Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

Spaniard Sito Pons extended his lead in the 250cc t itle chase w ith a command ing 7 .5-second win over Juan Garriga in his home Grand Prix. off in the final session. Kevin Schwantz fell inthe slow left- bander trying to avoid another rider. Sarron fell twice injuring his ankle, knee, and neck. Yatsushiro fell in a rightha nd turn after losing the front end and Yamaha factory rider Tadahiko Taira, making one of his rare European appearances, was flung into a stack of tracksid tires, injuring his ankle and preventing him from racing. World Champion Gardner - fell when he was high-sided in the first session in a slow uphill hairpin when he spun a cold tire. "I think it's been coming for a couple of races. Once I got it out of my system I went out and went a second a lap quicker. It's part of the mental difficulty of being World C h a m p io n ," Gardner said. The Honda riders, Gardner in particular, were experiencing wheelspin and brake problems. A cobbed-up air scoop from a Honda road bike was added to the front brakes to force cool air onto the disc rotors and Gardner m oved his seat for better weight d i str i b u tio n in controlling the wh eelspin. He also changed the gear ratios so that he could use the lower part of the powerband and prevent the rear tire from 'sp in n in g. Lawson was also plagued with pro b lems in qualifying and it was his 75th of 77 qualifying laps that netted him second fastest time. "We started out with carb problems and that ruined us for two sessions. I knew I wouldn't qualify that well, but I'll be ready for the race. We're trying to get the front end worked out so we can ride over the bumps. The whole track needs to be resurfaced. We don't have a lot of grip. Last year it was much hotter here. I don 't think anyone is prepared for the surface or temperature," Lawson said. Rainey tried to prepare for the race ~y running a full fuel load and race setup in the final session, only twoIOths 'o f a second slower than his pre,:,ious best of 1:27.756 in the third session. " I think we'll be okay. We're within half a second. 1 don 't think the race will be that fast, It will be high 28s, low 29s," Rainey said. He also said that he'd changed to a different profile front tire to control chattering problems th a t he 'd been having. Six t h -f a s tes t qua li fier was Sch wan tz who posted his best time of I:28.087 min utes after swi tching back to a b ias-ply front tire from a radial for Saturday's sessions. " Even tually, I'll put it on, but the radial squirms more," the T exa n said. "I had to put the cross pl y on for confidence. 1 need to go somewhere an d test th e bike for a week with the front radial." One of h is other problems in Friday's practice was tha t amechanic had mistakenly put two fourth-gears in the transmission of his Suzuki R G V500. Mackenzie was seventh fastest after falling off while tryin g a new front tire. He believed that if you pushed the front end you could get around the track quickly and he was trying to find his lim it. T his year he said he 's not riding on the front brake as much or using the front tire to slow the machine. Didier de Radiques, Lawson's teammate, was a surprise eighthfastest, The surprise wasn't that he was eighth-fastest, but that he 'd had carpal tunnel surgery to clean out the nerve passageways in both wrists on the Monday prior to the race. He said that he'd had a problem with losing th e feeling in his fingers at Laguna Seca and, after consulting a physician, but no one on the Agos tini team, he had the surgery done. Following de Radigues was Taira, Chili, who a lso cras hed in practice, Baldwin, and the practice crashing trio of Yatsushiro, Haslam, and a non-confident Rob McElnea. McElnea had good reason to be despondent. In addition to yet another crash, McElnea's Suzuki was the slowest factory bike on top speed peaking at 158.457 mph. Mackenzie's HB Honda was fastest a t 167.778 followed by Gardner's ' Rothmans Honda and Ra iney's Roberts Lucky Strike Yamaha, tied at 166.535, then Lawson and Haslam, Chili, and Magee at 164.05. Lawson got such a good start in the 37-lap, 76.14-mile race that he was later protested by Honda. But the protest was disallowed. But while Lawson was jetting off, Magee caught himself creeping and was pulling the bike backwards when the . green light flashed. Still, he was fifth exiting the double right-hand at turn one behind Lawson, Cagiva's Raymond Roche, HB Honda's Pier Francesco Chili, and Gardner. ] ust behind were Sarron, Haslam on the Elf 5 Honda, and de Radigues. Both Rainey and Schwantz got midpack starts due to equipment failure. Rainey noticed in the morning practice session that his ma chine wasn't running right so the carburetion was richened. But the problem was the ignition black box and Ra in ey couldn't rev the bike past 11,100, well bel ow its normal 12,200 red- line. " It feels like I'm carrying 10 ga llons of gas," Rain ey said. Sarron was quickly into second with Gardner th ird , Magee fourth, Chili fifth , Rainey sixth, a nd Roche seventh ahead of Haslam, de R adig ues, Mackenzie, Yatsushiro, McElnea, and Baldwin. By the sixth lap it was Lawson -- Christian Sarron (7) and Gardner (1) tussled ear ly over third place, but the defending World Champion eventually took the final rostrum 's pot . Scotland's Niall Mackenzie finished fifth in the 500cc race, but holds on to third in the overall standings with 39 po ints after three races. ahead of Gardner, Sarron, Magee, . R a in e y, Chili, MacKenzie and Roche. Roche fell back into a quintet with Yatsushiro, Haslam, Baldwin, and Mackenzie a la p later before the pack began to spread out. First Baldwin went down trying to move into ninth, then, when the leaders began to hit traffic, the top 10 split into several duets. Lawson was leading Magee out front, but with Magee having turned his fastest lap of I:28.902 on the eighth lap he was clearly attacking. Gardner was a safe third after Sarron decided not to p ress too di ligently . "Whe n Wayne went past m e I saw his bi ke was a b it faster than m in e," Sarron explained. " I rea lized that to beat hi m I wo u ld have to ride very hard and I deci ded to ride safe. My neck, ankle, and knee still h urt from the pra ctice crash and I didn't have the confidence to push too hard." • By the midway point the LawsonMagee fight had moved them close . to seven seconds ahead of Gardner, who was being pressed by a resurgent Sarron, who passed him, briefly, a lap la ter. The World Champion soon ,rega ined his composure, however, and moved permanently into third on lap 20. The Australian was fighting brake problems similar to those suffered at U.S . GP a few weeks earlier at Laguna Seca. "One lap 1 pulled the brake in up to a quarter-lever and ,the n ext lap it use d the full lever. I th ou ght something was wrong. I was n 't sure what was happening so I slowed up. Christian came by and I waited a while and with 10 or 15 laps to go I took off," sa id the World Champion . Lap 21 and Magee went inside a group of slower riders in the double 9

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