Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

. ~ e 00 00 O'l .--I "' ~ .... ~ ,.0 0 ..... u 0 Sito Pons (3) leads Loris Reggiani (6) and Reinhold Roth (2) during the 260cc Grand Prix. Pons finished third with Roth fourth. . Spaniard Pons' (left) third place finish behind Dominique Sarron (right) and Carlos Lavado gave him the 260cc World Championship. th rough ou t with a sick bike, succu mbed to engine ail ments, not only leaving Ch ili 's sevent h p lace unmolested in the closing stages, but also allo wing th e steady but undramatic McElnea throu gh to eigh th; th e Belgian faltering hom e n in th , th e last rider not to be lap ped. Igoa in 10th rode alo ne throu ~h out the race, whi le Fabi o Barch iua was th e o nly o ne of th e handful of H on da p rivateers to run fu ll di stan ce without problems, finis hing 11th . Not that 12th pl aced Gonzales de Nicolas actually ha d tro uble, but he was desperately slow , and finished three laps beh in d th e leaders. .. There was on ly o ne other finisher - Donnie McLeod on the "American Built " Hon da RS, clad in adapted Suzuki bod ywo rk to disquise the bi ke for the H oll ywood film . Alas , the seat wa s improperl y venti la ted, a n d rapidl y over hea ted from the exhaust p ipe . T he Scot p itted to cool th in gs dow n , then remounted to fin ish last. Cras hers, as we ll as Mam ol a , incl uded Mar co Gentile, Alex Valesi, a nd Roger Burn ett. Yam aha spo nsored by McDonalds) meant th ere were 38 250s trying for a p la ce, a nd th e n on-qu al i fiers incl uded a positively a nt iq u elook ing tubular-fra med TZ Yamaha. In th e space of five years, such ha s been the pace of development, this bik e now loo ked like somet hi ng o u t of the ark. 250cc practice To the su r p rise of a ll excep t seaso ned J apan -wat chers, Yam aha 's support of Garri ga 's last-ditch title bid seemed very half-hearted. T hey mi gh t h a ve m obilized n ot o n ly Christian Sarron (who offered), but also J ohn Kocinski, as well as th eir ow n Nat ional Ch ampion H onma. Wh a t they d id was m er el y to supply season- long top p riva teer Ruggia wit h a single YZR, and to serve all th e reg ular V-twin runners with a helpi ng of new cylinders, whic h added substa nt ially both to acceleration a nd top speed. Former cha mpio n Lavado was del ighted, saying: " T h is is not j ust th e firs t tim e th is year we 've been anywhere near the Hondas, but also that my V-twin Yamaha has been as fast as those of Garriga a nd Cadalora." Garr iga needed to win, and for Pon s to finish fourth or lower, for the Yam aha man to get th e titl e; a nd a t first it seemed this would be possibl e, with Garriga fastest in untim ed practice. It also seemed clear th a t Ruggia 's su pport would be erra tic at best , w ith th e French tumbler falling o rr th e' YZR twice before the race. But Garriga's tim e was alm ost three seconds orr th e rea l pace, set by las t year 's winner Domini9ue Sarron, who took pole in the first sessio n, and stayed there, speeding up still fur th er in tne 'aftern oo n. It was his last 250 ride in the Rothmans team before embarking on a 500 career on an Elf-sponsored NS R Honda next year, and he told bo th Pons an d G arriga : " I wo n 't ge t between you if you are fighting, bu t o therwise I will rid e my own race. I have that duty to my spo nso rs." Pons was second, and feeling th e pr essure. He didn 't have to do as much to win th e title, o n ly follow Garriga; on the ot her ha nd , he co uld easily lose it if he made a mi stake . . " I'm jus t treating th is as a no ther race, that it is very im portant for me to finis h ," he said. " If I see a chance of winni ng, I will take it. But it is more important j ust to get to the end." Then came the three speeded-up Yarnahas, but it was not the Spaniard fastest. La vad o was racing as close to his Venezuelan home as he ever gets, and was further delighted wi th h is new ly-competitive bike, and p laced thud overall. Cadalora was next, with Garriga in the end on ly jus t on th e front row , alt ho ugh there were less than two-tenths betwee n the th ree regular YZR V-twin riders. H ow ever , o n ly the H o ndas had broken the 1:30 barri er, a nd Pon s' job was beginning to look easier. Card us was ma ch in e hard in h is last ride in Angel Nieto 's Ducadossponsored Ho nda team, a nd led th e seco n d ro w th ough d u m p ed by N iet o , a superst it io u s man who beli eves the unlu cky Cardus has been seen by the evil eye, he was well o n th e way to putting toge ther hi s own wor ks Honda dea l for 1989, with cons idera ble help from Pon s, so he wo uld return th e favor here if he had the cha nce. . T hen came J ochen Schmid, faster of th e pair of Anton Mang clo nes on h is unused NSR Ho ndas, and on ly th en Ruggia, who had reverted to this TZ, saying that the factory bike was "very efficient, bu t hard to set up." Others believed th e switch back to the facto ry twin had more to do with hi s having ru n out of parts for his mu ch-ba ttered YZR. Roth comp leted row two ; the two rernainihg works bikes fillin~ row th ree, led by Reggia ni's Apriha and Wimm er 's TZ, bo th faster than Cornu, Man g's second man Helm et Bradl , an d Shimizu's la st works H onda. For Wimmer, it seemed at last as tho ug h all his hard work migh t pay orr, after a season of bad luck in whic h he and engi neer H elmut Fath had striven to get th e best out of th e TZ. " Helmu t has ma de 90 gears to give us a good gearb ox choice; he has made th e engine probab ly th e fastest of the T Zs and we are aerod yn a m ic all y better. Ou r fairi ng - makes the bike five centimeters lower than the stock T l. But even so, the facto ry bikes have th e advantage where th ey can put th e power on earlier comi ng out of the bends." T en Latin -Am erica n en tr ie s (a m o n g the m Carlos Lavado 's brother L ui z, p laced 19th o n a 250cc GP The die for the championshi p was cast o n the second lap, as Roth and Re!?giani led a tigh t pack around th e Goiania loops. Pons was disput in g fo urth; Garriga had j ust m oved up to sixth, th en , as they brak ed for the right- han der at the en d of the straight: " I felt a bang on th e back of my seat at the same ume as Lavado went past o n th e inside of me." Garri ga said. The bang came from V'im mer, who was engaged in outbraki ng Garriga just as Lavado came inside him and sto le his line. " It was a typical racing in cident , and you ca nnot blam e anyon e," the crestfallen Germ an sai d later. " I dare not brake, beca use the n I knew I wo uld fall and knock Garri ga orr, so I tried my best to slow down and ge t ro und th e bend, but that carr ied us"both to th e o uts ide of the circui t." Once th ey got th ere, Wimmer hit th e dirt and fell , whil e Garriga stayed on: " I was riding the tigh tro pe , on th e pa in t at th e edge of th e track. T hen I we t o nto th e dirt, but I was going slowe r by then , and I managed to stay on two wheels ." Wh en he rejoined afte r th is adve nt ure, it was way dow n in 25th. Up fro n t, Ro th soo n gave way to Cad al o ra and Reggiani, and th e for mer made a convi nci ng attemp t at a ru naway win, break in g th e la p record th ird tim e round, and open ing the ga p to almost th ree seconds by lap 10, by which tim e Sarron had come th rough to second. Meantime, La vado - having by far his best race of th e year - mo ved up to thi rd, while Po ns was a lso mov ing . up, in the thick of the tigh t pursuit group. By half-dista nce, Sarron was starting to ca tch Cadalora, wi th Lavado in his trac ks, and Po ns, Roth and Reggi ani in a tight kn ot betw een th em . Garriga had been forging his way back through the field, dis p laying asto nish in g lean angles and desperate late braking. He was no w 10th, and had pi cked up Ruggi a 's TZ on the way th rough. But two laps later Cadalora, feeling the pressure, los t the front wheel under braking, and fell to earth, out of th e rac e. Sarron took over the lead, and galloped on to tak e the nag, five seconds ahead of Lavado. Pons held on to third throughout, but was relieved wh en he looked behind him o n lap 22 to see that the man behind him was no l on~er Reggian i, but Roth , with th e Italian star soon to retire, h is Apri lia's ign ition failing. " I knew I would be safer with Ro th th ere, and that he wouldn't do a nythi ng silly," said Pons. H e nearly .spoke too soo n, for the German

• Cover