Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

(Left to right) Eddie Lawson. Kevin Schwantz, Wayne Ra iney and top Brit Niall Mackenzie celebrate their 1 -2-3-4 finishes . At Donington, Bubba Shobert (right) made h is first public appearance since his Laguna Seca crash; here he's shown with friend Wayne Rainey. " I wa s struggling an d I still go t th ird so I'm n o t terribly di sappointed , " Ra iney told th e p ost -race p ress gathering. The p roblem , he exp lain ed, was that he " never put any laps together in th e race. I also never put a ny together in practi ce because we h ad so many bike problem s. I did eig h t laps this m orning a nd decid ed I didn 't like th e bike." H e admi tted the m omentum was going in Lawson's favor a nd th at he wa s " as co n fident a s he co u ld be right now. " It was pointed o u t that in the u n likely event that the finishi ng order was th e same in th e fin al three races, Rainey would win th e champ ionship by half a point. " We'll mak e it at least a point," he said. 250 Race Reinhold Roth (5 ) le a d s S ito Pons (1) in the 250cc GP; Pons won and in the process cl inched h is second successive World Champio nsh ip . 16 The next lap Lawson moved Ra iney back a notch to fourth ahead of Sarron who, after setti ng his fast lap on the 10th, slowly dropped off the pa ce. "I can't believe how easy it was to stay with them at the beginning," . Sarron said. "It was not accelerating as well as it h ad been in the morning practice yesterday and in the afternoon session it was worse. Two or three times I was clos e to crashing so I decided to give up a little and fini sh th e ra ce. It wa s th e first time I used that tir e a n d I don 't kn ow if you can blame th e tire. Maybe it was the suspens io n." As he was backing off th e pace G ardner was slowing a lso, a lt hough much m ore dramatically. H e n oti ced on th e 10th lap th at " It wouldn ' t rev a ny more. It would on ly go to 11,500 o r 12,000 so I pulled in ," he sai d after dropping o u t on th e 13th lap." The problem was later traced to a faulty ignition. With 15 of 30 laps co m p leted Schwantz had nearly a second lead with Lawson taking second from Mackenzi e, again in th e first corner. Rainey wa s 3.4 behind ·the leader with Sarron dropping back, but unchallenged by Magee who rode to a distant sixth, slowed by a front wheel that went o u t of balance just after the 10th lap. H e thought the front tire had sh ifted on the rim, a prob lem he had in practice. "It was okay in the slow stuff," he said, "B u t in the fast stuff it was all over the pl ace a nd I had to back off. " His pace was sufficient to put hi m nine seconds a head of the HaslamCadalora duel which Haslam won, taking seventh back with 10 laps to go . The 12th lap was the fastest for the top two , Schwantz and Lawson, with Ra iney doing his best of 1:34.79 two laps earlier. Schwantz clocked a 1:34.72 but it was Lawson 's 1:34.51 that ' set up the race to the flag. Lawson was rapidly closing, but after getting slowed on th e 21st lap, he couldn't get back in th e 34s until the 26th lap. Schwantz, however, put together a string of four 34s from th e 21st to the 23rd lap, th en a few more near the end of the race. The official margin of victory wa s .97 seconds with Schwantz slowing sligh tly near ' - rhe end. " Every thin g worked we ll tod ay," Schwantz sa id after doin g a victory lap. ''My o n ly p roblem was Ni all passing me ba ck three or four times. There'r e o n ly three races left a nd I'd lik e to win another one. " . . Lawson said h e " m a de a few m istakes o u t th ere," in addi tion to th e wrong tire choice. " I had two tires to choose fro m," a hard and a so ft. " Kevin chose th e one I kn ew wouldn 't go th e ra ce distance a nd ' I knew mine would. It was th e o the r way aro u nd ," he said. His only other problem was traffic. "If they'r e going to let th ese guys ou t th ere, the y should use th e blue fla g," he began. " Kevin 's a bit more brave than m e. He just push es them out of th e way ." And though he finished second, he was happy with taking two points back. "It's only two points, but it's two points in the right direction." It cou ld have been more th an two points, but Ra in ey was able to ge t by Mac kenzie with five lap s to ~o. Mackenzie was having trouble with the front tire p ush in g and a few laps from the end started to run out of gas . "Three la ps from th e end it was dying in the Old Hairpin," Mackenzi e said. "It's the first rac e I've been fit since Spain and I feel like where I left off." In .o rder for Pons to clinch his second co nsecu tive World Championship he had to finish ahead of Cornu which he d id for the first tim e in qualifying, taking the -fourth spot by .04 seco nds over Cornu. The pole position went to Cadalora with a final session best time of 1:38.31, just slower than the qualifying record of I :38.22 set last year by fellow Yamaha rider J uan Garriga. Garriga was second followed by Loris Reggi a n i, then the aforementioned Pons a nd Cornu. Cadalora was hoping for a win in th e 250cc to precede his 500cc debut, but those hopes were lost at the start wh en he jumped th e lights in cu rrin g a one-minute penalty. H e co m pou nded hi s problem s by stalling hi s engin e an d getting aw ay last in th e 36-rider field. H e tried to work hi s wa y through th e field, nearly crashing on th e 15th o f 26 laps before pulling in . West German Rein ho ld Roth got th e jump o n th e field trailed by Reggi ani who m ad e a n ea r ly ridi ng erro r to drop himself to fifth , wh ere coinc ide n tally, he would finish. Cornu took over on th e third lap with Roth second and Pons third. Shi m izu , whose future as a factory rid er appears in creasingl y in doubt, was fourth with Martin Wimmer making a brief appearance in fifth on th e production H ein G eri cke Aprilia. The leading Honda trio of Cornu, Roth and Pons quickly di stanced themselves from their pursuers with Pons passing Roth o n th e ru n to T he Esses on the six th lap . Two laps la ter th e World C ha mpio n ou tb ra ked Corn u going into the same sect io n for the lead. -H e wo u ld never be headed. With a clear track, Pons was able to pick up the pace, setting one new lap record on the 12th then bettering it again on the 15th, his 1:38.33(91.52 mph ) well under Garriga 's previous record of I :38.82. By then he had a two-second lead over Cornu which h e would stretch to nearly seven at th e en d. The win wa s Pons' sixth of th e year. With five laps to go the order behind Pons began to cha n ge. First Roth, th en Shimizu, got by Cornu and Reggi ani a lso bri efly passed th e Swiss rid er, although Cornu was able to re-claim th e fourth spot a lap from th e en d. Shimizu was in seco nd on th e next to th e last lap , but got a bad drive mid-corner in The Esses wh ich a llowed Roth to drive pa st him on th e way up to th e Melbourne Hairpin. The fin al order was Pons beating Roth with Shimizu .25 seco nds a head o f Cornu wh o had five an d a half seconds on Reggiani. The first nonHonda was Garri ga wh o ran uneventfull y almost the entire race in sixth finishing just over a second behind R eg g ia n i. West German H el m u t Bradl had a similar experience i~ seventh finishing wel] back of Garnga, bu t over 18seco nds ahead of Carlos Lavado. - Results 500cc: 1. Kevin Schwantz (Suz): 2. Eddie Lawso n (Han); 3. Way ne Rainey (yam); 4 . Niall M ackenzie (Yam); 5. Christian Sarro n (Yam); 6. Kevin Mag ee (yam); 7 . Ron Haslam (Suz): 8. Luca Cadalor a (Yam): 9. Pier -Fra ncesco Chili (Han); 10 . Rob McEln ea (Han): 11. Fred M erkel (Han); 12. Roger 8 urn en (Han); 13. Marco Gentile (Fior ): 14. Fabio Bilion i (Han); 15. Simon Buckmast er (Han). RACE DISTANCE: 30 laps. 75 miles. AVERAGE SPEED: 94 .21 mph. , FASTEST LAP: Eddie Lawson. 1:34.5 1. 95.22 mph (new recordl, . 25Occ: 1. Sito Pons (Han); 2. Reinh old Roth (Han); 3. Masahiro Shimizu (Hon); 4 . Jacques Cornu (Han); 5. Lor is Reggiani (Honl: 6. Jua n Garr iga (Yam); 7. Helmut Bradl (Han); 8. Carlos Lavado (Apr); 9. Gary Cowan (Yam): 10 . Wi lco Zeelenberg (Han); 11. Manin W immer (Apr): 12. Stefano Caracchi (Hon); 13 . Alexandre Barros (Yam); 14 . Jochen Schmid (Hon); 15 . Adr ian Morillas (Yam). RACE DISTANCE: 26 laps. 65 mil es. AVERAGE SPEED: 90 .45 mph . FASTESTLAP: Sito Pons. 1:38. 33. 91 .52 mph (new record). 500cc WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP POINT STANDINGS: 1. Wayne Rainey (180 .5); 2. Eddie Lawso n ( 1 74~ 3. Christ ian Sarron (127.5); 4 . Kevin Schwantz (122.5); 5, Kevin Magee (108 .5): 6. P.F. Chil i (102); 7. Niall Mackenz ie (73); B. Michael Doohan (68 ); 9. Ron Haslam (57); 10. Wayne Gardner (43); 11 . Dominique Sarron (39): 12. (TIE) Si mon Bu ckmast er /R ob McElnea (37 .5): 14. Freddie Spencer (33.5); 15. Marco Gentile (33). 2 50cc W ORLD CHAMPION SHI P POINT STANDINGS: 1. Sit o Pons (216); 2. Jacq ues Corn u (150); 3. Reinho ld Roth (143); 4 . Carlos Cardus (130); 5. Jean-Phillipe Ruggia (1101: 6 . Luca Cadalora (86); 7. Masahiro Shim izu (a2~ 8. Juan Garriga (7B); 9. Helmut Bradl (69); 10. Manin Wimmer (53~ 11. John Kocinsk i (40); 12. Didier De Radigues (39); 13. Loris Reggiani (37); 14. Wilco Zeelenberg (32): 15. Jochen Schmid (28).

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