Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

between the Bimota and Honda ,riders went down' to the wire. On the ' last lap Merkel forced his way past Mertens at the end of the main straight, hung on through the last three turns and took the checkered £lag from the lanky Belgian by three bike lengths in a sprint for the line. " I co uld have shut the door on Fred if I wanted, " said Mertens afterwards, "but this wasn't a World title race and he acted lik e he reall y wanted th e win badly, so I didn 't insist. We had fun, though, and my bike 's really running well at last. I • think we 've fixed the electronic problem." ' I Pirovano finished third, Weibel ,fourth , both on their own, while Augusto Clerici just beat Jari Suhonen to the line by a wheel after a fairing-bashing last corner. The next da y th e second 16-lap race was run, with Tardozzi starting from the back of the 36-rider grid , with four new spark plugs in his Bimota. With overall positions, and th e cash p a yout, determined by combined place points from the two races, rather than aggrega te rac e times, Tardozzi still had a chance to make it to the pa yout window . . Once again, Pirovano blitzed his rivals at th e start, opening up a five bike length lead by the end of th e first lap over Merten s a nd Merk el, who had borrowed Joey' Dunlop's spare HRC-built RC30 engine to replace his own motor which had used up all th e clearance o n th e crankshaft end-float a nd was about to seize. In fact , it was Mertens who ran into trouble first , his Birn ota's engine locking solid just after th e start of the fourth lap while he was running second. , "Fortunately I've ridden GP two strokes long enough to be able to tell when an engine's about to lock up," said the disappointed Belgian, who just managed to stay aboard when the motor locked solid going into the second turn. Merten's retirement handed second place to Merkel , but Tardozzi was already up to sixth place after passing the duelling Ducatis of Amatrain and Caracchi, and was now closing on Dunlop. On lap eight Merkel took th e lead but before Priovano could counterattack, Tardozzi had out-accelerated him coming on to the front straight to take over second place in his brilliant charge from the back. Now only Merkel remained in his sights, but the American- was already in tro ub le. "This motor wasn't any better than the others," said Merke l afterwards. "It never revved to the redline from the start, and after a couple of laps it wouldn 't even take sixth gear on the straight. I could outride any of those guys, Tardozzi included, but having the motor problem made it tough. It was justa matter of time before he caught me." Indeed, and on lap 10, Tardozzi swept into the lead, pulling steadily away to take the checkered £lag and score enough points after a brilliant ride through the field to place seventh overall. 'Merkel at this stage was still poised to take the overall win, provided he could last out the race, but it was not to be. Running down the back , straight flat out in fifth gear on lap 14; two laps from the flag, the Honda's engine seized abruptly, the rear end fishtailing as Merke l grabbed the clutch and stamped on the brakes to haul it down before the left-bander at the end of the straight. "Honda has a real problem with the factory-built engines on these bikes, " said Merkel after the race. "It doesn't seem to affect the standard bikes that people fit the race kits to SANCTIONED 11th. Annual Spring Classic HALF-MILE SPECTACULAR .SAT. MAV7 WITH JUNIOR PROGRAM SPM . , ...... lACE Il(A DCIUAITEII WILlDW TREE INN "11 W _ Ill .... Cool.... . , - l a OOI 5 48 - TREE • , Ct · : at!. {(]t{) =;rs ,. - SHOBERT PARKER *SPRINGSTEEN R. JONES * * * GRAHAM CARR CHANDLER BOODY TICKET MAIL ORDER FORM GENERAL . ADMISSION TICKETS ON SALE AT ' ASCOT ON RACE DAY ONLY SA TURDAY MAY 7, 1988 , Reserved Adult , , , , , , , , : , , , , S17.00 ea. Reserved Child (12 & Under) , ,'S 8,50 ea. Gen. Admission Adult. , , , , , , . S15.00 ea. Gen. Admission Child (9-12) . , , S 7.50 ea. (All children 8 and under admitted free to general admission only.) . ENCLOSED IS M CHECK FOR Y Please enclosea selt addressed stampedenvelopealong with checkor money order payable to - AGAJANIAN ENTERPRISES P. O. Box 98. Gardena, Calif. 90248 Phone Name , City -:- RESERVED AND GENERAL ADMISSION TICKETS ALSO AVAILABLE AT 77CKiifii~ ' MAY COM PANY,MUSIC PLUS &SPORTh1ART (213) 480-3232 ' (714) 740-2000 AGAJANIAN ENTERPRISES VERMONT STREET BOX OFFICE 18420 VERMONT, AVE. 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