Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

D ominique Sarron (4), Reinhold Roth (2 ), Juan Garriga (11), Masahiro Shim izu (1 2) and luca Cadalora (7) race for third in the 250cc GP . Sito Pons and Jacques Cornu did battle for the distance in the 250cc GP, but in the end it was Cornu taking the win, hi s second of t he season . cirelli! PAUL RICARD Sarron, lawson and Schwantz celebrate on the French rostrum. was passed by Lawson a lap lat er. He would begi n a steady drop back from th e lead group, finish in g fifth some 17 seco nds beh ind th e lead ers. H e wo uld lat er say ' th at he was cons tant ly o ut-accelera ted o nto th e back straigh t and wh en he tried to stay wit h th e leaders h is Yam aha wou ld go sideways. By th e sevent h of th e 2 1 laps, the battle roya le was o n with Gardner lead in g Schwa ntz, Sarron a nd now. chargi ng Lawson. Lawson was the horsepo wer kin g, Gard ner had th e acceleration, a nd the ot her two hu ng o n by drafti ng a nd ridi ng ha rd in the corners . ' Schwa ntz wou ld co me onto th e backs traight a hea d o f Lawson a nd th en poi nt to wh ichever side he wa nted to be passed o n; Lawson wou ld the n oblige. Rainey was a lonely fifth followed by a battle co nsisting o f de Rad igues, Chili and Magee: They wo u ld later be joined by H aslam a nd Marn ol a, with the la tter getting past a ll o f them in a spirited ri de th at would see h im finish six th. '" was so pissed o rr inside. " Mamola wo u ld say later. " I'd ride my ass off and th ey'd go by on th e straigh t. I' d just wave Chili past on th e front stra ig h t and he'd go by a nd wave. I thi nk wi th a good start I .cou ld have fin ished fourth, bu t th e cl u tch cha tte red a nd it bogged ." Lawson's quickest lap ca me o n th e l l th , a 1:59.40; it was a lap he wou ld lead the rest across th e finis h line. Marn o la , meanwh ile. was past the de R a d igu es/ Ch il i/ Magee / Has la m duel a nd a p pea red for a whil e to be ga ini ng on Ra in ey. H is effort was thwarted four laps from th e end by a lap pe d rider, a nd th e Ca liforn ia n was left to wonder wha t if, regretting hi s 15th pl ace start. . " Fo ur la ps from th e end , in th e long left , som e guy p us hed me ou t wide a nd tri ed to race me," Mamola said. '" needed every la p to try a nd catch Wayne (Ra ine y) and that one was gone; I tu rned around a nd £lip ped him off. I can't beli eve there were no bl ue flags ou t th ere." The battle up fro nt contin ued to thrill with each rider taking a turn a t leading. On the fin al two laps, however, things began to change. It was on la p 19 th at Ga rdner cu t th e quickest lap of the rac e, a 1:59.27, a nd pulled out a I.3 -second lead on th e o ther three. It was a lso a t th is time th at Lawson had contact with Manfred Fisch er, who was being lapped. '" ban ged into Fisch er," Lawson sai d. " T here wereblue Ilags, bu t he never moved over. I lost to uch after th a t." On the fin a l lap Gardner seeme d to have th e win in hand, T ha t is until he reached the end o f the Mistra l Straigh t a n d th e" H onda seized, sp ewin g o i l a ll ov e r th e bike. Gardner, in fact, was lucky to finish fou rth as the gearbox locked up on th e cool-off lap . By thi s tim e th e ot hers were celebrating as Lawson pipped Sarron and Schwantz a t th e line. Ra in ey was next wit h Mamola in tow . De Rad igues, despite ru nni ng da ng erous ly wide in the final corner, o n two separate occasions, managed to barel y hold off Chil i. "This was th e only way I coul d pa ss the se guys ," de Ra digues sai d la ter. '" saw three or four guys j u m ping ou t of th e way." Magee, without. brak es from early o n, a lso h eld o ff H asl a m. R o b McElnea rode to a lonely 11th . Schwantz was j us t happ y to be on the rostrum. " I was happy to see it (Gard ner 's Honda ) br eak," Schwantz sai d. " I wanted to be o n th e ros tru m. I felt lik e' rode that well in practi ce, but it would on ly rev to 12,300. In th e race it revved to 12,800 a nd the p u ll do wn th e . back str a ight made the di fferen ce. Mine was still pin ned hal fway do wn the backstra igh t, but fro m there until the fro nt I co uld cat ch up. T he kn ee d idn ' t bo the r me; the few laps that ' got to th inking abo u t it it hurt, but I was ha ppy to be wit h th e g u ys and sto p ped thinking abo ut it. " Magee sai d his elbow problems weren ' t too severe, but not having brakes was a maj or factor. " T ha t was the main thing," he said. "T he ot her wa s that' got pissed of f. I was going as good.as I could with wh at' had. T he wo rst par t'of th e injury was tha t it was hard to cro uch a ll th e wa y down the backstrai ght." 250cc race The 250cc GP sta rted o u t with a four-wa y tu ssle for th e lead with Corn u leading Pons, Sarron a nd Garriga. T ha t soo n whittled down to a two-rider scra p o n th e fourth of the 18-laps. Pons an d Cornu brok e free fro m the rest, taking turns lead in g with a ll th e passi ng tak ing pl ace o n the Mistral traigh t. Behind th em it was first Garriga a lo ne, a nd the n join ed by pole sitter Sarro n a nd Cadalora . By the seventh lap, Cornu a nd Pons were 3.58 seconds clear of an al l-o u t wa r for thi rd tha t was no w ma de u p of Sarron, Cadalora , Garriga , Ro th a nd Japan 's Masahiro Shi m izu ; Sarron, Ro th and Shimizu o n th e faster NS R250s, Cadalora a nd Garri ga on underpowered YZR250s. Ca da lora, however, would soo n lose touch , a victim of a broken rear brak e line tha t not onl y meant th e loss o f use o f the brake itself, but spewage of slip pe ry fl ui d on to every th ing, including th e rea r tir e. H e wo u ld ba tt le on to fi nish a respectable sixth . On the 12th lap, Sh im izu was gone, crash ing his H onda on th e second to last corner; he was unhurt, but o u t o f the race. Wi th four laps to go, Cornu led Pons much to th edeligh t ofthe many Swiss fan s in a ttenda nce. Sarron, Garr ifa and Ro th were next with that group gaini ng consi derably o n the lead ing duo , tra ili ng by on ly 2.06 on the 14th lap. The race wo u ld be decided o n the Mistral Straigh t. P ons tri ed to mak e a ru n for it on the fina l lap, riding .hard th rough th e portion of tra ck tha t proceeds the ul tra-long stra igh t a nd breaking th rough to a short lead. " Co rnu's bike was too fast at the end of th e straight a nd he could get past m e ther e," Pon s said la ter. " With a la p to go I tried to break a way so that he could no t use m y slips trea m. bu t it didn ' t work. " Instea d, COrnu was left to n ip th e Span ia rd , taking his second win o f the G P seaso n. Sarron, mea n while. h eld o n to take th i rd, but was di sappointed with the positi on in his home Grand Prix. H e la ter said tha t the tea m mad e changes to h is H onda af ter practice a nd th at it was no t near as good. H e also sai d he though t he co uld catch the lead group, but th a t Garriga was slowing him up by " ba rg ing past" in th e corners, Garriga , narro wly topped Ro th at the flag for fourth place and sti ll remains close to Po ns in th e cha m- pi o nship, " If I tri ed to p ull out of t he H on d a 's s lips trea rn on the straig h t I j ust we nt backwa rd s," Garriga sai d lat er. Finish in g seven th was Gauloi ses Yama ha 's j ea n -P h il ip p e Ruggia o n a Yamaha TZ250, Carlos Cardos was next o n an NSR follow ed by Lor is Reggia ni's Aprilia and th e ApriliaRo tax o f Au gust Au inger. Martin Wimmer fin ished 11th in his come back ride after breaking ribs in h is horrific crash in Belgium. • Results SOOc 1. Eddie Lawson (yam ); 2. Chr ist ian c: Sar ron (Yam); 3 . Kevin Schw an tz (Suz); .4 . W ayne Gard ner (Han ): 5 . Wayn e Rainey (Yam): 6 . Randy Mamola (cag); 7 . Didier de Radigues (Yam); 8 . P.F. Chili (Hon ); 9 . Kevin Mag ee (Yam); 10. Ron Hasl am (Elf); 1 1. Rob McE lne a (Suz): 12 . Ma lcol m campbell (Elf); 13 . M ike Baldwin (Han); 14 . A lessadro Valesi (Han); 15 . Fabio Bar china (Han). RACE DISTA NCE: 2 1 laps, 75 .64 m iles. AVERAGE SPEED: 107.404 mph. FASTE ST tAP: Wayne Gardner. 1:59. 2 7 (108 .72 7), 2 5Occ: 1. Jacques Cornu (Han); 2. Sit o Pons (Ha n); 3 . Dom inique Sarron (Hon); 4. J uan Garriga (Yam); 5 . Reinhold Roth (Hont, 6. Lues ca dalora (Yam t. 7. J .P Ruggia (Yam ); 8 . carlos cardus (Han); 9. Lor is Reggian i (Apr) ; 10 . A ugust A uinger (Apr ); 11. Martin W im mer (yam ): 12. Donni e Mc leod (EM C); 13 . Gary Cowa n (Ya m); 14 . Massimo M aneoni (Yam); 15 . J ean Foray (Yam ). RACE DISTA NCE; 18 laps. 64 .83 miles. AVERAGE SPEED: 104.023 mph . FASTEST LAP: Juan Garri ga. 2:03 .37 (10 5.114 mph). , 25 cc: 1. Jorge Martin ez (Oer); 2. Ezio Gianola (Han); 3 . Corrado Catalano (Ap r); 4 . Domenico Brigag lia (Au ); 5. Gerhard Wa ibel (Hon t. 6. Gastone Grassen i (Hon ); 7 . Luis M iguel Aeyes (Agv); 8 . Luc io Peitroniro (Han); 9 . Ad i Stadl er (Ha n); 10 . Esa Kytoelae (Han ). . RACE DISTANC E: 16 laps. 9 2.9 60 m iles. AVERAG E SPEED: 9 5.18 mph . FASTEST LAP; Martine z. 2:14 .70 (96.27 mph) . 500cc WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP POINT STAND . INGS : 1. Eddi e Lawson (18 5); 2. W ayn e Gardner (1 58); 3 . W ayne Rai ney (14 3); 4 . Christ ian Sarron (10 8 ); 5. Kevin Magee (10 7); 6. Kevin Schwantz (100) ; 7 . Didier de Radigu es (95 ); 8 . Niall M ackenzia (76); 9 . P.F. Chili (7 3); 10 . Aob McE lnea (64 ). 250cc W ORLD CHA M PIONSHIP POINT STAND · INGS: 1. Sito Pons (166 ); 2. Juan Garr iga (158); · 3 . Jacques Cornu (142); 4. Aein hold Rot h (11 ); 5. Lues Cadalora (10 1); 6. Dom iniq ue Sarro n (98 1; • 7 . An ton M ang (87); 8. J .P. Ruggia (72); 9. M a..h iro Shim izu (5 1); 10 . Donn ie McLeod (5 1).

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