Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

H e was th e firs t of a grou p o f eight w ith in th e 2:07 bracket . . . again th e 500s proving closer than th e 250cc cl ass. Next of co u rse ca me Lawson; then a very competitive second row, led by a pa ir who vau lted up -there o n ly in the last session : Schwantz an d Chili. The Ameri can Pepsi-Suzuki ri der bl amed tires a n d suspension problems for his slow start. " We o n ly got every thing worki ng good in th e third session, an d 1 only got m y co n fidence u p in the last. It 's a kinda hard circuit to learn, with th e corners up a nd down hills, a n d the fro nt en d wa nts 'to p ush a ll th e time. 1 on ly started £licking it a nd sli ding it in the afternoon." Next to Chili ca me de Radigues, eigh th o vera ll, a n d co m p la ini ng again about a shortage of power . Alon gs ide, Ma gee was surp rised to have been left trailing after a good first session . " I th ought 1 was going quite well until th e o ther g uys pulled the pin out," h e sa id. Then h e, too , sw itched to th e n ew ca rbon front d iscs, and a lso ca me good in the tire lucky di p . " T h e brakes are a help when yo u 're ch an gin g direction in the faster bends," h e sa id , " beca use they 're so much li ghter. But the real ben efit should come towards the end of the ra ce, when th e steel bra kes m ay be losing power . 1 also bel ieve th e n ew rear tire will be better towards th e end . . . it's much more con sistent when it ge ts hot th an th e earlier ones, an d we've closed th e gap on Mi ch elin a bit." Mamola 's Cagiya was IOth-fastest . leading row three, an d h e dutifull y pronounced th e n ew Pirelli a big improv em ent. " It doesn ' t cha tte r a t all," h e said. " U ntil it starts breaking up. " The irony did not escape h im, h owever. H e grinned and added, " Yeah, much better. It lasts three laps now." Meanwhile h is team manager, Carlo Perna t, announced off icially that he was shocked that a tire company co u ld turn up to a G P with such sh ortco m in gs in their o ££eri n gs. At that stage, it seemed unlikely that th e Pirelli-Ca gi va association h ad much of a fu tu re. Then ca me Taira's Yamaha; Bu rnett's Honda (the Brito n missing most of one session because of engin e fa il u re, h is spa re bike back in J apan for the re h ab ilitation o f its rea l owner Syunj i Yatsushiro); McEIn ea 's Suzuki; an d Igoa 's Yamaha, all with in th e sa me secon d in a close a ll-works third row. R ow four saw th e last o f the works V4s - Hasla m's Elf and R oche's Cagiva - then th e best of the trip les: again Fabio Barchit ta 's H onda trip le, wi th Gen til e's Fior next in 18th, a nd th en Austria n Karl Ruchsess for o nce o us ti ng Ma rco Papa in the n ow somewhat desul tory p riva te H onda battle. Am azin g ly, there were no crashes in th e 500cc class, at a track wi th many traps for anyone who takes too many ri sks with th e fro nt wheel. Cl ose times among th e fast run ners suggested a close race . . . bu t n o t fo r the lead. It looked as th ough G ard ner would. run a wa y from th e race, a nd Lawson wi th th e title. Surpri ses ca n hap pen, b u t nobo dy was co unting on any at Brn o. " 500cc race Ra in ey got th e hol eshot yet again , b ut Gardner dove inside h im under braking for th e seco n d be n d, and from th a t point on h e a nd his H onda were in a class of their own. By the time they reappeared at th e end o f the la p , h e was almost tw o seco n ds ahead; by lap si x the gap was over 10 seconds, a nd by h alf-d istance it was a massive 14 seconds. But, as h e well knew , h ewas losin g fro m in front , b ecause b y now Lawson was in secon d, enoug h to 00 00 0') For the majority of the race. Lawson (3 ) had his hands full with Wayne Rainey (17) and Kevin Magee (16) . win h im th e title, and unlikely to go away. Wayne h ad ti me in hand to become devious. " I was sur p ri sed to ge t a way so easily, an d was having no problems a t all. So 1 slowed up, in th e hope that Eddie would try a bit harder , a n d m aybe make a mistake a nd crash." No su ch luck , although others we nt tumbling d o wn , including Magee, spectac u la rly, a n d Sarron. All part of the fun in a h ectic battl e way behind the reigning but shortly to be de posed cham p ion . Rainey hung on to second o n ly for th e fir st lap. " I knew 1 was slowing them down, because 1 co u ldn't get th e p ower on when the bike was over. The new tire just didn 't h ave th e side grip ." Next into the p lace was T aira, reliving his exce lle nt race h ere last year; then Sarron, and th ese tw o battled back and forth for a while, wi th Chili hard u p beh in d them, and L a wson reco vering from a ve ry ave ra ge sta rt th at saw him around 10th a t th e en d of lap one. Magee was doin g m u ch th e sa me, " T ryin g to m ak e up grou nd from a bad start without ri p pi ng th e tires to shreds," th ough h eactuall y went by Lawson in the proc ess, to m o ve into third behind Sarron o n lap eigh t. O n e m ore tour, an d h e was in seco nd; th en down to fourth again as Sarro n and Lawson repassed. Wi th Chi li h an ging in th ere , R a in ey h adn 't gone away either ; althoiJ~h Taira had been dro p ped, and a tigh t kn o t of Yam ahas jousted around th e w ide curves, showing a bi g variety in choice o f lin es. On lap I I , th ere was a big reshuffle, as Sarron " open ed the door for Lawson," and th e o ther three went pas t as w el l. T he Frenchman, tro u bled by a sliding rear which he la ter bl amed on a bad suspension setting, had nonethel ess passed the fading Chi li again for fifth when he lost the back wheel at the entry to the straigh t, and slid off un h urt in to the gravel on lap 16. The Yam aha ba ttl e was as fierce as ever in his absence. R ai n ey, having di a led th e rear sp rin g pre load right down earlier to p u t more wei ght on hi s slidi ng tire now d ia led it u p again to sto p the fro nt end pushin g, and was getting back on terms, slip p in g past Magee for third on la p 12 , a n d working hard to catc h Lawso n , who was drawing ah ea d very sligh tly. Lap 17 saw Magee's downfall. " I' ve been try in g hard to h ang o££ the bi ke m ore, but 1 find it easier on righ t-h anders than on lef t. 1 wa s co m ing ou t of a left a n d 1 put th e power o n , an d it slid, ca ugh t, a n d threw me over th e high-side. 1 trie d to hang o n; b ut .. ." His impact wi th th e ta r to re a five-stitch hol e in th e little finger of his left hand, but there was n o other damage. For th e last few laps, th e race settled into so m eth ing of a parade, wi th mechanical failures acco u ntin g for a few more (both Mamola and Roche having long gone on th eir Ca givas). With T ai ra settled in fift h , de Radigues had been disputing an eventu a l six th with Mackenzie, but broke h is gearbox a n d retired o n la p 20. Mackenzie battled on with a badl y warped di sc and a slow engine, jetted too conserva tively. Behind h im , on th e same lap ; Kevin Schwantz gave u p a dispiriting struggle with a bike tha t had started to vibrate badly and lose revs. " I was h avin g trouble with th e back wheel not hooking up , an d than 1 was scared that someth ing was fixing to tie up inside, so 1 pulled in." The team discovered a m ain bearing failure, which th ey bl amed o n too ge nero us an es ti ma te of service life - another thing sh owing that tea m 's basic lack of ex perien ce. T his promoted a close three-bi ke gro up behind h im to batt le fo r seve nth, where Haslam h ad eventua ll y p rev ailed over McElnea a n d Igoa , McElnea ba ttling an arm th at was p umping u p , a nd a lso su ££ering a worrying vibration. " I bl ew a main beari ng in practice, so 1 was prett y worried." Until three la p s before, Bur nett had been among them and go ing well, until h is NSR seized. Thu s th e RS -m ounted privateer s we re battling for some wo rt hwhi le poi nts. Ba rchi tta took 10th , aft er figh ting a ll th e race with th e 11th p laced Gentile on th e Fior. Marco Pap a took a similarly narrow victory for 12th over Alessandro Va lesi, while race-long co m panions Peter Linde n an d Bruno Knueb uhler took the final po ints. G a rdn er 's victory looked very con vi n cin g, but Lawson had done a ll h e n eeded to do to hold th e poi nts gap a t 20. With o ne race left, if th e Australia n wins and La wson fai ls to score, they will finish the year on equal points, but Lawson wins th e crown by virtue o f six race wins to Gardner's maximum p ossible of five (he has four so far). T here was on ly o ne change in th e top 10. Lawson (232), G a rdner (212), R a iney (189), Sarron (138), Magee (128) and de R adigu es ( 113) a ll stayed the same, Mackenzie (1 12) moved pa st Schwantz ( 104) for seventh . Then Chili (86) a nd McEln ea (75) maintained th eir respective ninth and 10th. 250cc practice A few more falle rs here included Carlos Cardus, twi ce, in th e sa me session in th e sa me bend. Another was Don n ie McLeod. Both were " victims o f th e dreaded front-wheel wa shout, but o n ly McLeod wa s injured, breaking a rib . Do m iniq u e Sarron's H onda - Ied from first session to last, but the interest was as ever o n th e G arriga/ Pons ba tt le, which even dominated th e 250 ri d ers ' di scussions on whether or no t to go to Argentina. Garriga, like Gardner, wants m ore " ra ces. H ere a n d now, h ow ev er, the Yamaha rider faced th e problem o f Brn o 's steep . uph i ll fini sh in g stra ig h t, tailor-made for th e Honda riders. Hi s u su al su pe r- h u ma n efforts were well in evide nce, h owever, a nd he was third th rough most of practice, th en in th e final session eased Po ns o ut o f seco nd, by a slender but m easu rable five-hundredths. O f co urse, Garriga nee ds wins. a nd/or for Pon s to fall o££; while th e H on d a r ider ca n, wit ho u t tw o ro unds now left, a££ord to follo w his ri val h ome. Even that may be dangerous . After Pon s barged Garriga o ut o f the way in Sweden , Garriga didn 't m ince words whe n he got h ome. " All year, I' ve only been riski ng m y own n eck . I' ve been riding rou nd the outside of peop le. Now I'll switch to th e same weapons th ey us e. I'll be going u p the inside, a nd if 1 fall down, I' ll be taking them w ith me." Figh ting ta lk indeed. T he ba tt le between th em h a s elevated bike racing to a co m m o n street-corner topic i n Spain; Cardus' crashes spurred hi m .to ret u rn h is name to the conversations , as h e ba tt les to prove he is worthy of a works ride n ext year (h e remain s fired by Angel Nieto's Ducados sq uad ). H e p u t himself fourth overall. R o th also speeded u p , a nd the Hon da pair pushed th eir way onto th e front ro w, ous ting previous incumbents Cadalora o n his su p er b ly -ri d de n YZR Yam a ha an d the precoci ous Rugg ia's TZ. Sarron 's third-session time pu t h im better than h alf-a-second in front of th e rest: thereafter they were close, but not as close as in th e 500s, II

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