Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/127384
was broken, bu t it was running o kay. My problem was my rear tir e was too ha rd , and I cou ldn ' t lean it over in the left -handers in the ch ican es. I decided to go for a finish." But the second Rothmans Honda rider was far from his best, and Lawson stayed with him; and when the pair carne upon two battling backmarkers (Ber ker 's 358cc Yamaha twin a nd Buckmaster's '87 Suzu ki RG), he managed to get in front of Gardner and the slow riders , an d open up a safe gap throu gh the next bends . At the finish, Gardner had faded to 15 seconds behi nd. T he race beh ind was processional even more so after Koci nski slid 0[£ into the gravel o n turn o ne, wrench ing his knee. A lo nely Didier de Ra digues o n the second Lucky Strike Su zuki was sixth, down on pow er and with some front tire problems, bu t well ahead of J uan Garriga 's Yamaha, the Spaniard a lso lacking top end. The tire war rages on in Germany_ fter the manifold Dunlop tir e problems at Misano ·the week befor e, the arr iva l at the track with th e longest and fastest strai g h ts in ra cing was preceded by intense specu lati on of how th e Ang lo-Japanese tires wo uld cope with running at a sustained 190 mp h-pl us. The an swers sta rted coming in free training on Fr iday morning - they wo uld n 't cope, and with tires ch unking and blistering and doing everything short or exp loding on the rim, Messrs Sc h wantz , Ra iney, Ko ci n ski , de Radigu es, Cha ndler et al en ded day one feeling very glum, and rather fri ghten ed. "Every tim e a g ust of wind shakes the bike, yo u wo nder: was th at the wind, or the back tir e?" said Sch wa ntz ; wh ile Ra iney ad mi tted: " It mea ns I can't aim to finish fir st. I'm just ho pin g to fin ish ." Wh at a difference a da y - and an emergency internatio na l airlift of new tires - ca n make. Dunlop, who had been workin g virtua ll y non stop, flew in a batch of new rear covers from Japan and ano ther from England , while a thi rd arri ved by road from En gland, j ust in time to mi ss the first timed sessio n, but read y for Saturday. . After that, the men from Dunlop (a consignment of J apanese technicians had flown in to supplement the usual British trackside troops ) could hold their heads up again. It seemed, as the day wore on and Schwanu moved from a hard-won fourth overall into pole position, that the problems were over. . That didn't last either, for in the closing minutes of the last session Mich ael .Doohan (right) stole a small lead to reclaim the top spot he had held all Friday, Doohan, of course, uses Michelins, and faced a quite different set of problems. While the Dunlops were getting too hot, the ultra-hard Michelins weren't-getting hot enough, and in free training the Australian crashed at one of the circu it's ultra-fast chicanes. " I was testing a real hard tire , and it caught me out. I'd done five laps, but there, are so . few left-banders here , and that side. of the ti! e still hadn 't warmed up, ' he said. From th en o n, hIS team was puttmg cuts m that side of the tir e to avoid a repeat. Doohan was consistently fast throughout, setting the top .speed-trap time _ anawesorne 190.34 mph; but as calm and collected as ever. " I mainly feel the speed from the wind pressin g on lp y helme t," he sa!d; add ing: "We:ve been trying different pressures and things all day to try and find a compro.mlse th,at woul ~ let the tir es get warm enough to work, but not too hot. I believe we ve go t It right now," 1 " . ' Schwantz remained second, and spent th e last session entertam m g the enra p tu red grandstand cro wd to a display of sideways riding, comi g onto the p it stra ig h t more like a dirt bike than a road-racin g motorcycle. " I' d found o ne of the new English Dunlo ps to set my fast time in the mo rning . In the aftern oon, I was just trying to abuse it, to see how much it could take. I did eig ht or nine laps like th at , and it was o kay - I ,g uess Du nlop has had a few ideas in the last week," he said. Even so, he bel ieved he would choose a slig h tly slo wer tire wit h a harder compound, t? be on the safe side. . , Nobody expected th e Cagivas to go well at th is top-speed track, espec ially smc e the team's tests at Mugello d uring th e week had no t incl uded the promised new engine parts, but o n ly some existi ng parts with mod ifications. Bu t ll(~b.od y t<;'Ok Lawson into acco un t,'who found speed o ne way or anot her, and qualified thud, putting the Ca gi va on the front ro w o~ th e gri d for a .seco;>nd t!me in its . life 'and a second successive race. The ot her nders were now viewrng hi m as a senous threat, not least because th e Cagiva's " softer" power ou tpu t was less hard on tires , " T o morrow I'm going to gea r it up ," he added: "so I can have the other guys tow me, I'd better get a real good start. " This left Rainey suc kin g his teeth, fourth overall and ori the far end o.f ro w one. He had similar experiences with th e new Dunlops to Schwantz, set hIS fast time on a similar tir e, and also elected to race on the sligh tly harder variant . " I feel a lot better ab out the race than I did yesterday," e said; predicting tire tact ics would see it slow start and a clos e race. Kocinski led row two , haivng less tire trouble for the sim ple reason tha t he is still not riding a 500 to its maximum , though his results might suggest o therwi.se. He still takes unusually tigh t lines, and told me: "That's not my style. I like to use all the track , But I'm not able to ride th e 500 aggressivel y yet:" A H ockenheim first-timer he hated the cir cuit. "There 's no corners," h e said. " H o w can . you make up time?I don 't think this high-s~~stuf~ is real ra~ing, and it's ~ngero?s. " " Alo ngside him , Wayne Gardner was riding WIth a special boot and a lightweight plaster cast on his injured foot, after finding that the sim p le bandag e recommended by Dr. Costa wasn't protection enough.. . . , . De Radigues was seventh. The next qualifier wa~ Ruggia, but th~ Frenchman stepped off his Sonauto-Yamaha on Saturday rnornmg, and broke hIS colla rbo ne. Chandler was next, riding neatly as ever if not especially fast; then came Barros, who crashed hi s Cagiva heavily ill the same chicane soon after Ruggia, breaking his wrist badly. These crashes shrunk the starting gr id, already depleted by the absence of the injured Sito Pons, still further. A Rainey lost to Schwanu, but gained ground on Doohan in the championship. Four-time World Champion Eddie Lawson finished fourth after qualifying third. (Left to right) Rainey, Schwantz and Doohan stand on the winner's podium. Ad ri en Morillas 's Yamaha was eig h th, with Doug Ch an dler's similar bike ninth , Laycock 10th, and Doo rakkers I \th. The leading conte nders now share two race victories apiece, and gross, cham pionship scores put Doohan first o n 106, Rainey second on 94, and Schwa ntz third o n 75. Knocking off th e two worst scores (as they wiII do a t th e end of the year) mak es it a lot closer, however, with Doohan lead ing on 74, Ra iney o n 72, Schwantz on 63, and ' Kocinski fourth o n 62. T he inj ured Cad a lora led the IS-lap 250cc race int o the fir st chica ne, bu t was soo n overpowered by the fast and hungry Brad l, who proceeded to pull away a t lap record speed, taking ab out a second a la p off th e pu rsuers unt il he was better than 10 seconds ahead o n lap n ine. . This was remarkab le a t a circui t wh ere the slipstreaming effect kep t close battles for the lead in all o ther classes. " Everything was perfect," he said later. " I.jus t carried on go ing fast to keep my concentration, an d only on the last lap did I begi n to pray tha t my engi ne wou ld be okay." The H onda NSR V-twin , wrenched by Toni Man g's form er tuner Sepp Sch loeg l, was o kay, and he was in front by some 13.5 seconds at the fin ish , wi th the crowd re do u b li ng i ts b a yin g a p p roval. " T his is defini tely th e biggest day of my life," sa id Brad\. The pursui t was led at first by P.F. Chili's fast Aprilia, wi th Loris Reggian i's similar works bik e ho t on hi s heels, and Zeelenberg's, Cardus' and Cadal o ra's H on da s slips trea mi ng furio usly. Reggian i was th e first to go, with a broken ign it ion wire o n lap three. -No w Cardus go t ahe ad o f Chi li, followed on lap six by Zeelenberg. Short ly afterwards, Ch ili ran stra ig h t at on e of the chicanes, and cras hed in the subseq uent gra vel p it. Now it was Hon das a ll the way, wit h Cardus a nd Zeel en berg lock ed in comba t, and Cad a lora fighting an eventually losing ' ba ttle to sta y in 7