Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

Team Roberts left a new chassis supplied by the Yamaha facto ry in the back of the tru ck. It is intended to im prove the Yamaha in the areas where the Suzuki is stro ng - especia lly quicken ing and lightenin g the steering, but it is hard enough getting the geari ng and suspe nsion right for Le Mans without embarking on a whole new machine, and Rai n ey felt the decis io n was vindicated when he closed up to withi n three-tenths of Schwantz on Saturday morning. He tried teammate La wson 's new six-piston cast-iron brak es, but found them snatchy. " Eddie's easier on the brakes than me," Rainey said. "I like to grab them, he just strokes them. " So he went back to AP carbons. All the top five speeded up on day two , with Gardner displaced fro m second to third, and survivi ng one near miss in practice when goi ng for a better time. He a lso discarded new chassis parts to stick with what he kn ew, but ind ulged in some stra nge brake expe riments at Erv Kan em oto 's behest. "I like the bite of cast-iro n brakes, but they're getting too hot, and you really need carbon brakes, whic h work better as they get hott er." Gardner said So they fitted one of each to his Honda, and although it wasn 't perfect in that the iron brake was still overhea ting, it was enough of a success for him to decide to race with the cocktail. "It's not bad , but it's not the answer. I know I'm goi ng to have to switch to carbon brakes, but I want to get som e testing don e o n th em firs t. " H e shrugged off the probl ems of the heat. "It's better than rain. Sure, it's harder and toug her, but we're big boys now." Mackenzie moved up into fourt h , to complete the front ro w, with a major hurry-up on Saturday morning. Again, he was simply working with what he . already knew, with the single priority of beating Doohan to the sole set of Michelin A-team tires. He succeeded by two-hundredths, th en had o n ly the blistering final session in which to try and learn the new tires, running more than one-and-a-half seconds slower, and in the end rejecting them in favor of what he had already pic ked out. Doohan was having his usual trouble trying to get the Ho nda to turn, in spi te of revised steering , and it was plain to see through the first uphill chicane, where he kept overshooting the cam ber change that helps the bikes cha nge direction. It was the first time he'd been to Le Mans, and admitted: " I' ve been having trouble finding the right speed to go in there all weekend." By now rather peeved with his reluctant steed, he led row two from Lawso n, who had been third to Gardner on day o ne, but was o ne of only two people not to go faster on day two, still pl eading diffi culty in cha nging directio n from his injured root. Sarron was seventh, and distres sed and embarrassed at yet another crash , this time in free practice o n Thursday, an d aga in after pushing too hard on Dunlops that weren 't full y warm ed up. H e broke his right-ha nd little finger , ban ged his right sho ulder and his head , and said ruefully: " I shall have to take it easy for the rest of my home GP." Suiti ng the actio n to the words, he stayed in the air-con di tion ing for the last and hottest practice session. Then came Mamola, with the Cagiva running well if too slowly o ut of the bends. He pushed Sarron's teammate Ruggia to row three , with lots of dark Gallic imprecations that " the bike is all ove r the place, and th e en gine is running at over 80 degrees, and losing power ." He had Garriga's Yamaha alongside, the Spaniard seeming to have lost his recent impetus, and only three-tenths Spain's Carlos Cardus rode his Honda NSR250 to the French 250cc GP win, topping Luca Cadalora. ahea d of Y-fou r rookie Marco ' Papa, usually the best of th e small group of Honda three-cylinder regulars, wh o had only ridden Chili's NSR RocHonda for the first tim e in free tra ining. Under the circumsta nces, the Italian . rider was making a good fist of h is oneoff works -bik e o ut ing, and not surprising ly was finding the bike som ething of a handful. " My bike ha s 110 hor sepo wer, th is has around 160. I'm su rprised at how harsh the power band is," he observed. Then ca me Barr os a nd the st ill disappoint ing Haslam o n the remaining Cagivas, with a fu ll three-second gap to Kees Doorakk ers, the best of the three -cylinder regulars. There were .1 9 starters, wit h p rivateer Niggi Schrnassman [ailing to qualify. 500cc GP After a string of similar problems, Suzuki technicians blame an engi ne characteristic on the tendency of their V-Iour to gas up and bog down on the line . "We're working on i t," they said. In any case, bo th Schwantz and Mackenzie were left trailing from their frontrow starts, while Ga rdner leapt into an ea rly lead fro m Ra iney, Doo h a n , Lawson and Sarron. Schwantz was through to seventh at the end of lap one ("Talk about late bra king," he told hi s crew afterwards), with Mackenzie just passi ng Papa 's NSR at the end of lap one to place lOth, with only two other Y-Iours behind him. Both were Cagivas, with Haslam 's mis firi ng persisten tly, and plumb last. Into the far slow doubl e-righ ts before . the back straigh t on lap two, Gardner had a major moment that let Rain ey through to the lead , and gave Doohan his wor st fright all race as he nearl y ra n into his tea m ma te' s swervi ng Hon da. " My own fault," said Gardner. "I arrived too fast with a tan kful of gas." In the con fusion, Schwantz slipped past Doohan into third, and now the leadi ng trio got down to business. .Gardner forced past Rainey into the lead agai n early o n lap fo ur, and Schwantz followed him later on the same lap , ridi ng on the very edge as he closed o n the Roth man s machine. " I kn ew whe n I was within half -asecond of him that I cou ld win," the Texan said later. " From then on I star ted to save the tires, and o nly gas it when the bik e was upright." Even so, he gradually closed up and started putting the pressure on, and his fastest lap of the whole race was the ninth, when he got over the hill better than Gardner, wh ose front wheel lifted too much, and was in a position to outbrake him for the first U-bend at the bottom of the hill. It was close, and Gardner later spoke of seeing Sch wan tz leave a black mark on the track with h is front wh eel. The Suzuki rider den ied it. " I think I'd have rem emb ered that. I went rea l tight inside th ere, and I may have brushed some dirt up with my kn ee inside the curb. Maybe that's wha t he saw; " adding with a grin: " He had half-adozen big moments when I was behind him, and all he can rem ember is one o[ min e." Once ahead, Sch wantz pulled out more th an a second in the first lap, and was th ree seconds clear by lap 15, and clearly well in control of th e race, keep in g on with what is fo r him smooth ri di ng, altho ugh it still involved plenty of slidi ng around. In the end, he won it by a convincing 2.5 seco nds. Gardner could do nothing to catch him, and furthermore had Rainey on hi s tail throughout, and less than a second down at the end. "I was ex p ecti n g h im to have me," he grinned. " I tried real hard. I'm p leased with second." Rai n ey was glum, but a llowed: "Third is better than a DNF. It could have been worse." It was the firs t race a ll year whe re he was below second. Doohan recovered fro m his big scare, but wasn't able to take back a ny ground on the leaders. ' 'I'd chosen a different rear tire, and though they got away from me early on, it came strong later and I could get the power down better. I just wish the race had been a few laps lo nger." At the finish, he'd taken more th an a second off Ra in ey, and was jus t over 1.5 seconds down. La wson ha d also been unable to keep the pace earl ier o n, but found he could p ress o n at th e end - his best lap was the 25th - and Mackenzi e's charge had carried h im up to the .American's tail by lap 11. He started to cha llenge at o nce, and even came alongside the smoo th -ridi ng Lawson at one point. But he found it quite impossible to get past, and was forced to make a lengthy close -up study of the Yamaha's exha ust pipes. He was savi ng his effort for the last la p. " I was faster than him at th e end of the pi t straight, and if I passed him there , I th ink I could ha ve held him for the rest of the lap." He didn't get the ch an ce. With six laps to go, they lapped Haslam (now sliding around on the bad rear tire), and Lawson managed to put the Cagiva betw een them at a crucial point. Mack enzie was unable to reco ver the two or th ree seco nds he lost, and in the end faded to finish 10 seconds down on Lawson. Another full m inute away, Mamola comp leted a steadfast but lonely ride to seven th, comforta bly clear of Garriga's Yamaha, Papa rode solidly to fin ish another 10 secon ds down , th e las t rider o n the same lap. Haslam battl ed on in 10th , wit h Irishman Eddi e La ycock th e top H onda triple finisher. Both Gauloises Yamahas packed up, Ruggia's sto pp ing o ut on th e circuit o n the fifth lap after he'd dropped to 10th ; and Sarron cruising in to the pits with igni tion trouble after 11 laps. He had been running seventh. Barr os cras hed hi s Ca giva at the end of lap five, without injury. Victory and the recove ry of five points was enough to sus ta i n Sch wantz's slim title hopes, but he is still 30 points behind Ra iney, who said: " I just have to keep my head down for five more races." Doohan improved his third posi tion lead over Mackenzie to 24 points, while Gardner leapt past Sarron and Garriga into sixth, closing on Ruggia and Mackenzie. 250cc Qualifying Exceptional as usual, Kocinski went faster in the hot afternoons than in the mornings, showing steady progress througho u t practice as he po lished his performance o n a track he had never seen before. " I haven't yet found a trac k that's difficult to learn," he sai d; an d hi s scholastic prowess is such th at by the end of day one he was fastest, and the nex t mornin g Le Mans veteran Ca dalora was using him as a marker to try and get the best o ut of h is own similar but slower Marlboro Yamaha, ridi ng visibl y harder th an the America n, an d mo ving bri efly ahea d. By now, however,last year's brilliant Le Man s winner Card us had hi s Repsol H onda gear ed righ t and go ing, and had taken a clear half-second ad van tage to make sure of pole po sition. He too had tested here befor e the race, and it showed. T hen Kocinski , for once sayi ng that the Yama ha suited th e tight circui t, got within two-tenths in the hot a nd slippery afternoon sessio n, so maybe the issue wouldn 't be so cut and dri ed. This left Cadalora third, with lee lenberg well o n the pa ce in fourth , although doubtful of his abil ity to keep it up during th e race, since his wrist injury has spoiled hi s fitn ess. H e switched from Ni ssin to Brembo brake cal ipers, and was well pl eased. The ' front row was completed by Carlos Lavado, continuing his revival o n the yellow Aprilia. HRC's star Masahiro Shimizu is also improving as the season wears on, as the inscrutable Japanese rider did last year, and was second fastest in the first

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