Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/127133
The 500cc portion of the "Not' the Portuguese Grand Prix" at Jerez in Spain gets underway with Wayne Rainey (17) leading the way. World Championship Road Race Series: Round 4 Lawson edges Rainey in "Portuguese" GP By Henny Ray Abrams JEREZ, SPAIN, MAY I "Sometimes you earn them. Sometimes you get lucky. Today I got lucky and earned it," was how Marlboro Yamaha Team Agostini's Eddie Lawson felt about taking advantage of T eam Lucky Strike Roberts' Wayne Rainey's late. . race t~re problems to. wm at . j erez, m southern Sp am. 6 Law son rode ma sterfully, sett li ng in behind th e Lucky Strike machines of Ra in ey a nd Magee, slowly biding his time before turn in g up th e heat to pass Ra iney two laps from the end of the 29-lap, 76.01-mil e race to win by 1.67 seco n ds . Magee nipped Gauloises Blondes Yam aha' s Christian Sarron for fourt h with World .Cham pio n Wayne Gardner a di sappointing fifth o n the Rothmans H onda. "No w i t' s ti me to keep th at momentum go ing; keep th e ball ro lling, " La wso n said. H e no wleads G a~dner72 to ~O after.fou r ?f1 6 races . Ramey moves lI~to thud with 50, t~o ahead of today s seventh-p lace finisher Niall Mackenzi e. Magee and Sarron are tied for fifth with 44. Am ong th e non-fin ish ers wa s T eam Pepsi Suzuki ' s Kev in Schwantz, wh o dropped o ut wi th carburetor floo ding probl em s o n th e seven th lap while running second. Cagi va 's Randy Mam ol a decided to skip the race while machine and tir e tr oubl es get so rted o u t a n d is expected to be at th e next cha mp ionsh ip race in Im ol a o n May 23. Ducados Yam ah a 's juan G arriga sco red a wildl y-po pular win in th e cras h-ma rred 750cc GP. He easily beat Ajinom oto H onda 's Masahiro Shimizu , w ho wa s co m fo rtab ly ahead of third-placed jacques Cornu on th e Parisionne Honda. Fourth went to Rothmans Honda France's Dominique Sarron with Gauloises . Blondes Yamaha 's Jean-Philippe Ruggia fifth. Championship points leader Sito Pons cra shed his Campsa Honda on th e first lap, but still leads the title chase 54 to 53 over Garriga. Cornu is third with 50. After losing to Marlboro Krauser's Stefan Dorflinger in th e seasonope ning 80cc ra ce, World Champion . jorge Martinez exacted his revenge at jerez beating Ducados Derbi teammate Manuel Herreros by just .25 seco nds in the 18-lap 47.18-mile race. Derbi-mounted Alex Criville wa s a m er e .28 seco n ds behind H errero s with Dorflinger about 21 seconds back. . Martinez leads Dorfl in ger 37 to 33 with H err eros a nd Criville tied at 30 in th e race for the titie. Surprisingly, th e fastest pol esitter w a sn' t L aws on , but th e LCR Krauser sideca r rig of Rolf Biland a nd passenger Kurt Waltisperg. Although down abo u t 25 mph on top speed on th e front stra igh taway, th e pair used the su perio r cornering traction of th e third wheel to post a lap tim e of I:49.37 for an avera ge speed of 86.275 mph over the 2.621mile Circuito de Jerez. They were almo st two -and-a-half seconds faster than World Champions T ony Webster a nd Steve H ewill and it was no surprise that, even in th e ra in, th ey easj ly won th e race. What to call the race was a dif• ferent problem. The fourth ro u nd of the World Championship was th e first Grand Prix ever run not sanctioned by a national federation. Originally the Portuguese Grand Prix, and to be run at Estoril j ust outside of Lisbon, the race was moved to Jerez when the FIM , refused to hoinologate the track due to safety considerations; mostly a problem of the guard rail being too close to the circuit. Then, the ' Portuguese federation sold the race sancuon to the town of Jerez who, in return, assumed the $2 million plus debt that the Portuguese had Incurred by hosting the FIM Congress three years ago. Almost immediately, Expo 92, a world's fair to be held in Seville in four years . time, signed on as a sponsor and just three weeks before the race Campsa, th e Spanish national oil company, also agreed to be a sponsor. In the end, the Portuguese had their slate wiped clean and could, theoretically, hold a Grand Prix if the track IS improved. And the mayor's gamble paid off handsomely. The cro wd was estimated at 80,000 people. There was some reluctance to call th e meeting the Expo 92 Grand Prix or the Campsa Grand Prix. Some other suggested alternatives were the Jerez Grand Prix , Andaluslan Grand Prix, the African Grand Prix, the Moroccan Grand Prix, and, the favorite of most, " No t th e Portuguese Grand Prix. " After qualifying ninth in the first o f the four 40-minute sessions, Lawson made so me carbureti on and front su spension adjustments and quickly head ed the leaderboard. H e was fastest in each of the following sessions and would lower hi s own one-yea r-old polesitting time of 1:50.69 (85. 242 mph ) to 1:50.12