Throwback Thursday: The First Jerez GP Podium (1987)
Larry Lawrence | June 2, 2016
Photo by Henny Ray Abrams
This week’s Throwback photo is the podium of the World Championship 500cc Grand Prix race at Jerez, Spain, in 1987 with Wayne Gardner (center) taking victory on the Rothmans Honda, Marlboro Yamaha’s Eddie Lawson (left) second and Ron Haslam (right) third on the Elf Honda.
The Spanish Grand Prix had been held at central Spain’s Jarama Circuit since the late 1960s, so it wasn’t completely surprising when the move to the recently completed Jerez Circuit in southern Spain in 1987 was met with mixed feelings. Several riders were less than enthused about the 16-turn, 2.6-mile road course. They complained that the track was too tight and slow and that traffic would be a problem. Grand Prix world champ Eddie Lawson minced no words when he said of Jerez, “I think the track is awful,” he said after winning the pole for the ’87 race. He was concerned about lapped traffic in the later stages of the GP. “It could work for you or against you. It depends on where you catch them. It’s not like other track where you can ride around them. Here you have to be on line.”
In spite of the reservations of some riders, the fans loved the atmosphere of Jerez and flooded to the track 130,000 strong in ’87, even in the face of 90 degree temperatures, and Jerez (after one more year back at Jarama in ’88) became host of the Spanish Grand Prix.
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