Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

place by almost two tenths, but was pushed to fourth in the championship. Now th e pursuit trio comprised o f Gi anola, Corrado Ca talano riding an Aprilia and '87 ch a mpion Fausto Gresini, ha ving h is o n ly good race o f th e year. With one lap to go, h ow ever , G resin i brok e do wn as they passed th e pits . .. leadin g to so me unkind sus picion o f an oversize engine for a good last-ra ce showing (his re ti reme nt p recluding any ch ance of a protest a nd su bseq uent stri p- dow n) . Th us Ca ta la no too k fou rth, a nd Gi anol a fifth, h is lowest fini sh of the yea r. a o cc race With the title a lso settled in this class, Ma rtinez went o n to wi n a nyway, b u t no t before Stefan Doerfli nger had given h im a torrid tim e th roughout, leadi ng h im several times. . . The pair finished way a head of Criville's Derbi, who only just won third .p lace from th e Hungarian Krauser rider Karole Juhasz on a Krauser and Italian Giuseppe Ascareggi on a BBFT. S idecar race Juan Garriga (11) held off Sito Pons (3) to win the 250cc GP at Bmo; seven points separates the two, with only six people in the 2:10 bracket. The last wa s Cadal ora, now heading th e seco nd row; while next to Cornu (showi ng no ill effects from his Swedish co llarbone in jury, opera tio n, and su bseq ue nt cras h) Lavado pushed pa st Ruggia. The third row was led by Reggian i's Ap ril ia , th e Italian co m p lain in g of th e V-twin 's reluctance to rev. Team ma te Casan ova was a lso o n row three, bu t two more pl aces down , behind Wimmer's 1£ a nd Cara cch i's to p H onda RS. Last man was J ochen Schmid, o ne of a pai r of you ng Germa ns pi cked by th e re tired Anton Mang to ride h is NSR H onda s. The ot her, Helmu t Bradl , was o ne row beh ind, wh ere the fina l NS R a lso langu ish ed - th a t o f Masahiro Sh imizu, a su p rise and limping returnee after hi s Swedish cra sh, 16th overa ll. . T he cro p o f TZs a nd RSs and Rot axes followed , with th e lone G arelli o f Paol o Ca soli scra p ing into 28th. The qua lification cha rt indicated 48 starters, wi th just one nonqual ifier ... local ride r J . Bartunek on an a ntiq ue J awa. In fac t, th ere were on ly th e usu al 36 on the grid , but all eyes were on Garri ga 's a tte m p t to stop Pons. 250cc race 12 A fan tastic race had a di sappointing result in cha m p io nsh ip terms, for " Pons' understandable ca u tion ro bbed th e crowd of wh at might have been a fierce d ice to th e lin e. In stead, th e Pons-G arr iga duel lasted o n ly two thirds distance, before the ti tle leader prudently settled for seco nd. Obl igingl y, p ol e-starter Sa rron slid out of co ntention o n lap two , ha ving just ta ken th e lead fro m faststarter Pons. H is tire warmer had failed before th e warm-up lap, and a lth ou gh he knew about it , he was not cau tio us en o u gh. The Frenchman remounted , but his sti rri n g ride from sto ne last to eighth was merel y a side show. The main event shaped up in th e fir st three laps. Pons led , but wa sn 't ab le to m ake the break he would doubtless have preferred . At fir st it was Cardus trailing h im, whil e Garriga had a disastrous sta rt, a nd ran into th e first comer below 20th place. Never o ne to stay behind fo r long, h e was soon in th e th ick of th e pursuit pack and moved decisively through to second on lap three, overtaking Roth a nd Cardus in a single outbraking m ove a t th e end of the uphill straig ht. T his was h is fast est lap, some three secon ds inside th e record. Once aga in, we saw th e contrast of the Honda pulling a way in a straight line, only to lo se it a ll again o n th e twists. Pons was clearl y fast er goi ng up th e hill ; even so it was under braking for the esses at th e top o f it th at Garriga got p ast for th e first time, o n lap eight. For the nex t fo ur laps, the Span iards were locked together, a n d ' cha n ged places several times. By lap 12, Pons had ceased to do battle, but was holding a close - o ften breathtakingl y close - watching brief. Perhaps this gav e him time .to reflect on Garriga 's threat o f roughrid in g techniques, for with five laps to go he slacken ed h is pace. From now until th e end, he was losing gro u nd fast , and he finish ed a safe seco n d, 3.69 seco nds adrift. More im portan tly, he h ad give n away only th ree o f h is n ine -po int safety cus hion, lea ving h im in a defens ib le if no t easy position. " If th e Argentine GP was still on, it would have been different," Pons said later. " I would ha ve gone for a win. " As fo r G arriga , a fte r a brilliant third win of th e season, h is ma in concern was dis appointmen t with fell ow Yamaha rider Cadalora , who finished th ird, but too far back to do anything to upset Pons. " Wha t went wron ~? " h e as ke d o n the ros tru m. " I Ju st co ul dn ' t keep up," the Ital ian repl ied sad ly. In o the r circumstances, he m igh t h ave bee n pl eased , for he had ea rly on ou tdi sta nced a fierce fight fo r fourth. This raged on until th e la st lap , with th e major dispute being betw een Cardus and Reggi ani, wit h • Roth br eathin g down their necks, and Cornu a m illisecond behind. Reggiani stole th e place on th e entrance to the last bend; Cardus wa s three-t enths behind, and Roth a similiar distance behind him. Cornu lo st ground on th e final lap to finish seventh, another four secon ds away. Earlier , Ruggia h ad been ha ving yet a n o the r brilliant rid e, losing touch with this group only a fter halfdistance, and th en only gradually. T hen h e disappeared abruptly, and o ne assu med he had crashed, but he reappeared in II th place, which he maintained to th e end, later blaming ignition for a sudden loss of power. Thus eigh th went to Sarron, if only just. When h e crashed, he sn ap ped off part of his clutch lever an d most of his left footpeg. He rejoi ned on ly aft er bashing h is clipon back into position , and sim p ly sliced through th e field. In th e closing la ps, he ca u gh t up wi th th e Lavado a nd Mang protege Sch mi d , and was ahead of the m on the wa y into th e final bend. Then Lavado, a seasoned ca m pai gner, .Io rced his way past on th e in side, and seemed to ha ve beaten th Frenchman, o n ly to see th e Rothmans Honda nose ba ck in fro nt by a 10th . Two seco n ds behind Ruggia , Bradl took 12th ; Shimizu started strongly, but dropped b ack to an undistinguished 13th . The battle for th e last points was a corker; five bikes locked together, banging fairin!?S the whole way. They fini sh ed with Casanova 'sAprilia 14th , then Eckl' s Ap ril ia -R o tax , followed by Caracchi (RS), Pal auese (1£) and Wimmer , just.over a seco nd co veri ng a ll five. None of th e top 10 championship p o sitions ch a nged ex ce p t at the bottom, where Cardus (62) edged Sh im izu (61) out of ninth. Pons leads with 216 points, Garriga threatens with 210, Cornu seems safe on 160 an d Roth o n 145, but Sarron's fifth wi th 138 points is under threat from Cadalo ra (136). Ruggia has (96), a nd Mang.sta ys on 87. 1 25cc race The last 125cc race of the season was one of the best o f th e year. Not that th ere were a ny su rprises in th e results - J orge Martinez's Derbi won it. For most o f th e race he pursued h is usual battle with Ezio Gi anela 's " Honda, but this time there was a third .ma n in it - Spaniard Julian Miralles on a Honda, battling to sec u re third overall from H an s Spaan. In th e closing stages, G ianol a hit engine trouble, and dropped back to the clutches of another tight threebike group: no sooner had he done ' so than Spaan vau lted up to the front. Miralles hung on to second The last race of a long day wa s ri ch in irony, and full o f exci tem ent. Biland needed only to finish in the top I4 to secure th e ti tle - instead he coas ted to a stop five laps from th e end wi th only third gear left to hiin. H e stopped just before the line, in the hope that there would be less than 14 finishers , and he could push over and secure the title. Meantime, Webster (with injured regular passenger Hewitt replaced by Gavin Simmons) was having a torrid race with Egbert Streuer. The last two laps were rivetting - the Dutchman trying everything to push past on th e way in to th e bends; Webster slam m in g th e door into hi s face time after tim e. H e was less than half-aseco nd a hea d over th e lin e. T h us Webs ter hung on to his titl e by a com bi na tion of persistence and good lu ck. " I'd rather h ave won it fair a nd squar e," he said , " b u t I'll take it anyway. • Resu lts . 500: 1. Wayne Gard ner (Han); 2. Eddie Lawson (Yam); 3. Wayne Rainey (Yam); 4 . Pier ~Fra ncesco Chili ((Han); 5. Tadahiko Taira (Yam); 6. Niel Mackenzia (Han); 7. Ron Haslam (Elf); 8. Rob McElnea (Suz); 9. Patr ick Igoo (Yam); 10 . Fabio 8archina (Han); 1 t, Marco Gentile (Fio); 12. M. Papa ( H o n ~ 13. A. Valesi (Hon ); 14. P. Undon (Hon~ 15. B. Kneubuhler { H on ~ FASTEST tAP (NEW RECORD: Gardner. 2 min.• 06.24 sec.•95 .36 mph . 250: 1. Juan Garr iga (Yam); 2. Sit o Pons ( Hon ~ 3. Luco Cadalo

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