Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

Toni Mang (1). who later crashed, leads Jacques Cornu (9). Reinhold Roth. Masahiro Shimizu. Donnie Mcleod (24) and Juan Garriga (11). Defending BOccWorld Champion Jorge Martinez of Spain won the 125cc Grand Prix on his Derbi and later finished second in the BOcc class. , (left to right) lawson. Magee and Gardner celebrate their top three finishes in the 500cc race; Magee's win puts him sixth in the standings. 10 left wh ile La wson tried the outs ide a nd lost the lead. Gardner would hold a solitary third to th e end ahead of Sarron whose fate in fourth would be the sa me. Not so for fifth where Mackenzie, after dicing with Ch ili was approaching Rainey, wh o he'd pass near the two -th irds mark of the race. " I figured I cou ld catc h Wa yne from the pit boa rd signa ls," Mackenzie said . " T he rear was spi nni ng after abo ut 10 laps, but it was real cons iste nt. For sure if I was with the restat the sta rt I could've sta yed with th em. " Rainey said th at he was co mpe nsating for th e duff engine by riding harder and putting it on its side more. " It sounded like I was shortshifting, but I shifted when th e power would go off." On the same lap that Rainey was moved permanently to sixth, Lawson got past Magee briefl y by outbraking him a t th e end of the front stra ightawa y. Magee, whose effortless ri ding style is deceiving - much like Lawson 's - wai ted for three laps before retaking the lead for good 10 la ps from the end. Lawson would shadow Magee for the fin al laps unable to make a pass. On the last lap he was blocked by Hasl am a nd Yatsus hiro, who'd ign ored a blue ' flag to move over , and th e race was over. But Law son was mak in g no excuses. "I followed him (Magee) for three or four laps bu t cou ldn' t ge t by him . H e was going in a nd o ut of the last corner onto the fro nt straightaway way faster th an I was ," Lawson said. L awson finish ed .526 'seco nds back, but I I ahead of Gardner whose race setup pr.oved inadequate. " On the last lap it. shook its head a nd I almos t wen t off the trac k," began Gardner. " We' ha d a new profile rear and it was the fir st time I used it in a race . " It's just no t working this year a t the mom ent. There a re pl enty more races and I just have to wait un til Honda gets it right,"he added. Sarron would take fourth a hea d of Mackenzie, with Rainey sixth, Chili seventh , and de Radiguez eighth. .Ya tsushiro was ninth a nd Haslam rounded out the top 10. Chili said that th e vibration from his engi ne had caused hi s right hand to go numb and de Radigues, although not bothered by stitches from surgery in both wrists, was the victim of a wrong tire choice.. His own. " The tires were too hard. H e (Chili) had a good tire. I had a terrible tire. It 's my fault. It was my choice," the Belgian rider said. Haslam's problem was that the bar-m ounted adjusting lever for the elec tro nic power va lve fell o ff. " T here was nothing I could do, " he said. I The Circuit now tra vels sou th to J er ez, in so uthern Spa in , a n d, alt ho ugh Gardner dominated last year 's race, the Yamahas are lookin g forward to using th eir superiority in traction' a nd .bra king th ere. It may be until the ro unds a t Imola a nd the Nurburgring that th e H onda s ge t a chance to ru n in front. Magee, fo r o ne, isn ' t worried. " We' ll just hav e to wait a nd see wh at the rest of th em are like." Si to Pons may have rea lized somethi ng while getting beaten by J immy Filice a t L aguna Seca that h as cha nged th e way he approaches racing. H e real ized that instead of wa iting five or 10 laps to get up to speed he'd go from theTight and leave th e rest of th e field behind, wh ich is what he did a t Jarama. Pons got the holeshot and just behi n d him Carlos Cardus lost contro l of hi s machine going into turn one, a n d his h elmet wa s . knoc ked off as he hit th e ground. He was taken ' to the hospi tal with a . frac tu red skull , bu t was consci ous. T he result of Cardus ' crash was tha t the field had to slow to avo id him and Pons made a clea n break. By the fifth of 31 laps he had a 7.51second lead over Rothman s H onda's Ton i Mang, :Pa risien ne H onda 's J acq ues Cornu, HB Honda's Rein hold Roth, Masehiro Sh imi zu, riding with a sore wr ist, J uan Garri ga , and 7 Up's Donnie McLeod. Pons .was lapping in th e mid 1:30s and would drop th e mark to 1:30.2 18 minutes, on h is fastest la p, the 10th. Ma n~ fell in tu m one on the eighth lap while battling with Roth. " I just turned the power on too hard," he said. • . Lavado was o ut on the same lap wh en he lo st third gea r o n h is YZR250 Ven emotos Yamaha. By lap 10 it was Pons ahead of Roth, Ga rriga, Cornu, Sh imizu, a nd Ru ggia. L oris Reggiani on th e facto ry Aprilia was moving up, but would drop out on the 16th lap, two laps later than Dominique Sarron 's retirement. Pons' biggest lead of over ' 12 seco nds came near the halfway point in the 63.8 mile race. Garriga had moved into second on the IOth1ap with Roth holding off Cornu for fourth. By the 15th lap it was Pons, Garriga on the Ducados YZRYamaha, one of only three, with Cornu ahead of Ruggia, Shimizu. Roth would fade when the injuries he suffered this winter got the best of' him and would finish sixth. Ruggia actually passed him on the 19th lap with Cornu by a lap later and Shimizu into fifth on the 20th lap setting the top six. Marlboro T eam Agostini 's Luca Cadalora would finish seve n th ahead of McLeod, H ein Gerecke's Martin Wimmer and Manfred H erweh. Pons admi tted that th e crash a t th e beginning made it easier for h im. -r was abl e to ope n up a lead and then I kept on the pressure until I was well in front. The only problem I had was near the end when th e rear ' tire went off a li ttle so I slowed but I had plenty of time." Garriga, who was second here last year in th e Portugese Gra nd Prix, said, "When Cardus ,crashed I was right behind and ~uddenly there he was lying in the road in front of my bike with no helmet on. I hit the brakes and swerved off the track. I got going again, but for two or three laps I co uldn' t concent ra te." Ruggia's best Grand Prix ride yet earned him a spot .on the podium. " I knew I had a chance in this race because with a production bike th e short circui ts suit me bett er. Du ring th e last few laps I co uld see Garriga in fron t of me, but my back tire was obviously tired, so I kept the pace to grab this third spot." • Results 500cc: 1. Kevin Magee (Vam): 2. Eddie Lawson (Yam);3. Wayne Gardner (Hon); 4. Christian Sarron (Vam); 5. Niall Mackenz ie (Hon);6. Wayne Rainey (Yam); 7. Pier -Francesco Chil i (Hon); 8. Didier de Radigues (Yam); 9. Shunj i Yatsushiro (Han); 10. Ron Haslam (Elf); 11. Raymond Roche (Cog); 12. Rob McElnea (Suz); 13. Alessandro Valesi (Hon); 14 . Dan iel Ama triain (Hoo); 15 . Bruno Kneubuhler (Hon). 25Occ: 1. Sito Pons (Hon); 2. Juan Garr iga (Vam); 3. Jean Ruggia (Vam); 4. Jacques Cornu (Hon); 5. M asamiru Shimizu (Hon); 6. Reinhold Roth (Han); 7. Lues Codalora (Vam); 8. Donn ie McLeod (EMC); 9. Martin Wimmer (Yam); 10. Manfred Herweh (Yam); 11. August Au ing er (Apr ); 12. Jean Mattioli (Oia); 13. Maurizio Vitali (Vam); 14. Alberto Puig (Hon); 15. Harold Eckl. 125cc: 1. Jorge Martinez (Oer); 2. Julian Miralles (Hon); 3 . Gastone Grassetti (Hon); 4. Fausto Gresin i (Gar); 5. Adi Stadler (Hon); 6. Bernard Waibel (Hon); 7 . H.lnemoto (Han); 8 . Lucio Pietroniro; 9. Takada Koji (Hon); 10. Hans Spaan (Hon). 80cc: 1. Stefan Oorflinger (Kral; 2. Jorge Martinez (Der); 3. Alex Criville (Der); 4. Manual Herreros (Der); 5. Peter Oettl (Kra); 6. Herri Torrontegui (Aut); 7 . Juhasz Karoli; 8. Nikolov Bogdan (Kra); 9. Serge Julin (Cas); 10 . Ian McConnachie (Aut). 500cc WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP POINT STANDINGS: 1. Eddie Lawson (52); 2. Wayne Gardner (49); 3 . Niall Mackenzie (39); 4. Wayne Rainey (33); 4. (TIE) Kevin Schwantz/Christian Sarron (31); 6. Kevin Magee (29); 7. Didier de Radigues (23); 8. Ron Haslam (19); 9. Shunji Vatsushiro (18); 10. (TIE) Pier-Francesco Chili /Rob McElnealTadahiko Taira (11). ' 250cc WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP POINT STAND.. INGS: 1. Sito Pons (54); 2. Jacques Cornu (35); 3. Juan Garriga (33); 4. Anton Mang (28); 5. Jean . Ruggia (27); 6. John Kocinski (24); 7. Jim Filice (20); 8. Luca Codalora (19); 9. Reinhold Roth (17); 10. Dominique Sarron (15). 125cc WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP POINT STANDINGS: 1. Jorge Martinez (20); 2. Julian Miralle. (17); 3. Gastone Grassetti (15); 4. Fausto Gre.ini (13~ 5. Adi Stadler (11). BOcc WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP POINT STANDINGS: 1. Stefan Dorflinger (20); 2. Jorge Martinez (17~ 3. Alex Criville (15); 4. Manuel Herreros (13); 5. Peter Oettl (11).

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