Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

Wayne Rainey (3 1 leads Edd ie Lawson (1 1 Fredd ie Spencer (191 P.F . Ch ili and the rest of the French 500cc pack. . . World Cham~ionshi~ Road Race Series: Round 11 Lawson's.the King in French Grand Prix By Michael Scott Photos by Patrick Gosling Two hundred years ago, a chain of events began that ended with th e beheadin g of the French king. Eddie L awson 's vic tory in last weeken d's French G rand Prix at the n ewlook Le Mans " Buga tti" short . . . I h f C Ircu it !'1 a y ~lg.na t e start 0 so me th m g sl~t1ar. . The defendmg champion's 10 first fair -and-square victory thi s year is the sta rt of a new phase in the titl e battle, with five ro u nds remain in!?, a nd fello w Ca lifornian Wayn e Rainey's lead sudden ly looking far from safe. For Rothrnans H onda mounted La wson qualifi ed o n pole; th en not o nly fought off 500 fast man Kevin Schwa nu' Pepsi Suzuki, but also left World Championsh ip leader" Rainey's L ucky Strike Yamaha trail in g in thi rd p lace with brak e tro uble. . For the first ti me all year, th e defen di ng champion looked like a wi n ner a ll wee ke n d lon g . T he Frenc h Revol ution Bicentennial G P, ma rked by a rash of tri- color rose ttes and even a few marsh al s in gu illotine o pe rators headgear, saw L aw son leap off th e tumbril a nd reach o ut a hand tow ard hi s fourth World titl e. Fou rth went to Christian Sarro n's Ga ulo ises Yama ha , the Fren ch man defea tin g Kevin Ma gee's Lu ck y Strike YZR a fter th e Au st rali an survived two scary mom ents; whi le a n an gr y Pier-Francesco Ch ili bl a tantl y sn u bbed by th e othe r riders - slithered arou nd o n h is Pirell is to an i mpressive sixt h , keepi ng his H B Honda well a head o f Nia l l Ma cke nzie's Marlb oro Yamaha , Michael Doohan 's Ro th mans Ho nda , a nd Rob McEln ea 's 'SS-model Cabi n Honda. T~ere . were s?me illustri ou s Gl;sualties - Freddie Spe ncer pulled In after three laps, stricken with a severe gas tric infecti on; a nd World Supe rbik e Ch ampion Fred Merkel's 'SS HB Honda lasted on ly six laps before succu mbing to engine problem s. But the wor st lu ck went to th e recu pera ting Wayn e Gardn er, wh o th rew hi s practi ce cau tio n o ut the window o nce the race began, a nd had charged thro ug h to nin th p lace wh en his Rothmans H onda n icked h im viciously o ver th e hi gh side in a spec tac ular cras h. Hed id not da mage his half-heal ed brok en leg, still in a lightweigh t plas ter cas t; but he did bang h is shoulder and graze his arm, a nd infl icted possibly more serious inj uri es o n h is confidence. A massively popular victory in a rather processional bu t very ten se 250cc race went to Carlos Ca rdus, th e 29-year- old Spa niard's firs t GP win , just over a year after he nea rly lost his life after hi s helmet cam e off in a Spanis h GP cras h. He held off J acques Cornu a nd Sito Pons in a Honda 1-2-3. Fourth was J apan ese sta r T osh ihiko Honma, making a n im pressive foreign GP debut on a mysteri ously black -framed factor y Yam ah a. H e beat hom egrown hero J ean -Phillipe Ruggia 's YZR, who in practi ce o nly just knocked the pr ecocious young J a pan ese star off pole positio n. J orge Martinez (Derbi), also recu pcra ting from injury, wo n a to ug h tid dler ba ttle, the defendi ng cham- pi on's first 125 win thi s season; while third-placed Ezio Gianola (H onda) . held h is titl e lead from Alex Criville (JJ Cob as), wh o fini shed second. Rolf Biland, sta rti ng fro m po le positi on, overcam e titl e lead er Steve Webster to win th e sideca r race; but th e Briton held on to second with title riva l Egb ert Streu er third, increasing his cha mp io ns h ip lead. 500cc Practice On e complaint wa s co m mon . . . th e altered Bugatti circui t, with th e final secti on reprofiled with even more low-sp eed corn ers, is not a t a ll suited to th e 500cc GP bikes. ''I' m using first gea r on six different corne rs," said Lawson, " I don 't ca ll th a t a race track." Rainey added : "A lot .of people ca n go fast o n slow co rne rs. I prefer some thing more challenging." Said Schwa ntz: " It's a drag race fro m one corner to th e nex t." The Big Three still managed to rise abo ve the rest to domina te row o ne. For La wson, it was hi s first po le of th e seaso n, a nd hi s first o n a H onda; largely th e fruit of tests here the week befo re o n the lat est of Erv Kan ernot o's string of mainl y chassis modifications to improve th e Honda 's handling. Lawson had, however.. switched back to iron brak es from the carbo ns , rather su rprisingly a t a tra ck which punish es brak es harder than a nywhere excep t perhap s Laguna Seca. " I prefer th e feel of the steel discs," he said. Lawson moved to th e lead in th e third sessio n, di splacing regular practi ce lead er Schw antz for th e first tim e in six races. The defending cha mp io n reall y looked as th ough he was wo rking ha rd , unusual for him. " Maybe it 's because of th e firstgear co rn ers. The bik e jumps around a bit in first," he.said. " I don 't feel as if I'm riding an y different." But Schwantz th ought he was. " I think he's leaning off the bike more than usu al , and that seems to be th e way to a fast tim e here." Schwantz tried the same thing himself in th e fin al sessio n, a nd it was eno ug h for him to recover some lost ground a nd set second-fastest tim e. In fact, Rainey had set a n identical time in th e morning, but was placed third by a new system ta king the average of o verall practice times. The title lead er put hi s Belgian disappointment behind him, and setabout learning a tra ck he 'd never seen before. Luckily, it 's not very co m pl ex. " You ru sh up to corne rs, sto p, turn, th en accelerate away. Then you do it all again . We've been working on su spen sion a nd steering angl es on th e latest chass is to ge t the bike to sto p and turn better, a nd it seems good," he said. Not so the 16-inch front tires, a ba ndo ned in favor of 17s in search o f lost grip. No worries for Magee, wh o would lik e the 16-in ch ers, but can' t get th em yet. H e'd been looking forward to Le Mans because it is tight like Au stral ian circu its, a nd was di sappointed to be sevent h after day one; hi s mood m ade worse ye t by a n o n -trac k co n tretemps with Law son that ended. in an a rg ume nt . "Y ou could sa y he ga ve me a pep talk," Magee grinned th e next da y. Whatever he said, it worked, becau se he "cut the safety margins" o n day two, a nd moved to row one. This pushed Sarron down to fifth and th e far end of row one. The Frenchman had been trying conspi cuously hard , a nd overdid it on day o ne, measuring hi s length a t the chicane, a nd su ffering conc uss io n a nd a badl y cu t little fin ger on hi s left hand. He sold iered o n impressively, but, not surp rising ly, hi s firstsession tim e was hi s best. On race morning he sa id: " T he finger is not

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