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/127148
00 00 0') ~ Eddie Lawson INon convincingly in Sweden, topping defending champion Wayne Gardner by 13 seconds to win his sixth GP of the season. Chrisian Sarron (7) leads Wayne Rainey (17), Niall Mackenzie (5) and Kevin Magee in their battle for third place; Sarron ended up third. Randy Mamola (2 ) holds a comfortable lead over Kevin Schwantz (34). Mamola finished 10th; Schwantz battled mechanical ills to finish 12th. World Championship Road Race Series: Round 13 Swedish ·" to awson By Henny Ray Abrams ANDERST O R P, SWEDEN, AUG . 14 Marlboro T eam Agostini Yamaha's Eddie L awson extended his lead in' the' race for the 500cc World Championship with a convi n ci ng wi n o ver Rothmans Honda 's World Champion Wa yne . . Gardner In the Swedish TT at Anderstorp. , 8 • . Lawson, who d qualified on th e pol e, too k over the lead o n the third of 30 laps and extended it to 13,04 seco nds by th e end of th e 75.14mile race. In winning his six th GP of th e year h~ averaged 93.96 mp~. " It was a httle sh ppery and sliding arou nd some," Law son said after a victory lap. "And th e front brak es went away about 10 laps from the end. I just have to keep my head on and keep going for th e champ ionship." - Third for the second week in a row was Gauloises Blondes Yamaha's Christian Sarron who, midrace, pulled aw ay from a battle with fourth-place fin ish er Niall Mackenzie on the HB Honda and Team Lu cky Strike Roberts Wayne Rainey, who fought tir e troubles to finish fifth , a spot ahead of teammate Kevin Magee. Along in sevent h was Lawson's teammat e Didi er de Radigues who'd crashed in th e Sunday morning warm -up a nd was still sore. Eighth went to temporary Rothmans Honda rider Roger Burnett who won a racelongbaule with HB Honda's PierFrancesco Chili. Rounding out th e top 10 was Cagiva's Randy Mamola, slowed by a front end chatter. Elf Honda's Ron Haslam was 11th just ahead of the Team Pepsi-Suzuki teammates Kevin Schwantz and Rob McElnea, both of whom were suffering from a lack of horsepower and su spension that was too soft. Lawson now leads Gardner 215 to 192 wi th three ra ces remaining. Rainey is third with 174, Sarron fourth with 138, and Magee fifth at 113. Campsa Honda's Sito Pons also extended his championship points lead by holding off a last -corner charge by fellow Spaniard Juan Garriga (Duca dos Yamaha) to win th e 25-lap, 62.5-mile 250cc race that had the top four finishers all finish on th e sam e seco nd. Garriga and Pons swapped the lead throughout with Pons using an obvious horsepower advantage to take it for good on the 23rd of 25 laps. Garriga tried going under Pons exiting the final corner, a sweeping fourth gear right-hander, but Pons moved over - his leg making contact with Garriga's ma chine - and he sped to the win by .29 seconds. Third went to T eam Rothmans Honda France 's Dominique Sarron .66 seconds behind the winner with HB Ro mer's Rein ho ld Ro th .9 1 secon ds out of first. Team Ducados Honda's Carlo Cardus was a distant fifth. With three races to go, Pons has 199 points to Garriga's 190.. Parisienne Honda's Jacques Cornu, who raced today with a broken collarbone, but didn't finish, is third with 151. Roth ha s 135 and Sarron 130. Derbi 's Jorge Martinez added the 125cc World Championship to th e 80cc title he 'd already won by beating Team Servisco Honda's Ezio G ianola by .29 seconds after 57.6 1 miles of racing. It was his eigh th win of the year, and of those eigh t wins, six hav e come with Gianola second. Julian Miralles of Team' Ducados Nieto was third. Although Martinez has only a 20 po in t lead , 177-157, with one race to go , th e titl e is his because of his number of , victories. Gianola has won th e two races that Martinez didn 't. Similar circums ta nces prevail in th e Sid ecar class. After winning the first six races , Krauser-Pecostar Monteverdi's Rolf Biland and Kurt Waltisperg finished second for the second week in a row to World Champions Steve Webster and Tony H ewitt on th e Seward Agricultural Machinery chair. The margin of victory was 1.04 seconds, Team Lucky Strike's Egb ert Stre uer an d Bern ard Schnieders were third, 3.83 seconds back. With only the Czechos lovakian round to be run for sidecars, Biland leads Webster 154 to 136. Alai n Michel and Jean- Michel Frese, fourth today, lie third with 82. Today's Grand Prix in fro nt of a crowd of 40,600, may be the last ever run over the 2.5-mile long airport circuit just outside the south-central Swedish town of Anderstorp. The meeting, which was formerly the penultimate round and where ma ny World Championships have been decided, has drawn criticism from th e riders and their teams for several reasons. The track, which many riders find boring and unchallenging, has been resurfaced in some parts and left with old tarmac in others. The stan-finish line is about half a mile from the pits forcing mechanics to trolley their too ls along a dirt road for the start of the lace, rushing back to the pit wh en the flag drops. And the paddock, partially dirt, becomes a q uagmire when it rains, which is frequent. But mostly no one wants to come back because the Swedish federation has shown no inclination to make improvements over th e years, a situation no t li kely to change. 500cc qualifying The four qualifying sessio ns wer all run in varying weather condition from fully dry (Friday morning) t fully wet (Saturday morning) whic . meant two th ings: One was th at n one had enough tim e in the dry t set the bikes up properly and test tir and, two , different riders went faste