Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

Eddie Lawson (3) and Wayne Gardner (1) put on the race of the year before Gardner crashed. Lawson's teammate de Rad igues gave chase. Marlboro Yamaha teammates Didier de Radig ues and 'Eddie Lawson celebrate on the victory lap. Yamahas swept the top three positions. Wayne Rainey surprised himself by finishing third after qualifying eighth, l:Ie n'ow moves past Gardner and into second place in the point standings. World Championship Road Race Series: Round 7 Lawson marches on in Austrian GP By Michael Scott Photos by Patrick Gosling SALZBURG, AUSTRIA, JUNE 12 Eddie Lawson 's fourth GP victory of the season in front of 80,000 fans on th e spectacu larl y fast Salzburgring circuit bodes ill not only for crash victim Wayne Gardner, but also for the rest of the 500class season. , Marlboro Yamaha s grand mas ter now leads defending champ Gardner by 40 points, ana unless new second-place man Wayne Rainey on the Lucky Str ike Yamaha can again exceed all expectations, Lawson is just about ready to p lay it safe over the remaining nine rounds, leaving others to take the chances. The victory marked another mileston e for Lawson. It was his 23rd, putting him third in the world for the n umber of 500 class wins. Giacomo Agostini has 68, Mike Hailwood 37, ' and Geoff Duke, J oh n Surtees and Kenny Roberts all have , 22. For Gard ner, th e race tha t his Rothmans Honda team already saw as the keystone of his championship fight back was both encouraging and disastrous. The former because at last his NSR handled well and he was in serious contention for the lead; the latter both for the obvious reason his first GP race crash since 1983, but also because this fastest track of the year was expected to tip the balance in his favor , rendering his em barrassment of horsepower ' a strength rather than a weakness. Instead, the Honda merely matched the Yamaha rather than squelching it ... .and then it seized! Didier de Radigues' second place was just .reward for aggressive but , contained riding ... not only did Lawson's hitherto erratic teammate not fall off, he also smashed the la p record , with a tour of the Salzburgring at an average speed of 117.483 mph on the final lap . Rain ey's third wa s a lso well earne d. Although both he and teammat e Kevin Magee were mysteriously down on hors epower at a track wh ere tall gea ring and a long uphil l sixthgear haul put ponies at a premium, Rainey rode both hard and intelligently, and profi ted by the mistakes ' of o thers to take his fourth successive ros tru m position, and move ahead of Gardner into second overall. Kevin Schwantz was only a second adrift a t the finish, adding fourth to an impressive results portfolio while demonstrating that the Pepsi Suzuki V-four, freshly enhanced by new cylinders and exhausts, now lacks .Ii t tle compared with the works Hondas and Yamahas, while his own riding is as close to the brink as ever. Fifth-placed Pier-Francesco Chili had been harrying the Texan, before being forced to back orr after Schwantz ran wid e and scored several painful direct hits to the Italian with a sho wer of gravel. And Magee's sixth was also worthy of admiration , for th e cheerful Australian had hurt himsel£ in a practi ce crash, and was on ly on the track 'at all as a resul t of intensive electro- therapy by sports therapist Dean Miller. The race, sad to say, was boring, , once th e fierce battle between Lawson and Gardner had been cut short by the Australian's -ha lf-distan ce crash, for he was just one of three front row men to hit the deck at th e same corne r, one of the slowest and safest o n th e fearsome circuit. Pole starte r Christian Sarron dropped his Gauloises Yamaha on the first lap, after yet another error of judgement; while Niall Mackenzie crashed the HB Honda two laps before Gardner, blaming a bad tire choice. ' The other classes made up for the procession in the main even t. The 250 race was a thriller, led almost , throughout by Swiss veteran Jacques Cornu, his first victory in 11 years of GP racing. It wasn't an easy one: he was caugh t by a terrib le trio of Dominique Sarron and ' Re inhold Roth on Hondas and J uan Garriga on a Yamaha, and all took turns up front until Cornu bea t the lot in the final drafting match. He was the seventh winner in seven races thi s year. The 125 race was similarly hectic, unt il J orge Martinez decided he' d played the ga me long enough, and motored away on his superfast Derb i. , The lo ttery co ntin ued for second, the p lace brilliantl y won by Ezio Gianol a's Honda. Finally , th e sideca rs provided a fra ug h t final e, won byRo lf Biland (giving him a fu ll house so far), but not before he, Alain Michel and reigning champ Steve Webster had thrilled th e la rg e crowd with a rel entless race- long battle o f outbraking. 500cc practice Riders who are usually talkative at circui ts lik e Jarama or the Nurburgring beco me q uiet at the Salzburgring. This flat-out gallop up and down a narrow Alpine valley IS one of racing's black spots, and swerving from side to side in sixth gear in a narrow and lethal Armco tunnel is a sobering experience. But, although everyone treats the track with much resp ect, business must go on as usual. Or, rather, not as usual - o r not as expected. This superfast circuit with its punishing flat -out hill should have favored the H ondas. In stead, practice ended up with two Yamahas fastest, and Schwantz' Suzuki squeezed between a pair of Hondas, ndden by Mackenzie and Gardner, to complete the front rank. This reflected a slow but steady rate of improvement in Yamaha power over the -season, by dint of minor modifications .. .' altho ugh Lawson received new crankcases here , crew 'chief Kel Carruthers said they were repla ceme nts , not .modifications. " We've had a problem this year wi th 'a water channel being too close to one of the ports," Carruthers said. H e and Sarron's team had, 'ho wever, received two pairs each of the latest Ohlins inverted front forks, ' which Carruthers pronounced raceready, although "this track doesn't work front forks very hard." Neither team raced them, however, since they "don 't have the confidence in them yet." Actually, Sarron set h is fastest lap on the Oh lins. His time was 1.3 seconds faster than Lawson 's last year's pole, showing clearly j ust how much progress Yamaha made over the winter, and why H onda has had trouble keep ing up, no t to men tion Cagiva and the rest. His first pole of the year was reckoned no t on ly to reflect how h is style, -rear finnly .on the seat, suited a fast track with less acute lean angles, bu t al so how

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