1988 Grand Prix motorcycle racing season

The 1988 Grand Prix motorcycle racing season was the 40th F.I.M. Road Racing World Championship season.

Season summary

Eddie Lawson would recapture the championship from Wayne Gardner in a season that witnessed several fierce duels. Two newcomers joined the Grand Prix circuit with Americans Wayne Rainey and Kevin Schwantz each winning races in their first full year. This was Rainey’s debut in the 500s; he had ridden a 250 in 1984 and gotten 1 podium of 12 starts. Alan Cathcart’s pre-season assessment in Cycle News was that “Rainey is a good rider, but he’ll never be a great rider. And he’ll certainly never be a Randy Mamola.”^[1]

The V4 machines used by the factories were extremely powerful and in combination with rigid chassis produced power slides that sometimes caused violent highsides, throwing the riders into the air. Cagiva joined the racing with Randy Mamola as their rider. The first United States Grand Prix in 23 years was held in Monterrey, California.

Sito Pons beat out fellow countryman Juan Garriga for the 250 title winning four races to Garriga's three. Spain's Jorge Martinez captured double championships in the 80 and 125 classes for the Spanish firm Derbi.

Grands Prix

Round	Race	Location	80cc winner	125cc winner	250cc winner	500cc winner	Report
1	Japanese Grand Prix	Suzuka			Anton Mang	Kevin Schwantz	Report
2	United States Grand Prix	Laguna Seca			Jim Filice	Eddie Lawson	Report
3	Spanish Grand Prix	Jarama	Stefan Dörflinger	Jorge Martínez	Sito Pons	Kevin Magee	Report
4	Expo 92 Grand Prix	Jerez	Jorge Martínez		Juan Garriga	Eddie Lawson	Report
5	Nations Grand Prix	Imola	Jorge Martínez	Jorge Martínez	Dominique Sarron	Eddie Lawson	Report
6	German Grand Prix	Nürburgring	Jorge Martínez	Ezio Gianola	Luca Cadalora	Kevin Schwantz	Report
7	Austrian Grand Prix	Salzburgring		Jorge Martínez	Jacques Cornu	Eddie Lawson	Report
8	Dutch TT	Assen	Jorge Martínez	Jorge Martínez	Juan Garriga	Wayne Gardner	Report
9	Belgian Grand Prix	Spa		Jorge Martínez	Sito Pons	Wayne Gardner	Report
10	Yugoslavian Grand Prix	Rijeka	Jorge Martínez	Jorge Martínez	Sito Pons	Wayne Gardner	Report
11	French Grand Prix	Paul Ricard		Jorge Martínez	Jacques Cornu	Eddie Lawson	Report
12	British Grand Prix	Donington		Ezio Gianola	Luca Cadalora	Wayne Rainey	Report
13	Swedish Grand Prix	Anderstorp		Jorge Martínez	Sito Pons	Eddie Lawson	Report
14	Czechoslovakian Grand Prix	Brno	Jorge Martínez	Jorge Martínez	Juan Garriga	Wayne Gardner	Report
15	Brazilian Grand Prix	Goiânia			Dominique Sarron	Eddie Lawson	Report

Final standings

500cc standings^[2][3]

Place	Rider	No.	Country	Team	Machine	Points	Wins	Poles	F.Laps
1	Eddie Lawson	3	United States	Marlboro-Yamaha	YZR500	252	7	2	5
2	Wayne Gardner	1	Australia	Rothmans-Honda	NSR500	229	4	5	3
3	Wayne Rainey	17	United States	Lucky Strike-Yamaha	YZR500	189	1	1	0
4	Christian Sarron	7	France	Sonauto Gauloises-Yamaha	YZR500	149	0	5	3
5	Kevin Magee	16	Australia	Lucky Strike-Yamaha	YZR500	138	1	1	1
6	Niall Mackenzie	5	United Kingdom	Rothmans-Honda	NSR500	125	0	0	0
7	Didier de Radiguès	12	Belgium	Marlboro-Yamaha	YZR500	120	0	0	1
8	Kevin Schwantz	34	United States	Pepsi-Suzuki	RGV500	119	2	0	2
9	Pier-Francesco Chili	8	Italy	HB-Honda	NSR500	110	0	0	0
10	Rob McElnea	10	United Kingdom	Pepsi-Suzuki	RGV500	83	0	0	0
11	Ron Haslam	4	United Kingdom	Elf ROC-Honda	Elf5-NSR500	68	0	0	0
12	Randy Mamola	2	United States	Cagiva	GP500	58	0	0	0
13	Shunji Yatsushiro	9	Japan	Rothmans-Honda	NSR500	57	0	0	0
14	Patrick Igoa	14	France	Sonauto Gauloises-Yamaha	YZR500	44	0	0	0
15	Tadahiko Taira	6	Japan	Tech-21 Yamaha	YZR500	36	0	1	0
16	Alessandro Valesi	27	Italy	Iberna-Honda	RS500	26	0	0	0
17	Marco Papa	22	Italy	Greco-Honda	RS500	17	0	0	0
18	Roger Burnett	11	United Kingdom	Katayama-Honda	RS500	15	0	0	0
19	Mike Baldwin	18	United States	Katayama-Honda	RS500	14	0	0	0
20	Raymond Roche	21	France	Cagiva	GP500	13	0	0	0

250cc standings^[4][5]

Place	Rider	Number	Country	Team	Machine	Points	Wins
1	Sito Pons	3	Spain	Campsa-Honda	NSR250	231	4
2	Juan Garriga	11	Spain	Ducados-Yamaha	YZR250	221	3
3	Jacques Cornu	9	Switzerland	Parisienne Elf-Honda	NSR250	166	2
4	Dominique Sarron	4	France	Rothmans-Honda France	NSR250	158	2
5	Reinhold Roth	2	West Germany	HB Römer-Honda	NSR250	158	0
6	Luca Cadalora	7	Italy	Marlboro-Yamaha	YZR250	136	2
7	Jean-Philippe Ruggia	17	France	Gauloises Blondes-Yamaha	YZR250	104	0
8	Anton Mang	1	West Germany	Rothmans-Honda Germany	NSR250	87	1
9	Carlos Cardús	5	Spain	Ducados-Honda	NSR250	71	0
10	Masahiro Shimizu	12	Japan	Ajinomoto-Honda	NSR250	68	0

125cc standings

Place	Rider	Number	Country	Machine	Points	Wins
1	Jorge Martinez	5	Spain	Derbi	197	9
2	Ezio Gianola	6	Italy	Honda	168	2
3	Hans Spaan	27	Netherlands	Honda	110	0
4	Julian Miralles	3	Spain	Honda	104	0
5	Domenico Brigaglia	4	Italy	Rotax	69	0
6	Gastone Grassetti	12	Italy	Honda	66	0
7	Adi Stadler		West Germany	Honda	63	0
8	Stefan Prein	35	West Germany	Honda	59	0
9	Lucio Pietroniro	9	Belgium	Honda	56	0
10	Gerhard Waibel	6	West Germany	Honda	52	0

80cc standings

Place	Rider	Number	Country	Machine	Points	Wins
1	Jorge Martínez	1	Spain	Derbi	137	6
2	Àlex Crivillé		Spain	Derbi	90	0
3	Stefan Dörflinger	4	Switzerland	Krauser	77	1
4	Manuel Herreros	2	Spain	Derbi	69	0
5	Peter Öttl	5	West Germany	Krauser	65	0
6	Bogdan Nikolov		Bulgaria	Krauser	55	0
7	Károly Juhász		Hungary	Krauser	54	0
8	Jos van Dongen		Netherlands	Casal	47	0
9	Giuseppe Ascareggi		Italy	BBFT	46	0
10	Gabriele Gnani		Italy	Gnani	36	0

References

• Büla, Maurice & Schertenleib, Jean-Claude (2001). Continental Circus 1949-2000. Chronosports S.A. ISBN 2-940125-32-5
• "The Official MotoGP website". http://www.motogp.com/en/Results+Statistics/1988/NAT/500cc/World+Standing. Retrieved 2010-07-06. 

1. ^ Scott, Michael: "Wayne Rainey", page 95. Haynes Publishing, 1997.
2. ^ 1988 500cc Final Standings at MotoGP.com
3. ^ 1988 500cc Entries List at www.f1network.net
4. ^ 1988 250cc Final Standings at MotoGP.com
5. ^ 1988 250cc Entries List at www.f1network.net

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