1989 Japanese motorcycle Grand Prix

  1989 Japanese Grand Prix

Race details
Race 1 of 15 races in the 1989 Grand Prix motorcycle racing season
Date	26 March 1989
Official name	Grand Prix of Japan [1] [2] [3]
Location	Suzuka Circuit
Course	Permanent racing facility 5.821 km (3.617 mi)
500 cc
Pole position Rider Tadahiko Taira Time 2:11.860 Fastest lap Rider Kevin Schwantz Time 2:11.800 Podium First Kevin Schwantz Second Wayne Rainey Third Eddie Lawson
250 cc
Pole position Rider John Kocinski Time 2:17.040 Fastest lap Rider John Kocinski Time 2:16.720 Podium First John Kocinski Second Sito Pons Third Luca Cadalora
125 cc
Pole position Rider Ezio Gianola Time 2:26.980 Fastest lap Rider Ezio Gianola Time 2:26.490 Podium First Ezio Gianola Second Hisashi Unemoto Third Koji Takada

The 1989 Japanese motorcycle Grand Prix was the first round of the 1989 Grand Prix motorcycle racing season. It took place on the weekend of 24 to 26 March 1989 at the Suzuka Circuit.

500 cc race report

Wayne Rainey gets the lead and opens a small gap in the first lap, with Kevin Schwantz moving into second to chase him down. Wayne Gardner and Freddie Spencer go off-track, but get back in the race, while Doohan has a mechanical and Pierfrancesco Chili crashes out.

Schwantz soon catches and passes Rainey at the chicane in a typical late-braking move that leaves Rainey without much room. Rainey, not wanting to let Schwantz through, almost hits Schwantz’ back wheel and loses a lot of time. Schwantz will repeat the chicane pass two more times. From about half-race on, Rainey and Schwantz get in an epic fight, seemingly incapable of wanting to let the other take the lead. Rainey is so committed to staying in front of Schwantz that he does a downhill wheelie on the approach to the hairpin; on this lap alone they swap the lead at least 5 times.

Last lap sees Rainey ahead on the straight, but Schwantz passes into Turn One and manages to hold the lead to the finish line. Crossing the line, Rainey’s arm-flailing betrays his fury, but he manages to extend a hand of congratulations as he comes alongside Schwantz on the cool-down lap. Lawson battles his way through a handful of riders to take 3rd.

Rainey says of the last lap: “I couldn’t see my pit board so I was watching the circuit’s own lap counter over the start line. That clicks down as the leaders go underneath it, but I didn’t realize that. I read L2. I was following Kevin and thinking: why’s he riding so wild when there’s still another lap left? He was being real aggressive, and I was sitting right on him, planning how the next lap I’d draught him on the back straight, then not let him pass me at the chicane. Then we came across the start-finish line and there was the checker. It really pissed me off. Towards the end of 1988 we’d started saying hello to one another. It wasn’t just the two of us anymore. Now our rivalry started to heat up again.” ^[4]

Ezio Gianola, riding his bike at the 125cc race, which he went on to win.

500 cc classification

Pos.	Rider	Team	Manufacturer	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	Kevin Schwantz	Suzuki Pepsi Cola	Suzuki	22	48:48.370	3	20
2	Wayne Rainey	Team Lucky Strike Roberts	Yamaha	22	+0.420	2	17
3	Eddie Lawson	Rothmans Kanemoto Honda	Honda	22	+30.670	10	15
4	Wayne Gardner	Rothmans Honda Team	Honda	22	+35.190	4	13
5	Kevin Magee	Team Lucky Strike Roberts	Yamaha	22	+36.420	5	11
6	Niall Mackenzie	Marlboro Yamaha Team Agostini	Yamaha	22	+39.540	8	10
7	Christian Sarron	Sonauto Gauloises Blondes Yamaha Mobil 1	Yamaha	22	+48.470	11	9
8	Tadahiko Taira	Yamaha Motor Company	Yamaha	22	+48.540	1	8
9	Norihiko Fujiwara	Yamaha Motor Company	Yamaha	22	+1:09.280	16	7
10	Shinichi Itoh	Team HRC	Honda	22	+1:09.280	12	6
11	Bubba Shobert	Cabin Racing Team	Honda	22	+1:18.990	14	5
12	Ron Haslam	Suzuki Pepsi Cola	Suzuki	22	+1:23.880	13	4
13	Shunji Yatsushiro	Team HRC	Honda	22	+1:25.670	19	3
14	Freddie Spencer	Marlboro Yamaha Team Agostini	Yamaha	22	+1:26.000	9	2
15	Kunio Machii	Yamaha Motor Company	Yamaha	22	+1:29.480	15	1
16	Randy Mamola	Cagiva Corse	Cagiva	22	+1:45.800	17
17	Takazumi Katayama		Yamaha	22	+1:46.240	22
18	Dominique Sarron	Team ROC Elf Honda	Honda	22	+2:12.130	23
19	Katunori Shinozaki		Suzuki	21	+1 Lap	26
20	Marco Gentile	Fior Marlboro	Fior	21	+1 Lap	27
21	Keiji Kinoshita		Honda	21	+1 Lap	28
22	Yoshimasa Matsumoto		Honda	20	+2 Laps	30
23	Francisco Gonzales	Club Motocross Pozuelo	Honda	20	+2 Laps	31
Ret	Doug Polen		Suzuki		Retirement	20
Ret	Alessandro Valesi	Team Iberia	Yamaha		Retirement	24
Ret	Osamu Hiwatashi		Suzuki		Retirement	18
Ret	Hikaru Miyagi		Honda		Retirement	21
Ret	Norio Iobe		Honda		Retirement	25
Ret	Mick Doohan	Rothmans Honda Team	Honda		Retirement	6
Ret	Pierfrancesco Chili	HB Honda Gallina Team	Honda		Retirement	7
DNS	Simon Buckmaster	Racing Team Katayama	Honda		Did not Start	29
Sources: [5] [6]

References

1. "Grand Prix uitslagen en bijzonderheden 1989". Archive.li. Archived from the original on 2015-07-25. Retrieved 2018-09-07.
2. Mitchell, Malcolm. "1989 500cc Class (FIM Grand Prix World Championship) Programmes - The Motor Racing Programme Covers Project". www.progcovers.com.
3. Mitchell, Malcolm. "Suzuka Circuit - The Motor Racing Programme Covers Project". www.progcovers.com.
4. Scott, Michael: "Wayne Rainey", pages 135-136. Haynes Publishing, 1997.
5. "1989 Japanese MotoGP - Motor Sport Magazine Database". 13 June 2017.
6. "motogp.com · JAPANESE GRAND PRIX · 500cc Race Classification 1989". www.motogp.com.

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