Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

• e .. • ~ 00 00 Q') ,.....; ~ 00 il) I::: ~ ~ Lucky Strike's W ay ne Rainey inherited third place f ro m D idier de Radig ues who crashed; Rainey is t hird in the point stand ings. World Champion Wayne Gardner, riding w ith a broken left foot, finished second after sitting on the pole for the fi rst time this season. encouraged to be more aggress ive by four fini shes in the fo ur races, and th en Rainey, who (like everybody else ) was com plaining of a lack of dry tim e, which meant he was unabl e to cure front-wheel chatter problem s that had returned. Schwantz was al ongsid e him , claiming a small improvem ent ' to mid-range a nd top end on the Suzu ki after " li ttle mods to carbs a nd pipes made us closer th an I th o ugh t we'd be. We're still do wn o n top speed, though. " Most watchers through t his speed was more dow n to hi s ow n spectacular knee-whacking riding styl e. This pushed Magee down to th e second row, after hi s own attem p t at a fast lap was baulked by slower riders. Trying to make up tim e, he then ran strai gh t acros s th e top chicane, for the second tim e that da y! Unperturbed as ever, he grinned: " I got in a bit hot, and wh en I should have turned, th e back wheel was in the air. I had to go across the grass." Lawson was alongside him, slowest in a seven-strong group all within the same second. "We lost some time trying to get the carburetion and gearbox right and looking ' for the combination. We'll be there in the race , though, don 't worry." Mamola was out of the eli te group, but the second row was a worthy reward for superhuman efforts on the 'Cagi va, "The bike is fast , but it 's big and heavy . I'd put it on a level with last year 's Yamaha. Our problem is stability with the Pirelli tires. The latest front is real good, but the ba ck is all .over th e place. But I'm sti ll enjoy ing th e challen ge, and Pirelli are working real hard. We're expecting th em to hel icopter in a new tire for th e ra ce tomorrow. " Chili was a lo ngside him to complete th e second row, the only Honda V-four rider not to get a new fram e. . Behind th em , Mackenzie was 10th , and complained of problem s trying to sort the sus pen sion o n th e new frame. "T he wh eelspin is better, and th e steering q uicker, bu t th e back jumps ar ound accelerating uphill. " Alongside him, Roche managed to p ut h is Cagi va a head of Taira 's Yam aha , McElnea 's Suzu ki and Igoa 's 1987 Yam aha, the French man n o t fu ll fi t · in hi s retu rn after break ing h is shou lder in th e U.S.A. T he fourth ro w saw H aslam ahead of Ya tsushiro, o n the slowes t works V-fou r, joined by Massim o Broccol i on a th ird Cagi va, th en the firs t of th e three-cyli nder H o ndas: Roger Bu rn e tt part-timing for Tea m Katayama. The times up front were desperately close, but the lack of dr y practice time meant that several amo ng them still had th ings to try in morning warm -up. Perhaps th e race would not be so close after all. Lawson leapt into the lead from th e start of th e 25 lap GP, chased by Schwantz and de Radigues, with pole-starter Gardner pr essing' hard. Lawson stayed th ere until the end, reporting afterw ards: "The bik e ra n perfect a ll th e way. I had no problems at all - though ' th e rear tire was spinning a lot, it stayed consistent throughout. " De Radigues forced his wa y past Schwantz on lap two , with Gardner in his wake , the n by lap four the Au stralian. was through, and read y to challenge hi s major championship rival. Lawson wasn 't read y to be challenged, though, and held th e gap a t around 1.5 seconds until la p 10, when Gardner set h is best lap, and closed right up to the Yam aha 's tail. It was quite like old tim es aga in, as Lawson put hi s head down and opened up a small breathing space, on ly to be under pressure again on lap 14. Bu t the next tim e round, th e ga p was five seconds, and from th en on it continued to stretch to 15 seconds at the en d. . Su re eno ug h, Ga rdner had a problem. " I was going to try and pass Edd ie on th e pit stra igh t, because my bike was a little faster than his the re... but I never got that far. I made a mistake at one of the chicanes, and ran onto the dirt. I had to put my foo t do wn - my in j ured foo t - to save the bi ke, and it hurt like hell. After th at, I only wa nte d to finish." Frenchm an Dominique Sarron led start-to-finish to win the 250cc GP battle; Sarron 's win m ov ed him t o fourth in the t itle 'Chase . Behind them, Schwantz had been taken by Rainey o n la p six , wi th bo th of them closing o n de Radi gues and the wh ole gr oup catching up with Gardner. Then de Radigues, wh o was tryin g very hard indeed, obligingly overcooked it a nd went flying ove r th e handleb ars o n lap II , handing third to Rain ey. A short wh ile before, Sch wan tz had ru n o ut of brakes and run straig ht over one of th e chicanes, rel ieving Rain ey of pr essure from behind. The Californian had h is o wn brake probl em s, and was another wh o too k an excu rsio n onto th e . grass. "It was at the first ch icane, and I kn ew th at if I just ran on stra ight they'd ma ke me go bac k and rejoin th e track where I' d left it. I had to kinda preten d to take the ch ica ne, ru n ning across the grass, back onto the pavement where I slowed and turned it, then back across th e grass on to the exi t. If th ere'd been a ny curbs, I'd never have ma de it. " H e cou ld do no thing abou t catching the slowing Gardner, so th ey held sta tio n for the rest of the race. ' Magee had chosen a hard compound Du nlop , to avoi d the problem th at ha d slowed him at J erez. " It was hard at the start watching the o ther . guys dr ive away, and no t being able to do anyth ing a bo ut it," he sai d. " Bu t I hoped th ey'd come good for me at th e finish ." They didn't, but by th en he 'd been overtaken by o ther dr ama. . On lap five, he had tak en sixth fro m Chili, but by lap nine Sarron had co me by him, soo n to be followed by slow -starting Mackenz ie. Just th en , Sarro n per formed h is fam iliar h igh-side manuever, puttin g both Mackenzie and Magee off th e track at th e sam e tim e. Mackenzie fell . o n the grass, but remounted to rejoin way down in 15th , starti ng another hard ride th rough the field , but Magee ma naged to stay on board, losing six seconds and wha t was now fifth place to Ch ili. H e soo n caught and passed th e Ita lian, but he wo ul dn't go away, and Magee had to put in another effort before he cou ld be sure of fifth. " I'm di sappointed in th e finish, " he said later. " But I'm pl eased with th e points." Eleven of them moved him up to fourth in the title chase. Mackenzie, going gangb usters , fought his way up the field again, bringing Ron Haslam with him as he passed privat eer Alessandro Valesi and th e steady but undramatic McEI- 13

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