Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

Winner Franco Uncini leads Jack Middelburg and Kenny Roberts. World Championship Road Race Series: Round 6 Dutch GP win gives U ncini points lead By Henny Ray Ab~ams ASSEN, HOLLAND, JUNE 26 'T eam Gallina/Suzuki's Franco Uncini took over sole possession of the 500cc points lead with a win in the rain-delayed 52nd Dutch TT at Assen, The race was split into two legs when a torrential downpour stopped competition after seven ' laps of the scheduled 16 lap , race. It was stopped, a lap too 12 late because on the seventh go-around Kenny Roberts, Freddie Spencer and Graeme Crosby all fell victim to the wet. The first leg was scored on positions after the sixth lap and Uncini was second behind Roberts. Uncini won the second leg with Roberts third, giving the Italian the win with three points in the motocross style scoring. Behind Roberts, who like Crosby and Spencer made , the start for the second leg, came the John Player Special works Yamaha of Barry Sheene whose scores read 34. Crosby on the Marlboro Agostini Yamaha was the next best with a 7-2 tally ahead of a rejuvenated Randy Mamola who put his works HB International Suzuki in to fifth with a 6-6 tally. ' Spencer was credited with a fifth in the first leg , but th e scoring was done on th e sixth lap a n d on the seventh lap h e went off the front strai gh taw ay and in to the grass and mud. In the rush to r~ir the three-cylinder H on da NS500 for the resta rt a steer- , in g damper bo lt was overloo ked . He , noticed it was broken on the gr id to start the second leg a nd pu lle d off the line and out of the race. There was much co nf usion about the rules concerning ~hat len~t~ a race mu.st be to ~ considered ?f~lclal. It was finally disclosed that If It was less than two laps, a complete re-start was in order. And it if was more than 75%over, the race could be considered complete. The race clearly should ha ve been stopped sooner and the riders were unanimous in agreemen t. " I wouldn 't even drive in wea th er like that," Spencer said after the rac e was finall y halted. In other action Frenchman JeanFrancoise Balde took th e 350cc win over fellow Kawasaki pilot Anton Mang of West Germany. Alan North .did well to put his privateer Yamaha into thi rd: Mang took his revenge in th e 250cc class with a two and a h alf second win over Jean-Louis Tournadre on a Yamaha and Austral ian Jeffrey Sayle on an Armstrong. Daytona Lightweight winner Ri ch Schlach ter was back on the MacLean Racing Yamaha af ter two ou tings on th e WaddonEhrlich machin e, but a sti ll -sore wrist slowed h is charge a nd though he fin ish ed 16th h e was happy to complete h is firs t GP of the yea r. In th e 125cc ran ks An gel Nieto re mains u n beatable . The Span ish Gar elli m ulti-ti me World Cham pi o n ha s en tere d five GPs thi s year and swept' all five. Fellow G arell i pilot Eugenio Lazzarini fin ished second ah ead of the MBA of Pi er Luigi Ald ro- vandi. The situation is much the same in the 50cc class with Stefan Doerflinger the man to beat. The Swissman cornpleted the hat trick with his third win in three tries, this time with Lazzarini again the runner-up and current World Champion Ricardo Torme third on the Tormo Motul mount. For Krauser Racing it was a glorious day in the Sidecar class with their machines going 1-2-3. Leading the assault were World Champions Rolf Biland and Kurt Waltisperg on the LCR Yamaha. Alain Michel and Michael Burkard were next on the Seymaz Yamaha unit and Werener Schwarzel and Andreas Huber were third. The popularity of the Dutch TT continues to grow and the attendance figure was gi ven as 141 ,500 spectators. Most people thought that figure was on the low side and there were another 60,000 that came to see practice. The only rider to break the 2:50 barrier in 500cc practice and qualifying sessions was Kenny Roberts on the OW61 V-4 works Yamaha. His 2:49.87 was a full second and a half under the record time of last year 's winner , World Champion Marco Lucchinelli. Both Barry Sheene, on the square-four Yamaha, and Franco Uncini, on his new RG-7 · works Team Gallina Suzuki , were also under the old record. Spencer was sixth on the Honda and Randy Mamola was 13th on the HB International works Suzuki. The Su zuki team was out in force a nd recruited Dutchman "J u m p in g J ack" Middelburg for the ra ce. " We ga ve h im , well loaned him , a wo rks bik e due to his p ast record here an d the fact that he's a Du tchman racing in H oll an d ," a spokesma n for the HB In ternati onal Suzu ki tea m said . Uncini go t the holesh ot over Kork Ball ing to n on the wo rks Kaw asak i, Roberts, Sheene, a nd Ma mola, bu t by th e ti me th ey'd carv ed their way back in to th e in field horseshoe Rob erts wa s out in front. Lucchinelli and Crosby bo th start ed p oorl y. The hottest rider in racing right now is U ncini and he was sizzling as he passed Roberts for the lead with Middelburg giving the partisan crowd a thrill with his move to third, then second a lap later. The sky had clouded up and the race was as much for time as for prizes. Sheene was in fourth with - Spencer bringing up the tail of the leading q uintet, but still part of the pack. And in sixth, Mamola was putting in h is bes t GP pe rformance of a disappointing year . The rain started to fall on the fifth la p, bu t only lightly as Roberts regained the lead from Uncini and Sh eene. A lap later it started to and the riders slowed to a crawl while rain specialist Mi ddelburg went to the front. Fi rst Ro berts , then Crosby, then Spencer all went down on different p arts of the course. After Robert s' spill his machine ca ught fire, but he picked it up, briefly caught fire h imself , push ed it off the track, an d the fire was extinguished. Spence r slid alon g in the wet grass, bu t was unhurt and h elped push his bik e back to th e garage area . " T h ey should have stopped it sooner," was hi s and many other riders comment. " I' ve go t to go clean this mud off. " The paddock area was an exercise in motion as the teams worked to rebuild and ready the machines for the second leg. There' were a few skeptics who doubted that the machine that Roberts pushed to the line for the restart was the same one he fell off of, but no protests were filed and a Yamaha team member assured all that no switch had been made. Spencer noticed his defective steering damper on the grid and was forced to pull out of the race. "It was a bolt holding the steering damper on," mechanic Erv Kanemoto said. " We replaced the fairing, throttle cables, and levers between the races and the bolt was overlooked." After an hour's delay the riders lined up as they'd started the first leg, by their qualifying times, and it was "J u mp ing Jack" jumping to the point position. Sheene, Uncini, Mamola, Ballington and Roberts formed a group just behind .him, Middelburg lived up to his nickname on the second lap of the restart and it was signalled by a collective groan from the fans . "Jumping Jack" had jumped off with only minor injuries. On the same lap, Lucchinelli, who ran to 14th in the first leg, pitted his Honda. " T h e engine went and we don't know what it is. It got slower and slower and stopped. But it's working now," the World Champion and last , year's winner here said. Sheene and Uncinistarted to open up a gap on the Roberts-Crosby" Mamola trio with Mamola up to third then back to seventh just two laps later. Roberts was doing his best to control his machine and gave a demonstration of riding skill that few people had ever seen. With Crosby battling Mamola, Roberts came up to pass the two, but Crosby swung wide, forcing Roberts high and round the outside of the horseshoe shaped corner. With both wheels sliding and a crash almost certain Roberts grabbed a handful of throttle and rocketed past exiting the turn and into third; leaving a wak e of slack jaws and shaken h eads. " T he bik e was n 't wor king well a t all. I los t power on the warm-up lap an d the tires were n't work ing eit h er. My arm was a littl e sore from ' the cras h, bu t it didn 't reall y affect me," Roberts said . Four q uartets had form ed with th e lead pair being Uncini and Sheene. Crosby and Roberts, Boet van Dulmen a nd Ballington, and Mamola-

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