Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

00 00 0") ....... Unseasonably warm 90 degree temperatures were popular with the estimated 80.000 fans in attendance at the U.S . Grand Prix; a chance for th e win. "1£ I don't ge t a good start, I wo n' t be. a threat," he said. Third quickest was Mackenzie a t 1:29.473. The Scot was using fifth as h is top gea r on the H onda NSR500 in an effort to stop wh eelspin in the fast turn one ri se, but was sti ll en counter in g excessive tire wear because of the sp in . Schwan tz'was next at I:29.491, but the T exan was noticeabl y worki ng harder th an th e rest to ach ieve th at time. " T t co uld be a long day ," Schwantz admi tted after qualifying. " It's a lot of work staying wi th Eddie. He pulls me ou t of every corner. The d ifferen ce betw een here and Suzuka is th e dead stop corners. In Suz uka we had momentum com ing o ut of th e corne rs. " R ain ey's Au strali an teamm ate Kevin Magee fill ed th e fro nt row aft er n arro wl y ed g i ng fell ow Au ssi e Gardner in th e final sessio n. Mag ee tu rned a I :29. 652 with G ardner stoppi ng th e cloc k a t 1:29.766. " We still haven 't got th e cornbination we want," Mag ee sai d. ''I'd be happy to ge t o n the ros tru m. I'd like to win, bu t I'd ra ther be realisti c abo ut it and I'd be happy to get on th e rostrum. It 'll be a bit like a 250 race out th ere." • Gardner, who was using sixth as his top ~ear rather th an fifth like Mackenzi e, claimed he was taking it a little easy in th e fin al sessio n. " Everyone is p ush ing real hard ," he said. " It's dangerous and I'm not , willing to push it 'th at hard. I didn't feel it was worth th e risk." G ardner sa id he wa s looking forw ard to getting back to Europe where "things will be a little different. " Gardner a lso sai d tha t he figured some of th e o the r Mich elin riders a nd th e Dunlop ri ders (read Rainey a n d Magee) were usin g qualifing tires. " I' ve been using my race tires the whole time," Gardner said. Sarron, Shunji Yatsush iro (Honda NSR ), Didier de Radigues (Yamaha YZR ) a n d P ier-Francesco Chili (Honda NSR ) ro u nded out th e to p 10 q ua li fiers. . Back in 16th wa s Randy Mamola a nd th e Cagiva, but the 1987 champi onship runner-up would not grid for Sunday's race after suffering a co ncuss io n in practice. Entering turn three du ring th e fir st sessio n o n I Friday, th e co u ntershaft sproc ke t (he ld on by a bolt rather than th e more conventional nut) fell off th e Cagiva, causi ng the rear wh eel to lock, tossing Mamola, wh o has lost 16 pounds since last season, on hi s head. T he northern Californian felt sick a nd di zzy o n Sa turday, a nd o p ted no t to ride on Sunday. Prior to th e cras h Mamol a was still suffering teething problems with the Cagi va and h is Pirelli tires. "Top speed is good, as good as Eddie's," he sai d. " Bu t we're having probl em s com ing off the corners. I don 't kn o w if it's acceleratio n or th e tires, bu t it 's probabl y a combination of the two. I think the rear tire profile mi ght be too Ilat." In 15th was Mike Baldwin, ridi ng a T eam Katayama three-cylinder H onda RS500. T he former T eam Lucky Stri ke Roberts rider said he will also ride th e bike in the Spanish and Portuguese GPs. T he final rider to qual ify for th e 500cc GP was Oregon 's Eu gen e Bro wn a nd h is 1982 Suzuki RG500. Bro wn who is in hi s 40s, finis hed 12th in the 1967 Canadian round of th e 250cc World Championsh ip o n hi s Yama ha TDI e. Brown'sbest lap wa s 12.279 secon ds sl o wer tha n Rain ey's po le earni ng lap. Practice cras he rs incl uded Mackenzie and Alessandro Val esi (Valesi ramm ed Macke nzie from behind ente ri ng the cor kscrew ), De Radigu es (twice), Mam ola a nd Ron H aslam. The most serio us practi ce cra sh , however, was Pa tri ck Igoa 's- a t th e exi t of th e corkscrew and the Frenc hman su ffered a broken right sho ulder and a conc ussion . After his performance in j apan, Kocinsk i ' s 250cc p ole p o sition (1:32.958, 85.044 mph ) o n a trac k he was familiar wi th took no o ne by surprise. Filice being second o n th e grid, however, was a different story. The 115 pounder was only .004 slowe r than Kocin ski and wa s quickl y ge tting famili ar wi th th e NSR after almost crashing in th e exit ofturn 11 on Thursda y. " It's a one- ti me deal ri ght now," Fili ce said of the H onda rid e th at was arranged by Er v Kan em ot o. " It's faster than an y su perbike I' ve ever ridden . It 's the best thing I've ever sat o n. " Kocinski was confident and sai d he co uld go faster co me race da y. " I . went ou t and did one lap a t 33.2," he said. " I stop ped because th ere were too many people ou t there and it was. too dangerous. I wa ited until it got clear and whe n I came around ! the board said 33.2. It takes th em guys 10 laps before th ey can do 33s. 1 can do th em ri ght off th e bat; and I th ink 1 ca n do th em m o re co mfortably." Third quick est was Sa rron a t 1:33.121 with Pons fourth a t 1:33.178. Former World Champion Ca r los . La vad o fill ed th e front row on hi s HB-sp onsored .Ya rna h a YZR 250 . T he second ro w consisted of Carlos Card us (Ho n da NS R) , j a cques Cornu (Honda NSR ), juan Garriga (Yamaha YZR) a nd Bruno Cassan ova (Aprilia) . Man g was 10th fastest with Sho- . bert 13th. In all th ere were 13 riders wi thi n a second of Kocinski's quickest lap. Nineteen Americans a nd one Ca n- . ad ian 250cc rider a ttempted to q ual ify for the fir st Grand Prix to be held in th e U.S since 1965, a nd 10 of th e Americans a nd .the lone Canadian , dirt tracker jon Cornwell , mad e the 36-ri der field. Koci nski an d Filice led the way with Shobert, Randy Ren fro w, Donnie Green e, Thomas Stevens , Andy Leisn er , R ich Oliver , Doug Brauneck and Rich ard Moore mak ing th e cu t. Those no t qualifyin g were Garry Griffith (37th) , third place Da ytona 250cc finis her Danny Coe (38 th), Dav id Bu sb y (39 th) , j ames Stephen s (40th), Eric Kondo (42nd), J ohn Long (43rd ), March ello Del Guidice (44th) , Mik e Sullivan (45th) a nd Alan Scott (46th) . Qualifying 20th was AMA 250cc Grand Prix regu lar, England's Alan Carter. Returning to racin g after missing the j apan ese GP because of inj ury w as la st year's cha m pio ns h i p . runner-up Reinhold Roth (Honda NSR - 12th) and Mart in Wimmer (Yamaha TZ - 14th ). Lawson, as predicted , got a bad sta rt a nd was n inth as th e 500cc pack roared into turn o ne, a nd leading the wa y was Mackenz ie, follo wed by Gardner. Attri tion reare d its u gl y head quickly as Brown a nd his RG500 lasted three turns before cras h ing out of th e race, a nd Mag ee's Yam aha was coughi n g a nd sp u ttering its way slowly aro und the race trac k in near last place. At th e end of the first lap Mackenzie held a n unfam il iar lead with Gardner next followed by Schwantz, Rain ey, Haslam and Lawson. Chili was next wit h de Rad igues a nd Yatsushiro in hot pursu it. Magee was seco nd last a nd wo u ld pit one lap later. Lawson di sposed of H aslam in turn three to start the seco nd lap a nd set hi s si g hts o n th e Sch wa nt zl Rain ey battl e. By th e th ird lap , Mackenzie still led Gardner and was 2.88 seconds clear of Lawson, who had followed Rain ey past Schwantz. Roch e p itted the Cagiva o n lap four wit h la ter rep orts indicati ng the Fren chman "just q uit." By th e end of the fourth la p Mackenzie had 9

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