Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

The re were plenty of Japanese umbrella girls at Suzuka. The Suzuka Circuit has also been changed since last year's GP. To reduce entry speed into the H airpin Curve, Degner Curve wa s modified from one fast left-hander to two slower left-h anders in Au gust of 1987. When all was sa id and done, Taira and h is Dunl o p rain tire- shod Yam aha gave j apan its first-ever pol e po sit ion in the 500ec class as he turned a 2:32.007 lap time for a n averag e speed of 86.037 mph in wet, but drying condi tio ns during th e second session on Friday. Next ca me Lawson , impressed with th e new Michelin ra in tires, a t 2:32.519. " At least we kn ow we are competitive in th e wet," he said aft er Friday's sessio ns. "T he tires were good a nd th e bike worked well in the rain. I ca n' t beli eve th e improvement Michelin has made with th e rain tir e; it is as good if not better than the Dunlops." Third fastest was Schwantz, al so on Mich elins, in hi s sevent h career Grand Prix. a t 2:32.536. '.'1 wo uld prefer dr y weather for th e race but the bik e is workin g well in th e wet too, so it doesn 't really ma tter." th e confident Schwantz said. "The new bi ke handles as good as last year's, but it's go t a ton more po wer. It nov. ' revs to 12.500. almos t 13,000." Fourth fa st est w as defe n di ng champ Gardner. almost a second off T ai ra wi th a ti me 'of 2:33. 169, but feeling " more re laxed tha n expected." Gardner was also expecting a good race. " It will be like a lo t of bulls in a ch ina shop," he said in reference to th e GP newcomers. " Bu t 1 wish them lu ck because 1 was in th a t po siti on o nce." Rounding o ut th e fro nt ro w was birthday boy Sarron , 33. who, after running with Gardner in practice, rea lized th e Yamaha co uld keep pace. at least o n top end. " We still have to make th e ca rbure tio n sharper becau se there was one corner whe re he co uld squ irt away Iro m me," Sarron said. Ra in ey led th e seco n d row of Ma gee, Schwan tz 's T ea m Pepsi Suzuki teammat e Rob McEl nea and Honda NSR 500-mou nt ed Shi nichi Ito. '" guess I' m no t sure if sixth fastes t is good o r bad, " Rain ey said. " T he wet was wet a nd the re was no dr y, so 1 do n't know what to th in k. HB Honda's Niall Mackenzie (5) leads Yamaha -mounted Ch rist ian Sarron (7) early in t he 500cc Grand Prix. Mackenzie fought through from a bad start to finish fourth wh ile Sarron faded to an eventual eighth place. . , . I'm'getting used to riding in the wet weather; I'm sta rt ing to feel wh at th e bike wants. I'm gonna start with th em and I'd like to race with them . I'm reall y looking forward to th e race. I'm having a lot of fun riding with th ese guys." T enth o n th e grid and sitt ing o n th e in side of row three was Brit Ron Haslam o n th e new Elf-5. The lat est fro m th e Fren ch features a 1987 NSR500 engine. but th e chassis has cha n~ed. " Every single part of o ur chaSSIS is diff erent from last year's specifica tio ns." team manager Serge Rosser said. " We worked in o rder to use th e lessons of th e past a nd to red uce weight o n thi s ma chine... " Elf went with the 1987 en gine because H onda cou ldn' t get th e new o nes to the Fren ch compa ny in tim e to make th e necessar y cha nges to the chassis. As is, the 1988 engine will not fit in th e Elf-5 chass is. Mackenzie. who th e week prior to the GP won the Suzuka 2-4 race for the second year in a row (setting th e lap record of 1:14.432 in th e process) was back o n th e fourth ro w af ter q ua li fying 18th. P ractice crashers in th e 500cc class incl uded McElnea (twice) , Ra in ey, Patr ick Igo a , Magee and de Rad igu es. j apa n 's T oshihiko Honma surprised everyo ne by cap turi ng the 250cc pole position on hi s Yamaha TZ250. H on rna, in the o nly dry session, turned a '2:19.794, for a n average speed of 93.55 mph. H is factory- prepared, VCC (Ja pa nese coffeej- spo nsored T Z250 was, accordi ng to Yam ah a engi neers. "a little bit special." . Second o n th e grid went to a no ther Ya mah a TZ2 50. this o ne in th e hands of j apan 's Keij i Tam ura wh o turned in a 2:20.595. Th ird o n the grid was the a tten t io n-ge tti ng Ya m ah a YZR250 V-twin -mounted Kocinsk i a t 2:21.299. The young American, who underwent eye surgery in Oklahoma o n his left eye prior to the Grand Pr ix to relieve muscle strai n. was th e most consis tent of th e 250cc men in q ualifying. co ns istently stayi ng in the top three in both th e wet a nd dry sessions. He also cras hed for only the second time in the last' two years whe n he dropped the Yama ha at a snail's pace in th e chicane after h itting the red and white striped curb. Marlboro Yamaha 's double World Champion Edd ie Lawson started 10th. moved up to third and f in ished third in the opening GP of the season . Kocinsk i 's perf o rm an ce pea ked curiosi ties abo u t the possib ility . of him abandoning h is AMA effort fo r a n immediate GP career. " If , win here by 50 seco nds a nd w in a t Laguna by 50 seconds, we'll stic k too ur original plan to stay hom e." he sa id. Mentor Kenny Rober ts backed th e sta teme nt. " We ca n't just drop th e co mmi tment we have to th e spo nsors back hom e." th e three-tim e Worl d Cha mp ion-turned team manager sai d. " H ere a nd Laguna will be a lot differ ent th an Eu ro p e. Our orig ina l plan is best; he'll race in America and also get so me expe rie nce racin g in Eu ro pe." Fo urt h fastest was Manfred Herweh, who switched to Yama ha fro m ' H onda for 1988, but the German cras hed in a later practice sessio n an d bro ke his collarbo ne. T hus, fourt h on the grid went to Team Parisien neElf's Jacq ues Co rnu (back from th e badl y broken hip he su ffered in Swede n in Au g u st) o n the firs t H onda NSR250. Rounding o ut th e fro nt ro w was GP vete ra n j eanFra nco is Bal de o n the Defi-Rcnax . T he second row co nsis ted of Masurnits u T agu ch i (NS R250), Takayo shi Yamamoto (TZ250). Carlos Car. dus (NSR250) a nd Carlos La vad o (YZR250). What a bo ut Man g? The Wes t Ge rman was pl a yin g it coo l. possibl y a little too coo l, a nd was way back o n th e fourth row after qualifying 15th. Pons was also 'on th e fourth row with last year's winner Kob ayashi even furth er back. sitting in ro w five. Among those m issing from th e 250cc grid was last year's runner-up in the titl e chase. Reinhold Roth. who ' underwent a recent opera tio n on h is broken leg after comp lications from a e n d-of- the-seaso n crash . Martin Wim mer was also a no-show after breaking his wrist in a frea k test in g acci den t in Spain. T he thi rd 7

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