Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

Cag iva 's Ran dy Mamola (1 2) headed Cab in Ho nda 's Rob M c Eln ea (1 0) across the fin ish li ne to ta ke 1 1th and 12th places, respective ly . cern . Fifth went to the Repsol H onda of Carlos Card us. The real fight in the 250cc class was for th e runner-up position to Po ns in the cha m pions hi p. Coming into Bra zil , Reinhold Roth and j acq ues Cornu were tied with 180 points, a nd early in th e race both were part of th e lea ding pack. Bu t a bad tir e choice dropped Cornu back to ninth while Roth fin ish ed si xth, giving him th e number two pl ate for 1990. Cornu keeps th e number th ree that he wore this year a nd Cardus moves from eighth to fourth. Cadalora finished fifth for th e season . Wi th the pressure o f th e cham pionship o ff sever al of th e rid ers treated th is Gra nd Prix as a sporting hol ida y, a n d th a t's what it very nearly became when the organizers ca me u p $50,000 short o n prize money. Ra iney said on Sa turday tha t, " If th ere's no p rize money I don 't thin k we'll be racing. It 's up to th e promoter to see if he wan ts us to race. " But in th e end th e money was scraped together a nd th e race , p rob ab ly the last on this decaying circui t, went off. 500cc Practice With the ben efit o f sign ifica nt o ffseason tes ti ng h er e, R a iney was quickl y up to speed and in th e first full dry session he dipped into the I :25s, a m ark no o n e wo u ld a p proach: b u t o ne that he wou ld bett er in the fo urth session whe n he cloc ked a new q ualifyi ng reco rd of 1:25.447 a t a n average speed of 100.402 mph. Ga rdn er had he ld th e old record o f 1:26.93, and wha t made Ra in ey's run more impressive was th e fact that the track wa s crumbling wi th every la p . " It 's qui te a bi t worse than last year," the 28-year-old Ca lifornian said. "T he tra ck comes apart when you accelerate. When yo u follow a nother ri der yo u actually get hit with stones. We 're spi n ning a nd sliding around just lik e we h ave been .a ll year, I guess th e other guys must be slid ing a ro u nd even worse." It T he facto ry had deli vered a new fram e to Rainey wh ich features a beefed- up swi ngarm, a lig h tweigh t mon ocoque sea t assembly tha t elimina tes the s u b-fra me , a nd m o re gusse ti ng bet ween th e top frame members. Bu t the bike did n' t work as well as his old one so he bo rrowed some suspens io n parts from the new a nd grafted th em on to th e o ld. Asked if he was using th e secret weapon sea t, he sa id, "No , because they gave me so me secret weapon footpegs that a re too close to my butt. " For th e first time thi s yea r Ra iney was using j apanese Du nlo ps which p ro ved m ore co nsis te nt in qualifying. Sc h wa ntz was seco n d fa st est , unab le to improve on his second session tim e o f I:26. 148. Like all riders, he com p la ine d o f difficulty in getting the sus pe nsion righ t. " No grip is the biggest p ro blem ," th e T exan said. " Bo th tires and su spension. It seems like we a ll have tha t proble m . It 's gotten worse, maybe because of the heat. We 've tri ed different shocks, sp rings , p reload , com p ressio n. We ha ve no rac e setu p rig ht now ." T he ra ce, Sc hwa ntz beli eved , wou ld depend on th e weat her: " If it's coo ler, it co uld be closer. " La wso n was about half a seco nd beh in d Sch wantz and more co ncerned with fin ishing th e race th an a ny th ing else. " I' m trying to stay upright now ," he said. " People rem ember cha mpions hi ps, they do n' t remem ber the race. If we have a cha nce to wi n it we wi ll." Asked if he was nervous going into the race, Lawson answered , "Actua lly, I feel prett y relax ed. Basicall y I kn ow I have to finis h. T hat tak es a lot of the pressure o ff. Tha t' s a good position to be in." Still, the team had struggled with s u spe n s io n and i t was n 't unti l Sunda y m orning's warm -up that the y fo u nd the right combi nation by putting o n a lo nger swingarm that ha nd led the bu mps better. Ra iney's tea m ma te Mag ee was fourth fast est, gradually im provi ng, d esp it e mi ssing T hu rsd a y's fr ee p ra cti ce wh e n h is pl an e wa s grou nded in Miam i, Florida. " In a way it 's not so bad arriving la te," he sa id. " It puts you in a more aggressive fra me of mind a nd you ge t straigh t into it ins tead of easing into it g rad ua lly ." T he 27-ye a r -o ld Au s tra lia n is schedu led to have su rgery soon on the knee he h urt in the U.S.G P since it had n 't progressed a s well as planned, and he knew it co uld be a factor here. " It cou ld com e down to wh ether I' m fit," he said. " You' ve got to do Behind the lead trio , a f our-w ay battle for fourth place ensued between Kev in Magee, M ichael Doohan, W ayn e Gardner and Christian Sarron. a lot of hanging o n a ro u nd th is tra ck." Round in g out th e front row o f th e grid was Has lam , making his fir st top-five a p pea ra nce in o ver tw o yea rs. Word arou nd the paddoc k was that Suzuki was closel y watching hi s per forma nce here to ma ke their decision o n him for 1990 a nd he rode like he kn ew th at . even falli ng o ff du rin g quali fying whi le goi ng for a quick la p. "A li tt le bit too heavy o n the fron t brak es," Haslam exp lai ned. " I hit th em both (fro nt a nd rea r) at th e sa me time a nd d idn 't let o ff soon enoug h. " Mic he lin has been quite good giving me good tires," he added in exp la ining his tim es. "They're no t quite lik e Kevin 's, b ut they're close." H aslam was furth er boosted by th e nearIy tot a l recover y o f th e brok en th umbs he su ffered in a crash during th e Belgian G rand Prix in ear ly july. Gardner led the second row with Sarron seventh, Dooha n eigh th , a nd HB Honda 's P ier-Fra ncesco Chili ninth. For his part Gardner was just p la ying out the stri ng a nd not wanting to do a nythi ng to further d amage h is kn ee. " I probab ly wo uld n ' t rac e if I didn 't have to," he sa id. ''I'm lookin g fo rward to the season fin ish ing a nd lett in g m y leg rest. I was n't coming, bu t with the an no uncem ent I th ough t I'd co me." Gardner was referrin~ to th e di sclosure o f his re-sign ing wi th H onda. He said that he was signed with Ro th man s Honda for nex t year a nd a fter that wi th HR C for two more. It is believed th at in the th ird yea r he has the optio n o f sett ing u p his o wn team. As [or his race, he sa id, " I just want to ride arou nd a nd stay on it." Sarron agreed. " We're rea lly havin g trouble and we ca n ' t improve th e setting. It ' s g etting worse and worse," he sa id. "And we're still at th e tim e of the first session which is no t normal. No mailer wha t I do it 's wor se." Doohan said he was " p leased to be ba ck " for th e first tim e since cras h ing in the uzuka Eight-H o u r race in la te july and th a t his hand wa s " no trouble a t the mom ent. " The third row was Dom in iq ue Sarron on th e Elf Ho nda , Cabin Honda 's Rob McElnea, Niall Mackenz ie, Mam ol a, and Morillas. Onl y 2 1 riders a tte m p ted to qua lify a nd 20 mad e th e grid. 500cc Race When the starter 's light went gr een for th e noon race the tem pera ture was in th e high 80s, hotter th an it had been in p racti ce an d a virt ua l g ua ra n tee that tir e wear wo uld be grea ter tha n expected. Law son kn ew this a nd he knew tha t if he cou ld get o u t front and set the pace he co uld save his tires for late in the race, whi ch was wha t he tried. Off the start he led the cha rge do wn the fro n t stra igh t a nd into th e lo oping r igh t with R a in e y, Sc hwa ntz , G a rdn er , a n d Sarro n tra ili ng. just behind were Magee, Doohan, Chi li , a nd Haslam , with Mack enzi e lea d in g McE lnea and Morillas. The leading trio mad e a clea n break a nd by th e eighth la p had o ver a six-second lead" on fourth p lace. which Dooha n had taken over two laps earlier. moving Magee to fifth a head o f the fad ing Gard ner. Lawson set th e rac e's quickest la p , a nd a new lap record o f 1:26.98 (98.632 m ph) on the fifth lap, bu t the pace was mos tly low- to mid-27s as the front three, Lawson, Rain ey, and Sch wantz ra n nose-to-tail. " I felt like I wa s hol d in g those guys u p in th e beg inning a nd if I cou ld hold th em up ma ybe their tires wo uld go o ff," Lawson said, a nd that's half of the story. Rainey's went o ff, Schwantz' didn 't , and o n th e 19th lap Schw a ntz passed Rainey in th e last corner before the front straight , . a dou ble-righ t th at had ma n y of th e rid ers spinni ng a nd slidi ng sidewa ys o n their approach to the stra igh t. T hree laps later and the T exan was in the lead , pa ssing Lawson at the 13

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