Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

Kev in Schwantz finished f ourth in the 500cc GP; it was t he Texan 's first finish since the second round held at Laguna Sec a. Sito Pons, who leads the 250cc World Championship, finished second at Imola to maintain his slim lead over Juan Garriga. n ea. Then H aslam ra n off th e trac k, hi s Elf 5 stricken with unidentified su spension p roblems that deprived him of th e abili ty to brake h ard, and though h e pulled th e black bike out o f the ma rbles to rejoin th e race, h e was well down th e order, and fin ished 16th , out of the points. Mackenzi e cou ld n ' t ca tch th e fourstro n g gr oup ahead of him , who were having a grea t scrap. Towards the en d, Roch e was leading Mamola on the pai r of Cagivas (the third one, ridde n just for th is rac e by Broccoli, . had retired ), but th e two japaneseridden w orks V-fours. Taira 's Yamaha an d Yatsushiro's H onda, were gi ving th em pl enty o f trouble, and frequently nosing ahead on th e. straigh ts. Mamola expained: " My n ew tire h ad stab ility, but Roche had driv e on me, so I co u ldn't get by, an d th e J apanese bikes had more power th an both of us. On th e last lap, I ro de around Roch e on fast bend, which was the only place I co u ld do it." H e led th e grou p acros s th e li ne to take seven th, but th en Roch e's engine died on th e final run up to th e flag, and he lost a nothe r pl ace to th e fort u nate Yat su shiro. T he n ca me T aira , lo okin g o ver his shou lder. When h e looked ahead again, it was to see Roche a lmost sta tio nary right in front of him, a nd th e coll isio n was as spectac u la r as it was unavoidable. With Mackenzie II th a nd McElnea 12th, Val esi took 13th, only one lap behind th e leader, fo llowed by Mar co Gentile's four-in-line Fior. The last p oint we n t to Igoa . a good result since h e .was still in pain from h is Laguna Seca crash. Kocinsk i 's a ll -ne w carb o n -fiber fra med Lucky Strike TZ250, further distinguished by bulbous bodywork, turned out to be suffering from a lack o f development time, which was further denied it by the weather, and only in the last dry session did th e promising 20·year·old get going, . circulating in com pany with World Champion Anton Mang's Rothmans Honda to place 13th, and actually one place ahead of the German. "At least n ow I know where the track is going." Kocinski said . U p front, Sarron dominated all sessions wet a nd dry, while at th e end Lavado (on ce again showing th e old m agic th at he seems to have trouble a 14 finding in th e race) an d J erez winner G arriga pushed up into seco n d a n d third. The Yamaha YZRrid ers h ad new ex ha ust pipes here; but none of th e new cylinders th ey'd h oped for. It was en ough for Cadalora also to m ak e th e front ro w, j ust behind Pons' Honda , which was fitted n ot only with a n ew adjustable rear suspe nsio n ro cker, but a lso an an tislipstreaming seat (closed in under n eath ), both designed b y former constructor Antonio Cob as. The second row was an exclus ive Honda NSR affair: Roth, Shimizu, Puig and Cornu. Surprisingly, th ough, times wer e m ore spread o u t than th e 500s... onl y th e five leaders were within the same second, an d it was lower down the gr id that th e 250s closed ranks in th e usual manner. Martin Wimmer on th e top TZ led the th ird row, th en came th e pair of Aprilia V-twins of Reggiani a n d Ca sanova (until now th e former 125 star has been on last year' s par allel twin), joine d by Kocinski and Mang. Another 'SS-style race saw th e tigh t p a cks o f yesteryear replaced b y runaway leaders an d small groups of . pursu er s. This tim e it was Sarron whose H onda led from sta rt to finish. Though he was chased hard for most of th e race by Pons (hard enough for the French m an to keep br eakin g th e lap record ), th e Spanish cham p ionshi p leader was even tually co n ten t with seco n d pl ace , as long as it was a head of hi s m ain ti tle rival Juan Garriga. H e, meantime, exce lle d on th e Yamaha, but nonetheless gradually lost ground in third place, until a n o ff-track exc u rs io n ca u sed b y a sha tt ered rear tire brought him within sight of fourth-placed Masahiro Sh imizu. The Japanese H onda rider redoubled his efforts to ca tch h im , but Garriga was a b le to respond, and to stretch a 2.5-second gap to four seconds a t th e end. It ma y h ave been closer h ad th e Spaniard Puig not ta ken ou t six others in his first lap crash. One was . Kocinski. " It was real packed , and I wa s just turning into th e first chicane when his blue bike cam e past me so fast a nd all locked up. I knew h e h ad no ch ance of making it. When h e went down, so did I. " H e was high-sid ed a t low speed, picked up h is n ew specia l-fra me d TZ, put the fu el tank back on, and tried to esca pe fro m the grip o f the ma rsh alls... until th ey pointed out fu el gus h ing from beneath th e bike. " T he fuel line had pulled off th e carbs." T his l eft the field so mewha t depleted, but th ere wa s still a bi t o f close ac tion behind th e leaders, with Reggi ani the fir st to seize fourth p lace , soon joined by Shimizu, ahead of Cadal ora, Cornu, Mang, Roth, Lavado and Ruggia. Reggiani wa s riding th e Aprilia desperately, but an even more .dramatic Sh im izu wa s keen to attack, an d wh en h e did so he seeme d to cu t in front o f th e Italian into o ne o f th e ch ica nes on the fifth lap. Then th e group' started to br eak up, with Shimizu esca p ing ahead, Cadalora behind him, Man g delaying the pursuit, an d Lavado in any case dropping ba ck. By half distance, both Roth and Cornu h ad passed Mang, th e form er ' going on to harry Cadalora and even to lead him briefly, before himself m aking a brak ing mist ake at a ch icane , a n d dropping way out of touch in th e closing laps. Mang's uncharacteristic slide ba ckwards was ca used by an unusual a n d so m ew ha t abstruse mistake; wh en sta rt in g th e bike, th e m echanics h ad forg o tte n to touch th e button th at activates th e elec tro nic p ow er valve m ech anism. The su bseq uen t bad runnin g was misdiagnosed as too-ri ch ca rbu re tio n, an d th e needl e jets were hurri ed ly leaned out (Ma n g managed to squeeze in two warmup laps whi le th e o the rs did on e). By th e tim e th e real p roblem was di scovered , it was too late to re co rrec t th e carbu retion , an d as th e race progr essed his problems were co m po u nded bya br ak e prob lem. With Cornu now a soli tary seventh, ninth- pl aced Lavado seem ed inspired by th e sight of Mang's back wh eel as he had not only escaped th e Frenc h ma n but ca ug ht an d passed Cornu with two laps to ' go. Ruggia proceeded to pressure Mang, wh o (now almost br akless) messed up one o f th e ch ican es, an d dropped to ' a di stant 10th . Wimmer h ad b een I I th , but crash ed a fter six laps, leaving the place to be disputed between Auinger and H erweh ; but McLeod was on his way from last place, another victim of Puig, in one of the more impressive rid es of the race , and on th e wa y through he broke up a number of complacent gr oups of slower riders. In th e end h e brought H erweh in his wak e on his wa y to 11th, leav ing H arald Eckl, Stefano Caracchi, and Auinger to the last of the points. In the 125cc race, H onda's humiliation a t the hands o f Derbi co n ti n ued, in spite of th e efforts of early race leader Ezio Gianola. One o f th e m ost stylis h riders in racing , head behind th e scree n even in m id . co rner, h e harried th e Derbis of Martin ez and Manuel H errero s. Eventually, he managed to bat Herreros o ff onto th e gr ass, an d as Martin ez drew a way a hea d it appeared that Gianol a may be able to h ang on to second. Then, on the last lap; the Italian rode over the cu rb and to ok to the grass, a nd H erreros slipped by to make it a Derbi one. two. World Champion Fausto Gr esini missed th e race a fter crashi n g heavily and injuring hi s back in morning practice. The SOcc class was ano ther Martinez Derbi benefit, with the Spaniard lingering awhile to pl ay with teammates H erreros and Criville and th e Hungarian Krauser rider Juhasz Karol y, a luxury he co u ld a llow himself because main rival Stefan Doerflinger had made a poor start. Wh en Doerflin ger a rrived up front , h e passed everybody... excep t Ma rtinez, wh o ·go t hi s head down and m aintained a five-second lead until th e end. • Results 500cc: Eddie Lawso n (Yam); 2. Way ne Gardner (Hon); 3. Wayne Rain ey (Yam); 4. Kevin Schw antz (Suz); 5. Kevin Magee (Yaml: 6. P.F. Chil i (Hon): 7 . Randy M amola (Cag); 8 . Shunj i Yatsushi ro (Han); 9. Raymond Roche (Cag); 10 . Tadehiko Taira (Yam): 11. Niall M ackenzie (Hon); 12. Rob M cElnea (Suz): 13. Ales sadro Valesi (Han); 14. Marco Gent ile (Fior); 15 . Patr ick Igoa (Yam). 250cc : 1. Dominique Sarron (Han); 2. Sito Pons (Han); 3. Jua n Garr iga (Yam); 4 . Masa hiro Shim izu (Hon); 5: Luca Cadalora (Yam): 6. Reinhold Roth (Han); 7. Carlos Lavada (Yaml; 8. Jacques Cornu (Hon); 9. J.P. Ruggia (Yam); 10. Anton Mang (Hon): 11. Donnie Mc Leod (EMC): 12. Manfred Herweh (Yam); 13 . Harald Eckl (Apr); 14. Stefa no Caracchi (Hon); 15. August Auinger (Apr). 500cc WO RLD CHAM PIONSHIP POINT STANO· INGS: 1. Eddie Lawson (92); 2. Wayne Gardner (77 ): 3. Wayn e Rainey (65); 4 . Kevin Magee (55); 5. Nia ll Mackenzie (53); 6. Kevin Schwantz/ Chr ist ian Sarron (44); 8. Didier de Radigues (33); 9 . Rob McE lnea (23); 10 . P.F. Ch i li/S hu nj i Yatsush ir o (21). . 2500 c W ORLD CHAM PIONSHIP POINT STANO· INGS: 1. Sito Pons (71): 2. Juan Garr iga (68): 3. Jacques Corn u (58); 4 . Dominique Sarr on (48); 5. J .P. Ruggia (45); 6. Anton Mang (43); 7. Masehi ro Shimizu (4 1); 8. Rein ho ld Roth (37 ); 9. Luca Cadalora (30); 10. John Kocinski (24).

• Cover