VOLUME ISSUE MAY , P129
be his last, was leading the race's
late stages with Spencer trailing
the Yamaha rider close behind.
Spencer had pulled clear of Ma-
mola while Haslam was nursing
a progressively ill-running Honda,
hoping and praying it would hold
on just long enough to keep Law
-
son at bay.
Four laps from the end, Rob-
erts went down while trying to
avoid a backmarker, handing
Spencer the lead. Roberts slid
into the dirt but managed to keep
his Yamaha Marlboro OW-70
running and get rolling again to
salvage fourth place, now run
-
ning behind Spencer, Mamola
and Haslam. Lawson was right
there holding down fifth.
"It happened right in front of
me," said Spencer of Roberts'
crash. "He just ran out of race
track and did a San Jose slide
into the sand holding onto the
bike. I saw him start to get up
right out of the corner of my eye
as I went past him."
Spencer went on to win the
race on his new three-cylinder
NS500, with Suzuki RG500-
mounted Mamola taking third.
Heading into the last lap, it
appeared Haslam's bike would
hang on just long enough to
prevent the American sweep, but
the race was three-quarters of a
lap too long for his Honda. The
crankshaft bearing finally let go,
preventing Haslam from cross
-
ing the finish line.
Roberts then had third in the
bag until his bike came to a
sputtering stop having run out
of fuel.
Lawson was happy to
inherit third. Luckily for him,
his Yamaha held together, and
the all-American podium was
complete for the first time ever.
Uncini was fourth, and Kata
-
yama rounded out the top five.
"I really felt proud up there
when they were playing the na
-
tional anthem," Lawson said. "It
was crazy up there; the crowd of
photographers and people were
mobbing us."
Lawson then asked Spencer:
"Is it always like this?" Spencer
answered: "Only in Italy."
It was Lawson's best GP finish
at the time.
But all the talk after the race,
it seemed, wasn't so much that
Americans swept a 500cc GP po
-
dium for the first time as it was
about Spencer having won three
straight GPs to start the season
as a rookie.
When asked if he knew if
anyone had ever won the sea
-
son's first three races, he replied,
"I think Kenny did it when he
won his first World Champion-
ship, and someone told me Barry
[Sheene] did it when he won a
World Championship."
Little did he know at the time
that he would go on to win the
1983 title and become the young
-
est rider to ever do so at the age
of 21 until Valentino Rossi came
along and then Marc Marquez.
Maybe not so surprising that just
a few weeks after the Italian Grand
Prix, an all-Yank podium happened
again, this time at the Austrian
Grand Prix with winner Roberts,
Lawson and Mamola. Spencer
DNF'd with an engine failure.
American riders swept the
podium in the 500cc Grand
Prix World Championship five
times that year. At the end of
the season, the top four riders in
the series were Americans, with
Spencer taking the title ahead of
Roberts, Mamola and Lawson.
How times have changed.
CN
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"I really felt proud up there when they were
playing the national anthem," Lawson said. "It
was crazy up there; the crowd of photographers
and people were mobbing us."
An all-American podium happened
again just a few weeks later at
the Austrian Grand Prix, this time
Cycle News acknowledged the
accomplished on the cover.
