Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

Juan Garriga scored a popular 250cc Grand Prix win in his native Spain; Garriga is now only one point behind Sito Pons in the title chase. Jaques Cornu (9) leads Dominique Sarron (4) and J .P. Ruggia (17) in their battle for third in the 250cc GP; they finished in this order. 8 passed h im a hip later leavin g him to fend off the ad vances of Sarron who was, himself , slo wing with cras h -related soreness in hi s righ t hand. " I couldn't hold the brake and throttle and' I cou ld n 't brake as late as I wanted," Sarron said. " That's wh en I decided to give up a liule bit. " De Radigues took advantage of th e di spirited G ardner passing him bri efly on the 20th lap before the Australian took it back a lap later. " I was trying to pass him, and to pass him I had to be close at the quick pl aces," de Radigues said. " We were both sliding like crazy and I am on th e standa rd Michelin tires ." " No di srespect to Christian or Didi er," Ga rdner countered. " Bu t I shouldn 't be battling with them ." On la p 2 1, La wson wa s 3. 13 seconds behind Rainey and a second up on Magee/Sarron. H e was runni ng consistently in th e mid 1:51s whi le Rain ey, now slowing by worn tires, wasmostl y in the low 52s. La p 25 and Lawson turned a 1:50.31 wh ile Ra in ey went 1:51.27. Almos t a seco nd of his lead evaporated. The nex t la p La wso n took a no ther twotenths off th e ga p and another twotenths o n th e 27th lap. On th e 28th lap Lawson ma de hi s move trying to ou tbra ke h is fello w Ca lifornian going in to th e first of three right-hand bends. H e brak ed I lat e, so la te that he scared himself a nd, although ' he pulled even .with Rainey, Rain ey pulled him slightly through th e next set of bends. But by th e tim e th ey hit turn one on th e next to th e last lap Lawson , to th e delight of the cro wd, was o ut fron t. H is tim e for h is first lap as th e leader was a 1:50.70 with Ra iney 1:51.76. H is fin al lap would be almost a secon d quicker ·a lso . H e would avera ge 84.771 mph after 53:47.16 minutes of racing. " I didn 't th ink in my wildest dreams it would happen ," an obviously delighted. Lawson said after winning hi s second GP of the . year. He explained that he chose a front Michelin tire slightly harder than the Dunlop-shod Lucky Strike riders, and it worked better at the end of the race. He thought their rear tires were nearly equal. "The front started working at the end," he said. "With a full load of fuel it pushed real bad. The problem was that the tarmac was about 200 cooler than yesterday. " Rainey said that with the front end tucking under he couldn't keep up his earlier pace. " T hat was as fast as I could go. I almost fell down trying to keep up with Eddie at the end. It 's tough to lose it that wa y, but it 's the first time I was th at close. I never led a race that long and lost it at the end. Now we'll make the tires better, we'll make th e bike better, and I'll ride it better. " Almost ignored by the LawsonRa in ey skirmish was Magee's assault on Sarron in th e closing laps. Magee briefly gave up third when he rnissh ifted with four laps to go . With two laps to go , Magee was aga in past a nd the two would ra ce to a photo fin ish with th e Aussi e nipping Sarron at the line by .12 seconds. Sarron said that " Magee braked on the insi de in the final corne r and I took another lin e. The straig ht was too short. I put it in !TIy mind to ride the firs t four G Ps easy. I too k it easy in my mind. I will be a bit more aggressive fro m now o n." Like hi s teammate, Magee's troubles were tire-related. " With the back sliding I could keep up the corner speed earl y on, but you can' t have corne r speed with the front sliding. You have to get in , turn it , and fire out. " H e also said that at one point, wh en he slid the front end in a leftright transition, that his kn ee pad moved off its velcro mooring and on to the inside of his knee by the force Eddie Lawson's (center) win was his 2 1 st career 500 cc Grand Prix victory, making him sixth on the all-time 500cc GP win list . of propping up the bike on his leg. All things considered, he said, " I was quite happy with the points I got." Points were also on the mind of the World Champion Gardner after his worst performance in defense of his title. "Twelve points (his gap behind Lawson) is a very big gap to make up," he said. " I rode as hard as I could to finish fifth. The next two weeks are the most critical of the . seaso n, " he said, all udi ng to Honda's need to sup ply a beuer frame. " It 's aw fu lly fru stra tin g. I don't know what they're going to do . I know I can race with those guysf This is one of the low est points in my career." Part of Gardner's problem is his lack of substantial off-season testing. T o introduce a new chassis when th e season is one-quarter over seem s desperate on first look, but Gardner cannot be appeased in any other way. His persistence in maligning th e current model has stalled its progress and it was clearly not set up properly for Jerez. "There's ways to fix it ," a rival mechanic said. "The things not even going in a straight line well. " Yet Lawson was not ready to count him out, although at the moment, he sees the Roberts' team as more of a threat. " T hose guys could be really tough, I'll have to fight with them for the World Championship unless Wayne gets the thing sorted out. On the fast tracks they 'll (the Hondas) be okay." . The 25-lap, 68.15-mile 250cc GP quickly became a mauer of survival. The top three qualifiers were all out . of the race within two laps. Polesiuer Carlos Lavado (1:51.77) crashed his HB Ven emotos Yamaha on the warm-up lap. Marlboro . Yamahas' Luca Cadalora, second fastest .17 seconds behind Lavado, was taken ou t by Aprilia 's Loris Reggiani on the second lap wh en , after running off th e track, Reggiani re-en tered th e track on Cadalora's line, but 20 mph slo we r. R eggian i h ad qualified eighth fastest. At the end of th e first lap championship points leader Sito Pons ran his Campsa Honda into fellow Spaniard Albert Puig, catchriding th e injured Carlos Cardus' Ducad os Honda, taking himself ou t ' of th e race and flauening Puig's silencer. Pons la ter apologized to Puig. With the top three out, fourth fastest qualifier Juan Garriga sped into th e lead and was never challenged. He would win by almost seven seconds over Masahiro Shimizu in a dull parade. Only the battle for third would be interesting, but more o n that later. " It was a difficult race and I had . to take some risks in the early laps becau se Shimizu was riding very aggressively and I had to put some di stance on him. When I got a four or five second lead I could control the race," the 25-year-old Spaniard said. "Now the championship gets very competitive. I hope I can repeat this re sult on more than one occasion. " Carriga was the only rider to get into the 52s, his fastest lap being the sixth at 1:51.65 which he backed up with a 1:51.81 a lap later. Shimizu's quick lap was the sixth also, a 1:52.08, but he was quickly into th e 53s and would finish running erratically in th e mid-54s and 55s . He'd qualified only ninthfastest, .stead ily improving, and almost full y fit from his pre-season crash in Japan. He was able to hold on to third three-plus seconds in front of Jacques Cornu. Cornu had been involved in a racelong baule with Rothrnans Honda France's Dominique Sarron, also Honda NSR250-mounted, and the production TZ250 Yamaha of Jean- . Philippe Ruggia. His lap times were the most cons istent and at the end, when Ruggia faded, he was able to hold off Sarron by A5-seconds for third. Ruggia was little more than a second back of Sarron in fifth with sixth going to HB Honda's Reinhold Ro th ahead of fellow West German T oni Mang on the Rothmans Honda Germany entry. Puig, his exhaust restricted by a flattened silencer finished eighth. '· • Results 500cc: 1. Eddie Lawson (Yem); 2 . Weyne Reiney (Yam); 3. Kevin Magee (Yam); 4. Christian Sarron (Yam); 5. Wayne Gardner (Han); 6. Didier de Radigues (Yam); 7. Niall Mackenzie (Han); 8. Rob McElnea (Suz); 9. M . Papa (Hont 10. A. Valesi (Han); 11. D. Amayriain (Han); 12. S. Manley (Suzt 13. R. Nicone (Han); 14. Br uno Kneubuehler (Han); 15. M. Duyzers (Han). 25Occ: I . Juan Garriga (Yam); 2. Ma..hiro Shim izu (Han ); 3 . Jacques Cornu (Han); 4. Dominique Sarron (Han); 5. J .P. Ruggia (Yam); 6. Reinh old Roth (Hont 7. Toni Mang (Han); 8. A. Puio (Hont 9. J.M . Maniol i (Yam); 10. Manfred Herweh (Yaml; 11 . S. Caracchi (Hon t 12. Donnie McLeod (EMC); 13. U. Luzi (Hont 14. Harald Eckl (Apr); IS. Bruno Casanova (AIlr) 8Occ: 1. Jorge Martinez (Oer); 2. Manuel Herreros (Oer). SIDECAR: 1. Roll Biland/Kurt Waltisberg (LCR). 500cc WORLD CHAMPIONSH IP POINT STAND· INGS: 1. Eddie Lawson (72 ); 2. Wayne Gardner (60); 3. Wayne Rainey (50); 4 . Niall Mackenzie (46); 5. Christian Sarron (44); 6. Kevin Magee (35); 7. Didier de Radigues (33); 8. Kevin Schwantz (31); 9. Ron Haslam /Rob McElnee (19). 250cc WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP POINT STANDINGS: 1. SilO Pons (54); 2. Juan Garr iga (53); 3. Jacques Cornu (501 4 . J.P. Ruggia (36); 5. Toni ; Mang (37); 6 . Masahiro Shimizu /Dominique Sarro n (28); 8. Reinhold Roth (27); 9. John Kocinski (24); 10. Jimmy Filice (20).

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