Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

Sito Pons (3). Juan Garriga (11 ). Dominique Sa rron (4) and Reinhold Roth (2) fight for the 250cc lead : Pons won to extend his points lead . according to the conditions. But since the pole position goes to the fastest rider, Lawson would be there even though he admitted he was struggling in the wet. "I think we're stylin' in the dry, " he said after Saturday's only session. "We have everybody covered, I think. If it's raining I haven't found a tire that works. I tried five rears and stayed out in th e last session trying tires. It's down to two. With one th e problem is when you go in the corner it moves when you 're not on the gas. Then when you get on the gas it spins." He added that his shoulder was still bothering him , although only slightly. " If I have to push or pull on the bars it hurts," he said, adding that if it rained, he'd ride more for points than a win. " If it's wet , it's too easy to fall down," said Lawson. " If it's dry I know what I'm capable of so I'll go for the win." In the wet he was 11th fastest. The most consistent riders in all condi tions were Sarron and Ra iney. Sarron clocked a dry time 'of 1:35.9 (94.55 mph), which was second fastes t and his wet time of 1:52.72 was third best. His biggest problem was a recurring sore neck which he reinjured during a near crash in practice. Rainey would be in the middle of the front row with a dry time of 1:35.37 (94.23 mph), but he was fast est (1:5I.90) in the wet. His tire choice in either condition was unsettled and he was also having trouble with his face shield fogging up. "We're using the radial fronts and the IS-inch rear here if it's dry," Rainey said. "If it 's wet, we'll use the 19-inch rear because it gives better grip. We changed the gearbox in the last session: That's something w~ haven 't worked on enough in the dry. I'd rather have it dry, it 's no fun in the wet. You have to ride at 80%, but everybody's got to do it. " For the race , Rainey was hoping to get off the line well and stick with Lawson. " H e's th e guy to beat," Rainey said. Next to Rainey on the grid was Mackenzie, the fast est Honda a t 1:35.86 (94.07 mph). Although he went faster this year than last, he still wasn't satisfied. "I still want to go around the corners a lot faster like I did on the Suzuki (in 1986)," the Scot said. "B ut it wants to push the front end. " Mackenzie was using the new frame that he 'd first used at Donington Park the previous week and ·fo r the same reason: it changes direction better tha n the old one. He a lso said that he'd received new exhaust valve , boxes, exhaust valves , and reed valve parts, like always , a week after Gardner got them. . " Next to Eddie's, my bike's best, " he said. If Lawson's was the best , it would seem logical that his teammate's would be the best, but Didier de Radigues disagreed. " When I set my quickest time I was making up all the ground in the corners because th e carburetion was out and the bike was not fast," the Belgian said. " Carb u retio n could still be a problem in a dry race because we need more time on it. " Cagiva's Mamola led a four-man second row with , Roger Burnett, Magee, and Chili. Mamola was having difficulty with a front end chatter that hurt his drive onto the straightaways limiting his top speed. "George (Vukmanovich, Mamola's crew chief) and I think that it's the weight of the bike," Mamola said. " We get the same top speed as the other bikes, 'it just takes longer to get there," Although sixth (I :35. 9S; 93.85 mph) in the dry , Mamola was second fastest in the wet, his 1:52.29 just .39 seconds behind Ra iney. "We tried a modified design of yesterday's rain tire ," Mamol a said after Sa turday's wet fina l session. "It was a lot better and my lap times showed it. We still think there's room to improve for the race ." The most consistent ri der in all conditions was Burne tt , seventh fastest wet or dry. In only his second ride on the factory 500 of the injured Shunji Yatsuhiro, he was still trying to adjust to the acceleration of the NS R after campaigning superbikes this year. He was especially deter mined since his performance in this and the next race may determine his chances of la ndi ng a factory ride for next year. He's been heavily rumored to get a seat on the Pepsi-Suzuki . team. " I'm going to ride like you've never seen me ride before," said I Burnett. Some of that same sentiment was on the mind of eigh th-fastest Magee. He believes that he hasn't full y returned to the level of riding he showed before suffering a concu ssion in the Belgian GP and wants " to get back in th e comfortable position I used to know. In the wet you get your knee on the deck . It feels heaps more comfortable," he said. The bike was "pretty close " he thought, although he feIt the suspension "a bit dodgy." The makeup of the third row was the most surprising of the grid, a byproduct of the lack of dry practice time and some p ractice spills. Elf Honda's Ro n Haslam was 10th- (From left to right) Second-placed Gardner. w inner Lawson and third place fin isher Sarron celebrate their Swedish performances. I fa stest followed b y McElnea, Schwantz, and Gardner. Both Gardner a nd McElnea had crashed during qualifying with McElnea bruising his upper thigh and Gardner bruising his spine. Gardner was high-sided on the fourth lap of the dry sessio n when coming onto the pit straight, one of only three left-hand turns on the track. "I stepped off on co ld tires," the World Champion explained. "I still wasnz trying. When they looked at the tire it was still shiny. " As for the World Championship, Gardner repeated what he's said for several races. " Realistically, I have to finish in fro nt of Eddie or win." Twelfth-fastest Schwantz, a first time visitor to An derstorp, was amo ng the more critical of the meeting. In his view , there were problems with the track a nd the facilities wh ich o nly compounded the troub les he was ha ving setting his bike _ p. u "I don't like it here," he said. "There are too many different surfaces. In the last corner before the back straight you go from the old surface to the new a nd then the old again. It 's real dangerous, especially in the rain. The new surface has better grip. "We're closer in the wet than the dry," Schwantz continued.. " It seems to bother the others more than me." More than the track or his machinery , Schwanu had to cope with four broken bones in his feet, a right knee held together with two steel pins and a length of wire, and five stitches in his left knee. " T he right knee's okay, but th e muscle in m y thigh is weak, " Schwantz said. "The left kn is reall y sor e. It 's hard to get it to bend to wh ere I can ride. Halfway through th e session it's oka y." His teammate McElnea said that Suzuki was trying to widen th e powerband with new ex haust pipes and carb uretion and that it was critical to get it right. "It revs to 11,600-11,700 from about 9000 rpm," he said. "Kevin's revs to 12,000, but the last 500 rpm he said it wants to spin." . 500cc GP After three days of varying, but mostly wet weather, race day was bright and coo l with high scattered clouds and light winds. Still, it was dry and would stay th at wa y. Even so, that didn 't stop fifthfastest de Radig ues from crashing in the morning warm-up. When the green light flashed , Rainey jumped in front on th e run up the start ch u te to the right-hand turn one. Lawson got a bad start, but made a quick decision. " I was so angry that I thought I'd either pass a whole lot of guys in the first turn or crash ," he would later say. Also caught up in the first turn jam was Magee who panicked and rnis-shifted, . "I ~o t sq uashed in th e first corner and It bogged," the Australian began. " It 's been a year since I changed gears the opposite way (one down, five up), but I kicked it into third ins tead of first. I was a bit exci ted about being there. I knew the n it was going to be a long day trying to ge t Wayne and Niall." Crossing the stripe at the end of the first lap Rainey led Mackenzie and Sarron with Gardner fourth ahead of Lawson. De Rad ig ues, Burnett, and Mamola followed. By the third lap Lawson was o ut front and beginning to pull away. Ra iney held second ahead of Gardner . with Sarron just ahead of Mackenzie, Gardner was past on the third lap, but he dropped back to fourth behind Rainey and Sarron after nearly coming off entering the back straightaway. It was then that he knew that his chances for victory were slim. " I had a big pileup in practice and that put us behind in setting the bike up," Gardner said . "When-I started doing fast laps the bike wasn 't right. I had a real big moment going onto the back straight o n th e fifth or sixth lap and I knew then I had to settle for second. The bike was a ll over the track and I co uld hardly ride it." One lap la ter, in exa ctly the same spot, Sarron d id the same thing, saving it , but settling down for the long run after dropping to fifth. "I was quite slow at the beginning of the race ," Sarron explained.. "I was worried by the fact that here you can slide off quickly. After a few la ps I dropped from third to fourth then fifth place so I decided to react. " 9

• Cover