Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

00 00 Q') ........ Eddie lawson wrapped up hi s th ird 500cc World Championship with a sec ond place finish in Czechoslovak ia. Wayne Gardner failed in his attempt to defend his World Championship. but did win his fourth Grand Prix of the season: lawson has won six. . . World Championship Road Race Series: Round 14 Gardner wins Czech GP, Lawson clinches title. By Michael Scott Photos by Patrick Gosling BRNO, CZECHOSLOVAKIA, AUG . 28 The ba ttle to Wayne Gardner, the war to Eddie Lawson. The Australian h an dily won an exci ting Czechoslovakian G P on a Rothmans Honda that didn 't skip a beat, rid ing as if in a different race . But Lawson on the Marlboro Y h k d d ama a t?O secon, an. enoug h points ...to secure hIS 1'0 third World Championship title. " It feels even better than th e first two," the Californian said, before Gardner joined h im on the rostrum , and the pair lapsed into a stony silence, without so much as excha nging glances, let al one hand~hakes. Third-placed Wa yne Ramey was al so temporarily ou t of favor. " It semed like I had to beat T eam Yamaha out there," said La wson, referring to a tight five-bike group he had had to defeat before being sure of second. " H ey," said Ra iney later. " I count Eddie as a friend, but I ride for Lucky Strike and fo r Wayn e Rainey. no t for Marlboro . I'd have wo n th e race if I co u ld." Pi er-Francesco Chi li on th e HB Honda was a lucky fourth , after both Gauloises Yamaha 's Christian Sarron and L ucky St rike Yamaha 's Kevin Magee had crashed in front of him, Magee lucky to escape wi th a gashed finger after a spectacular high-side get-off. Tada hi ko Taira was fifth, and Niall Mackenzie sixth . Cagiva 's Randy Mam ol a ret ired after two laps, after a spark p lug cap parted company with its H-T lead. A vast cro wd of more th an 160,000 thro nged th e magn ificent Brn o circu it, a " made-for-TV" advert isment for th e workers' paradise th at contrasts shar ply with bleak conditions beyo nd ca mera ra nge. They saw a su perb 250cc GP, wo n by Ducad os Yam aha 's Juan Garriga from Campsa Honda's Sito Pons, which kept their a ll-Spanish battle for th e titl e alive until the last race in Brazil. T he Sid ecar titl e was decided at Brno - a surprise win for reigning cha mpio ns St eve ' Webster, Tony H ewitt a nd tem po ra ry pa ssen ger Gavin Sim mo ns after points lead ers Rolf Biland a nd Kurt Waltisperg broke down with th e crown almost in their hands. Spaniard J orge Martinez took th e predictable pair of wins in th e 80 a nd l25cc races for Derbi. 500cc practice Every track poses unique problems: Brno is more unique than most, in sp ite of a number of superficial simila ri ties to Spa, as it soars and sweeps among the pine forests. It consis ts mainly of a string of hom ogenous more-or-less middl espeed co nsta nt- radius bends, flat or even off-camber, smoothl y surfaced , a nd co m p lica ted by co n ti n u a lly risin g a nd falling ground. From the rid er's point of view, th is transla tes as a tra ck wi til. very few cha nces of rear-wheel steer ing, and a n awful lot of front-wheel work, all with th e insecurity of unban ked bends, where it feels like the front is go ing to turn in under you . From the tire man's perspective, th e surface is un like anything else thi s year - grippy, but not so much as Donington, and harder on fronts than rears . Michelin , leading t h e field, already had a huge selection; Dunl op and Pirell i each arrived with all-new tires, and Dunlop with 10 variations on the old ones as well. Tire testing occ u pi ed everyone pretty well th roughou t, excep t for Gardner, who was flyin g from th e first sessio n, leading th at one, then setting hi s fast tim e in th e second, two seconds quicker th an th e previous year. " Bumpy circuits bri ng o u t th e worst in th e H on da," said Gardne r, " making it hard to put th e power down. This is rea lly smooth, a nd though it still doesn 't handle well, it's a lot be tter." With the seaso n peremptorily cut short by one race by the Argentinian ca ncela tio n , Gardner's circu m stan ces had cha nged for the worse, and his bad luck held swa y. '" on ly had a Ch in aman 's cha nce anyway," he said , having long since accepted that it would take a miracl e to stop Lawson's march to the tit le. Lawson has found it harder to rela x as th e season progressed u nt il now, a nd felt easy enough to be fifth fastest, as long as he was on th e front row. " We had some trouble early on tryin g to find the right tire and front su spension co mbina tion," sai d Lawson. " Now, we're fair. Not gre at , but not bad, a nd in th e hunt. We had to go through four or five front tires before we found th e ri ght o ne that mean t it wasn 't pushi ng th e front end all the time." After his convincing Swedi sh win , Lawson was prepared to be cau tio us . he re, but no t too ca u tio us. " We reall y need to get second," he sa id (enough points to tie it u p). " I can' t take a ny big risks, but I' m prep ared to push to ge t that pl ace, and of course I' ll go for a win if it's at all pos sibl e." Between them on th e front ro w, . was a selection of peo ple hopeful o f beating th em both. Wayn e Ra iney was seco nd fastest, a po sition he seized in the second session. Remarkably, he had seen the trac k for th e fir st ti me two days before. The si m ila rity with Donington Park , wh ere he had won, was enough to ra ise hi s ho pes o n ly a little. " It 's as smooth , but not as grip py, and th e off-camber co rn ers really make it diff erent," sa id Rainey. H e and teamma te Magee bo th took to the single new Dunlop fro nt straightaway, but Rainey ran out of time in the remaining sessions:to test all the rears, and in the end had to select the one ch osen by Mag ee, even though he hadn't used it, intending to check it out for himself in the morning warm-up. It obviousl y ' worked Ior'him, since he was fastest, but it was still not the ideal tire. " T here 's a nothe r from a n all-new mold that is much better in side-grip. Bu t there is on ly one, and th e co m po und's not righ t." His time was taken up with brake tests. The team had a pair of shrouds forthe carbon-carbon brakes, which worked well at keeping the temperature high (" It makes the brakes more consistent. "); but not only interfered with quick wheel changes, but also tended to pick up the wind and steer th e bike about. Sarron was third-fastest, and onl y six-h undreths slower than Rainey, a time he achi eved in th e final session. Bu t he predicted that his fast tire would last no more than 12 la ps. " I don 't expec t a close race," he said wryly. Then came Mackenzie, pushed down from th ird in the last session, and reliably setting the fastest speedtrap times on his Kanemoto-tuned Honda. Accustomed li ke Sarron to going to the front wheel's limits, he was less fazed than most oy fro ntend nerves- "It all felt pretty good, " he said. '" just ho pe it holds toge ther to morrow."

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