1989 Belgian Grand Prix

Race details
Race 10 of 15 races in the 1989 Grand Prix motorcycle racing season
Date	2 July 1989
Official name	Belgium Motorcycle Grand Prix[1][2][3]
Location	Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps
Course	Permanent racing facility 7.004 km (4.352 mi)
500 cc
Pole position Rider Kevin Schwantz Time 2:24.650 Fastest lap Rider Kevin Schwantz Time 2:26.110 Podium First Eddie Lawson Second Kevin Schwantz Third Wayne Rainey
250 cc
Pole position Rider Didier de Radiguès Time 2:31.790 Fastest lap Rider Sito Pons Time 2:33.530 Podium First Jacques Cornu Second Sito Pons Third Carlos Cardús
125 cc
Pole position Rider Ezio Gianola Time 2:43.470 Fastest lap Rider Hans Spaan Time 2:55.740 Podium First Hans Spaan Second Ezio Gianola Third Hisashi Unemoto

The 1989 Belgian motorcycle Grand Prix was the tenth round of the 1989 Grand Prix motorcycle racing season. It took place on the weekend of 30 June-2 July 1989 at Spa-Francorchamps.

500 cc race report

Kevin Schwantz makes it six poles in a row, and John Kocinski makes his 500 debut.

The first turns go to Eddie Lawson, Wayne Rainey and Schwantz. Christian Sarron watches from fourth as the three ahead scrape fairings. The quartet get well clear, but wet patches begin to appear on the track.

Rainey and Schwantz raise their hands to stop the race, but ahead of them Lawson and Sarron continue at race pace. Lawson soon becomes aware of the water and raises his hand too, but Sarron, perhaps under the mistaken impression that he’s dropping the other three, seems too enthusiastic to stop and loses the front-end on a fast left. The riders pit with 5 laps raced.

It looks like the restart on aggregate time will be dry, and again Lawson, Rainey and Schwantz get away at the front, though the sky darkens. Again, the leaders raise their hands after the 9th lap, but before everyone can pit, Mick Doohan and Kocinski collide, sliding without serious injury.

The podium of the second leg is Lawson, Schwantz and Rainey, but the race organizers decide to run a third leg in the wet.

The third race sees Schwantz get away from Rainey, while Lawson gets into a tussle with Kocinski for third. On the last lap, with a comfortable lead, Schwantz crashes out on the brakes, and Rainey wheelies in for the lead, followed by Kocinski and Lawson. However, the results of the third race are later nullified, giving Lawson the win and closing the gap to Rainey. The points are later halved when a rule is discovered that only one restart is allowed.

The FIM had decided by 1989 that there could be no more than two starts and that after the second race, started on slicks, was stopped due to rain, the race would be deemed complete.

In an interesting footnote, the 1989 Belgium Grand Prix in Spa Francorchamps, scheduled for 18 laps and 73.3 miles, was entered in the books as a “complete” eight-lap, 34.5-mile sprint race victory for Eddie Lawson. But if you look at the old magazines you’ll see Kevin Schwantz celebrating the victory atop a wet podium and John Kocinski standing third in his 500 debut.

In fact, the race director, fearing a riot if he sent the fans home after only seeing two aborted starts and eight recorded laps, decided to appease the crowd by sending the riders out again even though it was clearly against the rules. Word was that the “promoter” ordered the race director to do this. The “promoter” was Bernie Ecclestone. Eventually half points were awarded and the FIM realized that something had to be done.

Thus the “wet race” and “dry race” rules were instituted. Under these rules if a race starts in the dry with riders on slicks and rain begins to the extent that the race director believes that there is insufficient traction for slick tires, he orders red flags. If three or more laps have been run, the original race distance, minus the number of laps run and minus one additional lap, is established for the second leg. However, regardless of the conditions at the start of the second part, the race is declared “wet,’ meaning that it would not be stopped simply because it begins to rain. Riders go out for part two with the understanding that, if they opted for the wrong tires, they either have to wobble around like Steve Manship at Silverstone or come in for a change. The final results are then to be based on aggregate times.

This worked from the late eighties until 2003 when Dorna, protecting their TV coverage against long delays, overrode strong MSMA (Motorcycle Sport Manufacturers Association) objections and managed to introduce the first of three variants of “flag to flag” racing -- races which would not be stopped and restarted due to rain.^[4]

500 cc classification

Pos.	Rider	Team	Manufacturer	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	Eddie Lawson	Rothmans Kanemoto Honda	Honda	8	19:46.260	5	10
2	Kevin Schwantz	Suzuki Pepsi Cola	Suzuki	8	+0.920	1	8.5
3	Wayne Rainey	Team Lucky Strike Roberts	Yamaha	8	+1.520	2	7.5
4	Christian Sarron	Sonauto Gauloises Blondes Yamaha Mobil 1	Yamaha	8	+11.430	4	6.5
5	John Kocinski	Team Lucky Strike Roberts	Yamaha	8	+15.220	8	5.5
6	Pierfrancesco Chili	HB Honda Gallina Team	Honda	8	+18.870	7	5
7	Kevin Magee	Team Lucky Strike Roberts	Yamaha	8	+20.720	6	4.5
8	Mick Doohan	Rothmans Honda Team	Honda	8	+27.230	3	4
9	Freddie Spencer	Marlboro Yamaha Team Agostini	Yamaha	8	+27.850	9	3.5
10	Niall Mackenzie	Marlboro Yamaha Team Agostini	Yamaha	8	+32.840	11	3
11	Rob McElnea	Cabin Racing Team	Honda	8	+32.970	13	2.5
12	Marco Gentile	Fior Marlboro	Fior	8	+1:25.460	16	2
13	Cees Doorakkers	HRK Motors	Honda	8	+1:34.460	21	1.5
14	Eddie Laycock		Honda	8	+1:37.060	20	1
15	Simon Buckmaster	Racing Team Katayama	Honda	8	+1:37.590	17	0.5
16	Josef Doppler		Honda	7	+1 Lap	22
17	Bruno Kneubuhler	Romer Racing Suisse	Honda	7	+1 Lap	18
18	Marco Papa	Team Greco	Paton	7	+1 Lap	19
19	Nicholas Schmassman	FMS	Honda	7	+1 Lap	23
20	Hans Klingebiel		Suzuki	7	+1 Lap	26
21	Fernando Gonzales	Club Motocross Pozuelo	Honda	7	+1 Lap	25
22	Mark Phillips		Suzuki	7	+1 Lap	24
23	Randy Mamola	Cagiva Corse	Cagiva	7	+1 Lap	14
24	Alessandro Valesi	Team Iberia	Yamaha		+6 Laps	15
25	Wayne Gardner	Rothmans Honda Team	Honda		+6 Laps	10
26	Pavel Dekanek		Honda		+6 Laps	27
DNS	Ron Haslam	Suzuki Pepsi Cola	Suzuki		Did not start	12
DNQ	Patrick Chavanne		Honda		Did not qualify
Sources:[5][6]

References