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/127137
Texa n Kevin Schwantz won his second 500cc GP of t h e year at t he wet Nu rbu rg ring in West Germanv: . t he w in marked the first fo r Schwantz in t he wet as his J a pa n ese Gp 'win in Ma rch came in dry conditions. Wayne Rainey put himself in contention for the World Championship with h is second place finish in the rain-sodden 500ccGrand Prix. World Championship Road Race Series: Round 6 Schwantz splashes to victory in Germany By Michael Scott Photos by Patrick Gosling NURBURGRING, W. GERMANY, MAY 29 Kevin Schwantz's second victory of the season in the German GP was not only the reward for the most daring wet weather ridin g many people could remem ber, it was also the cu lmination of an extraordinary weekend at the 10 N urbu r in z. It began with a rea l th reat of ra ce postponement or cancelation due to thick a n d p ersistent fog , preceeded with th e FIM jury rewri ting th e ru les as they went along, and ran thro ugh a qu it e u n ex pected breakdown of th e usu ally p u nctilious German tim ekeeping, with all the expeted a tte n dant protests. By th e end o f th e meeti ng , a seco nd victory by th e slowest works bik e hard ly raised a flicker o f surprise. That ch am p io nsh ip fa vorite Eddie Lawson was a lackluster fourth in th e soaki ng rain, an d maj or rival Wayne Gardner a dispirited eigh th was by the n hardly more su rp risin g . Most people were jus t pleased to have had a ra ce at all. Schwantz' s wi n o n the P e p si Su zuki was far fro m th e on ly upset. Wa yne Rain ey' s dogged but d istant seco nd place on th e Lucky Strike Yamaha lifted the quiet Californian to within two points of Gardner in th e point sta n din gs, while Christian Sarron's fin e third on the G auloise Yamaha was . surprising b ecause m any peop le expec ted him to fall off under th e pressure of Lucky Strike Yamaha' s Kevin Magee. Instead, it wa s Magee who slid to ea rt h, hurriedl y remounting covered with mud to rejoin th e fra y in fifth. Marlboro Yamaha's Lawson considered himself lucky to have fin ished fourth an d ex ten d hi s point standings lead. " I' ve on ly fallen off twice in the last year - a t Le Mans a nd Im o Ia-- a nd eac h time it's been brakin g while going downhill on a wet tra ck. It's made m e kind of gun shy. In st ead o f thinking about rac ing, a ll I had in my mind wa s a fear o f tossing it away, a nd losing ch am p io nsh ip points." Def e nding World Champion G ardner , n ow seeing hi s title defen se lagging by 20 points, was philosophical. "I tri ed my best, but th e Honda wa s too powerfu l for th e co nditions, and I was sliding all over th e place. I was also terrified of falling off, a n d maki ng m y . foot inj uries worse. If it had been dry, I was sure I could win this one, b u t when I woke u p a nd it was ra in ing, I knew the fat es were against me. We haven 't had m u ch lu ck th is year." Schwantz was na turally j ubilant, especia ll y since the conditions had favored his relatively gu tless Suzuki. " T h e power was perfect for a slippery track - I could stay h oo ked up while the others were sp inning and slidi ng. I had a few slides early on, but my pit signa ls were good, and I kn ew what I had to do to win. " Rain ey did m ount a ch alle n ge, a fter dropping to fifth in the early stages while he sized up th e conditio ns , but a near m iss wh en he slid to the top of a curb and almost onto the grass decided h im in favor of a safe seco nd place. " I guess I ma de a few mistakes, and Kevin didn 't make any, " said Ra in ey. " After that, I lost a lot o f time try ing to get m y rhy thm back." T he 250cc GP was even m ore of a lottery , after a sha m bo lic practi ce sa w one session ca nce led after the time keepers had m issed a number of fast laps, a nd a number o f top rid ers - including cham p io ns h ip challenger Juan G arriga - rem ained unqualified. The 250cc race started -full y wet, and finish ed dry , so th e right tires sim p ly did not exis t. In any case, th ere had been an unprecedented 48 starters (the easy way to solve th e timekeep ing prob lems was simply to let a lm os t everyone onto the grid), and th ere were so me slow riders u p front and some fast ones a t the back. By th e time everyon e has sorted ยท th em selves ou t, with a profusion of crash es, Marlboro Yamaha's Luca Cadalora was th e hero of th e day with Ca m psa H onda's Sito Pons playing it sa fe agai n to tak e second, and G arriga snatch ing third a t th e last gas p fro m 7- Up EMC-m ounted Donnie McLeod, a fat e th e underra ted Scotsman hardly deserved. All th ree ot her classes race d in Germa ny; and Spaniard J orge Martinez a n d his Derbi took th e victory everyone had expected in th e 80cc class. But in lin e with th e erratic fa teso f the ' R in g, this usu ally im macu la te rider a lso fell o ff h is 125cc Derbi (a fter " forge tt in g " he was on the bigger bike, a nd grabb ing an 8Occsized handfu l o f brakes in th e wet ), handing the ever-inspired Ezio Gi anol a the ra ce. It was H onda 's first 125cc class victory since 1966 wh en Lu igi Taveri wo n five GPs a nd Mik e H ail wood one . T he Sidecar GP win went to Biland/Wa ltisper g , who passed th e Webster/H ewitt rig on the . las t lap. T h ursday 's untimed practi ce had taken place in blazing sunsh in e, but on Friday th e fickl e Eifel Mountains produced th e dr eaded Nurburgring mist, an d one could barely see from o ne end of th e grandstand to the other. It was reminiscent of the Isle of Man, as we waited for suc cessive announcements of postponements an d delays, a n d in th e end a very Manx so lu tion wa s found. They sent out the sidecars . In fact, th e sid ecar drivers and passengers had a more pressing problem than did the solo riders, because (m uch to their dismay) they were scheduled to race on Saturday, ~nd simply h ad to get some practice m. The 500s st a yed indoors, and wondered if the weather would ever clear enou~h for them to race. The next rnorrung was wet, but not too foggy, a nd a co m p ro m ise was fou nd - in stead of th e two hours min- . imum practice required by th e rules, usually broken up into four sessions, there would instead be 90 mi nutes, . broken into two sessions instead of th e usual four. Thus the FIM jury fid dl ed the ru les , but of co urse everyone would rather race than go home, ' so th e shenan igans were acce pted. . T he works Honda riders by now h ad a pair o f the new frames each, bu t were of course still u nable to solve the lack of dry testing time; of th e Yama ha teams, on ly Kenny Rob er ts' L ucky Strike team ri ders had anything n ew. "I've spen t $20,000 on the front