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/126984
Defending World Champion Eddie Lawson kept his title hopes alive by winning the Portuguese Grand Prix at Spain's Jarama circuit. World Championship Road Race Series: Round 13 Lawson outduels Mamola in Spain By Michael Scott JARAMA, SPAIN, SEPT. 13 The message of the Portuguese G P was written in the scorching sands .of Spain. It was addressed to Wayne Gardner, signed by three Yamahas, and it read: "It's not over yet." In blazing heat Marlboro 'Edd' ' Varna h a ~ Ie Lawson won a scorchmg 500cc race that 14 featured not only real heroics by runner-up Randy Mamola on the Lucky Strike Yamaha, but also a brilliant third place finish and a place on the rostrum by Kevin Magee on another Yamaha, ousting Wayne Gardner on. the top Honda to fourth. "That sure was a tough one. I knew atthatpaceoneofus was going to bail," said Lawson afterwards. "It was Randy or me. I was pretty glad when it was him." Early leader Mamola had already been balked once, and caught Lawson again for a protracted game of cat and mouse, then he made a brakH~g error, and left the track. Back to thud, he charged through to second with redoubled vigor. For Magee, it was enough that he had caught and passed a troubled Gardner. Magee would have been second, but let his part-time teammate Mamola through again. "A place on the podium was the best I could hope for," the amiable new Australian star said. Championship points leader Gardner forced his misfiring Rothmans Honda into a gritty fourth, breaking the lap record before a pinhole leak in a radiator - believed to be caused by "n errant balance weight - caused his bike to start overheating. By the end, the NSR was spluttering at high revs, while a hand blistered by the heat hampered him still further. Christian Sarron was fifth, Niall Mackenzie sixth; then Chili's works three-cylinder Honda and YatsushiTO'S V4. The last poims went to Ron Haslam, giving the EI£ 4 its first taste of the top 10, and Gustav Reiner's private Honda triple. They were a lap behind. It was a race notable for its absentees. Freddie Spencer wasn't there to upset any applecarts, still giddy after his Misano concussion. Nor were there any Suzukis, though the entire team personnel turned up, including part-time rider Kevin Schwantz, reputedly for talks with Marlboro Yamaha's Giacomo Agostini, and Kenny Irons, as team manager for British privateer Ray Swann. Amon Mang's fine win in the 250cc class - by a Honda rider on a supposedly Yamaha circuit, and under fierce pressure from local hero Juan Garriga's works Yamaha YZR - earned him his third World Championship in the class. Mang's closest rival, fellow West German Reinhold Roth, had to finish in the first four to keep his slender title hopes at least mathematically alive: Instead he could manage no better than seventh, and Mang's title was impregnable. The Mang/Garriga duel outdistanced a crowded battle for third place, won by the Yamaha of Martin Wimmer from the similar machine of Patrick Igoa ih spite of fifth- placed SiLO Pons's advantage of racing at home. Carlos Lavado made a good-natured return, but pulled in because of his injuries after a poor start and 13 uninspired laps. Portugue~ in name only, the race was held in a heat wave at Jarama, the short, twisty, hilJ y track just outside Madrid. The official reason was that Estoril, near Lisbon, wasn't yet ready. Unofficial rumors said the Spaniards had paid handsomely for the privilege of a second GP of their own. It mattered not LO the highly partisan crowd. These multitudes showed their enthusiasm with massive firecracker displays that inevitably caused rather impressive fires among the hay bales and eventually delayed the 250cc race for 30 minutes. In the 125cc class, Fausto Gresini failed in his attempt to become the first person ever to win every GP of the season by crashing soon after losing the lead to Austrian August Auinger. One lap later Auinger also slid oU, leaving the historic last twincylinder victory to MBA and rider Pier Casoli of Italy. The 80cc race was rivetting, and ended with a: Derbi 1-2. Inflamed fans had spilled over onto the track to lay firecrackers even while the race was in progress. After it was finished, they blocked the circuit, and chanting fans carried Derbi men Jorge Martinez and Manuel Herreros shoulder high. They know how to treat a hero in Srain. I wonder what they thought o it all in Portugal.