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Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/127130
Dav ide Tardo zzi (2 ) leads Lucchinelli (39 ). McM urter (35) and Marshall (11) . Tardozzi crashed on the last lap. handing victory to Lucchinelli, Tardozzi's lead was now over five seconds and he was turning in regular 1 minute, 15 second laps. It looked as if his tenden cy to crash was a thing of the past. He was so fast into the corners it looked as if he sh ould run wide every time, but he never did. Mertens in third now had an enormous ad vantage over Merkel . who was being sh ad owed by Dunlop. This was th e di ce that held the crowd's attention. for last year at Assen Merkel had T-boned th e Irish ma n , effectively finishing off his chances of retaining the World Cha mpionship Formula I tit le. Bu t just as Dunlop closed in, Canadians Michel Mercier and Gary Goodfel low, teammates on the Don Kni t Sugano Suzuki squad, clashed at th e chicane. Goodfellow had gone wide into the chicane th en cu t ba ck to avoid a backmarker only to run into Mercier. It was a nasty incident. Merci er stayed o n but Goodfellow went down very heavily, breaking three toes. . Dunlop ca ugh t Merkel a t the end of the front stra igh t a nd put a hard mov e on him. Revenge is swee t. Everything looked cut a nd dried but suddenly T ardozzi was to u ri ng and Mert en s had di sappeared. Both th e works Birnotas had cu t o u t simultaneousl y. Tardozzi juggled with th e throttle a nd go t th e fires lit again, but Merten s just coasted to a halt. Wh at was a lead o f over five seconds was no w down to just o ne second a nd Lucchinell i had him in hi s sights. Fortunately for Bimota, T ardozzi 's machine behaved for the rem aining lap and he led at the chec kered flag by j us t 1.09 seco nds. Thirty seconds a fter th e two Italians, a surp rised Dunlop took th ird from Merk el. Marshall, Irons a nd Finnish privat -eer j a ri Su ho ne n, who was ri di ng a Yam ah a FZR 750. But wha t had happened to the Bimo tas? Wha tever was affec ting the fue l in ject ion system had sto p ped no t j us t Mert en s a nd nea rl y cost Ta rdozzi th e race but had al so sid elined Keith Huewen, Peter Rubano, Antonio Garcia , Michael Galinski a nd Paul Iddon. No two bik es were a ffected sim ila rly or a t th e same tim e. One th eory blamed radar o r radio co mmunication from th e airport that borders Donington Park, sayin g it in terf ered with th e bl ack box th at co ntro ls th e fuel injecti on. The first com er of the seco nd leg nearly put Tardozzi ou t of conten tion; Swedi sh rider Kummo Kopra sent Merten s ca n non ing in to the back of Tardozzi wh o stayed o n but lost mo st o f th e fiberglass sea t hump.. The o the r two ended up in th e sand pit. First tim e ro u nd Tardo zzi was bac k in th e pack, beh ind fast-starting Piron vano , Merkel, R ueben McMurter, Marshall a nd Lu cch in elli. Bv the end of th e seco'nd lap Tardozzi' was third a nd took just one mo re la p to get to th e front and sta rt pulling out a lead . But then th e gr emli ns struck his Birnota again , the eng ine cu t o u t and Tardozzi was relega ted to fourth. Lu cchi nelli was la ter to say that after five laps he rea lized he cou ld on ly finish second. He'd seen the Birno ta slow, but then read ' I min. 15 sec' o n Tardozzi's pit boa rd. " I knew Davide was going fast again so I cou ld not win ," said Lu cch in elli. Sure eno ug h , Tardozzi retoo k Pi rovano and Merkel to go into seco nd and then he retook th e lead as Lucchinelli oversho t the ch ica ne , the form er World Cham p ion's o ne . real mi stake of the race. Lucchinelli 's fight back from fifth wa s interrupted by Sh ob ert , who whi le on 'h is wa y to setting fast lap o f the day at 95.07 mph, o u tbra ked him at the chica ne. Shobert dropped o ut o f the race after 19 laps. A pl easantly su rp rised Burnett had inherited the lead a nd he had a su bsta nt ia l advantage over th e two Italians. However, th e En glishman 's co nce ntra tio n went wh en he mi sread hi s pit board and thought he had a big lead wh en in fact he had but a o ne-second gap over the Italian s. With tw o laps to go Burnett o verbra ked a t th e chicane a nd th e Italian s were left to th ei r o wn devices. Wh y was T ardozzi mixing it up? All he had to do was sit behind Lucchinelli and use so me o f that seco nd he had in hand. His motor had cut out on him three tim es a nd eac h tim e a hard won advantage had slip ped a way. Each tim e the you nger man had fought ba ck to th e lead .tl-le wasn 't going to rel y o n a ny thing excep t his ability. Lucchinelli 's tal ent wa s al so sh owing. H e'd put Burnett betw een himself and Tardozzi more than once, so maybe that's what Tarddozzi tried to do when they ca me up on Aussie Graeme McGregor and his Honda RC30 in a fast ri ght-hander. McGregor didn 't see Tardozzi co ming a nd moved ove r to th e left. T ardozzi tried to tig h ten his line but the front wh eel went away a nd the Birnor a went down a t spee d . Lucchinelli whee lied over th e lin e w it h nearl y 10 seco nds in hand o n Merkel a.nd Burnett. Lucch in elli 's aggrega te urn e for the two legs was I hour, 16 minutes a nd 7.72 seco nds. Merkel took second o vera ll, a t I: 16:47.85 nearl y 40 seconds behi nd Lucchi ne ll i in aggregate time, a nd Dunlop 's fifth in the seco nd leg gave him third ove ra ll, 10 seco nds do wn fro m Merkel. The Italians carr ied ou t a pos tmortem o f the in cid ent a fter th e race , with Lucch in elli o fferi ng vario us op ini ons o f T a rdozzi, ra ngi ng from " He's you ng" to " He was stu pid" in English betw een long bursts o f Italian. T ardozzis a ns wer was to wave a po ster of himself as Italian Champi on. Only T ardozz i had cro ssed o u t th e word ..Italian " and in sert ed "World. " The regul ation s m eant that although Tardozzi a nd Mclvlurter, who also dropped o u t o n th e last lap of th e second leg, com pleted 59 o u t o f the 60 laps they didn't get a po int, yet that 's all th e man in 10th pl ace did. Expect some frantic ac tion on th e dipl omat ic front before the second round in Hungary on April 30. If th e series organizers get their _wa y a nd th e "Olympic" sco rin g system is brough t in .. th e World Championship S u pe r bi ke Se r ies co uld be th e su ccess o f the year. • 00 00 0') ...... ...... ..... .... 0.. < Results 1ST LEG: 1. Davide Tardozzi (Bim ); 2. Marco Lucchinelli (Duct, 3. Joey Dunlop (Hont, 4 . Fred Merkel (Hon); 5. Roger Marshall (Suz): 6. Kenny Irons (Hon); 7. Jar i Suhonen (Yaml; 8. Fabrizio Pirovano (Yam): 9. And y McG laddery (Suz): 10. M ichel Mercier (Suz). FASTEST LAP: Lucch inelli - 1 min ., 14.14 sec.! 95 .02 mph . 2ND LEG: 1. Lucchinelli: 2. Merke l; 3. Roger Burnen (Hon); 4. Pirovano; 5 . Dunlop; 6 . Marshall; 7. McGladdery; 8. Iron s; 9. 5teve Wi lliams (Bim t, 1O. Suhonen. FASTEST LAP: Bubba Shobert - 1 min ., 14 .10 se~ .! 95.07 mph. OVERALL: 1. Lucchinell i; 2. Merkel; 3. Dunl op; 4 . Marshall; 5 . Pirovano; 6 . Irons; 7. Suhonen ; 8. M cGJaddery; 9 . Williams; 10 . Mark Farmer (Suz); 11. Dave Leach (Yam); 12. Tom Douglas (Yam); 13. J ohn Lofthouse (Suz); 14. Asa Moyce (Kaw); 15 . Esko Kuparinen (Kaw). American Fred Merkel rode a factory Honda RC30 to second place. Third went to Irish teammate Joey Dunlop. 17