Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

the entire 40 mi nutes and it was th e o nly sessio n durin g th e th ree da ys o f q ua l ify i ng th a t tha t wo u ld happen . U nfo rt u na tely, i t d idn ' t co u nt . Still, it was instructive since the fastes t rider, Ra iney, turned a la p of I :31.96 that was well under the old record. It was a time that no o ne wou ld mat ch the rest o f the weekend . O££icial p ractice sta rted o n a damp track that go t no better a nd the seco nd session was wet. The su n was o ut for th e start of the th ird session, but af ter a bo u t 12 minutes it began to rain , a ra in th at would co nti n ue for the fourth sessio n. So , th e ride rs had to make the m os t of their 10 minutes in th e su n a nd Ra iney was th e o ne most prepar ed. His last of five laps in th e dry of 1:32.49 mi nutes (97.497 mph ), p u t him on the pole, .9 seco nd ahead of second -fas tes t Schwa ntz. Bu t h e needed more time. " We' re okay in the rai n , bu t I' d like so me more ti me in the dry ," he said after th e fina l session on Sa turday morn in g. " We have a few chassis com bina tions we'd like to test. In th e dry th e new track is rea l smooth a nd grip py a nd you ca n ge t arou nd the corn ers real well ." Ra in ey also sa id that he'd recovered from the jet lag and exhaustio n th at had affected him the previous week in th e British G rand Prix. " I've been going pretty hard since Donington. Tha t's wha t it's goi ng to ta ke fro m now on. I don 't .care if it's wet or dry to morr ow. I still have to do the same job, " he said. Schwantz al so clocked h is fast ti me d uring the sta rt o f th e th ird session wh en he said, "There were abou t 10 o f us going for it." H is best was a 1:33.39 minute lap (96.557 mph ), over a second slo wer th an his best in th e free practice. " T he surface seems good a nd gripp y but it was rain ing so hard that last session tha t wh en I put m y foot down in o ne corner just to test, th e wa ter was washin g ove r m y boot." The midd le o f th e front row belo ng ed to Law son j ust .05 seco nd behind Schwantz a t 1:33.44 minutes wh ile tryi ng to ge t a front tire th at worked th ro ugh th e ca ro usel. Using sett ings fro m the previo us year , and Lawson' s ten den cies th is year, crew chief Erv Ka nemo to was able to set up the mach ine to Lawson's liking a lmo st from the star t. H e sai d they mad e j us t a few changes in sus pensio n in p reloa d a nd damping a nd that bo th bikes worked equa lly well. O ne o f th e reasons that it is easy to set up a machi ne here is that it was so smoo th a nd th ere were no fast corners. Sin ce th ere was so little dry qual ifyi ng tim e, a defi nitive choice couldn't be made on th e fro nt tire a nd a hard o ne had to be tried in Sunday's 15-minute morn ing warm up. That o ne, how ever, prov ed too har d a nd th e team chose th e front they'd used a t Doning ton, hoping it would go the distance. The. last rider in th e 33s was Sarron , hi s 1:33.93 (96.002 mph ) good for fou rt h o n th e gri d. Sarron, too , bem oan ed the lack o f dr y p ractice tim e especia lly since he had -a n u mb er o f times to test in ad d itio n to tryi ng to find so me co nsistency in his motor s. Magee was at th e far end of the front ro w with a 1:34.08 m in u te (95.849 mph ) despite a pa infully sore kn ee which he recen tly discovered will need post-season su rge ry to correct ca rt ila ge dam a ge. " We' ve been usi ng a heat rub and then wrapping it in Glad Wrap before going out, " he said. " It keeps it warm and it keeps it working. "We were pr ett y clo se with th e dr y . weather ch assis setting a nd I went all o u t to get a good time in wh en Spaniard Sito Pons (1) posted his seventh 250cc GP win of the year. Reinhold Roth (5) finished second. it was dry, " he conti n ued. " I d idn 't mi nd having to p ut in th e effort whe n, in theory, we're still fin a lizin g the bike sett ings . In a ny case, I proba bly work better under a bi t o f pressu re lik e th a t." . Fo u r Eu ropea n s made u p th e seco nd row with Mackenzie six th fastest foll ow ed by HB H onda 's P ierFra ncesco Chili, Haslam , and Marlbo ro Yamaha Team Agostini 's pa rtti me r Lu ca Cad a lora. Mack enzie tried a 16-in ch front whee l o n T h urs day a nd sai d, " It worked bett er here than at Don in gton. The width o f th e rim a nd th e profi le of the tire make it a little slo w to tu rn in, bu t once it 's committed, it's good." Though Chi li was seventh fastest, his biggest prob lem ca me after .p ractice when he was hit by a p it bike in the pa ddock, injuri ng the Achilles ten don in h is left leg. H e received medical attention a nd pai nkill in g inj ections a nd said he'd d et er mi ne o n Su n day mo rn i ng whethe r he wo uld rac e. Chili decided he wo uld ride, bu t n inth-fastest Cadal ora deci ded not to. " I haven' t been feeling th at well a nd I slept badl y.vhe sa id Su nday morning. " T he 500 race is before th e 250 a nd as th e 250 ra ce is more impo rtant for me, I'd rather no t ride the 500 tod ay." Back o n th e th ird row, in a n un chara ct er istic 14th pla ce, was former cha mpio n Gardne r who was most hurt by the lack of dry ti me. T h ree la ps into the one d ry sessio n a n e x ha ust va lve b r oke on h is machine forcing a pit stop. By the ti me he went back o ut it had begun to rain. La ter in th e day he cra she d in th e caro usel destroying hi s bik e, b ut not injuring himself. 500 Race Predi cti ons that Su nday would be rai n-free proved accurate and a t race tim e th e tem perature was in th e mid- Australians Wayne Gardner (2) and Kevin Magee finished third and fifth, respectively. Magee had tire problems for the second consecutive week. 70s with a light br eeze and hi gh , scatte re d clo u ds . T he h eat was some thi ng no one had been adeq uately a ble to test fo r a nd tire wear was a major concern. Rai ney jumped into th e lead from th e start with Lawson, Schwan tz, Sarron, Magee a nd Chi li in tow. Gard ner was seventh afte r hav in g nearl y kn ocked Sarron over on th e line with Haslam, Rob McElnea a nd Macken zie ro u nd ing out the top 10. Even though most teams use ti re wa rm ers, th e Dunlops ge t to race spe ed faste r a nd by th e fifth la p Rainey had over a three second lead ove r Law son with Schwantz less tha n a len g th behi nd . Sa rron was fou rt h. Mag ee fifth , wi th Gardner moving into sixth. Posit ions be hind th e to p si x shuffled with H aslam taking seventh a hea d of Macken zie wit h Chi li dro p ping to ninth. Ea rly o n, Chi li decided the pain in his left leg was too great a nd he . settled in to an eventua l seventh place fini sh , hi s im p ro veme nts due to a ttritio n. Haslam , wh o fin ish ed just a head o f Chili. was in much th e same posi tio n. " I was feeling okay early o n and th e bik e was wo rk in g well ," he said. '" was chasing N ia ll a nd had a big sl ide goi ng o nto th e ba ck 17

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