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/127129
J immy Filic e was ecstatic after winn ing hi s first ever GP. John Kocinski (80) leads second and third place finishers Sito Pons (3) and Dominique Sarron (4) . 10 increased hi slead over fourth-pl aced La wson to 3.5 seconds. By lap six, Macken zie was two seconds clear of Gardner and having the race of his 500cc career. La wson wa s h ounding Ra iney, but was having problems getting past the curre nt AMA Superbike Champion. Sch wantz was next with a big ga p to Sarron an d then a battle between H aslam and de Radi g ues. On the eigh th lap La wson sho wed hi s det ermination by stu ffi ng it under Rainey exiting turn two, a second gea r left-hander. Schwan tz foll owed suit and ran it under Rainey entering the corkscrew. " I felt like I was go ing .to run with Eddie, but every thi ng went do wnhill fro m th ere," Schwa ntz said la ter. " We steepe ned it up, but it starte d twisting more a nd more as th e tir es went ofL" Once past Rainey, Lawson immediately closed th e gap on Macken zie, wh o was still comfortably ahea d of Gardner, to 2.14 ,seconds. Lawson was still tu rn in g cons istent tim es in the low 1:30 ra nge, while the o thers seemed to be slowing . Gardner was having the toughes t tim e of it, with hi s H onda a ppea ri ng to have a hinge in t he middl e of it under acceleration. Lawson had a scare on lap 12 as he almost nail ed Gardner in turn II. "W ayn e slowed a little more th an I thought he would a nd I just abo u t took us both down," Lawson said later. " He do esn't know how close he came to fall ing down ." Schwantz was also findin g the limit, running onto th e dirt on the exi t of turn three on the 12th lap, whil e hold ing off Rain ey. On th e 14th lap Lawson passed hi s ' rival Ga rdner in turn two, using th e same move th at ena bled him to pas s Rainey ear lier, div in g to th e inside a nd o ut dri ving th e H onda out of th e corn er. Mackenzi e led the 1984/1 986 World Ch am pi on by 1.98 seconds, but the Amer ican was on the move. On lap 15 Yatsushi ro crashed in turn two, bu t he remounted only to pit later. H e had been in volv ed in a go od ba ttle for seven th wi th de Radigues, H aslam a nd Ch ili . Mackenzie, meanwhile, was being caught from behind by La wson a nd o nly led by 1.37 seconds. One lap lat er th at ga p was gone and Law son was breathing down the Scot 's neck. On lap 17 Lawson agai n sho wed h is superio rity in turn two as he dove under Macken iie to take the lead . La p 17 a lso sa w Chili crash the Honda in turn II. Law son immedi at el y o pe ned a lead o n Mackenzie as he cont in ued to run at a com forta ble pace in th e low 30s. On lap 18 Rain ey pa ssed a fading Schwan tz and appeared to be ca tchi ng Gardner. . By th e 22nd of 40 laps, La wson had 3.48 seconds o n Mackenzie, who in turn had a no the r 4.4 seconds on Gardner. Rainey was anothe r 2.7 seconds behind the Aussie. T he song remained th e sa me until lap 33 wh en Gardner sudden ly began to close on Mackenzie. The Sco t was losing hi s brak es and slowi ng drasticall y. In the co rkscrew Gardner shot up th e in side and mov ed into second pl ace. On the 35th lap , Marco G entile cras he d the Ma rlb o rospo nsored Fior in turn six: With th ree laps to go, it wa s Gard ner experienci ng brak e problem s, allowing Mackenzie to close u p a n d threaten to th e finis h lin e. Ga rdne r, however, managed to hol d him off, ea rn ing 17 points an d keep in g his hold on second in the cha m p ions hip. Rain ey rode horne a lonely fourth with Schwantz fifth. Sarron followed in six th after goi ng the ent ire d ista nce wi thout a ny co mpany. Hasla m on the Elf 5, de Rad igu es, Schwantz' Pep si Suzuki teamma te McEln ea, a nd Baldwin ro unded o ut th e top 10. On the cool -o ff lap, Lawson showed unch ara cteristic emo tio n , stop ping his bike af ter the cor kscrew, ju mp ing over th e hay bal es a nd ihrowmg -hi s helmet and gloves in th e cro wd while th e fan s chanted, " Eddie, Eddie, Eddi e . . . " " I go t a real bad start again and I tho ug h t this was it, th ose g uys are go ne," Law son said. " It was a little bit tough to pass, but I was getting 'a good drive out of there (turn two) , so I slipped it up th e in side and it worked. I thought I'd worn the tires ou t catch ing up, but they hung in there. " T h is is th e most demanding track we race o n, with out a doub t," , Lawson said with Gardner nodding in agree me nt. " But I reall y lik e it now. T h is (an American Grand Prix) is wh at th e sport needed to get it , go ing in the ri gh t di rection. Winning here to me is lik e win ning the World Championship." Lawson said th e win was th e gre a test of hi s career. Gardner exp lai ned th e p roblem with hi s ill -handling H onda. " I' m kn ackered ," he sa id while lookin g a t newly-forming bl isters on hi s hands. " T his track didn 't ' suit the power characteris tics of the Honda. It just destro ys the tire s, and I al so ra n out of brak es near th e end. I'm not making a ny excuses , Eddi e reall y rode well. As much as I don 't like fin ishing second, it was go od for th e sport that Eddie won in Ameri ca." Wh en as ked if he would hav e Honda do something different to the bik e for next year 's GP a t La guna, Gardner sa id. " Next year we are goi ng to br ing a motocro ss bike here. A CR 500 I think it's called. . " I kne w Eddie would be the one to beat, so I'm pl eased with second. My problems were a rear su sp ensi on and tire co mbina tio n. The Hondas just didn 't want to work aro und here. I co u ld see 'em (the specta tors) movin g away from th e fen ce, so I kn ew something was up." " It was new to me being in fro nt," Mackenzi e said. " I settl ed down a nd tho ug h t this is j ust like practi ce. I tried to forget abo u t th e guys beh ind me. I could see Eddie ga in in g (whi le Macken zie had the early lead ), but I just hung in th ere the best I co uld." Magee's bike problem was diagnosed by his man ager Warren Wil ling. " It was either starving for fuel or it was flooded," he said. " We couldn' t find any th ing wrong with it, but it wo u ldn' t run in here (the paddoc k) either. We pulled it a part a nd put it back together a nd it was fine." ' The fir st 250cc start was botch ed by the starte rs and after some chaos the rid ers were gi ven a no the r warmup lap and th e race distance was cu t to 31 laps from th e origina l 32. The holeshot went to Sarron, but it was Sh obert co ming from the third row of th e grid to lead the pack across the line a t th e end of the first lap. Sarron was second with Kocinski, Filice, Pons a nd Cardus following. Filice, however, d id n 't waste a ny time and was soonlead ing th e way. H e immediately ope ned u p a lead wh ile turning consisten tly low I:33s and simply let th e rest ba ttl e for second pl ace. By th e fifth lap he led by 3.15 seconds. Kocinski was second, ri ding on tires th at ne CI im ed were shot after th e' second lap, foll owed by Sarron , Cardus, Pons and Shobert . Further back came Cornu, Casanova, Man g and Cadalora. Pons soo n di sp osed of Sarron o n lap eigh t a nd th en Kocin ski o n lap 12. It was then Sarron 's turn to pa ss Kocinski , and soon the top three were evenly spaced apart, with Kocinski left to fend o ff th e adva nces of Shobert . At the end of 15 laps Filice was still dominant, leading Pons by 7.21 sec o n ds . Sarron wa s third with Kocinski fourth and Shobert fifth. Cornu was sixth, but was beginning to come under pressure from a fastcl osin g Cad alora /M ang battl e. Casano va was next with Roth a nd Reggiani in tow. L av ado , after mov ing up to 10th from a poor sta rt, crashed entering turn two. The next best Am eri can after Shobert wa s Renf row in 18th place. By the 20th lap th e top five positions were relatively settled. No o ne was going to ca tch th e ultra-smooth, mi stak e-free rid ing Fil ice, and Pons and Sarron were well spaced. Shobert would ga in every once in a whil e on Kocinski , but he later said he didn't wa nt to risk cras hing in hi s first Grand Prix. On th e 24th lap, Cada lora sho t pas t Cornu for sixt h place and two laps lat er Mang did lik ewise. Cornu, however, would later rep ass Man gon the final lap. On the 26th lap, Luis becam e the second Lavado o n the day to hit the pa vement as th e younge r cousin to Carl os c ras he d h is McD onaldssp onsored Yamaha. " I had hor sep ower.on everyo ne up the hill, " Fil ice sa id later. " I go t 'em th ere every time. I was getting signs from my pit not to look back, and I just took it easy a nd .Ielt real com fo rtable. T he last eight laps the tires go t greasy and I slowed down, but I kn ew th ey cou ldn 't catch me a second a lap. The o nly problem I had was whe n I started da y dream ing ab out winning and getting a job. T hey hired me to win the race a nd I wanted to win the race. I had more confidence toda y then I've ever had." Filice exp lai ned ' th at dirt track tuner J erry Griffith helped to get him th e ride along with Erv Kanemoto. H e said th at Kanemoto , told him the re was a 95%cha nce of getting the rid e, but he had to wait. " I couldn' t sleep," Fil ice said. "S h im izu - I ' tha n k him." Fil ice had th e opportu nity to go to E urope wit h Kenny Roberts' Marlbo ro -sp o nsored 250cc team in 1983 as a teammate to Wayne Rainey, but he op ted to sta y in the U.S. to cont in ue dirt track raci ng. " I. wasn 't ca pab le of winnin g the n a nd I wanted to go to Eu rope to win ." " He go ou t alone and I fight with five or six rid ers," Pons said. " I was th ree or fou r laps with Kocinski and then I think, 'Whe re is J im Fili ce?' He was five o r six seconds in front of me. I think about. the World