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/127149
current contract status. H is number one choice was Lucky Strike Roberts" Wayne Ra in ey, who, next year , will be in the second year of a two-year contract. His sec on d choice was Schwantz, who th e factory is anxious to sign . H e also said there were a few 250 riders that he 'd like to h ave, but declined to name them. Honda is so intent ,o n landing Sch wantz that it is bel ieved th ey sent represen ta tives from th e factory to spea k with him a t Donington during the British GP me eting, whi ch would explain th e unfamili ar , sligh tly older J apanese men hanging ar ound the HRC pits that weekend. H e, no doubt, listen ed intently a nd will weigh their offer against th e others. If HRC does sign Schwantz, th ere is a chance that h e would go to Serge Rosser's Elf team on a factory bike for something like a year's try -out. If he passed, he could join. the more official HRC family squad. T h e downside of this scenario is that Elf has no experience with the latest conventional factory machinery, instead ca m pai g n i n g their _ce n te r-h u b steering backmarker. This, a lon g with it being a Frenchbased tea m , may h elp Schwantz make his decision. And if he decides against Honda, he will most likely en d up at Yamaha on Giacomo Agostini' s Marlboro team. .T he move to Agostini, who courted him heavi ly for th is season , would allow Sch wa ntz to join wi th cre w chief Kel Carruthers, w ith whom he'd like to work arid whose fam ily h e's close to. It would a lso give him a chance to be th e number o ne rider, depending , o f co urse, on wha t Eddie Law son does. But more o n th at later. Sch wa ntz's third op tio n is Suzuki, but recent performances suggest that there may be n othing in it. Although in winning two Grands Prix h e's had m ore success th an a n yo ne expec ted, h e's always down on power to th e factory Hondas a nd Yamaha and h as su ffered some fro m th e team 's inexperience in setting th e bike up. When th e bike isn 't' righ t h e overco m pe n sa tes with h is riding, the resu lt bei ng e no ugh injuri es to last se ve ra l careers. If yo u 're a b etting ma n, put yo u r money o n Marlboro. Edd ie lawson . But what.of Lawson? If he co ul d be convinced to stay on th e team he's been with his entire six -yea r Grand Prix career that would mean th at his current teammate, th e Belgian Didier de Radigues, would have to go. This is something that Ago co u ld do with a minimum of tea rs. ' However, rumors su rfaced as far back as the Belgian GP in ea rly July that Lawson may be looking to make a ch an ge and tha t would presumably mean a Honda. Elf wa s aga in th e rumored destination but a t the Swedish GP Lawson denied talking to the team. Were he to go to a new . H onda tea m, it's possib le h e could h ook u p with Gardner's current crew chief, the man that took the Australian to the title, Jerry Burgess, who's been less than hIS normall y cheerfu l, smiling self th is year. Losing wi ll do that to you, especially havi n g to listen to your rider bl ame h is lost season on you. In fac t, at the en d o f last year Burgess even 'specu la ted that it m ight be interesti n g to start over with a new rider . Wheth er he wants to or not, h e m ay get his chan ce in 1989. Will he go to Elf al so? It seems that n earl y everyone has been rumored to be going to the tworider team sponsored by th e giant French oi l co m p any, Elf, and headed b y Serge R o sse t. Part o f this is strategy on Ros set 's part. The more riders he get co m m itme n ts from th e greater hi s chances o f secu ri ng bikes from H RC. And that' s what everything-depends on - how many factory N SR500 s Honda is going to build. As reported here in Cycle News, Rosset p lans to have a two-rider team, one French, o ne , not. The French rider would be Ro thm a ns Honda France's 250 campaigner Dominique Sarron. The other rider is, obviously, up in the air. Since current rider H asl am ap p ea rs to be leaving, th ere's a chance he co u ld end up in the sea t vacated by Schwantz at Su zuki. Bubba Shobert. . Am ong th e m o re i n te res ti n g rumors -abou t th e other ride is the one co nce rning Ca mel Pro cham p Bubba Shobert. Besides Elf, Shobert h a s been li n ked to th e R o berto Gallina H -B-sp onsored team, 'b u t any decision on hi s fu tu re wi ll li kely n ot .be announce d u ntil th e end of th e Gran d Nation al Championshi p dirt track season in m id-October. One p oss i b le st ic ki ng po in t is whethe r it wou ld o ffend Amer ica n Honda if he went. They've deci ded th at they 'd like h is serv ices for a nother year in th e U.S . a nd if h e , tu rns them dow n there is so me q ues tio n as to wh ether they wo uld as k HRC to b lock h is m ove to a Europe an Honda tea m . An oth er rep ort in o ne of the Br itis h p apers h ad Sho b ert , Schwa n tz, a nd U.S. 250 GP winner Jimmy Filice a ll going to a ne w tea m be ing fo rmed b y fo rm er Wo rld Champion Freddie Spe n cer. Bu t that effort ap pears to be losin g steam and Spe nce r will , m ost likely, concentrate o n car racing for 'th e forseeab le fu ture. Besid es th e Rothrnans a nd Elf teams, th e th ird H onda-based team is sponsored by HB, th e German cigare tte co m p any . An HB spokesman said th a t G all in a shou ld be back next year with cu rre n t rider PierFrancesco Chili : As sta ted ea rlier, Shobert is th e othe r possibility. Ni all Mackenzi e a lso rides a bi ke with HB stickers on it , although h e rides under the official HRC banner with Erv Kanemoto as his crew ch ief. Mackenzi e hasn't yet fu lfilled th e poten tial many saw in h im following h is fast qualifyin g performance in last yea r's Japanese G P and there are rumblings th a t Honda is getting impa tient wi th h is progress, o r lack thereof. H e comm itted himself to a full train in g program last .year in norther n California, at his own expense,' a nd is p la n n in g to do th e same this year if HRC keeps him. If n ot , he can al ways go to Suzuki who h ave approach ed him with th e so rt of big m oney offer it would tak e to wrest h im from his current team. Rega rdless o f whether Mackenzie goes to Suzuki, th eir team is su re to change for next year. Besides Schwantz leaving by choice, teammate Rob McElnea's job is surely in jeopardy following two disappointing seasons, one on the Marlboro Yamaha and this year on the PepsiSu,zuki. Although ,h e rarely crashed this year, he was also rarely much above 10th place, h is best finish thus far being a sixth in the Belgian GP at Spa. He needs to re-gain his selfconfidence; where he'll get a chance to do that remains to be seen. If bo th riders go, their rep lacements could be the aforementioned Haslam an d Roger Burnett. Haslam has lo ng been co n sidere d one of the top development riders in racing and if ' th ere's one thing that th e Suzuki needs it's development. Some have wonder ed if T exan Doug Polen ' wou ld tak e a spot on th e Suzuki team, but it's doutful h e co u ld earn , the kind of money racing in Eu ro pe that he does in the U.S. and money is one of hi s strongest motivations. Money will also likely keep Randy Mamola at Ca giva next year, especially if h e negotiates a n inde p en de nt sponsor co ntra ct with Lucky Strik e, as has been speculated. Although th e results haven 't co me as q u ick ly as h e'd have liked , h e's clearly pleased with the prog ress of both th e machine a nd th e Pi rell i tires an d , even with his placings, he's still the most. popular 500cc rider b y far. Look for Marnola to fulfill the second half of his two-year co n tra ct at $1.25 million per. Randy Ma m ola. Another sure bet is that French ma n Christi an Sarr on will be back on a Yamaha backed by the Fren ch Yamaha importers, Sonauto, a nd the Fr en ch cigarette, G auloises Blondes, for the 14th co nsecu tive year. Sarron decided ear ly in his career that loyalty eq u alle d longevity even if it wo ul d d im in ish h is bargaining power. Bu t w ho Sarron's partner will be is a n o pen question according to tea m mana ger J ean-Marc Bon n ay. Fell ow con try rnan Patrick Igoa ha s been ca m pa ign in g a 1987 YZR500 this year with limited su ccess. After br eaking h is arm in the U.S . GP at Laguna Seca , he returned for th e Italian GP where he ea rn ed a p oint' for 15th. A ninth at th e Dutch GP at Assen is this year's highligh t, Among the o thers stayi n g put are Lucky Strike Roberts' Wa yne Rainey and Kevin Magee. In 1989 bo th will be in th e second year of two-year contracts which they 'll likely honor, a lthough vthere has been talk of Magee's contract being out so he can go elsewhere. But don't bet on it. The only reason that Roberts would allow this is if he had another rider with as much potential as Magee waiting by the truck, and that doesn 't seem likely. One name that keeps echoing back is 250 National Champion John Kocinski. ' Koci nski was hoping to ride for Roberts on a Lucky Strike 250 G P team next year, ' b u t the cigarette company recently turned Roberts down , leav ing the talented Kocinski without a ride. He has approached both Agostini and Honda during one of his Euro p ean trips th is year, so it's likel y he 'll end up with a Grand Prix ride. Were he to go to Ago's 250 tea m h e could replace Lu ca Cadalora, once rumored as going to a tea m run by recently-retired multi-time World , Champion Toni Mang, but more likely he'll be on a Honda Italy 250 tea m. Roth mans HOlVDA" Toni Mang . Mang 's team is being form ed as this is being written. After retiring, h e decided to ta ke th e top two riders in th e G erman Na tional Championship a n d have th em co m pe te in th e final three Grands Prix o n his machinery. The rider who scores the mos t points in th e fin al th ree GPs will ge t a factory 250 for nex t year with th e o the r ri der ge tting a p ro duction b ik e. As methods for choosin g ri ders goes, th is one is especia lly harebrained. Not only wi ll they be com pe ting o n tracks th at they've 'never seen and on a n unfamil iar machine, but th ey'll be riding so far over th eir heads th at a ny judgement o f th eir ta lents will be a fals e reading. What will more likely h appen is that o ne or a nother will ge t hurt, handin g th e ri de to th e ot her. , No t much is known o f th e ot he r top 250 co nten ders. Bot h Sito Pons an d Juan Garriga, curre n tl y locked in a ,250 title fight, have ridden 500s before; Pons for Gall ina on a Suzuki and G arriga on th e earlier Cagiva . Both will li kel y gradua te b a ck upwards even tually , but wh en is anybody' s guess. Of th e two , Pons certainl y h a s th e backing with Campsa , th e Spanish national oil company, exce p t th at th eir return in publicity would be gr eatly diminished in th e 500 class. The 250s are far m ore pop u lar in .Sp ain. Wh ether either of these is the 250 rider that Gardner has asked for, he wouldn 't say. So th ere you h ave it. You know as much as we do, which isn't much . And if none of this comes to p ass we can always say, " Well, we told you it was just a rumor." And if, by chance, any of these murmurings do come true we'll be the first to say, "We to ld yo u so." • 23