Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

Wayne Rainey led an American sweep of the second 500cc U.S. Grand Prix at Laguna Seca RaC8WllY. Australian's Kevin Magee (51 and Wayne Gardner (11 were both injured in the GP. Magee, however, finished fourth before being injured. World Championship Road Race Series: .Round 3 Rainey dominates crash-marred U.S. GP By Paul Carruthers Photos by Henny Ray Abrams MONTEREY, CA, APRIL 16 Team Lucky Strike Roberts' Wayne Rainey scored a runaway, wire-to-wire win in the 500cc United States Grand Prix, a race that was marred by injuries resulting from a 6 cool-off lap collision involving Cabin Honda's Bubba I mate Kevin Magee. Shobert and Rainey's team- Rainey led an American sweep of the top three at Laguna Seca International Raceway, winning by almost seven seconds over Team Pepsi Suzuki's Kevin Scbwantz and Rothmans Honda's Eddie Lawson, who finished third, some 20 seconds behind Rainey. The 28-year-old Californian's win also extended his World Championship point standings lead to 13 points over Lawson, 54-41. . The event, however, was marred on the cool-off lap. The incident began when founh-place finisher Magee ran out of gas and slowed heading up the hill towards turn six. Shobert, who finished ninth, was congratulating Lawson when he rammed the slowing Magee from behind. Shobert suffered head injuries and was transported via helicopter to the San Jose Medical Center for treatment. The popular Texan was listed in stable but serious condition on Monday morning after an operation to remove pressure from the brain. Magee, meanwhile, suffered a broken left ankle and underwent surgery in San Francisco on Sunday night. Rothmans Honda's Wayne Gardner was also injured in the GP, breaking his left tibia (lower leg) in two places when he crashed in tum six while running third. At presstime Gardner was expected to be flown to London for an operation. The crashes left a dark cloud over the event and consequently Rainey's second career GP victory in front of . a crowd estimated as being between· 40,000 and 55.000 fans. "The only thing that matters right now is Bubba and Kevin," Raiiley said in a post-race I,>ress conference. "It's hard to take VICtory right now when your friends are hurt." Marlboro Yamaha's Niall Mackenzie finished fifth, coming through from a bad beginning when his Yamaha suddenly stopped before refiring. Sixth place went to Gauloises Yamaha's Christian Sarron after racing with Mackenzie for most of the 40-lap race. HB Honda's PierFrancesco Chili, Rothmans Honda's Michael Doohan, Shobert and EU's Dominique Sarron rounded out the top 10. What about Marlboro Yamaha's Freddie Spencer? The three-time World Champion called in sick on Sunday morning, staying in his motel room with an ear infection while the others did battle. Rainey, like Magee, had fuel consumption problems with his Yamaha. The fast qUaJifier actually ended up coastin~ to the victory in which he averaged 89.425 mph. "It started surging on the last lap," Rainey said. "They told me not to do the sighting lap (to conserve fuel), but I wanted to buff out the new tire. " The domination by Americans in their home GP was started Sunday morning by John Kocinski and Jimmy Filice. The two Modesto, California, residents dominated the 250cc GP with Yamaha-mounted Kocinski passing Honda-mounted Filice on the II th lap and going on to win his second career GP. Filice, last year's winner, held on to finish second with Marlboro Yamaha's Luca Cadalora finishing third. Defending World Champion Sito Pons finished fourth on the Campsa Honda. Fellow Spaniard Carlos Cardus rode his Team Repsol Honda to fifth place with Lucky Strike Honda's Jacques Cornu sixth, Gauloises Yamaha's J.P. Ruggia seventh, HB Honda's Reinhold Roth eighth, HB's Loris Reggiani ninth and HRC's Masahiro Shimizu 10th. Cadalora picked up two points on Pons in the race for the championship, but the Spaniard still leads the Italian by five points after three rounds, 50-45. The first-ever sidecar GP held outside of Europe took place at Laguna Seca with the Briush team of Steve Webster and Tony Hewitt taking the win on their LCR The defending World Champions topped Alain Michel and Jean-Marc Frese. After last year's complaints about circuit safety and lack of paddock facilities, the majority of the riders seemed pleased with what SCRAMP (Sports Car Racing Association of the Monterey Peninsula) had accomplished. Last year the riders asked for five things: a paddock restaurant; new asphalt on the old section of the track, more runoff areas; compressed air in the paddock and permanent restroom facilities. All the requests were fuUilled. The organization of the event, however, still came under fire. especially from the worldwide media in attendance. Paul Fowler of the London Daily Star told the Monterey Herald. "The AMA is living up to its ·reputation. This is the worst-organized Grand Prix I've ever seen." The main problem was an overcrowded press room, late arriving results and qualifying times written in pen and ink. 500cc Qualifying Results weren't the only thing that showed up late for the event. The arriving bikes and spare parts from the previous week's Australian GP didn't arrive by Wednesday as scheduled (a problem caused by airline strikes in Australia, but provoked by having a GP on a different continent only days later), forcing the cancellation of Thursday's free practice sessions for all but the sidecars, who were competing in their first race of the season. Meeting IRTA (International Racing Teams Association) teams then decided in fairness to cut one timed session from Friday's program. The sessions" however, were extended from the usual 40 minutes to an hour apiece. Team Lucky Strike Roberts team owner Kenny Roberts felt his Dunlop-fitted team would suffer more than the rest because of this. "It hurts us more than it hurts them," he said. "They can arrive at a race tire faster because they (Michelin) have more guys trying them. But we could find something that works right away." That seemed to be the case as Rainey was fastest in all three

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