Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

Carl os Cardus (4) leads MaSahiro Shimizu, Nobuatsu Aoki (47), Dominique Sarron (8), Wileo leelenberg (14) and eventual winner Luca Cadalora (5). Schwantz (leading) and Gardner fought over second place until the final corner when Schwantz crashed; he was able to remount, however , in time to finish third. l h is ru le, Cad a lora 's 250cc teamma te Crivill e wou ld 've had the good ru bber had he not been forced to wi thd raw fro m the race d ue to a p re-season testi ng injury. " It mak es it easier for the m to make the tra nsistion ,' the, Michel in repr esent a tive said. ) I Some thou ght it had less to do wi th thi s little-kno wn po licy and more to do with Honda's stro ng-arm tactics since they do an enormous a mo u nt of OEM bu sin ess wi th the French tire mak er. On th e fourth lap of th e very firs t o££icial session , Schwantz clocked a blindingly fast 2: I 0.422, well under th e form er qualif ying mark of 2:11.866 set by Sh iseido T ech 21 Yamaha 's Tadah iko Taira la st year. No one else would get into th e l ls, Rainey only put in 12 laps, spe nd ing much of his time in th e pits with an ign itio n problem that was diagnosed as a cracked spark plug. T he second and third sessions would be different, however, with Rainey in th e low lOs in the second and, having earn ed the good tires, be set the fastest .time of 2:09:589 (IOl.lRDlPb}'itdh~ third, fo,riy hopes ' ~ oUIeD- ~ €l.f wrestling ~ pole_aWay~~ by a rainy :fourth sCs.sioB.. It .W also . .3&. possible Rainey could'v gQIlC £aSler-." " We-needed anOUler dry,sessioq; ~ try anotfl:er. ~':iflg, " . JtaiBey '.~ OIl SatUl"~y ~J~ ~' ~'lt a ,It~. waller in ~ frOnt. Jt's'J1Qtj, ~;ind 'nOt ·il": cR3uel'. ·; I' s ~ I a . movem e ~t:" or _ ., . Rainey didn't know Wbctberbe'd set hi s fast time 00 the good Michelins or no t, " I really don't know," he Said. " I don 't know wh at I had before but it felt a little better every whe re. T he good stuff's a half a second a lap better and that's incredible. When you 've got an incredi ble am o u nt of sid e-gr ip it's fun to £lick that bab y in th ere." Schwan tz wou ld sit nex t to Ra iney o n th e four -m an front ro w wit h a best cloc king o f 2: 10.329 fro m th e third sessio n. Sch wa n tz' times were more erratic th an Rainey's, suggesting he was still loo king for the best set up. " It still does n't steer exac tly lik e I wa nt it to, " he said of the normally nimble RGV-Su zuk i which he said he wa s still sorti ng ou t. "The engi ne's basically th e same. There are more varia tions, different types for different places. The chassis has been changed and th e su spension has been cha nged. La st year it was easy to come back to th e ins ide o f th e corner. I ca n't make 'i t turn back on itself like I wa nt to. I think it's sitti ng too low in th e back. Sch wa ntz , lik e Ra in ey. th ough t th e race pace would be in the 2:1Os. " I think the low lOs is good eno ugh to be on top. You might see high 9s to win it. I don 't think anybody can race there," he said. Late in Friday's second sess io n , Gardner strung together a trio in th e lOs. his best a 2:10.466 that put him third on the grid, Gardn er had a p peared more at ease on th e bike. fighting it less ou t of th e corners, a result, he sa id, of his new assoc ia tio n with 'tea m OWAer and crew chief Erv Kanemoto as well as a c~e in HRC ·ptl i-loOOj:>hy. - . , ~" ' " · " We're down .on speed to last year's bike, &ut it's easier on the riders ," the 30-year-old Au stralian said: " It corners much better. I think they learned a lot in winnin g the championship last year. . Acco rdi ng to o ne H onda mechanic, th e weight of th e NSR500 has been dropped from 3 10.4 pou nds to 281.6 pounds, closer to th e FIM limit o f 253. Kevin Magee (4) and Sito Pons (6) also had a race-long struggle for fourth place, with Magee getting the nod at the finish. It was Pons' first 500cc GP since 1985. They did it , he sa id , wit ho u t losin g stiffness . " It feels like a motorcycle," G a rdner said. " It rides be tter over th e b umps and it's easier to ride." " Whe n I first rod e it, it felt l ike it should be ridden around a race track," G ardner 's team mate Dooha n sai d. L ike H RC, G ardner ad m itted th at he, too , had lea rn ed so met h ing from t he 1989 cha m pio nsh ip . " I guess it's pretty obvio us with ho w Edd ie rod e las t year th at you can co me a way fro m here a nd Austral ia without a lot o f points a nd still win th e cha m pio nship ," G ardner said. " I 'm ta king a page from Edd ie 's book a nd will try to sco re poi nts a t a ll o f th e races," At th e far end 01 th e front row wo u ld be Lawson , fourth fastest a t 2:10.525, a lmost a second behind teamm ate Rainey. " I was 10th o n th e grid last year and fourth this time." People keep sa ying I don 't. like Suzuka. I do lik e th e track , it's good- and it 's fast. It's just that I've had bad luck here. I hope !ha t's goingto ~~ ~g,e he.said , a bit /' prematurely. . . ' .:. Three or tW·. tWr. riders on the second row wer~ ~ With injuries, w it h D oohan J~tJt.l'as·test on the Rothmans H onda ~ite the lingering effects of a broken arm, T'he 27yea r-Old Ausua-tiail I'i;ld broken it testing hex in ~eiftbe~ . ,t.li.en reinjured. it wi.h.~; ~!\i th e week prior '/0' ~(ai:e - ',. " I think I wo u l r bive been aU Tight for th is race had I not banged it again ," he sai d. " O nce I ge t going it won 't be a prob lem. If it 's too painfu l to ride, it's too pa inf u l to rid e." Doohan qualified for th e fifth set of th e to p-fli gh t Mich elins, though he said it wasn' t hi s intention. " It doesn 't 'spo» ma ke you go a ny harder. I do n 't go ba lls-out to get th e tires," Sin ce the fourth session was wet, his first tim e o n the new tires wo u ld be Su nday morning's 15-m inute wa rm -u p. Ne x t to Do oh an was th e R O C H on da o f Pier-Francesco Chi li , stru g g ling with a nu m ber o f p ro blem s, most o f which revol ved arou nd mo ney. Wit h lim ited back in g, Chi li ca me la te to testi ng a nd was on ly ab le to test o nce a t Philli p Island clocki ng abo ut 250 miles. H e tested again a t Su zu ka prior to th e race, but di slocat ed hi s wrist in a spi ll. H e was hoping for four dry sessio ns , but d idn 't ge t th em, " I wanted th e las t session to be dry to try a different rea r suspe nsio n setup an d carb u retion, but we'll ha ve to wa it for Sunday mornin g," said Ch il i. Ch ili 's ROC team is sponsored by Elf, the French television sta tio n La Cinq, and Best Company, a n Italian clo thing com pa ny. Team o wne r Serge Rosser is still looking for further backing. Seventh-fastest Magee could have used more time to recover from a pinch ed nerve in his back. The 27-yearold Lucky Striie Suzuki pil ot was nearly well when he -crashed in the first . session. He spe nt Frida y and Sa tur day nights with a physio therapist a nd hoped his -injurywouldn't bother him on Sunday. : . : .,:',q..isr.~~; 'wa(my' own ' (ault- and. ; thOugh my ,right elb'Ow's sore, J got C?ff ,., -lightl y;" he 'sai«. ~ ' ''l'be trapped nerve . is more _ol ~ probl'em . It happened . almost' two weeks ago and I'd expected to be 98% by now. In (act , m y ch iropr aetor in Australia had it fixed o n Mon da y, the n that afternoon I twisted rou nd as I was carrying my son J ake a nd my back clicked out of pl ace aga in. Sin ce th en nothin g has helped." <. .. 7

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