Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

00 00 O"l .... rr.J = b /) = <.,--"'----~ Cagi va's Randy Mamola fin ished fourth on a dry track to score his most' impressive finish of the year . 250cc World Champion Anton Mang fell along .with Donnie McLeod in the first turn and suffered a broken collarbone. Reinhold Roth (2) battles with Luca Cada lora (7) fo r fourth place in the 250cc GP. Roth took fou rth w ith Cadalora fifth . 16 of m y crashe s of before, 1 am not so confide n t. After you crash once or twi ce like 1 do, yo u have to fini sh . 1cou ld have followed him to th e end, but for what? 1 don 't 'th in k 1 could hav e passed him, a nd if 1would have, he would have been able to pass me back very easily." So Gardner strolled home some sev e n seconds cl ea r of th e Fren chman. From lap 15 to 22, the battle for third was a three-way du el, th e Dun lop-clad Yamahas of Rainey and Magee leading the Pire lli -shod Cagiva of Mamol a, a ll three sliding. Rainey managed to pull clear in traffi c on the 23rd lap, leaving his Australian teammat e to fend off th e highly-motivated Mamola. To put . the battle into proper perspective, on e must recall that T eam Lucky Strike disposed of Mamola to make room for Magee. As the duo went to the flag on the fina l la p, Mamola o u tbro ke Magee in the double left prior to a sho rt straight and a right-hand kink that p uts the riders at the start/fini sh lin e. Magee than pulled a longs ide on the .exit of the comer and tried to go under Mamola in th e kink. Rather ironica lly, there wasn't room , as Mamola shut the door. Magee: " 1 got back under him about a wheel-length back. 1 had to shut off or we would have both been in the hay ba les. 1 was under him and he just started coming' down. 1 think he was motivated. Mamola: "1 got under him on the brakes; he tried to go ba ck under me , but 1 closed the door on him. " Mamola officially beat Magee by .222 of a second. Behind Magee ca me de Radigues, a co mfortable sixth. The three-wa y battle behind him turned into a two man race wh en Chili lost the front end in 'the double left a nd broke off hi s left foot . peg. He manag ed to rejoin th e ra ce, but not before Lawson was past for 10th. Yatsu shiro and the Honda, however , did ho ld off McElnea for seventh. " 1 ju st co u ld n 't get past 'em," McElnea said. "T he y were a ll over the place and 1 didn't hav e enough horsepower to get close and outbrake th em." Lawson was happy to be rid of the race after suffering through numerous bouts with th e shoulder popping in and out of its socket. " 1 couldn't get th e bike back and forth ," Lawson said later, prior to flyi ng with Mamo la and Dean Miller to Milan, Italy, for more treatment. " Un der braking 1 cou ldn 't keep m yself back in the seat." Rainey was relatively p leased with third place, but is sti ll chasing that first GP win. " T he problem is that wh en Gardner spins he keeps moving forward," Ra iney said. " O urs just stops there, and the harder you try the worse it is. It was a hard race and 1 was just concentrating on kee pi n ~ it on line. It was a long ra ce. 1 rode Just as hard in the middle as 1 did in th e end and the beginning. Randy just went really good. I'm sure he's got something out for Lucky Strike Robert s." Mamola is beginning to feel as th o u g h h is megabuck, two -yea r contract with Cagiva is beginning to pay divi dends. ' '' 1 need this to show a ll those people that said 1 just took the ride for th e mon ey," Mam ola said. " P irell i is working rea lly hard. T he y mad e me four new tires in one night; th ey're det ermined and they want to w i n . Ever ything is paying off, fin all y. The five-inch rim made the tire work good at fu ll lea n and that's where you make up time here. _" Cla ud io (Castiglioni) is so happy becau se so many people have been saying that Cagiva is no good. Now we have shown them. The power is good, now a ll we need is some more acceleration and we'll be close." Gardner's ch ief mechanic, jeremy Burgess, said he was more nervous prior to th e start of this GP than he was for th e Brazilian round which saw Gardner tak e th e title in 1987. "We had to get the maximum today with Eddie being hurt," he said. Gardner himself was also p leased. " Any thing ca n happen ," he said. " You just have to keep going." 250cc Race On a track that has been known to suit the Yamahas better than the Hondas, the master over the years at Ri jeka and last year's winner, Carlos Lavado, crashed during practice, brea king two bones in his leg . At the time, the Venezuelan was sixthquickest on his Yamaha YZR250 Vtwin. The quickest in 1988 was Pons, ·turn ing a lap in one mi nute, 32.041 seconds for an average speed of 101.074 mph on the Campsa Honda. Remarka bly, it was the champion ship leader's firs t career pole position. Second fastest qualifier was Garriga, on ly three-tenths behi nd Pons. jacques Cornu, Sarron, and Ro th rounded out the front row. The absent Lavado, Cad alora , J. P. Ruggia a nd Manfred Herweh made up row two . When the starting light flickered green, it was Pons leading Sarron into th e first comer. Garriga was next followed by Cornu. At the en d of the first lap, it was still Pons, with Sarron, Garriga, Cornu, Herweh, Ro th , Cadalqra, Ruggia, Masahiro Shimizu and Harald Eckl following. Loris Reg ia n ni and the Aprilia were 15th. . Up front, Pons and G a rr ig a battled, with Sarron losing touch by the fifth lap. Pons led every lap except the eighth. O n the 10th lap, however, Garriga got sideways and Pons pulled clear. Before he knew it, Garriga had Sarron to contend wi th for second p lace. T hat ba ttl e went to the final lap when Garriga pulled a nice move th ro ugh the fast kink at the end of the front straight to put a lapper between himself and Sarron, Garriga was th en able to open 'a small gap that held to th e flag. He finished over five seconds behind Pons. Early crashers included Mang and McLeod, who went down together on th e opening lap, and Herweh/ Rugg ia, who also crashed together on lap five. Mang's broken collarbone was the most serious of injuries, and he will miss next week's French GP. The battle for fourth went to the line with Roth nipping Cadalora. The Italian was 'u pset enough with the resu lt to smash his handthrough the windscreen on the cool-off lap . Cornu had a lonely ride for sixth with Reggian i battling through the pa ck to finish seventh. His early battle with Shimizu ended when the japanese ace coasted to a stop in the esses when his ignition rotor fell off. Pons later said that he was p leased with being a ble to win ana "Yamaha track" and that he had a big slide . seven la ps from the end when the tire started going off. ' • Results 500: 1. Wayne Gardner (Hon); 2. Christian Sarron (Ya m); 3. Wa yne Rainey (Yam ); 4 . Randy Mamola (Cag); 5. Kevin Mag ee (Vam); 6. Didier de Aadigu 8s (Yam); 7 . Shunji Yatsu shi ro (Han ); 8. Rob McElnea (Suz); 9. Ron Haslam (Elf); 10. Eddie Laws on (Vam); 11. P.F. Chil i (Han); 12. Patr ick Igoa (Yam); 13 . Donn ie Mc Leod (Han); 14. Mike Baldwin (Han); 15. Br uno Kneu buh ler (Han). 250: 1. Sito Pons (Han); 2. J uan Garr iga (Yam); 3. Dom in ique Sar ron (Han) ; 4 . Reinho ld Roth (Han); 5. Luca Cedalora (Yam); 6. Jacques Cornu (Han); 7. Loris Reggian i (Apr ); 8. Car los Cerdus (Han); 9. Harald Eckl (Apr); 10 . Massimo Vita li (Gar). 125 : 1. Jorge Mart inez (Der); 2. Ezio Gianola •(Han); 3. L Plotroniro (Han); 4. D. Dr igagl ia (Gar); 5. S. Prein (Han). . 80 : 1. Jorg e Manlnez (Der ); 2. Peter Oen l (Kra); 3. A Cri ville (Der); 4. J. See' (See); 5. B. Nikolov (Kra). . 500 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP POINTSTANDINGS: 1. Eddie Lawson (165); 2. Wayn e Gardne r (145); 3. Wayne Rain ey (132); 4. Kevin Mag ee (102 ); 5. Christian Sarron (91 ); 6. Didier de Radigues (86); 7. Kevin Schwantz (85); B. Niall Mackenz ie (76); 9. P.F. Chili (65); 10 . Rob Mc Eln ea (59).

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