. Never mind, at least that pu ts a few mor e poi nts to th e cha m p io nsh ip a nd even if I j ust go on like that to the end of the season I can win ," Mang said. After finishi ng fifth , Wim m er said. " I made a mi stak e o n th e brakes going into the lo ng rig ht-ha nder and ran wi de. T hat spoiled m y o nly chance to ge t away from th e Hondas which were better o n accelera tion because we had problems in th e morning warm -up and had to swap eng ines. We didn 't have the best com bina tio n that we had set our fast practices with." " It was the most incredible race," sa id fourth-placed Sarron. "Very fair a nd very exciting. I had a plan to pass Po ns o n the last lap , but before I could try, Ma ng tri ed to pass me and that gave Po ns the chance to get a bi t too far in front." After his exci ti ng ride from the back of the pa ck, Cadalora said, "I 'never imagined that you cou ld pass as many people in one race. When I caught up to th e leading group I saw that Loris was not with them and I realized he must be well in front. I think that if I had gotten a good start I could have raced with him for the lead , bu t ifs and buts don't matter in racing and I a m both very happy to be second and very sad not to be first." Reggia ni ad m itted bei ng a bit apprehensive at the start, but added that he kn ew that if th e engine co ntin ued to ru n well once the tires were up to optim u m temperature he co uld pull away. • Results 500cc: 1. Randv M amola (Yam); 2. Eddie Lawson (Vam); 3. Wayne Gardner (Hon); 4. Tadah iko Taira (Vaml ; 5. Shunj i Vats ushiro (Hon); 6. Roger Burnett (Han ); 7. Niall M ackenzie (Hon); 8. Chr ist ian Sar ron (Yam); 9. Gu stav Reiner (Han ); 10 . Marco Gen t il e (Honl. RACE DISTANCE: 35 laps. 76 .3 miles. AVERAG E SPEED: 97 .67 9 mph . 25Occ; 1. Lori s Reggian i (Apr); 2. Luca Cadalora (Yam); 3. Sito Pons (Hon); 4. Dominiqu e Sarr on (Hon ); 5. M8nin W immer (Yam ); 6 . Anton Mang (Hon); 7. Juan Garriga (Vaml ; 8 . Manfred Herweh (Hon); 9 . Reinhold Rot h (Hon); 10 . Patrick Igoa (Vaml . . RACE DISTAN CE: 30 laps. 65.4 mil es. AVERAG E SPEED, 94 .11 6 mph. 125 cc : 1. Faust o Gr esin i (Gar) ; 2. Au gu st A uinger (M Ba); 3. Paolo Casoli (A GV); 4 . Ezio Gianola (Hon); 5 . Mike Leitner (EMC); 6. Lucio Pietron ir o (M BA); 7 . Andrew Sanch ez (Ouc); 8. Gaston e Grassen i (MB A); 9. Hakan Olsson (Stal; 10. Nor ben Peseke (LCR). RACE DISTANCE: 27 laps. 5B.5 m iles . AVERAGE SPEED: 90.752 mph . 8Occ: 1. Manuel Herreros ( Oer~; 2 . Stephan Doerfli nger (Kra); 3. Ian McConnachie (Kra) ; 4 . Gerard W aibel (Kra) ; 5. Jorge Seel (See); 6 . Giuseppe Ascareggi (BBF); 7. A lexandre Barro s (RCH); B. Hans Spaan (cas) ; 9. Francisco Torre n .egui (Cobl; 10 . Pet er Onl (Kra ). AVERAGE SPEED: 84 .913 mph . . 5DOcc WOR LD CHAM PIONSHIP POINT STAND · INGS; 1. Wayne Gardner (14 5); 2. Randy M amola (1241; 3 . Eddie Lewson (115~ 4 . Ron Haslam (71); 5. (TIE) Tadahiko Taira lNian Mackenzie (4 9 ); 7. Christian Sarron (40); B. (TIE) Rclb McElnea/ P.F. Chili (39 ); 10. Roger Bur nen (25). 25OccWORLD CHAM PIONSHIP POINT STAND INGS; 1. Amon Mang (1171; 2. Reinh old Rot h (91) ; 3. Silo Pons (75); 4 . Dominique Sarr on (67); 5. Loris Reggiani (65~ 6. Carlos Cardus (54); 7. Manin W immer (5 11; B. Jacques Cornu (501; 9 . Luca cadalora (4B ~ 1D. Carlos Levado (3B). 125cc WORLD CHAM PIONSHIP POINT STANDINGS: t . Fausto Gresini (150 ); 2. Bruno Casanova (7 6); 3 . A ugust Auinger (54); 4. (TIE) Paolo Casol il Domenico Br igaglia (46 ); 6. Pier-Paolo Bianchi (4 3); 7. Ezio Gianola (3 1); B. Andrew Sanchez (30); 9. M ike Leit ner (24); 10 . Lucio Pietr oniro (22). BOcc WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP POINT STAND INGS: 1. Jo rge Martinez (1 14); 2 . M anu el Herrercs (74) ; 3 . Gerhard Wa ibel (721; 4. Steph an Doerflin ger 169); 5. Ian McCon nach ie 1 53); 6. Jo r9 Seel (3 5); 7. Luis Reyes (4 1); 8. Hubert Abold 1 25); 9. J osef Fische r (19); 10 . Mrre ues (16 ).

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