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Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/127201
such a problem, and today my concussion is quite better." Mackenzie led row two, two hundredths slower. Now walking with out a limp, and back with his normal seat height, he said his knee injury was now 95 percent better. "I can get my toe on the footrest, which helps a lo t," he said, "Saves on boots too ." He had Frankie Chili alongside him, the Italian burning with anger at his continuing off-hand treatment from o ther riders, the result of him riding in Misano when the others pulled out. They , didn't invite him to a riders ' meeting during practice, and he was spitting fire by race day. He had Doohari's Honda alongside. Like Lawson, the Australian was working hard with steering geometry changes to get th e bik e to turn better. Had he succeeded? He gave a typi cally laconic comment: " It gets better every practice session, but only by a bee's dick." Spencer occupied the far end of row two, and in trouble again. This time, his problem was firstly a dose of gastro-enteritis he'd picked up back home in Shreveport between races; and secondly, that Marlboro Yamaha team owner Giacomo Agos-, tini would dearly like to find an excuse to sack him. Thus Freddie didn 't appear for session three, but came-out again for session four after part two of his problem became clear to him. Gardner led row three, just seven hundredths slower, and also running . rather fewer laps than the others . H is leg was still in a p las ter cast, which would protect it if he crashed, but was another psychological reminder of his con dition. "I can accelerate out of the' corners okay. ibut I just can't brake as hard as the others - they're ' going 50 meters deeper," he said. .Alongside hi m, McElnea was still bat tling with the handlin~ of his exBubba Shobert '88 Cabin-Honda, and falling on Saturday at low speed. At leas t the relative GP veteran managed to qualify nearl y two tenths better than Merke l, also riding a '88 NSR, in HB livery; and another to fall at ' the same place in the last corner. Both were ahead of Randy Mamola, who stopped twice in practice out on the track, with his Cagiva breaking reed valves. "We're tryin g all sorts of different re eds 'here . . . th e bik e is the fastest ever. The only trouble is that it's a major engine strip to change the reeds. The still-injured Dominique Sarron would have been alo ngside, but withdrew after the third session. This handed th e pl ace to his temporary teammate, co u n tr ym a n Adri en Morillas, making a 500-Class debut on the EIf works H onda. Another French GP debutante was 16thWo rld Endurance Champion Thierry Crine on a grate-and-favor outing on an '88 RGV Suzuki. With blue skies and on ly a few very - high clouds, everyo ne was hoping for a dry Le Mans this tim e, to avoid the problems of Spa and Misano. 500cc Race T he only moisture problems on race day consisted of sweat running into the riders' eyes. It was blazing hot, and th e track temperature uncomfortably warm for regular slick tires . Chili blazed away from the line, but Rainey soon got past for his usual early sprint, with Lawson in . tow. Chili was now third, holding up the ot her front-row men . Schwan tz was boxed-in in seventh. Rainey's lead lasted four laps, and then Lawson found a way past him. By now, Schwantz had forced his way to third, and he was closing on the leaders with Magee sticking to his rear wheel. Then Ma ee made h is Kevin Magee (51 and Christian Sarron (41 battled ferociously for fourth with Sarron getting the nod. first slip, losing the rear on the last and tightest bends. H e had a brief excursion into the dirt, while Chili. went by wi th Sarron on his tail. This left a three-man battle for the lead, and suddenly th e order started changing as they ran into slower traffic, with Rainey at first ge tting the best of it and taking over for five . more la ps, only to lose the lead to an opportunistic Schwantz, using a backmarker to pass Lawson and Rainey in one go. The Texan led for three laps, with Lawson mov ing past Rainey into second. Next time round, Rainey had lost almost two seconds on- th e leaders, because of a most unexpected problem . " I got held up bad by a backmarker, and when I pushed to make up ground, my brakes faded right awa y. That only lasted a la p , then th ey cam e back, bu t I was out of touch by then. " Since he was using th e highl y ra ted AP·Lockh eed carbon brakes, as was Schwantz, bu t not Lawson, this was a demonstration th at n ew eq u i p men t so me ti mes su ffers teething tro ubl es. Laws on read th e traffic better and passed Schwantz with 12 laps left. From then until th e end, and in sp ite of fierce pressure from th e Suzuki (Sch want z set th e fastest lap on lap 27), Lawson clu ng on to th e lead. It was his best ra ce of th e year , and hi s best finish - victory fair and square. " We needed that," lie said afterwards. " My biggest adva nt age was tha t my bike was so fast. Erv (Kane rno to) did a real gre at job." Schwantz had to be satisfied with second, although he never gave up attacking, getting more and mo re vora cious towards the end, but also getting the worst of a back marker a t the start of the final lap. "T ha t didn 't really make too much difference," he said. " I kn ew I'd hav e to do it all under braking at the end of the lap." And indeed he tried. Instead o f getting past, he had a major slide, . and a narrow escape from yet another last-lap crash; recovering brillian tly to cross the line less than a second adrift. Third- placed Ra in ey had dropped to 15 seconds behind at th e finish. • The battle for fourth was scarcely less dramatic. Sarron had taken over from Chili on la p five, with th e Italian already sliding a lot, but Magee was coming back and was ahead by lap 10. Sarron went with h im then had to take to the dirt It was this close at the finish with Lawso n nipping Kevin Schwantz in the 500cc GP; Lawson is closing in on championship-leade r Rainey. I letting Ch ili through again on lap 13. Graduall y he closed up aga in o n th e Ita lian, and passed him decisivel y o n lap 19. Now Magee had another slide, thi s time losing th e front o n the fast righ t aft er the pits, at th e braking point for th e ch icane . H e'd been fa st th rough tha t sectio n, but now felt obliged to ease off. It was enough for Sarron to give the enthusiastic bicentennia l Fren ch cro wd wh at th ey were sho u ting for, and he closed up remo rselessly, fin all y g etting past with six laps left. Magee mad e a fin a l attempt in the la st bends, a n d em u la ted Schwantz's antics, finish ing seven tenths behind th e fourthp laced Sarron . Chili confounded th e crit ics and didn 't slid e off, finish ing a so mewha t distant sixth. Doohan h ad been circu la ti n g steadily a ll th e while, but was slowing as Mackenzie sped up, the Scotsman making a late race recovery from an early race scare. "I lo st th e fro n t into the second chicane early on. We made some chassis changes to move the weight forw ard, and that must have been why ," he sai d. ·" 1 cou ldn' t trust the front end after th at , but towards .th e end I got my confidence back. " With lO la s left he quickl y ca ug ht and passed Doohan , and was almos t six seconds clea r a t th e flag . . McEln ea was n inth, tro ubled all race -lo ng with juddering brakes, as well as a recurrence earl y on of his wrist trouble, no t to mention an irritating difficulty in di sposing of 10th-placed Morill as. . Mamola was l l th, lapped in th e closing stages, but well clear of Crine in 12th. Valesi was a distant 13th , Simon Buckmaster a way back in 14th, but still well clear of 15thplaced Fabio Bili otti. There were two significant nonfinish ers. The first to retire was Sp encer, who mad e a good start and was fifth at the end of lap one, onl y to slow drama tically orice again , and pull in after three laps, too nauseous to continue. The second was Wayne Gardner, who was riding hard in ninth place, having passed . Morillas and McEInea, and goin!? aft er Mackenzie. The gritty Australian survived on e big slide th a t threw h im ou t of th e saddle, th en lost it in a big way halfa- lap lat er. H e was thrown high in th e air, and landed on his shou lder. Merkel also retired with machine trouble after six laps. Raine maintained a shrunken