Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

·. ~ : .. t::: a ~ 00 00 O"l ..... Marlboro Yamaha's Luca Cadalora won his first-ever 250cc GP; here the Italian leads Anton Mang (1 ) and Sito Pons (3 ), Cadalora is a former 125cc World Champion who is in his second seaso n of 250cc action, 12 to use very small sprockets. At the end, I couldn 't open th e throttle hard without the chai n jumping." Thus wh en Yatsushiro attacked in th e closing laps, th e Briton was forced to su ccumb, and dropped to I I th . This aside, th e rest of the German GP was somewha t processional , a nd Gardner in eigh th o n ly just esca ped th e emba rrass me nt of being lapped. "T he re was one poi nt wh ere I was righ t o n th e grass a nd co mp letely sideways . It was pretty fru stra ting. If it had been 'd ry, I was prett y sure I co u ld have won here. You can 't say we've had a lot of luck thi s year." H e did manage to hang on to seco nd in th e titl e chase, whil e Law son co ntin ued to stretch hi s lead , now a t 20 points. However, Rainey closed up to within two po in ts of G ardner, a nd th e cha mpio ns h ip mi ght yet become a three- o r even four-wa y stru gg le. With results always o ut qui ckl y, an exem pla ry array of multi -ch annel ' monitoring eq uip ment , a nd th e eyes of the world upon them, the last thing you expec t in Germany is in efficien cy. Yet th ey mad e a proper codswa llop of timing the 250s, and with the fir st session wet but dr yin g at th e end; and th e seco nd briefly dry at first, and then sodden, it meant their allotted two sessions ended with Juan Garriga (Jerez winner, second overall so far) unqualified, reigning champion Anton Mang and cha mp ionship lead er Sit o Pons o n th e back ro w of th e grid, and a number of names th at even the GP regular s had never heard before up at th e front. I mean - Thierry Rapicault o n th e Fi or on th e pol e l Au strian privat eer And reas Preining o n th e front ro w and Argentinian Ren e Zan at ta alongside him . . . a nd all because they happened to hav e dr y tires on 'and managed to catch the tim ekeepers' wandering attention in the ?pening minutes of the afternoon seSSIOn. A handful of fast ru nne rs were am ong the forward ro ws a t thi s stage , includ in g Dominique Sarron, Luca Cad al ora , Martin Wimmer, Masahiro Shimizu a nd Kocinski , having a second Eu ropean ou ting on th e Lu ck y Strike ca rbo n- fiber ' TZ Yamah a. But there were too ma ny peopl e who claimed to have gone fast er who were no ne th eless right at the back, if there at all. No official figures were published, since the protests began immediately af ter the sessio n was over, when it beca m e clea r th at m a n y wor ks runners who had posted fast tim es had not had th em recorded. The tim ekeepers had mi ssed th e early laps, mainly because a t fir st th e riders were packed into too lar ge grou ps. The 'chances of serious acci dents in a wet race starting with slow rid ers up fro nt and fast men a t the back was an add itio na l reason to find a nother solutio n. In a ny case, th e big-time teams bran d ish in g th eir own timing records demanded to be heard, a nd the final solution was reached o nly late on Frida y night, whe n it was decided to scrap the second sessio n altogethe r, a nd ru n a no ther 40-mi n ute sessio n o n race morn in g. Th is a p peased the critics , but mad e little diff eren ce overa ll, since it was wet th rough o ut, an d very few people improved o n th ei r firs tsessio n times. Sign ificantly, Pons was o ne of five wh o did so, mo ving up to 14th by dint' of superh uma n efforts on th e wet track; but Ga rri ga remained down in 28th. Man g , however, profited han dso mely from th e new pl an, ha vin g q u alifi ed second in the first sessio n. Thierry Rapicault thi s remained 0 11 po le pos ition on the 1987 Hondapow ered Fior, Mang 's Rothmans works '88 Honda NSR alongside; then Zanatta and Wimmer o n TZs , a nd Au gu st Auinger o n an Aprilia . Wimmer was determin ed to do well at hom e, a nd prai sed the effects of th e new kit del iver ed by th e Yam aha factory to th e top private TZ riders. " We' ve changed everythi ng on th e bike now excep t th e frame, th e swinga rm, and th e cra n kcases," he said. H e was ·wea ri ng a spec ia l boot o n hi s right foot, gas hed when he fell in Im ola. " It doesn 't worry me with braking, but it makes it hard to mov e around the bike," he said. Cad al ora 's Marlboro YZR led th e seco nd row, with Pu ig's NSR , Caracch i's RS and Sarron's NSR with him. Kocinski was one row back, along with McLeod and Pons; Roth was in row four behind him ; Shimi zu a nd Co rnu in row five; H erweh in ro w six; Garriga, Lavad o and Ru ggia a no ther row behind them . Whatever else might happen, it was certa in to be a n exciting first few laps. But th e drama was not yet over, fo r whi le the wor ks men were now at leas t a ll q ualified, the privateers were up in arms at trea tment that so disfavored them. The FIM jury then proposed yet another change to th e ru les (by now they were making th em up as they went a long), and a ll o we d an unprecedented 48 starte rs. Everyone immediately started to mak e pl ans to stand well clear when th e gree n light went on. By th e t im e th e huge grid assembled, the weather was pl a ying even more tric ks. Rain was sti ll falling and the tra ck soa king wet , but overhead the clo uds were breaking up. Sem i-floode d sect io ns o f th e track however dictated full wet tires all rou nd, and mech anics who had taken a vast selection of tires o ut o nto th e track were ob liged to whee l them all back int o the pus agai n. Cadalora, Zanatta, Man g, Auinger a nd Pons led into th e first bend, but the first lap was as hectic as predicted , and both Zan atta and Auinger hit the deck before th ey were halfway round. At th e end of the fir st lap, Man g was second, Rapicault third, th en Pons, McLeod, Sarron and W i mm e r. H erweh h ad c ha rge d th rough to join th em from th e six th row , bu t he also fell befo re a no ther lap was over. Shimizu a nd Roth were in his wake. One place beh ind, up to 11th fro m th e sevent h row, was Garriga, wh ile Kocinsk i was also charging thro ugh from around 20th. By lap four , Mang had taken a' narrow lead from Cadalora and Pons, and the trio were better than five seconds clear of McLeod , Shimi zu, Kocinski and Rapicault; then both Rapicault and Shimizu fell victi m to th e co nd itio ns , and slith ered off the trac k in clouds of spray . Now the trio in pursuit comprised McLeod, Kocinski and Garriga, with th e Spaniard losing ground. The gap s ta rted to g ro w until Kocinsk i sli p ped p ast McLeod on lap seven , and ra pi dly started to close on th e lead ers. " Whe n I saw Shimizu go down, " said Kocinski , " I told myself to be real carefu l. But 'when I saw Mang a nd them , I gu ess I forgo t a bo ut staying up and thought about ca tch ing up. " A bad mi stake, for th e 20year-o ld Roberts protege a lso lost th e front wh eel and fell into th e mud. The rare settled down now, with Cadal ora pushing hi s Yamaha past Man g on lap 10, and proceeded to dra w away in exorably with an other dis p lay of wet weather brinkman ship tha t confounded all pred icti ons of an immine nt cras h. T he '85 125cc World Cha mpio n was a lmost 15 seconds ahead at the fini sh. "It's my weddi ng present to Agosti ni," the Marlboro Agos tin i tea m member said, of his first wi n of the year. Ma ng and Pons stayed locked togeth er, but in th at order, but now McLeod was o n th e march, and he had caught right up on lap 16. Now a new factor ca me into p lay - the rai n had stopped and the track was drying rapid ly. All the riders were weavi ng about to look for wet patches to keep their tires coo l. Mang 's ti res were now as bad as any body's, and he was already losing ground to Po n s w he n McLeod mou nted a convinci ng a nd successful passing attack on lap 19. It was the start of a dispiri ting march backwards for the World Ch ampion, and though he he ld fourth for three more la ps, he was th en passed by Garri ga , a nd in short order Roth and Wimmer and finally, on the last lap, by Fren ch Yamaha privateer J ea n Foray. McLeod had no hope of catching Pons, a nd settled for what would be a fin e third pl ace finish. But Garriga should never be underestimated, a nd he closed rapidly in the last few laps, and displaced th e Scots man in th e final one. McLeod's tires were also shot, and he had no answer, fin ishing fourth som e two seconds behind Garriga. _ Ro th had now shaken off Wimmer for fifth , Foray was a comfortable seventh, and Mang proba bly would have been low er than eighth had the race been a lap lo nger. As it was, he was less than four seconds clear of Sarron. Then ca me a platoon of German Yamaha pri vateers - Bradl , Becker and H older, with Ruggia a d isappointin g 13th, Casol i's Garelli next, and Caracchi's Honda taki ng the last po int. Lavado ha d never been on th e pace, sus pecting th at his engi ne had shi p ped water , and he retired after 17 laps; Casanova on th e sole V-twin Garelli (Reggiani still o ut after his Imola cras h) was another lat e victim, pulling in with two laps to go. Puig's works H onda finished 17th , while Cornu had spent th e race going backward s o n hi s NSR, finall y finishing 21st. Pons' seco nd to Garriga 's third opened th e points gap from three points to five, and th ey are way ahead of th e next man, Cornu. In the 125cc class, Ezio Gianola is th e most stylish rider, staying tucke d inside th e fairin ~ bubble even when leaned right over 111 fast or slow bends. H e rode th e sam e way in the wet, and was never headed, ending up eight seconds clear after easi ng up in the closing stages. His biggest threat at th e Nurburgring would have come from Jorge Martinez, winner of every previous I25cc GP th is year, and th e Spaniard was in seco nd a t the end of lap o ne wh en he made his fir st err or of the year, grabbing too much front brake at th e end of th e pit straight, a nd hitting th e deck in sh ort order. " I must ha ve been confused," said Martin ez, "because I had a new tank made for th e 125 Derbi that is just the same as the 80's tank, a nd I braked as if on the smaller bike. Bu t th e 125 's brake i s much m o re powerful . . . " The only o thers anywhere near the leaders were a ba ttling trio of Julian Miralles and pole sitter Hans Spaan and Manuel H erreros, and Spaan seemed to ha ve shaken th en off when, with five laps to go, he s lithered off a t th e slow bend o nt o the finish stra igh t. H e clambered back hurriedly to rejo in in fourth, a nd had repassed H err eros and was less tha n a seco nd be hi nd Miralles a t the finis h. Alfred Wa ibel was fift h, a nd J a p an ese champio n H isa shi Unemoto six th; while Gastone Gras-

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