Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

Derbi's Jorge Martinez won the 125cc World Championship after beating Honda's Ezio Gianola by .2 9 seconds; it was Martinez' eighth win. Eng land's Steve Webster and Tony Hewitt (1) lead Rolf Biland and Kurt Waltisperg (3) in the Sidecar GP; Webster/Hewitt took the win. 10 Sarron's reaction moved hi m past th e helpless Mackenz ie and Rainey, but well back of Gardner. H e was in th ird on the seventh lap ahea d of Rainey, Mackenzi e, Magee, and de ,Radi gu es. Chili a nd Burnett were havin g a marvelo us duel for eighth with Mam ola alone in 10th. H aslam, McElnea , a nd Sch wan tz were 11th thro ugh 13 th, res pective ly, a n d alt hough they wo uld swap places , H aslam wo uld finish ahea d of the Su zuk is wit h Schwantz get ting 12th a head of h is tea mma te. H asl a m a ppeared to be making a ru n at Mamola , but wo u ld come up short. " I tried to catch Randy, but he kep t a two-second gap on me," Haslam said. " T he Elf ran perfectl y, but I mad e'a poor start and it was di fficult to ca tch the lead ers." Schwantz said his p hysical problems d idn 't bo ther him , but tha t bike ai lments di d. "The sus pe nsion was way too soft," the Texan began. "You'd flick it in a nd it wo uld sta rt to sq uat then it would push th e front end. The rear , was too soft a compound. T he righ t side was rea lly c hewe d up. " Schwant z also said that Haslam 's H onda had a little more acceleration in each gear and a little more top end. By the 10th lap th e order of the top 10 was set a nd the race became some thing of a p rocession . Lawson . held a six-second lead o n Gardner who had four on Sarron. Mackenzi e ' and Rain ey were close, but would la ter lose touc h. Magee was a t th e back of th eir pack; too far adri ft to make a n at tack, bu t safely a hea d of de Radigues in seventh. The BurnettChili dogfi ght wo ul d go to the fin al lap and Mamola was drifti ng along in 10th. Lawson was able to increase his ma rgin seem ingly a t wi ll. His fourth lap time of 1:34.43 (95.89 mp h) was th e fastest of th e race , almost two seconds faster than Gardner's fastest of 1:36.37 from last year. H e would go into the 35s aft er th e six th lap and fin ish th e race running hi gh 35s in traffic. But it wasn 't just traffic that was hurting hi s times. "The brake lever was co ming ri ght back to th e bar till it was sq uashi ng my fingers," Lawson said after the brakes fad ed aro und th e 20th lap. " I was slid ing aro und a lot, bu t not as much as everybody else." His was the on ly lap of the race ' in the 34s with Gardner 's best a I:35.36 o n th e 10th lap. Sarron, Macken zie, Magee, Burnett, a n d Chili all ha d their fast laps o n the same go -aro und as La wson. Curiously, the second fastest lap of th e day , a 1:35:14, went to Mamola o n lap 23. " I was o nly riding about 80%," Ma mol a said. "T he constr uctio n o n the rear was way off. It chattered so bad a nd no ma tter wh a t we've do ne it's only moved the chatter arou nd in a giant circle, in the race, it was doi ng it real bad off the gas. In the left-ha nder (entering th e pi t straigh t) it was almost like a dirt bi ke. I had to go slower in to the corne r the n slide it ou t." . T he final 10 laps saw the mar gins expand and contract a nd th e o rder remain cons tan t excep t for I1l;lces eight and nine. Burnett and -Chili would pass each o ther a t least once and ra n most of th e race side-by-side o n what appeared to be eq ually match ed NSR500s. It would come down to the last lap which Burnett antici pa ted wisely. " I kn ew he would try to o ut bra ke me in th e last corn er ," Burnett said. " So I waited until the last possible moment a t th e end of the back straigh t: I thought he would go off th e grass and he did. " Chili admitted to usin g th e tac tic, but ran into a backmark er in his run at Burnett. "I crashed here last year and I was still thinking abo u t it in th e race, so I didn 't take risks," th e Italian said. " I was on th e bra kes and th ere was anothe r ri der wh o was doing this system, " he said, making serpe n tine motions with his hands. " And th ere were on ly 15 meters to the end of th e tra ck. It was necessary to go on the right pa st the rider and Burnett could go on th e outsid e." Normall y, a battle like theirs would mov e th em closer to the front, but th is wasn 't th e case a nd de Radigues finished in seventh two and a half seconds ahead of Chili, but 13 back of Mage e. Besides being so re, he co mp lained of m achine problems. "The bike was terribly slow and got worse and worse," he said. "I guess it was my fault because I crashed in the warm-up and didn't get to test the race bike or we would have realized the carburetion was too lean. " After pa ssing de Radigues in his move to the front , Magee knew that he'd used his tires up and would have to settle for sixth. " I was still pushing a bit, but I kn ew there was nothing I could do, " he said. " I used my tires catching up to Wayne." Although not entirely pleased with sixth , he wasn 't entirely displeased because he felt he was ' becoming more comfortable in the saddle. Rainey's race was anything but com forta ble since he noticed very early on th at his tires weren 't up to the job. " I didn 't have a ny side grip on accelera tio n ," said Ra iney. " Mac kenzie a nd Sarron were getting around the corners bett er. In the middle of th e corner (a t maximum lean) th ey were better. I cou ld o ut brake Niall, but hi s bike was faster. I cou ld tell o n th e warm-up lap th ere was somethi ng wrong because it wasn't wh eelying like it sho u ld have. I think it was lean. We j ust ran ou t of dry practice." U nlike some of th e o ther riders wh o'd resigned th emselves to the ir placin gs early in the race. Mackenzi e wasn 't , in h is words, "Content to cru ise. I was trying to the end. Same as last week really. The H onda seems to push th e front end arou nd here. T he bike was so fast I was emba rrassed. We were running quite tall gearing to save th e race tire. It seem s Christian has o ne big moment, th en backs off." Alt ho ug h he backed off a little, Sarron was still able to get past Mackenzie and earn a nothe r podium . p lacing . Alt ho ugh Gardner has been taking every o pportu n ity to let people kn ow that he thi nks he's sti ll th e best rider, and to mi ni m ize La wso n's accomplishments, at th e pr ess conference he was conciliatory. " I thin k Edd ie rode well ," Ga rdner began. " I cou ldn 't do mu ch abo ut it today. All I can do is hope h is bik e breaks down or he mak es a m istak e, bu t tha t doesn 't seem likely because it never happens. I'm rather worn o u t fro m nine straig ht weeks of raci ng." 250cc qualifying Like the 50() rid ers, th e 250 riders were unsettled by th e co nstantly changing wea ther with all of th e fast tim es co mi ng in th e first two sessio ns. Had the gr id been set by th e rain tim es, it would h a ve been considera bly diff erent, but ra in or dry T eam Marlboro Agos tini Yamaha's Luca Cadalora was fastest a t 1:38.24 lead ing a Yamaha sweep of th e top three spo ts. This confo unded a few of th e people wh o though t th e long runway straight favored th e H ondas. Secon d fa st est was Gauloiles Blondes Yam aha 's J ean-Paul RWggia who saridwic hed his production T Z250 Yam ah a between th e factory YZRs of Cadalora and third fast est Garriga wi th a time of 1:38.71 (91.35 mph ). It was hi s first tim e ever on th e front row, but. he kn ew hi s only chance of a top placing would be in th e dry. " My bike is suited to this tra ck, but on ly if it's dry ," sai d Ruggia. " In th e wet my engine is not smooth enough and the bike becomes-very diff icult to rid e. I don't have th e right sp read of power to drive out of th e corners in the wet so I hope it's dr y for th e race." Garriga's time of 1:38.72, just onehundreth slower than Ruggia 's , came in the first session and he wouldn't improve on it. Like several of the 250 riders, he crashed, uninjured, in the second session on cold tires. His times in the wet would have put him sixth on the grid. World Championship points leader Pons was fourth fastesi (1I:38.92, 91.16 mph) two-tenths of a second behind his closest contender for the 250 World Championship, Garriga. . Filling out the front row was HB H onda's Reinhold Roth a t 1:39.18 (90.92 mph ) with Team Ducados Nieto 's Carlos Cardus sixth at 139.34. Seventh was H arald Eckl. Eighth fastest, and the most interesting story of qualifying, went to Parisienne Honda's Jacques Cornu. Cornu crashed in practice on Friday breaking his left collarbone. H e flew back to Switzerland on Friday evening to see a specialist who fitted him . with a rigid shou lder brace, returning in time for Sunday afternoon's race. 250cc GP The 250cc race looked to be a repeat o f th e previous we ek at Donington Park with Cadalora speeding into th e lead followed by Roth, Pons, Sarron , Garriga, and Ruggi a. But wher e Donington's twi sts and turns favored th e Yamaha, And ersto rp's runaway back straight favore d th e horsepower of the Hondas a nd Cad al ora d id all that he co uld just to stay in th e lead . By the fourth lap, fell ow Yamaha rider Garriga had,.. gone pa st, taking Roth with him. Pons lay fourth ahea d of Sarron and Ru ggia a nd on th e fifth lap Pons was up to seco nd with Cadal ora third, Carlos Ca rd us now fourth,.Roth fifth , Sarro n sixth , and Ru ggia seven th. By sheer force of will Cad alora was back in front o n th e eight h lap. Alt ho ugh he'd lose two or three pl aces o n the long backstretch, he'd mak e it u p with late braking a t the end of the stra ig ht and by riding around th e o uts ide of th e o the rs in th e sweeping carouse l ri ght-hand turn before the 90° left leadin g onto th e pi t stra ight. Of the front-runners, his bike was th e slowest, but he was riding it th e fastest. Unfor tu na tely, hi s exu berance got th e best of hi m and he crashed on th e ninth lap while battl ing with Pons a nd Garriga for. the lead in the left-hand bend th at preced ed the caro usel rig h t. "I'm ok ay," th e Italian said. " I just lost th e back end tryi ng to sta y with the H onda. " . A lap later and two more of the top 10 rid ers were out after crashing in the sa me corner as Cadalora. Ajin omoto H onda 's Masahiro Shimizu crashed entering the co mer while running sixth, taking Cornu with him. Cornu tried to rejoin the race, but the corner marsh alsprohibited it. Shimizu suffered a cracked right ankle and may mi ss th e Czech GP in two weeks tim e. On the 13ih of 25 laps, Garr iga a nd Pons had formed a pair ju st ah ead of a sim ila r co u p ling by Sarro n a nd Roth. Cardus was a d istant, unch all en ged fifth wh ere he would fini sh. ' Loris Reggi ani had th e factory Aprillia in six th ahead of Ruggia, who was finding himself at a disadvan tage against the factory bikes. Reggiani 's day ended on th e 15th lap when his crankshaft failed. This moved Ruggia to seventh ahead of Ivan Palazzese a nd Donnie MacLeod. MacLeod became a non-finisher on the 21st lap when he seized at the end of th e back straight. (Continued to page 25)

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