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/127142
Rolf Biland and Kurt Waltisperg (3 ) maintained the ir perfec t five-wins-in -five- races streak in the Sidecar World Championship at Spa . Randy Mamola celebrates his third place finish on the Cagiva w ith a giant wheelie down the front straight on the final lap of the 500cc GP . see is th e width of the track. If yo u looked a t the edge of the track yo u m ight never go aro und again." Possibl y the only rider not ent irely spooked by th e track and rain was Marn ola, 12th-fastest in the dry on the Cagiva C588A, but fastest by close to a second in th e wet. Mamola credited most of his improvement to' a new narrower rear Pirelli rain tire. Pirelli en g i n eer P et er In g ley exp lained th at th e tire had an allnew profile, co ns tr uction, compound, an d pattern. "After Nurburgring we switc hed our emphasi s to the rai n, " In gley said. " All th e element s came together at th e time we made it. It is such a leap in ' terms of perfor ma nce. If 1 had any guts 1 would have made it narrower." Ingley wouldn 't say why a narrower tire was the answer for the wet, bu t severa l riders and mec han ics believed that , alt ho ugh your contact patch would be smaller , it would significan tly lessen the amount of water the tire would be mo ving. " O ur biggest p robl em ," Mamola began, " Was wh en it rained the rear stuc k so good it p ushed th e front. 1 co u ld n' t bel ieve how good it worked." It a ppeared th at Mamola would be a ble to lest th e tire under r ace conditions becau se when th e 500s were gridded 40 mi nu tes late at 4:35 p.m. th e skies o pened up. Out came the bike sta nds followed by a co up le of tire choices. After the sighting lap, a decis ion was m ad e to let 'lh e weather stabilize and an extra sighting lap was allowed cutting th e race di stance to 17 laps. When th e racers returned from th e second sighting lap, th e bikes .went up on th e stands and th e mechanics went to work. The entire front row of Sarron , Lawson, Rain ey, Schwantz and Gardner went 10 rain tires o n th e front and hand-cut intermediat e slick s on the rear. Gardner was especially cagey, coveri n g his front tire in a blanker until the last minute. " Everybody was talking to every bod y else," Gardner said. " I wanted 10 do my own th ing. 1 noticed Eddi e watching me." The second row was more of a o m i xed bag . HB H o n da 's P i er Francesco Chili gambled with full wets front and rear. De Radigues chose th e po p ula r rai n/ intermedi ate combo, McElnea had a rain front with a uni que intermediate rear that had one cut down th e center of th e tire and four diagona l cuts on each side of the center. Mackenzi e, filling out th e second row , had th e exact same tires as Gardner. Mamol a was back on the th ird ro w boldl y choosing intermediates at l both ends of th e Cagi va, and when th e sun came out and th e ligh t drizzl e, eased during the warm-up lap his>(l choice appear ed to be the best one. I With the flash of the green ligh t :l th e pack headed down th e hill to th corn er known as " Ea u Rouge" and back up th rou gh th e gear s and over the hill at " Le Radillon ." Sch wantz _ was briefly on point, but Gardnerd wh istled past followed by S arron, ~ La wson and Rainey. Mam ola was, away 14th after a surge of wa ter had caused h is engine to go on three cyli nders. "It load ed up and went on three," Mamola wou ld say lat er. " I wa s holding it wide open , but it didn't clear out. Whe n 1 backed off about an eighth of the throttle it started I> to run." At th e end of th e first lap Gardner 2 alrea dy had a one-seco nd lead and 1 wondered where the pack was. " I thought so meo ne had crashed and~ everyone had to slow down," he said later. Positions began to stabilize on the th ird lap with Gardner leading Sarron by 30 yards with Lawson:) already losing ground on th e front [ and gaining on h is pursuers'P Schwantz, de Radigues, and Raine . J Further back were Chili and Haslam'! with Mamola up to ninth. He moved on Haslam three or four times before '! outbraking him. . CJ " I had a hard tim e passing Ron-' nie, " Mamola said. "I thought that I if 1 £licked th e front end away it would be stupid. " ..., By the fifth lap th e track was beginning to dry ou t, but being deep in the Ardennes, it began raining