Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

first bend - a position he held for the rest of the race. "I wanted to build a lo-second lead," he said, "but that wasn't so easy, so I had to be satisfied . when it got to six seconds." Lawson dropped to·third behind a charging de Radigues as he faced a problem that has troubled him all season. "When it has a full fuel load, I can't flick it in or get on the gas hard. I just have to wait until it gets lighter." On lap three, the oran~ Marlboro-Yamaha was back In second. By now, Mamola was starting to get going. He'd been ei~hth on lap one, and had picked hIS way past Taira, McElnea and Roche; but Yatsushiro proved hard to pass, supporting his teammate Gardner well by repeatedly letting. off his brakes at the end of the straight to foil the American. . Mamola finally got by on lap seven, and passed Lawson one lap later to tak~ second and chase Gardner. But the gap was still growing slowly but steadily, and when Lawson returned the compliment at the end of the straight on lap 12, Gardner was six seconds clear. Now Mamola's Japanese tires were going off, and he said: "The wheelspin meant I couldn't accelerate as well as Eddie." They held these positions until the end, with Gardner five seconds up, and Mamola dropping away to almost eight seconds down on Lawson. Thus the Championship went to Gardner, who was alternately jubilant and tearful on the rostrum~ "I've worked really hard for this, and so has my team," he said. "For the first time all year, I didn't look behind me once in the race, and I didn't even know where Mamola was. My pit didn't tell me either - they didn't want to break my concentration." Sarron had been coming through slowly from a poor start; but de Radigues was inspired, and held him off under severe pressure that by the end had carried both the Europeans past Yatsushiro. "Sarron's bike was faster than mine," the Belgian said; "But the Cagiva had better handling." This took care of.fourth, fifth and sixth; Taira was a lone seventh after failing to find his practice form; and Mackenzie eighth. The Scotsman denied having raced Spencer's bike (such a switch would have been against the regulations), but the mechanics had been seen to switch fairings before the race, and it was later unofficially confirmed that he had done so. This was not because Spencer's bike was better, but beca'use the team knew how fast Freddie could make it go down the straight, and wanted to see the difference with Mackenzie riding it. Knowing he was not likely to finish in the top three, they had instead indulged in some "rider research. " Chili was ninth, a bad start having robbed him of the chance of slipstreaming the faster bikes down the straight; with Baldwin lOth. The American had passed Chili, "But I wanted to make consistent times all through the race, and that meant I had to brake early, so he got by again," he said. "My hand went numb - I can't feel it at all now," he said, "But I know it'll hurt like hell tomorrow." Haslam was 11 th, one lap down, after running with a noisy bike with a split exhaust; then came the privateers ... Marco Gentile (Fior), Wol£~ang von Muralt, Vincenzo CasclDo and Gerhard Vogt on Suzukis. Aparts from McElnea, who was hi~h-sided on the ninth lap while trymg it> improve on ninth place, Raymond Roche also took an off- " ~ ... ....-4 eu ..0 o .... u o Marlboro Vamaha's Eddie Lawson finished second behind Gardner, moving to within four points of Mamola. track excursion when his front brake failed. He stayed wheels-down, but when the rear brake also went, he retired. Afterwards, former champion Lawson and major 1987 rival Mamola both congratulated Gardner. "He won it real well," said Lawson, "and next year I want it back." 'Now the last remaining battle, for the Argentine GP, is for second place, between the twO Yamaha riders. There were 33 entrants here in the 250cc class, their numbers swelled by eight South Americans - but things were even less serious in the smaller class, with only a few riders with anything to prove, among them Carlos Lavado, close to home, and Reinhold Roth, whose poor lateseason form meant the early championship leader now needed to work to hang on to second place from Sito Pons and/or Dominique Sarron. Lavado led the first session; Sarron the second, the Frenchman's time good enough to keep him on top. These were the only riders until the final session to break 1:31; then they were joined by Wimmer, who had tested here, and felt thai the twisting back section of the track made up for the slower Yamaha's disadvantage on a main straight following a slow uphill bend. In fact, with Carlos Cardus' Honda fourth and Wimmer's Marlboro teammate Luca Cadalora fifth, there were three Yamahas on the fivestrong front row, and it looked as though it might be an even contest for once. Mang, Roth, Juan Garriga on a Yamaha and Pons filled the second row, then there was an interesting newcomer in the middle of 'the third, flanked by Loris Reggiani's Aprilia and Stephane Mertens' SekitobaHonda on the fast side; and Patrick Igoa's Yamaha and Jean-Francois Balde's Defi-Rotax on the slow. It was the serious-looking bespectacled Japanese 22-year-old Masahiro Shimizu, a great favorite of HRC and winner of the All-Japan 250 Championship, riding a factory NSR out of the Rothmans pit of Anton Mang. Shimizu qualified on the pole for the Japanese GP, and finished fourth; away from home ~round. he was hardly less Impressive. Mertens and Team Parisienne rider Urs Luzi were also caught in the Dunlop bind, but it mattered less since neither was in championship contention. Pole-starter Sarron led the 250 into the first bend, and - Gardnerlike - stayed there on his RothmansHonda to win the race. Behind him, Mang, in a very relaxed mood, gave way first to Cardus, and then to the pursuing pack, happy to come home seventh while the others fought it out in spectacular fashion. Cardus closed up on the leader, but was unable to get into an attacking position. Meanwhile, behind him 'a fierce scrap comprised of Roth, Pons, Mang (for a while), Wimmer and Cadalora, a group switching places several times a lap. A heartbeat behind Lavado and Reggiani were performing a similar duet; while just behil)d them Shimizu was slowly escaping from Garriga and·Luzi. Soon after half-distance, Pons managed to ger away from the thirdplaced pack, and even as he closed on the leaders, Cardus started to slow, troubled again by the complaint of '&7 - his arm pumping up. Pons caught and passed him quite easily with six laps left (Cardus managed to hang on to third), but Sarron was able to cruise home the winner with better than three seconds in hand. The brawl for fourth got more and more hectic, with Lavado catching up towards' the end, leaving Reggiani tagged on behind. Then in the last laps Wimmer made a break. In the effort, though, he had missed the last-lap board, and in his attempt to consolidate a half-second lead left his braking too late at the final bend and fell in a heap. "Gustav Reiner (the crash-prone 500 rider) couldn't have done it better," he said ruefully, after the medics had p~cked small bits of Brazil out of a graze on his back. His pursuers were too busy to spare much sympathy, and Roth just won the firIal sprint from Lavado, with Cadalora half-a-second down. Mang was another second down, and Reggiani held on to eighth behind him. Shimizu was ninth, while Garriga had left Luzi trailing ~o Lake 10th. One drama remained - a vicious scrap for 12th, and Balde, Mertens and Patrick Igoa £lashed across the line after fighting almost all race long, with less than half-a-second covering all three. The smallcrowd (with grandstand tickets ranging form 100 to 150 U.S. dollars; this was to be expected) had been treated to a vintage 250cc race. • Results 500cc: 1. Way.;e Gardner (Han); 2. Eddie Lawson (Yam» 3. Randy Mamola (Yam): 4. Didier de Radigues (cag); 5. Christian Sarron (Yam); 6. Shunji Yatsushiro tHon~ 7. Tadehiko Teira (Yam); 8. Niall Mackenzie (Han); 9. Pier-Francesco Chili (Han); 10. Mike Baldwin (Yam). RACE DISTANCE; 32 laps. 75.84 miles AVERAGE SPEED: 96.406 mPh. 25Ooc: 1. Dominique Sarron (Han); 2. Silo Pons (Hon); 3. carlos cardus (Hon); 4. Reinhold Roth (Han); 5. carlos La_ (Yam); 6. Luca cadalora (Yam); 7. Anton ManglHonk 8.l..oTisReggiani IApr); 9. Masahiro Shimizu (Hon); 1Gl. Juan Garriga (Yam). RACE DISTANCE: 27 laps. 63.99 miles AVERAGE SPEED: 93.1 10 mph. 500cc WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP POINT STANDINGS: 1. Wayne Gardner (168): 2. Randy Mamola (146); 3. Eddie Lawson (1421; 4. Ron Haslam (711; 5. Niall Mackenzie (57); 6. Tadahiko Taira (53); 7. Christian Sarron (52); 8. P.F. Chili (45); 9. Rob McElnea (39); 10. Shunji Yatsushiro (321. 250cc WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP POINT STANDINGS: 1. Anton Mang(136); 2. Reinhold Roth (103); 3. Sito Pons (931; 4. Dominique Sarron (85); 5. Loris Reggiani (68); 6. carlos Cardus (64); 7. Manin Wimmer (61); 8. Luca Cadalora 1551; 9. Jacques Cornu (55); 10. carlos Lavado (44). 29

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