Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

anyone and a pair of 1:34.37s in that third session. Although he tried, he couldn 't better h is time in the afternoon and that concerned him. "We have to figure out how to get it the way it was this morning," he said wh en qualifying ended. "It was a little hotter this afternoon and the tires didn't agree with it . We were trying race stuff this afternoon. Trying used tires and getting a lot of laps on th em. " Schwantz also said there was oil-drying cement in a long stretch of the track after the first corner which ma y have hurt his and everyone else's tim es. Yet it didn't slow Lawson down. Late in the session, Lawson picked up the pace and reeled off a trio of 1:34s, his best a 1:34.30 on only the third lap of a new tire. His next two were both about three-tenths slower, but would still have been good enough to set him next to Schwantz on the front row . Why he all of a . sudden improved was something of a mystery and he inadvertently contradicted himse lf trying to exp la in it. "The last session went real well," he began. "We were trying different things; suspension, tires. " But later he said, "The problem is I have to ge t used to the bike. We're not trying anything different lately. " But what he meant was that the team was sticking to the combination that has been working for them recently and not making any substantial changes to the machine. The factory had sent a new frame which the Japanese riders have been using that made. the bike slide more like a dirt-tracker, but Lawson chose to stick with the 'chassis he's been using since the Yugoslavian GP. They were, however, still experimenting with front brakes, deciding in favor of steel, over carbon, with AP Lockheed calipers. "They work better for me than the carbons, but you have to use a little more pressure," Lawson said. "T he steel seems to be more what I' m used to. It 's just a matter of personal pr eference." . They also chose not to use the carbo n-fiber wheels beca use of a lack of rim sizes, although Ga rdner used one o n the rea r of his mac hi ne for the first time. Because so few were produced the cost on each whee l was estimated by one of Gardner's crew to be at leas t $25,000. Lawson said that for the race, "No matter wha t the pace is, it' ll be the three of u s," meaning h i m self , Schwantz and Rainey. " It should be real close. " Rainey str uggled a bit in practice, taki ng parts off one bike and grafting them onto another while trying to " make one good one." He said that he, too, was struggling wi th his brakes on the track where las t year he won with the carbons for the first time. "Maybe the air's not cooling them off," he said, even though his front fender was modified to allow greater coo li ng. " It's too late to throw on steel ones." The third session was Ra iney's fastest, his I:34.84 minutes good eno ugh to put him in the middle of the front row betwee n Lawson a nd fou rt h-fastest Christian Sarron who also set his fastest time with one sessio n to go. Sarron was full y recovered from his practice crash in the French GP an d riding better th an he expected. . " I di dn't seem to be go ing that fast," th e French man said. " I hate th e tight corners here but th e faster section of the track is great fun. O n my best lap I was slowed by Gardner and Valesi so it might have been q uicker. In the afternoon I waited all session for a clear lap." Wi th a lap of 1:34.89 minutes, Sc hwantz (3 4.l. Rainey (hidden)• . ddie Lawson (1) . Niall Mackenzie (6) and Sarron battled early. E Sarron was the last rider in the 34s, although Luca Cadalora, in his 500cc debut, came close with a best lap of I:35.05 in the fina l session. The Marlboro Agostini team had planned to put the 26 -year-old .Italian 250cc rider on a 500 for England and Sweden, on a machine that crew chief Kel Carruthers had built from spare parts. But with the unexpected retirement of Spencer , hi s two YZR500s became available. Cadalora had tested a 500 at Misano before leaving for England, turning in 38 laps. "T he immediate impression you ' get o n a 500 is that it has so much power," he said after the , first day 's practice. "After about 15 laps I was getting to the point where I could slide the back wheel coming out of the corners. You need a slightly different line than a 250. You have to finish turning the corner before you accelerate. At first I was trying to use a 250 line and I was running ou t of track leaving the corners." After Saturday's session he said he couldn't believe the time he set. "When I saw the time on the pit board I th ou ght they m us t have ma de a mistake, that it must have been someo ne else 's board." In addition to being the last rider on the front row fo r the 500s , Cadalora was on the pole for the 250s. T he second row was made up of Nia ll Mackenzie, HB H o nda 's PierFrancesco Chi li, Team Lucky Strike Roberts' Kevin Magee, and Pepsi Suzuki's Ron Haslam. . Mackenzie was only .05 seconds slower than his Marlboro Yamaha teammate Cadalora while trying new engine parts, tires, and chassis settings. Bo th Mackenzie and Cadalora were getting Michelins which were just a notch below the best that are given to the top riders. Mackenzie said he was ge tting th e same tires that Spencer got. "Well, it was okay," he said of his time, " But I couldn't get a clean lap in. We tried d ifferent rods and pistons this weekend and we've go t a few different tires to try. I know which bike I want to use for the race, but this mo rning' we changed the steering head a ngle as an experiment and that made thin gs worse even th ough we tried differen t suspens ion ' sett ings as well. I' d like to be on the front row, but tomorrow n ight no one is going to be tal king abou t practice times ." Magee discovered a hairline crack in one of his engines in the morning session and, after replacing it, was able to set h is best time in the afternoon. " Pretty much the whole Italian Luca Cadalora (53) made his 500cc GP debut in England. f inishing eighth beh ind Ron Haslam (8); Cadalora had qualified fifth fastest. bike's different this afternoon," he said. The most improved rider on the day was H aslam who knocked more than a second off his morning time to end up j ust .05 behin d Magee. " I think I can go better in .the race ," he said af terwards. " I was panicking . a bit when I was on the third row, but from the second I can get a good start. " Gardner was on the pole of the third row , 10th fastest in front of a slew of other Hondas belonging to Elf's Dominique Sarron, Ro th rnans' Burnett, and HB' s Merkel , and puzzled by his time. , " I'm disappointed," Merkel said of his 1:35.72 minu tes time. " We had good section times, but not good lap times. Hopefully with a new engine it will be beuer. We put the spare bike engine in the race bike and a new engine in the spare." In all, 35 riders of 38 q ua lified for the race ma king it one of the largest fields of the year. But the last rider to make the grid, 'David Compton, qualified at 1:47.53 - 13 and a half seco nds slower t han Schwantz, mea ning that he' d be getting in people's way early and often. ' 5 0 0 Race Su nday morning's free practice sessio n allowed Rainey to test his chassis and Lawso n some brake changes, but Schwantz had found his setup and turned the fastest la ps of the session, although slower than his qualifying times. The sun was shining brightly with temperatures in the low 80s when the green light flashed at 2:45 p.m. to start the 500cc race and immediately Rainey shot into the lead trai led by Schwantz, Sarron, Lawson, Gardner, Mack~nzie and Magee . Chili went off the track and into the grass thro ugh the .downhill Craner Curves rejoining the track, an d barely miss ing the tail of the field, nea r the Old H airpin. After that he spent the whole time fig hting suspension problems and backmarkers to finish ni nth. By the end of the first lap a quartet of Rainey, Schwantz, Sarron and Lawson separated themselves from the field a nd on the second la p Schwantz went under Rainey in the first turn, Redga te Corner, to take the lead. Rainey took the lead back on the fifth lap with a bold move, tossing his bike on its side on the inside of Schwantz in a fast left, but the Texan got it back la ter in the la p. Lawson was in third, but a roar.' went up as Mackenzie joined the fray, dropping Lawson to fourth on the fifth lap then passing Rainey for second in the Melbourne Hairpin later on th e same lap. He set out for Schwantz and their pace took them away from Rainey and Lawson with Magee a solitary fifth, Gardner the ' same in sixth, with Haslam and Cadalora battling for seventh, a figh t tha t would go to the end. You didn 't have to ac tually see it to know what happened next, but starting the eighth la p Mackenzie went under Schwantz entering turn one and the fans, along with th e announcer, were in a frenzy. Schwantz took it back a number of turns la ter with Mackenzie never giving up. By the end of the ninth lap Schwantz was in Iro nt to stay . ; 15

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