Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

- - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - --- _ .._ - - - - ' 5:; ..0 .o .., u o Frenc hman Dominique Sarron t eamed w it h A lex Vieira and Christophe Bo uheben to w in the rai n -shortened Bo l d ' Dr at Paul Ricard in France, - " Canadian Toni Sharpless combinedwith Kathleen Coburn and Veronique Parisot to make up the Bol's first all-girl team; they f inished 37th, Honda-mounted Sarron (3 ) leads Suzuki-mounted Herve Moineau (1), The squad of Moineau /Thierry Crine/Bruno Le Bihan finished second , .Sarren leads French Hc;»nd'a team to '801 d'Or victory By Julian Ryder L E CASTELLET, FRA NCE, O CT. 1-2 At 5:30 a.m., 14 and one-half hours after the 42nd Bol d'Or at Circuit Paul Ricard in the south of France had started, Domi- ' niqueSarron came in for a refueling stop. It was raining hard and had been for an hour. H e go t off the ; works H on d a, marc h e d straight up to the clerk of th e 18 co urse a nd told him , wi th the expletives deleted tha t the rac e should be stopped or sbmeone was goi ng to get killed. T he red £lag was put out almost instantaneously. . , As . th er e wer e grea t p o ol s o f .standm g wat~r on a tra ck tha t .very rarel ~ sees ram, mo~t of th e : I?ers were m agree m~nt ~ Ith th e deCISIOn . H ow ever, th e ram didn 't ease u p , and as Circui t Paul Ricard turned into a Riviera reco nstructio n of a World . War I ba tt lefield, it became obvi ous that the race, sched uled to be run for 24 hou r.s , would not be restarted" At 12:30 p.m , theBol d 'Or (go ld bo wl) was hand ed over to the winners wi th the usu al pom p and ceremony only th is year it took p lace in lash ing ra in in front of a grandsta ndthat was empty save for a few hardy souls. It wasn 't th e decision itself tha t cr eated t~e co ~ trov.e rsy, bu t the m anner . m w~ l c h It wa s tak en . Sarron was lead m g th e ra ce wh ~n the red £lag went ou t, but the Mmolta Suzuki o f World Cha m p io ns H erve Moineau and Thierr y Cr ine a lo ng with 1986 World Champion Bruno Le Bih an was just three laps behind and catchi ng fast - arou nd eig h t seco nds a lap during th e rea lly bad rain. No t surprisingly, they resented the fact the race had been stopped withou t consu lta tio n. ..An yth in g was possible. " sai d Moineau, not tryin g too hard to concea l h is disap poin ment. , The organizers had fear ed bad weather when th e Bol wa s pushed ba ck two weeks in th e ca lendar to keep clea r of the two So u th Ameri can G Ps a nd a ll ow bot h the Sa rro n brothers to com pe te. The cancela tio n of the Arge ntinia n GP an d the no n a p peara nce o f a work s Yamah a Gen esis mad e the monsoon co nditions even mor e iro ni c. Even the sta rt o f the race was rain affected. A sho rt , sharp shower a n hour befor e the start dampen ed the track enoug h to ensure that most of .the field started o n full wets, th us cal ming down the normal m ini G P th a t takes p lace in th e fir st hour. Nevertheless, Sa rron and Moi neau swapped th e lead for the first two laps with th e Ka wa saki Fra nce entered wo rks ZX R-7 o f Pi erreEti enne 'Sa m in in close a tte nda nce ' followed by Engl ish G P man Roger Burnett on the seco nd Ro thmans H onda. T he se four, a lo ng with a 'Sw iss R C30 H onda o f th e ve ry experienced Whi te End ura nce Tea m ra pi d lybro ke clear of th e pack. T he racing line was cleared of ex cess wa ter very q uic kly , bu t, accordi ng to Domini que Sa rro n, only for a wid th of abo u t 20 inches. Get o ff line in one of Ri card 's fast and tech nical turns wh en conditions are like that and you fall off - ' as q uite a few of the p rivateers proved. Everyt hing appeared to be go ing to scri pt, Sarron's H onda, shared with Alex ' Vieira a nd Christo p he Bouheben as no rmal, was eas ing o u t a lead pursu ed by the World Ch amp io n 's Su zuki. T h ird p lace loo ked set to be hot co n test betw een th e two officia l ZXR -7 Kaw asakis , th e second ' Suz u ki a n d th e 'Secon d H o nda . Beh ind the works bik es, th e An gl o/ Australia n/ Swed ish Harris Yam ah a FZ of Mat O xley, Paul Lewis and Vesa Kultalah ti was six th a fter two hours, far hi gher tha n a bike o f its speed had any right to ,be. Pit -work second on ly to a few of the works . teams is one of the ir strengths. A bi gger surprise was the seven th place team two hou rs into th e race . T he DuHamels, father Yvon a nd sons Mario an d Migu el, on a French a RC 30 Honda were go ing fast, iooking a li ttle leery, but sta ying on. T heir p ro blem s wou ld come in the pits where slow wheel cha nges and messed-up fu el sto ps would p ush them ri gh t do wn the o rder. The Du Ha mels weren't the on ly Canadians in the race. T oni Sh arpless a nd Kathleen Cob urn teamed with Fren ch racer Veronique Parisot to mak e u p the Bars first a ll-girl tea m . Although their bike was an offi cial Sonau to entry a nd carr ied their usual Ga u lo ises sp onsors hip, the bike was not tha t tr ick - a kit ed Yam aha FZR rather tha n a Gen esis. Pri sot , wh o was Io ur.t h at the LeMans 24 H ours th is year, took the first ho ur but was the victim of a com ing together with H erve Moin eau whi le bein g ' lapped . T he Suzuki ma n cu t in a fter passing o n th e o u ts ide a n d sides wiped th e Yama ha. Parisot had to fini sh the first' sessio n with the left clip-on a ngled upwards ra ther than down. She was still seethi ng.. even a fter Moinea u a po logized. T he fact tha t Mo ineau was abo u t three bik e leng ths behind Dominque Sarro n when th e in ciden t happen ed may explain a few th ings . ' T he leading Ho nda 's on ly setbac k came five m in utes into second rider Alex Vieira's first sessio n. H e had to p it with a pu nctured fro n t tire, lett ing th eSuzuki back into th e lead . For the nex t five hours the lead changed with pit sto ps, b u t with the .Su zu ki ho ldi ng a n adva ntage. It wasn ' t until 9 o 'clock with the track now co mpletely dry that the Honda managed to put a co mple te la p betw een itself a nd th e Suzuki. T he Kawasaki o f Samin a nd the second works Honda were o n th e same la p as the Suzuki. T he fan s a nd com mentators sta rted spec u la ting on a rep ea t of the Sp a 24 Hours a month ago whi ch saw the World Ch ampi onship go to the Suzuki sq ua d wh en th ey beat th e works H onda by the as to u nd ing margin of just 42 seco nds. Could we be in for a repea t? Evid ence th a t the conditions were still difficult came from T eam MCN wh en Kultal a h ri, normally th e most reli abl e o f riders, crashed o u t at the end of the Mistral straigh t and bo th

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