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/127145
oro Kevin Schwantz (3 4) leads Sa rro n, Rainey (1 7), M ag ee (16), de Rad ig ues (12) and M acken zi e (5) during lap one of the French 500 cc G P. World Championship Road Race Series: Round 11 Lawson triumphant in French thriller' By Paul Carruthers LE CAST EI.,.L ET , FRANCE, J ULY 24 Just when it appeared as though Lady Luck had taken a liking to the shoulder of defending World Champion Wayne Gardn er, th e fickle fem ale of good fortune hopped over to the inj ured left sh ou lder of Eddie Lawson at " . di the Circuit Paul R icar In th e south of France, . . La wson, wh o Ju st eigh t days ago a d~slocatep left sh oul~er dunng p rac uce for th e Yugo.slavlan GP, earned a hard-fou ght WIn a fter ·a. r;~ce- Io ng b~lll~ with seco nd -p !ace Iinisher Christian Sa rron , thirdpl aced Kevin Schwa~ tz a nd fourthpl ace man Gardner In wh at man y feel was th e grea test 500cc Grand Prix battle in recent memory. Rothrnans H onda's Gardner was " Ie g ra n d m a lch an ceux " ( th e u n luc ky o ne ) as ju st wh en i t a p pea red he had ma de a break from th e o ther three in traffi c two laps from the finish , hi s H onda NSR 500 failed him, coming to a virtual stop at the end of th e famous Mistral Straight befor e refiring o n th reecylinders a nd seein g him th rough to a' fourth-pl ace finish. For Lawson the w in was big indeed. His fifth victory of th e season snap ped a three-ra ce winning streak by Gardner and reinforced his bid for a third World Championship. suff~red 10 The ~arlboro Yama~ ri d~?en ded up edg l!1g Sa rron by JUSI ._- ? f a seco nd In front o f 55,000 partisan French fans. Sch wantz was eq ua lly impressive in h is return to racin g a fter an opera tio n on a brok en righ t kn ee only two weeks a g o th at incl uded th e bonding o f pins and wire, sta yin g with the lead group for the entire di stan ce a nd end ing up on ly .24 of a seco nd behind Sarron. La wson averaged 106.404 mph for the 21-lap, 75.64-mile Grand Prix o n the ultra-fast, 3.6 10-mi le circuit. Fifth pl ace at the facility locat ed h igh a bo ve' th e coas ta l to wn o f Bandol o n th e ric h and fa mo us in ha bited Fren ch Riviera went to Team Lucky Stri ke Rob erts' Wayn e Rainey. Six th pl ace fell to hard riding Ca giva p ilot Randy Mamol a with Law son's teamma te Did ier de Radigu es, HB Hond a ' s PierFran cesco Chili, Lu ck y St rik e's Kevin Mag ee a nd Elf's Ron Haslam rounding out the top 10. The victory saw Lawson extend his cham p io ns hip lead to 27 points over Ga rdner, 185-158. Rainey holds on to th ird pl ace with 143 followed by th e Gauloises Yam aha-mounted Sarron at 108, Mage eat lO7 and Pepsi Suzuki's Schwantz at a n even 100 points. Lawson rod e in pain, bu t withou t the cortiso ne needed in his 10th p lace fin ish of a week ago in Yugoslavia. " I feel reall y good," he said a fter the G P. " I had bad lu ck last week and I'm sure that made a lo t of th e o thers happy, but there 's a saying that what goes a ro u n d comes arou nd. My motorcycle was reall y fas t dow n th e back straigh t a nd wha tever I lost in th e comers I mad e up for th ere. I want to thank Christian (Sarro n ) for helping me o u t th ere, because I th ink he cou ld have beaten me. I have him to thank for wi n ning this thing. H e was riding the bike better th an a nyone, but Wayne's (Gardner) was acce lera ting better. It was painful, but fun. I en joyed it." .L a wso n ' s j oy was G ardner ' s m iser v, ·" It's his cham p io nship, but I'm th e fa stest rider o n th e track , " Gardner boasted after th e race. "The e ~ne seized; it just lock ed up. Honda wants to give it (the championship) to Yamaha; I can only do m y best. I had them all (beaten) easily. That's twice now I've had to give it away." Although by da y's end the 500cc GP had overshadowed it , the French round of the 250cc' title chase was a lso a thriller. Parisien ne Honda's j acques Cornu won hi s seco nd GP of the seaso n and th e second o f hi s career afte r a race- lo ng battle with cha m p io nship lead er Sito Pons o n th e Ca mpsa Honda . Pole si tter and local favorite Dominique Sa rron wo n the banle for third on his Rothmans Honda, topping Ducados Yamaha 's Juan Garriga and the HB Honda of Reinhold Roth a fter th e trio battled for the entire di stance. Cornu averaged, 104.023 mph for the 18-la p race, nipping Pons at th e line by . 18 of a second. Sarron led the next group, o nly 1.61 seconds behind Pons. . P ons ' se co nd p lace finish increased h is champions hip lea d over Garriga to eigh t points, 166-158. Cornu, ho wever , is ga ining grou nd o n th e ba rtle betw een th e Spa nia rds and , with 142 po ints, is closing to with in striking distance. Roth is fourth in th e points with I I I and today's sixth place finisher Luca Cadal ora is fifth with 101 points. In th e 125cc GP Derbi's j or ge Mart in ez, who last week wra p ped u p the 80cc World Ch ampionship in Yugoslavia, again teased H onda 's Ezio G ianol a for the maj ority o f the race before taking a 1.76-second win. Third pl ace, a fter a dramatic finish th at saw Julian Mi ralles cras h his H onda in th e final co rne r of th e fin al lap whil e lying third , went to - Corrado Ca tala no o n th e Aprilia. Mirall es remounted, crossing the finish lin e in l l th p lace while banging his head wildly on the gas tank. Domenico Brigaglia a nd Gerhard Waible fin ished fourth and fifth, respec tively. The Sidecar GP was again a Rolf Biland/Kurt Waltisperg benefit as th ey streaked to the win. The Grand Prix de France returned to Circuit Paul Ri card after the race was held, like it is every other year, a t Le Mans in 1987. 500cc Qualifying Fren~hman Sarron continued to upset the system , earni ng his fifth straight pole position to thrill the p artisan cr o wd a m id scorching temperatures a t Pa ul Ricard. Sarron, using a Yam aha filled with th e rearmounted radiator first used by Lawson in Yugoslavia , posted two . laps in the one-minute, 58-second bracket with his best being a 1:58.81 for an average speed of 109.148 mph on one of Europe's fastest circu its. Sarrorr's time bettered th e lap record set in 1986 by Lawson ; the Californian turning a 2:00.74 lap during qualifying to earn the pole in '86. Surprisingly, Sarron pondered the thought of going quicker.