Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

a challenge from Lawson by mainI didn't do much in the first three taining a five-second Jead. races, but I'm still second overall. With only five laps to go, it seemed Now we're back on tracks that Erv enough, anq that was enough for (Kanemoto) and I know well, and we Schwantz to relax his concentration, have the bike a bit better, so I need with dire consequences. to get a bit of momentum going In short, he lost the front wheel, now," said Lawson. As well as revising the front forks, he said they on a medium-speed right-hander before the chicane. He picked himhad also made new engine mounting brackets to brace the frame and revise self up, jumped the barrier, knelt the engine position. down and banged his head on the ground. One felt it was all he Christian Sarron was the last on deserved. "I was in la-la land," he the front row, again saying, "I prefer fast tracks," and suffering a hearty explained to his team. The race had started in familiar dose of Spanish Tummy (or Franco's Revenge). His Gauloises team had style, with Rainey moving into an a new fairing, with a smoother immediate lead, helped on this handlebar area and without the stock occasion by Chili, who was second, and holding up an impatient express Yamaha side-scoops. "But," said one of Lawson, Schwantz, Mackenzie of his team, "It's not yet hot enough and Sarron. for us to know if it improves the cooling or not." Schwantz got by on lap three, and immediately started closing up. By Spencer, back and apparently fit, lap five he was on Rainey's tail, and cut a second off his previous best time on lap six he was in front. in the last session to move into the By now, Lawson was also through, 1:49s. "The most important thing and putting a lot of distance between was stiffening up the back suspenhimself and his delayed pursuers. At sion, that stopped it wallowing first, he was losing ground on the coming out of the turns. I could get the power on so much harder that leaders, but he halted the delay on lap nine, and gradually started I could pull another gear on the short straights," said the three-time World whittling at a gap of about five seconds. Champion. He was looking good, He'd halved it when Rainey started sliding the bike with customary' aplomb, if without his customary losing touch with Schwantz, and he _ gradually fell back into the Honda's superior speed. clutches by haH-distance. Lawson Taira, riding hard, was next to tailed him for two laps, then him on the grid, but a doubtful pounced at the end of the pit straight, starter after a final-session crash that getting a better drive out of the saw. his bike unnecessarily smothered preceding hairpin. It was the same in fire entinguisher foam and his place he'd passed him last year. shoulder dislocated. Not for the first "It was a matter of bike set-up," time, however, and his typically said Rainey. "Everyone seems to run sanguine Japanese team hoped he into tire and suspension trouble here, would be race-fit after the errant joint and Eddie's bike was better than had been quickly popped back into mine." place. Lego man. Although he quite easily held Next to l1im, Chili was having a Rainey at bay, with the gap growing hard time not with his Pirellis, but to 10 seconds at the finish, Lawson with the Honda. "The tires aren't the could do nothing about Schwanu, problem," Pirelli man Peter Ingley . a steady five seconds in front, and opined. "The bike doesn't want to was minding second place when he 'turn, he has to fight it to get it round, came round a bend to see a cloud and he's losing corner speed." of dust and the Suzuki lying on its Mamola's ninth, on the back end side. of row two, was an improvement for "I could see it was Kevin's bike, the Cagiva rider. A stop-gap, while and I could hardly believe my luck," they await a new frame, was a he said. "the win may have been a movable swing-arm pivot, to cut gift - but I'll take it. I feel like I'm wheelspin by giving the drive chain rolling again. The bike's still not 100 downforce under acceleration, and at percent, but it's getting there. I'm least partially successful. ready to fight for the title." He could Haslam l~d row three, riding not help but crow: "You have to stay visibly harder than so far this year. up to win races, and we stayed up." "I don't feel 100 percent yet, but I'm ; It was a sentiment echoed by every getting there," he confirmed. His I other successful rider, and must also brush with Rainey had cost him a I have been repeated many times by better lap time, he believed. "I ~as Schwantz's conscience. catching up with Lawson," Haslam Rainey was happy with his own pointed out. performance, less so with that of the Doohan was II th, seeming a Ii tde ' bike, though he tactfully refrained subdued, and not sliding the bike as I from blaming the tires or indeed any he has done. His wounded hand had I other particular area. "I went as fast improved - it still looked like' as the bike will go, and when they something out of a horror-film go by, you have to let them go. I'd special effects department, but the rather win, but second's better than patches of antiseptic ointment were I third. I'm still leading the chamshrinking. Shrugging off the pain, : pionship," said Rainey. ' but admitting that he didn't have the . Mackenzie's first rostrum place on strength he wanted on the handlebthe Yamaha was also lucky, but he'd ars, and was still riding with a deserved it. "It's like I said - I'm shortened clutch lever. feeling comfortable, and apart from Dominique Sarron was 12th, then getting held up by Chili at the start, Valesi's '88 Yamaha, with Gentile the race went really well," he said. completing row three, four-lOths' "I've got to keep doing my best, and faster than Simon Buckmaster's maybe Michelin will decide to help fastest Honda triple. Behind him, me with better tires." And of beating Massimo Broccoli rode a second Spencer, on the good rubber? "We Cagiva, heading a horde of Hondas, don't have any in-team World the odd Suzuki, and one ancient Championship... TZ500 Yamaha, with Marco Papa's Sarron's fourth was the best he lone Paton 19th. could do on wobbly tires and a wobbly tummy. He'd pressed Mack500cc Race enzie as best he could, but "I lost Schwantz said he could win the 30touch with Niall in the backmarkers, lap, 78.6-mile race, and he was and I couldn't catch him again. He almost right. He'd successfully was riding really well." pegged fast-starter Rainey hack, then Spencer was U seconds hack, fifth ran away from him, then fought off . after a poor start, lOth away. It nearly Rainey's Yamaha was again fitted with a on-board computer system during practice for the GP; it was on this bike that he set his fast time. California Wayne Rainey (left) finished second and still leads the championship; he celebrates with Lawson (center) and Mackenzie. got a lot worse. Doohan was past when the Australian lost the front wheel, almost recovered, then ran onto the grass. This lengthy incident almost carried Freddie off with him. "For the first time all year, I got lucky," said Freddie. "I didn't crash." Doohan, asked to explain, said, "I just fell ofL" Chili was next, after a dramatic race. He'd been caught and passed by Haslam and Spencer and the trio ran in formation for a while. Then a blotch of backmarkers blocked Haslam, and both the others went by. He went straight to work on Chili, moving alongside to outbrake him at the pit hairpin. But Chili let his brakes o£(, and Haslam had that familiar feeling as yet another rider came up inside him, front wheel locking and sliding, rear wheel in the air. By a superhuman effort, Chili managed not to fall, but by that time both were on the grass and heading for the sand trap. Both rode straight through it - Chili making the faster exi t, and he rejoined the race withou t losing a place. Haslam also got back on, but some way behind, to finish seventh. Mamola had been alone some way in arrears of this group, before misfortune struck. "The bike was a lot better; I could keep the pace," he said. "Then the ignition rotor came loose - it wasn't nobody's fault, just one of those things." Taira secured eighth after a brave ride. He'd been apparently beaten by. Valesi and Dominique Sanon, but was saving his fight until the closing stages and they finished Taira, Sarron, Valesi. Massimo Broccoli, on the second Cagiva, was lIth, then came Gentile's Fior, Buckmaster's top Honda triple, Spanish rider Juan Mella, with Irish privateer Eddie Laycock claiming the last point. . It was a lucky win for Eddie, but the best thing that could have happened to keep interest in ,the championship alive. Four races have now had four different winners, and Rainey's lead has been cut to 10 points, preventing any early runaway victory for the fast and consistent Californian. And now he has another of the same breed on his tail. 250cc Practice In the 250cc class at least things reverted more to familiarity ... which is to say that Juan Garriga was back on the boil, but just in the underdog position. Luca Cadalora was the leader, however narrowly, in every session, and ended up on pole and at the head of the three works V-twin Yamahas by a lOth of a second. Garriga secured a close second, both riders recording mid I :50 times that would have qualified them on the second row of the 500 grid. . Garriga was suffering a dose of flu, though. If he took the medicine, he felt groggy; if he didn't take it, ill. "It's not an excuse," he said, "but it doesn't help." Ruggia was third-fastest, completing the works Yamaha phalanx, but six-10ths down and somewhat .subdued after another practice crash 23

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