Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

Rainey and Roberts agreed that the 500cc GP should not be held. , Italian Pier-Francesco Chili (9) won 'his home country's Grand Prix after the top riders boycotted the restart. World Championship Road Race Series: Round 5 Chili 'wins his first GP in Italian fiasco By Michael Scott Photos by Patrick Gosling MISANO, ITALY, MAY 14 Sunday's Italian Grand Prix, won after two false starts _and.a mass works-rider boycott by strike-breaking Pier-Francesco Chili and his HB Honda, was a triumph for rider power ... but a travesty for· the professionalism of GP ra in . e.g: Imtl~lly delayed .for an. hour by the nders, when lIght ram wet t':te '.l0torIously sltppery Mlsa~o CUCUIt, the race eventually began In the dry, bu t amid the ominous rumblingofthunder. Th~n afterf~ur laps ram spots began agam, and WIth one accord the enure held slowed and puJled mto the pItS, pelted on the way. WIth bottles and cans by angry ItalIan fans. .The first leg~ narrowly, led by Te':lm Lucky StrIke, Robert.s, WaY'.le Ramey from PepsI-SuzukI s ~e~m Schwantz and French~an Chnsuan Sarron on the Gau~01ses Yamaha counted to~ards the final resul~s, but when the held assembled agam, m steady ~ain, it was withol;lt. all the works nders except for ChIlI. There were just 13 on.the grid, w.hile the arguments conunued late mto the stormy night in the pits and the motorhomes in the paddock. Poor Chili, racing at home, had tried to please his team and the fans instead of the other riders, but ended up pleasing no-one - for most of the by now sodden 75,000 spectators left in dis~ust. Already they had been kept waiung for two hours, and had slow-clapped the officials and booed the riders throughou t the long afternoon. This semblance of a race, with Chili holding Michael Rudroff (Honda NS) at bay, and the depleted field straggling behind, was no compensation for their legitimate outrage. Si,mon Buckmaster rode a Honda NS to third with Marco Gentile fourth on his spluttering Fior. "It's very unfortunate, but it was something that had to happen," said World Champion Eddie Lawson. '~We shouldn't have come here in the· fiTSt pla~~. T.he track's not good enough. HIs senuments were echoed by all except Chllt, who saId on the rostr\lm: "It's a disgrace for motorcycle racing. If peopJe come here and practice, they should race." Earlier the crowd had been disappointed to see Loris Reggiani (HB Honda) pull out of the 250cc event before the start, injured in a practice spill; then Luca Cadalora (Marlboro Yamaha) crashed out of the race on the first lap. The remaining race was exciting, though, narrowly won by Campsa Honda's defending World Champion Sito Pons from jean-Phillipe Ruggia (Gauloises Yamaha) in a replay of their Australian duel, w.ith jacques Cornu (Lucky StrIke Honda) third. Ducados Yamaha's juan Garnga had been challenging for the lead when he was brought down by a backmarker. Ezio Gianola and his Honda took a narrow victory in Saturday's 125cc race from Dutchman Hans Spaan, also Honda-mounted, after defending champion jorge Martinez's Derbi had failed yet again. But Martinez did win the 80cc race on Saturday, the formerly invincible Spaniard's first victory of the season. He topped Garbriele Gnani in taking the win. After the race, feelings were running high, with the works riders. defending their decision to pull out. "None of us are scared to race in the rain," said Lawson. "It's just that this track is unrideable in the wet." If so, the real question was: "Why did you come here in the first place?" "We shouldn't have," admitted Lawson; while former triple champion and Lucky Strike team owner Kenny Roberts said: "We have to take the blame ourselves." But Randy Mamola, along with several others, articulated the single principle that must sweep all other considerations aside. "Safety is the most important thing, and in the wet this track isn't safe for racing. Simon Buckmaster's life is just as important as mine. Nobody should have raced." The FIM jury met late into the night, while angry privateers waited for their unusually high prizemoney payout, and in the end imposed a 2000 Swiss Francs fine on all the mutineers except for Mamola (he was exempt, because he alone had formally informed the Clerk of the Course of his decision). It was a day that stripped away the "'veneer of professionalism in racing to reveal a bunch of bickering, bungling, big-money amateurs - a label that fits the governing body as well as the riders. The repercussions of this shameful day in May are far from finished. 500cc Practice The GP regulars' return to Misano, after an absence of more than 18 months, was not entirely joyful. The circuit is short and tight (actually, at 2.17 miles, shorter than the' FIM minimum), patchily resurfaced,. with a spot where a support for a spectator footbridge is uncomfortably close to the run-off area; there's also an unfortunate placement of pit entry and exit roads that put slow traffic right on the racing line. People are used to these things, and to Misano's reliably slippery surface, all the worse in cool early summer temperatures - but it was a surprise to find that the final bends, a tricky double left with a sharply reducing radius, followed by a flick right, had been ·recentJy ground down to improve the surface, which, had instead left it dusty and stony, and apparently breaking up. "It's like moon dust," said Rainey. "You get rocked if you - are following anyone there, and if you get off lirIe you scoot across half the track before you can get it back;" while Mackenzie actually did faJl there, smilingly and not inaccurately suggesting: "It's because I'm leaning it over further than anyone else." Mamola also crashed, at another place, as did Roche (riding the third Cagiva), and a number of other lesser lights. But nobody did as good a job as Freddie Spencer, whose ill-starred comeback, was now irIterrupted by a record three crashes. Two were in Thursday's untimed practice, one because a faulty clutch suddenly reengaged at speed after a pLug chop, with the bike in a low gear as Freddie sought neutral; the other simply because he ran onto the grass, at a relatively low speed. The third, on Friday, was more spectacular: a vicious high-sider on cold tires that left him stunned, and made it seem possible he might elect not'to race. The fast men went on, regardJess of his continuing misfortunes. Business as usual, with one significant difference: this time Schwantz was way ahead from the very start of practice, and nobody came close to challenging. Indeed, he set his best time, the only one inside 1:18 and the first 100 mph lap of Misano, in the second session, and then, while others scrabbled to catch up, the Texan had the luxury of being abJe to test tires over a string of continuous fast laps, 'with the bike full of petrol, to simulate race conditions. "I think my advantage is that the Suzuki steers so well," he said. "In the fourth session, I was able to string' 25 laps together in the low 18s, with high 17s when I couJd get a clear run, and there shouldn't be a problem keeping that up over race distance." He had tested here the previous Saturday, when he'd established that Michelin's. range of 16inchers was too limited to be of practical value yet. Rainey led the pursuit at first, then Lawson eased into the frame, graduaJly looking more dangerous as the season matures and his inj uries recede. Bis best was also in session two, but was more than .7 ~Iower than Schwantz, although he said later: "I only really had one lap free from traffic. The slow riders are real bad here." Maybe so, but thefastones worried him more. "Schwantz and Rainey are going to b~ tough," he said; adding the voice of experience. "It's a long race, 36 laps around here. Everyone's gonna have tire trouble by the end of it." But he wasn't prepared to ride around and wait for Schwantz to fall off as he did at jerez, and added. "It's way too early in the season to be playing safe. I'll give it II 0 percent." Third went to Pier-Francesco Chili, on the Pirelli-shod HB 500cc Honda, to the delight of the sparse practice crowd (most of whom seemed to have climbed the fence to be inside the paddock). He'd been fifth untiJ the last session, when he I managed to hook on Lo Schwantz and cut aJmost a second off his previous best. He'd been tire testing here before, on the continually improving Pirellis, "But I never went that fast then," he said. This pushed Rainey to fourth, his lowest qualifying ,position of the year. He was more worried about his bike. "We've chased that chassis round the map, trying to get rid of some front-end patter," he said. "We've c!Ianged the wheelbase, the forks, the suspension - everything." Would he make more changes? "I don't know what else -l can do." Last on the front row was Christian Sarron, who was happy enough to get this race over with and move

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