Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

~ . ~ .. f- ~ 00 00 O"'l ....... Wayne Gardner (1) won his first 500cc GP of the 1988 season when he topped Eddie Lawson (3 ) in the Dutch Tf' , held in Asse n. Ho lland. World Championship Road Race Series: Round 8 Gardner wins Dutch TT By Henny Ray Abrams ASSEN , HOLLAND, J UN E 25 After failing in his first seven tries this year, World Champion Wayne Gardner finally ' won a 500cc Grand Prix, passing Eddie Lawson just past the midway point of the TT at Assen and go ing o n 10 . win by 11 .31 seconds. Marlboro Yam aha 's Lawson battlin g a severely delerioral: Dutch 10 . . . m g rear t.lr held ~)Il. for second w!th .e. fast qualifier .Clm su a n Sarron third on th e C aul oi ses Blondes y a ma h~ . Fourth went to Team Lucky Strike Robert s rid er Kevin Magee who was forced to rig e his back-up b!ke in. th e race after h is number o ne bik e seized a gea rbox in th e mornin g practice sessio n. Fifth went to HB H onda 's N iall Ma ck enzi e, rid ing wi th. a broken ~oot , th e result o.f.a pra<;uce cras h. Pier-Francesco Ch ili was Sixth o n the o ther HB H onda, With Wayn e Rain ey, o n the o the r T eam Lucky Strik.e ~oberts ' machin~, stru gg ling to Ii n ish se ve n th With a badl y vi br a ting fro n t ti re. Fini shin g eig~th, less t~a~ a second behind Ra m ey, was Kevin Sch wantz on th e Pep si Suzuki, Schwantz rod e with both feet in soft casts aft er su ffen ng brok en toes in a practice sessio n cras h. . . At th e half wa y pomt in th e 16-~ ce G P s~aso n, ':a wso n leads th e PO ll~ t s ta l~d mgs with 142 pomts to . R~ Iney ~ 106. Gardner moyed .to with in a poin t of Ramey a t 10:>, WIth Magee fourth at 89 , four a hea d o f Sch wa n tz's 85. Cagiva 's Ran d y, Ma rnol a , af ter qualifying ninth, dropped o ut of th e race o n the eigh th la p wit h a pisto n seizure. T he 250cc G P came to a dra ma tic endi ng w he n Camp sa H onda 's World Championship po ints leader Si to Pons a nd fast q ua lif ier Dornin iq u e Sarron on th e Ro th m ans H onda , wh o had between themselves led t~e enti ~e race, co ll ided ent ering the fin al ch ica ne less th an 100 yards from the fini sh line. Bo th w~nt down and tha t allowed th en-third juan Garriga to win hi s second 250cc GP of'the year on th e Ducados Yam aha. Garriga became th e first two-time winner in the 250cc class in 1988. Pari si enne H onda 's j acques Co rn u shado wed Spaniard Garriga to the line with Ro th ma ns H onda 's Ant on Mang th ird. Pons rem ounted to finis h six th while Sarron just threw up hi s ha~d~ in disgust a nd walked away. With 118 points, Garri ga is now 19 ah ead of Pons with Co rn u third a t 95. HB Honda 's Reinhold Roth sevent h today , has 74 with Mang a nd Cadalora tied for fifth with 72 a nd Sarron seventh with 68. Derb i's j orge Martinez co nt in ues to dom in ate both th e 125 and 80cc classes, winning both easi ly o n the n arrow 3. 8 1-m i le C ir c u i t van Drenthe. H e beat Tea m Serv isco H onda's Ezio G ian ola by 3.6 seconds in winn ing the 125cc GP wit h fast qualifier H ans Spaa n th ird o n th e . Samso n Sha rp Honda. Hi s ma rgin of victory in th e 80cc GP was 8.39 seconds over Kra user's Peter Oe ttl wit h Min arell i's Bert Smith taki ng third. With'80 points, Martinez leads th e 125cc class by I I over Giano la with Spa an's 57 good for th ird. With 97 80cc po ints , Mart in ez is 37 a hea d of Derbi 's Alex Criville and Ma n uel Herreros. Crivi lle was a non-fin isher today, Herreros a non-starter. After four rounds of th e idecar championship, th e Krauser Racing- Christian Sarron again turned in a solid performance to f in ish th ird in Holland . Here he leads fourth place fin isher Kev in Magee. Pecostar team of Rol f Biland a nd Kurt Waltisp erg remain perfect with four wins a nd 80 points. At Assen th ey bea t the Lucky Strike team of Du tchmen Egbert Streuer and Bernard Schnieders by 14.56 seconds with World Champions Steve Webster and T ony H ewitt third on th e Pa ul Seward/Team Silko lene LCRKrauser rig. Web st er/H ew itt are seco nd to Bila nd/ Wa lt is pe rg in th e po int sta ndings wi th 62, 15 better tha n Streuer/Sch niede rs. With Holl and faci ng the Soviet Union in the Europea n Cup soccer final in Munich, West Germa ny, on the same day as the Du tch TT, the normally 130-160,000 strong crowd was down, althoug h no o ne was sure by how much. Crowd esti mates ra nged from 75,000 to 125,000 with something in the middle appearing . close to the truth. (Ho lla nd won 20.) 500cc q ualifying With the th rea t of rain always han ging over Assen , dry qua lifying ti me is cons idered val uabl e with teams more ten acious than usual from the start. H owever , alt ho ugh th e skies were constantly gray a nd threat ening, o nl y a few very light dr izzles in terru p ted the four timed qua lifyin g sessions which began on the Thursda y before th e Saturda y afte rnoon race. Lawson's first session time of 2 minutes, 11.66 seco n ds (104.223 mph ) would hold up until th e third session when Sarron wou ld earn his second pole position in a ro w (he was also fast qualifier at the Austrian G P two weeks ag o ) with a tim e of 2:10.94 for an average 104.796 mph. Sarron's time was a surprisi ng 3.6 seconds faster than he'd qualified the prev ious year here a nd he wa s as shock ed as any one. . " I can no t even beli eve it myself," th e a lways agreea ble Fren chman sa id. " T he track 's th e sa me, th e weat he r's the same - co ld. Everyo ne . improved. " I' ve been trying to cha nge my style," Sarron cont in ued. " No w 1ca n do it naturally. 1 don 't th ink 1 lose a ny tim e in the slow corners. 1 ca n co nt ro l the slides delibera tely; 1don 't need to hang off the bik e very much in fast cu rves a nd tha t cou ld be bett er. 1 don 't think 1 ca n do those times fo r th e who le race. The bike is designe d for han g in g-off-of-t yp e rid ing a nd so are th e tires. 1 heard ru mo rs of lim it at ions in th e size of the tires to lim it speed. Th is mak es me la ugh . Ha ngi ng off wou ld be out of th e questi on." The only q uestions facing Sarron would be whether his badly damaged right hand wo uld last the entire race di stance a nd whether he would be haunt ed by his first-lap cras h at the Austrian G P. " I have two fingers that .work. 1 don 't ha ve stre ng th in the tw o smalles t fin gers," Sarron said while; demonstrating that he co uldn' t make a closed fist. " I do n' t attack th e braking as much as I'd like to. We're using Brembos because th ey're th e best a nd th e bra ke lever is posi tio ned differen tly. Also, I' m using wider ha ndl ebars." As for the cras h in Austria he said, " It was a small mi stak e wit h big conseq uences . 1 had a bad sta rt a nd 1 was catc hi ng up fast. 1 was a lready fourth behi nd th leader a nd on the o uts ide of th e fast rig h t down the hilL 1 went ri gh t behind Didi er (de Radi gu es) a nd turned off the throttle a nd when I lea ned it in th e ch ica ne my footrest got stuck between two curbstones." L ike Sarron, Lawson was al so surprised by th e times. "That's a fast tim e," he said of Sarron. "1£ he can do that co nsistently , he'll smoke u s. 1 don 't think he wi ll." Asked who he th ought would be a challe nge he mentioned Mag ee a nd Gardner. " H e (Ma gee) likes this track. Whether his tires wi ll hol d up is th e question. Our bike's working better. Tires, sus pe nsio n. I'm confident of th e end of the race. And you always have to worry about Wayne. The Honda is harder on tires. T oward th e end or th e race they'll be worn. For me, Gardner's still the gu y to beat. He's really hungry for a win. We're close o n top end with theHondas, bu t they ca n draft us a lot easier than I can draft them. We always do well here wh en I don't fall off." ... Wh at Lawson did see as a potential prob lem was traffic. Because the circu it was designed for a nd used excl us ive ly by m otorcycl es, it ' s narrow er tha n most tracks which mak es passin g more diffi cult espe ' cia lly in view o f the fact tha t th e slowest of th e 37 qualifi ers were 10 seco nds slower tha n Sarro n, " T oday's 500 is too fast for this race tra ck ," Lawson said. "T here's 20 gu ys that don't belong on th is track. The organ izers let th ese gu ys race. Wh en you're doinl? 20's or 21's you don 't belong o n thi s trac k. P ut the m in the Battl e of the T rash or wh atever the race is called. They don 't kn ow wh ere they're go ing and 1 sure as hell don 't kn ow where they're going."

• Cover