Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

BROADRACE w~d ~~~_fu_~_rn_oc_eR_o__R__S__:_h_u__2~~~~~~~~ ~ m ~~ ~ ~ Four-time 500cc World Champion Eddie Lawson (shown) teamed with Japan 's Tadahiko Taira to win his first-ever Suzu ka 8-Hour. The pair won by two laps. Dominique Sarron (1) passes Thierry Crine. Sarron and teammate Alex Vieira finished third just behind th e Shoji MiyazakilTadashi Oshima team . Lawson/Taira dominate Suzuka 8-Hour By Bernard Daley SUZUKA CITY, JAPAN,JULY 29 ddie Lawson and T adahiko T ai ra rod e a magn ificent trouble-free. race on th e T ech 21 Yam ah a to win th e prestigious Coca -Co la Suzu ka 8-Hour by two laps. But wh ile the race was a great one for 500<:c World Champion Law son , America's o ther titl e holder, World Superbi ke Cham p ion Fred Merk el , may well have kissed hi s cha nces of retain ing his title goodbye after a nasty fall in T hursday 's prac tice. Merkel crashed at the super-fast tu rn one and sustained two broken verta brae in hi s neck. He and teammate Stephane Mertens had been expe riencing brak e probl em s in practice and were con cern ed abo ut the state of the pads and the feel of the brake lever. Merkel had pu t in a fast lap (in the 2:15 bracket) and was trying for a quicker one when the in cident .occurred. Spea king with his neck in a brace after the crash, Merkel said, " Yeah, I'd put in a q u ick one and was go ingIor it on the next lap." Merkel exp la ined that he'd tried to leave his bra king a little later goi ng into turn one and tha t E when he pulled the lever, the lever came back to the bar, trappi ng two of his fingers. By the time he got his fingers out of the way and pulled the lever agai n, he'd run off the track and had to lay it down. Merkel was un con sciou s for abo ut 40 minutes, bu t apart from the two broken verta brae and a sore sho ulder, he had no other inj uries. " I gu ess I was lucky. I' m go ing to . have to mi ss the World Superbi ke round at Sugo (Japan on August 26) round for sure, but I' m hoping to be fit for the foll owing ro und in France on September 9." Merkel said. Following practice, everyo ne expe cted a classi c co n fro n ta tio n between the works Honda RVF750 of Wayne Gardner and Michael Dooh an and the factory Yam ah a YZF750 of Lawson and T aira, both teams having bro ken the course record - they were not disappointed. At I I:30 a.rn., the Le Man s-style start saw 65 riders race across the grid on foot , jump on their bik es and blast down the front stra ight to the first turn. Winning made Lawson forget about a little pain in his injured foot, Doohan did not get the start he wanted , but by the end of the second lap he was in fron t and in comp lete control. Much as he did duri ng last year's even t, Doohan blasted away from the rest of the field and began to pull out a subs tant ial lead. Chasing after th e Austra lian Grand Prix star was a closeknit pack consist ing of Taira , Doug Pol en on th e Yoshimu ra Suzu ki , Norihiko Fujiwar a on th e esca fe Yamaha, Alex Vieira on the works Honda, Takahi ro Sohwa on a Kawasaki and Yasut orno Nagai on a wor ks Yama ha. Dooh an 's charge was even hotter than the scorchi ng , nearl y go-degree tempera tu re, and at the first cha ngeover he held a massive 38-second advantage over Taira. Third was Nagai, with Shoji Miyazaki on a H on da now up to fourth and Vieira fifth . An ear ly retirement in the second session was the work s Suzuki of Niall Mackenzie and Roger Burnett. Riding a completely new GSXR7 50R, Burnett cras hed spectac u la rly but without injury. The fuel tank came off in the force of the crash and Burnett tried to retri eve it so that he could ride back to the pits , but the marshall in attendance obviously thou ght that the bike was too badl y damaged and refused to let Burnett have the tan k back. Burnett's on ly option then was to return to the pits on foot. T here was dra ma for Gardner ear ly in the second hou r when on lap 39 he lost concent ration and slid orr at the chicane just before the start/fi nish line. Since he had passed the pi t en tra nce, he had to complete the lap before he could pi t to repair the damaged brake lever and peda l. Th is allowed the Taira/Lawson Yamaha into the lead for the first time, and from then on in they were never headed. Gardner stormed back into the race and set abo ut catch ing h is G P rival Lawso n. By that poi nt , Gardner had dropped to eighth p lace, but he soo n started to reel in the leaders and by 3:00 p.rn. had worked his way into second. It was just coming up to the half way stage in the race when- Doohan and Gard ner kissed thei r chan ces of victory goodbye. On lap 102, with just over one lap of hi s session remaining, Ga rdner ran out of gas. As he went uphill toward the furthest part of the course, the Honda started misfiring badl y before finall y sputtering to a halt. As it was too hot and too far to push in , Gardner aba ndoned the bike and began the lon g walk back to the pits. All th is was witn essed on Su zuk a's giant television monitors, mu ch to the ernbarrasmen t of Hon da, whi ch owns the Suzuka Circu it. Wit h their ma in riva ls ou t of the way, Law son and T aira were in front and in total con trol. For a wh ile the y were chased by the Hon das of Miyazaki/ T adash i Oshima and Vieira/Dorni n ique Sarron a nd the Yamaha of Fuji wara/ Kun io Machi i, bu t the T ech 21 Yam ah a never missed a beat on the way to the checkered flag. After the race, Lawson said, " Yeah , it was a pre tty good bike - for a fourstro ke. After Wayne and Mich ael' s Honda went out, we knew we could win . We just had to concen trate on keepin g ou t of the way of the slower traffic and bringin g the bike back home. "The foot (inj ured in the U.S. GP " Lag una Seca in April) is a little sore at now , but when you win you forget about things like that. It's al wa ys enjoyable to wi n races, and now I'm reall y looking forward to the British GP next week." In second place, two laps adrift was the H onda of Miyazaki/Oshima, j ust a second ahead of the Honda of Vieira! Sarro n. But as the fireworks lit up th e nighttime sky, it was Yam ah a mak ing the most noi se with their celebra tions, , knowin g that they had put one over on Honda at their own circu it. The victory was particu larly wellreceived by the huge cro wd of approxim ately 160,000 fans, as Taira is the most popu lar rider in J apan . Long after the riders had left the victory rostru m a massive po rtion of the crowd wa s st ill th ere cha nt i ng T a ira 's a nam e. Results Q UALIFYING: I. Wa yn e Ga rd ner/ Mi cha el Dooha n ( 2 : 1~ . 427);2. Ken ich iro Iwahash i/Tun Maeda (2: 14.4 33 ); 3. T adah ik o Ta ira/ Eddie La ws on (2: IS.520); 4. Takahi ro Soh wa/Sho uic h i T su kamoto (2: 15.929); 5 . Dom i n iqu e Sa rron / Alt'x Vi e ira (2: 15 .0 16 ); 6 . Ya su tom o N a ~ai / Sh inso Ka to h (2;15.980); 7. S ho ji M iyazak, ITadash . O sh im a (2 : 15.93 1); 8. Do u g Po len /Mi g ue l DuH a m el (2: 16. 164); 9. Kun io Mach ii/ No rihiko Fujiwa ra (2: 16. 548); 10. Mi ch a el Do wso n / Ro b Ph i ll i s (2 : 16 .713 ); I J. Herve Momeau z Parr ick lgo a (2: 16.824); 12. Pet er Goddard/Tho m as Steven s (2;17.627); 13. j ean-Michel Ma. ioli / St

• Cover