Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

00 00 0') .....-l Rainey (17) leads the first lap ahead of Mackenzie (5), Kevin Schwantz (34), meanwhile, rams into Ron Haslam in the background, The 250cc GP storms into turn one with winner Luca Cadalora ((7) leading Dominique Sarron (4), Sito Pons (3), Jacques Cornu (9) and Juan Garriga. 16 and Burnett and soon after Magee wou ld pass Lawson for fifth settling th e ord er to f th e six. De Radigues wo uld finish seven th . " I was thinking too much abou t having Eddie behind me, " de Radigues said. " I was making mistakes. When I had the ,two guys behind me I didn't want to bring the m past Eddie. I was braking ear ly so he could pas s me, but he didn't. I was happy when he went by because he cou ld do what he wanted." The last th ird of th e race appeared , for th e most part, uneventful. McEInea crashed on th e 24th'J ap while running just o u tside th e top 10 and Chili passed Burnett for eigh th on the last lap. Appearances can be deceiving, however, because as Rainey explai ns , his experimental brak es began to fade. ' " Abou t five la ps from the en d the lever started to co me back to the bar," he said. " But I didn 't back off. " H is lead, almost 10 seconds on th e 25th lap, shrun k sligh tly and he won by 6.97 seconds over Gardner. Sarron was jus t under two seconds back with Ma ck enzie three behind Sarro n . Magee cam e through to finis h five seco nds beh ind Mackenzie in fifth with Lawson sixth safely ahead of de Radi gues. ''I'm glad the team fin all y got another win," Rainey said a t a postrace press conference. "T hat's two wins this year for our first season as riders. The bike worked gre at, th e tires worked great. It seemed the harder I pushed th em, the better . th ey'd stick. The tires were th e same th e first lap as the last. " Gardner wasn 't happy abou t finishing second, ' bu t he had the consol ation of' finishin g fo u r sp ots ahead of Lawson. . " Of course I would have liked to win th e race," he said. " Bu t I had my ups a nd downs. I cou ldn't brake as deep as I wanted a nd wh en I turned the power o n it was slipp in g and sliding. I just want to keep th e pressure o n Eddie. Maybe h e 'll crack." ' . Sarro n used a n umb er of words to descr ibe h is race. " It was very hot , very safe, very tiri ng," he said. "You can never relax on the bike. My brakes were working just enough for the end of th e race. I was sliding from almost the begin ning of th e race. It was difficult to concentrate. I was a li ttle d isturb ed by th e riders we lapped and.I knew at th e end th at I co uldn't catch Wayne. A few times he passed slower riders before the corners. Two lap s from the end when it happened I gave up little bit. - " H e has a to tall y differen t way of riding," Sarron continued. " I go in a Schwantz (34) and Haslam (4) take to the English sod as Kevin Magee (16) avoids them; Schwantz was out of the race, Haslam remounted, the corn ers faster a nd he goes ou t of the corners fast er. His bike accelera tes a bit better than mine. H e passed me o n th e straight twi ce. " Mack enzie finished fourth, a ltho ugh h e adm i tted th at h e expected to finish in th e top three. "I sai d the press ure of riding here doesn 't affect me, but m aybe it does," he said. " I had a hard tire on the rea r a n d it didn 't work in th e begi nning. It worked in th e middle and it dropped off a t th e end. Then the fro n t end was jumping aro und because th e su spension wa s getting hot, but it co uld' ve been th e tires. Christia n's bike was definitely workin g better." T he rider having to work th e hardest to gain his position was fifthpl aced Magee. After th e first corn er incident with Schwantz and Haslam he settled down into a co nsistent pattern that took him to the fro nt of the field, although he still isn' t quite fit. "I feel like I'm riding about 80 . pe rcent of what I should be," he said. " But I'm starti ng to feel a lot better o n th e bike. At least I'm back in the race." 250cc qualifying Because of the short straightaways, fed by mostly 90 degree bends that keep speeds down, Donington Park was thought by the 250cc riders to be a Yamaha track. Qualifying proved that to be true. Garriga wa s fastest with a 1:38.22 (91.63 mph), a time th at was as fast as all but th e fastest 500 last year. " O ur bikes are th e same as before a nd th e Hondas are quicker, but there are not man y straigh ts here," said Garriga, " We have to win here because in Sweden we sta n d no chance." Just .27 seconds back in second wa s fellow Yamaha rider Luca Cadalora at 1:38.49 (91.37 mp h) and he echoed Garriga's comme nts. " Yes, I fol lowed (H B H onda 's Reinhold) Roth and he went a way from me o n accelera tion , but we can ca tch the m in the corners. I th in k that eit he r Garriga or myse lf co uld win here." After breaking hi s leg in practice for the Fren ch G P a nd missing th e sub seq ue nt Yugoslavia n ro und, HB Venemotos Yamaha's Carlos Lavado gave Yamaha th e top three fastes t qua lifiers by la pp ing in 1:38. 70 (9I.l8 mph). "I am almost fully fit," said Lavado. "But my right an kle is still stiff and that mak es it hard to move around on th e bike." Filling ou t the front row were the Hondas of Dominique Sarron and points leader Sito Pons. Sarron though t that tire choice would be critical and also that the Yam aha would lose less power as 'i t 'hea ted up th an th e Honda. " We' ve used more tires in practice th an th e Yamaha and, 26 laps is a very long ra ce, " th e Frenchman said. " For Honda we must use a hard ti re." The second row had the Yamahas of" Jean-Ph ilippe Ruggia (six th fastest) and Ivan Palazzese (ninth fastest ) sa ndwich ing th e Hondas of Roth and j acques Cornu. Roth ex p lained the H onda 's tire problems best. " I hav e to ch oose between three rear and two front tires," he began. " If I choose th e soft rear it will only last half the race . If I choose the hard rear it only works well the second half. So I can go fast at th e beginning or the end, but not both. The Yamaha frames and engines are easier on the tires so I think they do not have th e same worries." , Still, Cadalora thought that he, too, might have tire troubles. " After 15 laps they will start to slide badly," he said. " I th ink tha t the only thing to do in th e race is to go fast from th e star t and then wat ch out aft er abo u t B laps and start to tak e things - m ore carefull y and see wh at happens." 250cc GP True to hi s word, Cadalora Iled ' fro m th e st art and, p redictabl y enough, it wa s Garriga giving chase. Pons was in thi rd wi th · Sarr on fourth. The field quickly spread out behind them. " T he first 'few laps it was hard to pu ll awa y from Garriga," Cadalora would later say. " After th at I see my times ge tting be tter." After nin e of th e 26 la ps Cada lora sti ll hel d h is advantage with Garriga second ahead of Pons a nd Sarron. Ro th was fifth, Ruggia, sixth , Cornu seventh , a nd Lavado eigh th . Positions one , and five th rough eight wo uldn' t change for the rest of the r~e, but a great deal of , p laceswap pi ng would take pla ce i n between those spots. Pons was into second on the 12th

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