Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

(85.687 mph). As fast as it was, La wso n acknowledged that the entire five-rider front row was covered by half a second and that there was work lO do. "The carbs are not bad, he said. "Fair, I'd say. I can't complain too _ much. Gelling the bike off the corners is the problem. You get behind someone slow and it's hard to get out." The championship points leader also said that his fast lap was done with his race tire, the race setup, and a full tank of gas. He added that he didn't think the race pace would be as fast as practice because they'd "start with a full tank and when the gas goes out some of the tires are starting to go off." His competition , he believed, would be the Lucky Strike team of Magee and Rainey. "Those are the guys I look forward to racing. I don't worry about the guys from fourth (in qualifying) on." " . ' Rainey was second fastest to Lawson in the first session, wasted the next two, then knocked seven-tenths off of his best time foi a best lap of I:50.23. The big difference, Ram ey " no ticed, was fresh tires and a session without incident. _ "I think we had some traction that time," the Californian said after the final session. "Before, I felt like I was riding 190% and doing 52s. Next thing I know, the front's not pushing and the rear's not slipping going around corners and I was doing 50s. The tires make you or break you here. I don't think you'll win with a bad set." Rainey had lost a shifter in one session and in another had had to park his YZR500 when a pinched fuel line - the problem . that pu t Magee out of the U.S. GP - starved the carburetors. Magee thought that he , too, had wasted the middle two sessions, but with a different SOrt of problem. "The second and third we had front end problems," the 25-year-old Australian said. "It's 'a patter in midcorn er." After using a progressive fork spring that year, the works Yamahas were filled with linear spri ngs, but Magee had switched back to last year's type spring. "Basically, it's as good as I cou ld get it," Magee said of his time, just .06 seconds behind Rainey. "I felt a bit ragged in the last session actually. I learn new tracks quickly, to the level of about 98%, but the last tw& percent, where you learn to use the bumps and slide the rear wheel more, takes time. "In rractice, you're usually by yoursel , but in the race you get a chance to see what the others are doing and then you start thinking of ways to pass them. Then you speed up some more;" he added. , Frenchman Christian Sarron, at 33-years-old the senior 500cc rider of works equipment, was content with being fourth fastest on a track he openly despises. "I don't like this circuit at all," he said, "And there is a lot of concentration for the riders. You never have time to rest. Even on the front straight you have to be up over the front wheel so it doesn't lift. "The top speed is very low here and the slowest corner is riot so slow. . So we have a long first gear and a short sixth. We almost forget about sixth and only use first for the start so it's only three gears for most of th e corners so it must be right." Even though his Honda NSR500 was the -fastest on top end at 149.136 mph, Wayne Gardner was a disconsolate fifth -place qualifier. Gardner explained at length that the problem was one of wheelspin caused by the chassis geometry that put too much weight on the front wheel. H e would Rainey (17) led the 500cc GP for 27 laps, but Lawson (3) caught and passed him two laps from the finish , wobble going into the corners and slide violently coming out. He appeared just a minute late for his post-qualifying press conference and apologized saying, "Sorry I'm late, but I was oiling the hinges on my bike." After apologizing for being late, the World Champion apologized for his per forman ce. "I'm afraid of the bike. It scares me having to ride it ' so fast, so quick. I know I can't win . at the moment and that's no t the way to go racing. I have gone faster around here than last year, but only just and it's quite a struggle. This circuit has magnified the problem. "This year we're usmg much heavier front springs and I've lost all feeling in the front. Honda has lowered the engine and moved it so far forward that it feels like all the weight's on the front wheel. Basically, we need an 1989 chassis." Gardner said that he'd explained the problem to the H RC engineers in detail and that he expected to have a new frame by the next Grand Prix at Imola on May 23. Starting the second row was Team Pepsi Suzuki's Kevin Schwantz still undecided about his front tire choice. "The front's okay with the bias-ply ' orthe radial, but I have a lot more confidence wi th the bias-pi y," Schwantz said. "We had a big problem with the back. You'd flick It into a slower corner and it wants to go out. It's a rebound-compression problem and we almost have it right." He also said that his gearbox ratios weren't set and that after following Lawson during the final practice session he found himself undergeared in some of the third gear corners. Mackenzie was seventh fastest after partially solving his front brake problems by going back to the 1987 discs and calipers along with the temporary air scoops. And filling out the second row were Lawson's teammate, Belgian Didier de Radiques and the Elf-Honda of Ron Haslam. Thirty riders attempted to qua lify for the field which would start 27. Su nday rnorn ings I5-minute practice was overcast and most riders were cautious. Except for Rainey. After warming the tires for three laps he reeled off a trio of identical 1:50.92 laps. Clearly, he was ready. The start was delayed and the race shortened by one lap when the front brake on Haslam's Elf bega n to drag Defend ing "World Champion Wayne Gardner's (1 ) problems continued in Jerez. He held off Didier de Radigues (12) for fifth place. on the warm-up lap. He would drop out on the second lap when the rear brake locked up. Rainey jumped into the lead off the start and into the right-hand 90° first turn. Schwantz, on the radial front, followed ahead of Lawson, Sarron, Magee, de Radigues, and Gardner. McElnea was eighth ahead of Roche and Mckenzie, who'd stalled his engine briefly at the start. The lead pack of five - Rainey, Schwantz, Lawson third on the second lap, Sarron, and Magee . quickly separated from the de Radigues/Gardner battle with Rainey's early laps all in the low I:50s. Rothrnans Honda's Shunji Yatsushiro was out on the fifth lap after high-siding in a right-hand hairpin and Cagiva's Raymond Roche dropped out on the same lap, citing engine and handling maladies. Schwantz was out on the seventh lap when his carburetors flooded while running in second p lace behind Rainey. "I downshifted going into the last corner," a second-gear, left-hand hairpin leading onto the front straightaway, began Schwantz. "Flicked it in, then it bogged. There was gas pouring out of it, They tore it apart and couldn't find anything wrong." What was wrong was that for the second week in a row he failed to score any points due to minor mechanical problems and it left Rob McElnea as Suzuki's lone representative on the track. The Briton, riding cautiously and with Iittle confidence, would circulate alone in ninth for most of the race, finishing 1:37.42 behind the winner. Rainey remained out front turning in h is fastest lap of 1:50.06 on the · seventh lap. Lawson in third lowered it to 1:49.29 (well under Gardner's 1987 lap record of 1:15.08) two laps later. By then Rainey had over a three-second lead on Magee, who was about two seconds ahead of Lawson, .with Sarron right on his rear wheel. Close to nine seconds behind them were Gardner/de Radigues, well clear of Mckenzie, who was slowed " by a sliding rear tire. " It 's the one I thought would work," the exhausted Scotsman would later say. "It went.away after six laps and I tried to make up for it by pushing the front and eventually that went away also." Mackenzie, like McElnea, raced unmolested lo the finish , his being seventh-place 1:12.03 in arrears. Just past the halfway point Lawson began to make his move. On lap 20 he was right up on Magee and 7

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