FEATURE
SPEED IN GRAND PRIX RACING
P68
caused the 500cc-class factory
riders to go on strike.
Niall Mackenzie, who claimed
his first 500cc-class rostrum
there in 1987, describes it as "like
threading a needle. The faster
you go the narrower it becomes.
At the very fastest part, your
shoulder and the guardrail are not
that far apart. If things go wrong,
it's going to be a bit of a mess,
but you're not aware of that when
you're riding around. It's the last
thing that comes to your mind."
Parrish names it as the scari-
est corner of his career. "Making
it even more interesting, there
was foot-wide rivulet running out
of the rock face and across the
slope of the track… you either
had to go really slow or you had
to accept that when you crossed
that you would slide six or eight
inches across the track and
hopefully the bike would regain
grip on the dry side. And it did,
because I'm still alive. But some
didn't."
Rainey also had an adventure
there, on a 250 in 1984, his first
visit.
"The bike would run leaner
down the front straightaway be-
cause of the trees, then richer
on the back straightaway over
the hillside so we'd leaned it out
a little bit. On a 250 up the back
you'd go left and right in sixth
gear without backing off at all. As
I turned right my bike locked up,
and highsided me.
"I got the crap knocked out of
me, and as I got up I heard these
people laughing their asses off
on the hillside above, just crack-
ing up. They thought that was the
funniest crash they'd ever seen.
That was the first time I'd ever
been laughed at after highsiding
at 150 mph."
The fear was real, but as Rain-
ey said: "When those thoughts
occurred, you just didn't go
there. But you knew that was all
a part of it… drafting three or four
guys, changing direction flat out
in sixth gear, the buffeting, the
Randy Mamola wins a
rain-sodden Belgian
Grand Prix in 1986.
