Cycle News

~ World Championship Road Racing Series: Round 1 !Lawson beats Spencer - -- 0') o ~ there was water at th e crash site. Roche, th ough badly knocked ..... ~ .... 0- about, got back to th e pits and went out on his spare machine later in the sa me session . Fellow Frenchman Christ ian Sarro n, on an identical V- four Yamah a bUI run in the Sona uto Gauloises co lors, was nOI so lucky when he was highsided in the same session. He was thrown to the ground with enough force to send him to the hospital for a check on suspected concussion as well as bruised back, ribs and hip. It was particu larly bad luck for the reigning 250cc Cham- pion as he had alrea dy secu red third place on the grid with hi s Frida y morning time. T he disappointment of pract ice (Above) World Champion Eddie Lawson (1) came from behind to pass and beat former World Champion Freddie Spencer in the 500cc race. (Below) Spencer (19) sta lks Anton Mang in the 250cc race. before t he 500cc event. from me a lillie bit and I had to push it hard to get by him. It got a bit sca ry at tim es and then th e tir es sta rted to go off a lillie bit and I sta rted to con- serve min e and my lap board read plus zero for an awful long time, T he n at th e end it read plus 1.6 and I though t that if I cou ld just get thi s lapped guy between us o n th e last la p th at would do it and i t worked o ut." T wo davs before th e race th e even- By Peter Clifford KYLAMI, SOUTH AFRICA, MAR. 23 Freddie Spencer won the firs t Grand Prix of the season at Kylami but he was beaten by Eddie Lawson! Spencer won the 250cc GP, bea ting off the attacks of ex-World Cham- pions Carlos Lavado (Yam)and Toni Mang(Hon) but hecould not repeat th e performance on the NSR500 and followed Law- son across th e lin e. Randy Marn ola took fifth aft er a bad start with Mike Baldwin ninth. World Champion Lawson was ec- 20 static, throwing his arms in th e air in a show of sheer pleas ure th at we had hardl y seen th rough 1984, when th e pr essure had been on him to exercise contro l and collec t points for th e championship rather than win races. For him itwas a clea r-cut victoryover Spence r in a straight fight that vindi- ca ted hi s position as title holder. - " I'm gelling to lik e thi s place, tha t's two wins in a row," said Law- son, sweating after a race run in California-like summer condi tions. "T ha t was hard, though. I rea lly had to work for it. He was gell ing away tual result 'Iooked unlikelyas Spence r head ed both practi ce leaderboards. On the 500 he stood out as th e only rider to brea k the l-rninute, 25-second barrier for th e 2.55-mile circui t and cut over 1.5-seconds orr his two- year- old lap record. All th e top teams had been testing in th e week prior to th e race and th e lap times did not fall much through th e two days of timed practice. Spencer dropped his time by another four tenths on Frida y morn- ing to head Lawson by 1.3-seconds - th at would amount to th e best part of half a lap by the end of th e race. Lawson remained uncon cerned by the disparity, on the surface at least . "We're just running around trying a few things out and I can keep up that pa ce for the whole race. I don't know if he ca n. Our bike is certa inly a lot bett er than it was last year. They've improved it in the right areas so th at it comes o ut of the turns a lot bett er. the power is beuer and I'm gelli ng more traction from the tires. It also cha nges direction a lot bet ter than the old on e which makes th ings easier for lap tim es and during th e races where it will be Jess tiring to rid e." Lawson's new teammate, Raymond Roche, wasn 't keeping so ca lm abo ut things , though, and crashed heavily in the Fridav afternoon session.There was a suggestion that a water hose had split or come off and certainly and the race was really Mamola , who had finished 1984 second in the 500cc World Championship and looked th e man most likely to threaten Law- son and Spencer for the 1985 cham- pionsh ip. At Kylami he battl ed. he could not kick himselfout of seventh place on th e pract ice lead erboard, T he best he could do was a low 1:26, over two seconds slower than Spencer. He wasn't impressed with the new works triple he had been given. " It 's just not as good as the bike I rode in Mal aysia six weeks ago," Mamola said. Life wasn't made any easier by the tire tests Michelin were doing with radial fronts to go with th e radial rear tires that have become usual wear - th e radial fronts produced a very differen t feel and performance. On th e other hand, Dunlop, which ha d had their problems while working with Lawson and th e Yamaha team th rough '84. were ecsta tic abo ut th e way things were going now that th ey were working with th e Rothman s Honda Bri tain sq ua d ofRon Haslam and Wayne Gardner. T hey had been expe rimenting with a radia l rea r through '84, bUI before th e Japanese side of Dunlop stepped in with enoug h cash to save th e a iling British com- pany, research and development was somewhat stra ng led.Now with finan- cia land technical backing from Japan th ey had made grea t strides helping Has lam and Gardner to fourth and fifth places on th e grid. T hrough practice Mike Ba ldwin held on to ninth place, spliu ing the two Gallina Suzukis ofSito Pons and Franco Uncini. His team and pair of ex-America n Honda RS500s arrived only for th e week of offi cia l practice and as he poin ted out he didn' t need the handicap of less practice time than th e works teams. " " 'e can' t afford to go hiring the track and doing hundreds of la-ps before timed practice sta rts , When I got here and did my first lap of practice La wson and Spencer were doing th ei r two hundred and fir st. As you shave a bit of time off every time you go out they start oH with an advantag that is hard to make up. I'll be happier when we get to Spain where I've rid- den before and they won't have the extra tra ck time." In th e 250cc class Spencer had also stolen the one-second ad vantage over th e opposi tion by th e end of the seco nd session on T hursda y. Martin Wimmer lay second on his factory- issued Yamaha ahead of Toni Mang on a works V-twin Honda just like Spence r's. Fourth was Carlos Lavado on a second works Yamaha .

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