Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

But if it was unfamiliar to him, Schwantz didn 't show it. He' was fastest in th e fir st session, th en bettered it in th e third and fourth sessio ns to end up o n the pole with a tim e of 2:02.52 (123.577 mph). Not only was he th e quickest, but he looked it also, co nsiste ntly sliding o u t of the first turn, a th ird- gear , right-hander leading onto the first long stra ightaway and again in th e last corne r com ing o nto th e front straight. H is top speed of 178.56 mph was a littl e down o n Doohan 's 186 mph, which pro ved to be the fastest, ye t Sch wa ntz acc ele ra ted h arder reach in g the top soo ner a nd th us th e qui ck er tim es. G ear in g for th e straigh tawa ys o n th e lon g thu mb sha ped Hockenheimring was crucia l and Sch wantz was nearl y di al ed in from th e start. Hi s tim es were so co nsis ten t, in fact, that he used th e final sessio n o n Sa turday to run hi s race setup in a sim u lated race. " In the last session I did 15 la ps before I had to come in ·for gas and th ey were all in th e low to mid 2:03s," the T exan said . " T he last lap was a 2:02.8. I think we can race in th e low 2:03s. " We were tryin g to get the bik e off th e corn ers a little better and wit h o ur bottom end we ca n ge t in th e slips tream," he cont inued. " If we co uld n' t get off th e corner and get in th e slips trea m we wouldn 't be in as good sha pe. It slides a lo t o ut of o ne and th e last corn er, but everywhere else it's pr ett y good. It 's go ing to be a to ug h race; qualifying was .very close . I think the big question with Wayne (Rainey) is if hi s tires will last the who le race." Rainey was just two- tenths behind S chwantz, 2:02 .82 to Schwa ntz' 2:02.62, after the four sessio ns, bu t he still needed a littl e more tim e to sort o u t hi s tires. " We tried eigh t to 10 rear s, some wer e new a nd so me we'd tested before, but we have two more rear s to test in th e mornin g warm-up," Rainey sai d. He'd a lso decided o n using th e 16-in ch front tire because " it goes over th e bumps better. Bu t it needs a little more grip. We're stuc k wi th our front tire. It 's th e best th e bik e's felt all year. It 's running fast a nd handling well. " Because he had so ma ny choices with tir es he was "easing into it," he said. "Those guys get goi ng better quicker. " Third fast est went to Law son (2:02.91, 123.285 mp h), less th an a .10 seco nd slower th an Rain ey. Lawson and team ow ne r/cre w ch ief Erv Kan ernoro had requested revisions in th e fram e a fter th e Spanish Grand Prix in J erez at th e end of April a nd the revised frame was deli vered o n th e Wedn esday before Fri da y's q ua lifying. The new chassis a p pea rs mu ch bigger and Kan em oto said it was stro nger a nd mo re heavil y braced, ali houg h a lso heavier. ' H e said they'd req ues ted it to cure a problem with the frame flexin g and was willing to take th e trade-off in weigh t. He 'also said they'd received some new engi nes a nd engine parts, a nd wo u ld be grafting th e new parts o n to th e ' existing engine .unt il th ey co uld get mor e test tim e with th e new engine. In a bid to save weight, they were using a compos ite carbon fiber wh eel in front. T hey used a mag wh eel o n the rear becau se the Carbon-fiber rear isn't ready yet. In th e past Law son had co mp lained that the Hondas had a top speed advant age and he was asked how it felt to now have that adva ntag e on hi s side. '"" "We're o kay on top speed," he said. " We knew Suzuki would be tough. It 's that combination. My biggest problem is suspension . Get- Doohan (27) finished third after Christ ian Sarron (4) ran out of gas late in the race, Chili (9 ) ended up fourth . ting it right to where it' s com fortabl e. We're pretty close. The last sessio n I had a proble m wi th slower riders. Not to make excuses, but every la p I go t sto p ped . Loo king at o ur sp lit times we're one of the fastest th rough the inf ield." U nlike Sch wantz, La wson didn 't think th e pace would be th at qui ck. " Kevin 's go ing around th e co rne rs a little too fast," he said. " He 'll have to slow down." Fourth fastest was Sona u to Gauloi ses Blondes' Christ ian Sa rro n wi th a clockin g of 2:03.46. Sarro n felt h is en gi nes weren 't as strong as th e o the r factory mach ines and he was also trying to so rt o ut the " good" Micheli ns whic h he on ly recentl y began receivin g along wi th a han dful of th e ot her top riders. "S ince the beginning of prac tice we'v e had troubl e with th e engine ," th e Frenchman expla ined. " Yesterda y mo rn ing it was okay, th en in th e a fternoon it was no good. Th is morning it was the same , if not worse, and in th e afternoon today it was good at the begin n in g then lost pow er. To be hon est, basicall y I ca n 't follow the facto ry bikes. It's not so m uch top speed as acceleration. T he time it takes to reach top speed is almost mo re impor tant. Sometimes my bi ke wo u ld rev oka y and so metim es it falls off when it shi fts. I cou ld never ma ke o ne good lap and m y o ther bike was j ust very slow ." In his tire choice, Sarron sai d th at he was " listen ing to wh at they tell me. I get th e good tires for th e race and o ne for pr actice. I haven 't been able to try the 16-in ch front so it may not be better. " Rain ey was lean ing towards th e 16 a fter practice with Law son a n d Sch wan tz goin g for th e l7 s. The top four riders were all using the carbon brakes with heat-retaining sh ield s. Filling o ut th e front row was th e Itali an GP winner Pier-Francesco Chil i on th e Pirelli-shod HB H onda, who turned his best tim e of 2:03.72 in th e th ird sessio n . It .was even bett er th an he'd predicted after hi s 2:06.27 of the seco nd sessio n. " We still hav e to test som e things a nd we're still ha ving a few minor Rainey (center) celebrates his second GP w in of the season w ith Lawson (left) and Doohan . It was Dooh an's first-ever rostrum placing. problem s with th e engi ne, bu t it 's ge tti ng better all the time ," he said. " I'm sure that I' ll be a ble to im prove o n 2:06. 27 by o ne -a n d -a -ha lf seconds." After the final session he said it was still improving and th at he'd tried five or six rear tir es, bu t had o n ly one front that he co uld use for the race. Doo han was sixth fastest, o n the second row , wit h a time of 2:03.86 in th e fina l session and he admi tted tha t the free practice session had do ne him some good . " I think it helped get th e bi ke set up," the Australia n sai d. " It gave me con fidence to &et on the trac k. It was H on da 's decision to run. If H onda said ride it, I' ll ride it. " I was pr etty happy qualifyin g sixth, but I was sixt h at Suzuka and I didn 't fin ish th e race. T here 's o nly o ne fast. corne r down th e back and I have th e fastest bik e at 300 ks through th ere;" he added. Next to Doo han o n the gri d was Marlbo ro Yam aha Agostini's Ni all Mackenz ie, who impro ved ever y sessio n to a best of 2:04.11 in th e final sessio n. Mackenzie o nly did a tot al of 38 laps for th e four 40-m in u te sessions because h e was havin g problem s with bo th his machin es. " I had o ne good engine and o ne good chassis," he began. " T he good engine was in the bad chassis and the bad engine was in th e good chassis. Th is morning I was gearing it sho rte r because I was n 't h itting peak revs. O n on e of th e bik es th e ca rbs were okay, o n the o ther the y weren't ." Despite not having practiced o n it, Mack en zie wa s gi ven a " ~ oo d " Mich elin rear for the first li me at Misano and said it was clearly better th an any th ing he'd ever ridden o n. H e said after th e fin al session th at he didn' t kn o w if he wo u ld ge t one for th e race. -Next to Mackenzie on the second row was Sch wan tz' teammate Ron H aslam . H aslam hadn 't been getting th e results expected of him after two seasons o n th e Elf team and he felt tha t he was j us t getting comfo rta ble with the Suzuki. " It 's co mp le tel y different th an a ny t hi n g I 've eve r r idden ," th e En gli shman said . " I'm progressing a bit eac h race, but it's taking me a littl e bit longer th an I thought. It 's 21

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