Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

drew from the seco nd day of practice. bu t considered starti ng the race " j ust to make th e gr id look a bit full er: ' before choosing the sidelines ins tead. Onl y six privateers turned up. and all qualifi ed . with Vince Scarola's four-c yl inder Pa ton a head o f th e Honda triples of Eddie Laycock. Nigi Schmassman, Andreas Leuthe, Kees Doorakkers and Heinrich Butz. 500cc Grand Prix Rainey took off in the lead. with Gardner and Doohan in pursuit. but a t the first "bend Sarron's blue Gauloises Yamaha barged betw een the two of them. earning the tag " maniac" from Doohan, who dropped back to fifth behind Schwantz. They were tailed at the end of lap one by Chili. Barros. Pons. Ruggia, Garriga and Mackenzie. with the privateers already falling back behind. It took one more lap for Gardner and Schwantz to get past Sarron, and when Doohan came past a lap later, he broke the lap record. They held this order until lap 19. but with Rainey trying to slow the pace to save tires in the heat on the notoriously abrasive track. it was far from dull. with the four front-runners closing up. only split briefly when they started lapping th e few backmarkers on th e 12th lap. Soon after this . Doohan started losing ground. " I'd got a good start. but I lost it when Sarron came by in the first bend." the Aussie said. " Maybe I worked my tires too hard catching up again . but it started sliding the rear. and then the front. and I decided fourth place was better than last. " At this point. Rainey got some air. but Gardner later grinned and said: "I took a bit of a rest. " On lap 17. he was back on Rainey's tail. and attacking strongly. At the same time. Schwantz suddenly lost engine power after he closed the throttle to catch a more vicious slide than usual. and he was preparing to pull into the pits when the Suzuki chimed in on four cylinders again. But he'd lost touch with the leaders. who were now battling in earnest. Gardner's overtaking move came under braking for the fin al hairpin at the end of lap 14. a clean crisp maneuver. Rainey fought back. but couldn't make any impression on the flyin g Aussie, who really had the bit between his teeth. At one point. Rainey backed off when 'G ardner had a mas- , sive slide and looked like he might lose it. and the American decided th ere and then: " H e was prepared to ride harder than me and to take more risks. so I let him go. " But asked wh ether his points lead had made him cautious. he declined to be drawn. "It's hard to say. I like to win every race, but when you 're out there yo u have to do wharis best at the time ." By the end. the first four were spaced out. with Chili in fifth and also minding his own business. " I had some big slides early on. and when I lost touch in the backrnarkers, I decided not to risk trying to catch up." he explained. Some way back. Sarron was sliding around badly on his Dunlops, and had fallen into the clutches of a battle between Pons and Garriga - Barros having crashed his Cagiva on lap three. Behind them; Mackenzie was suffering badly from food poisoning - up all night. and unable to take any nourishment before the race. But his intended steady ride had taken him past Ruggia, and he was closing on the group in front. In the end. the only one he passed was the fading Garriga, wh qwas troubled with cramps. while Po ns defeat ed an an gry Sarron, who sai d later: " My bike was even sli ding at the rea r wh en I went into corn ers with the thro ttle closed." Irish rider Eddi e La ycock wo n the privateers' battle by a good lap , wit h 15 fin ishers out of 17 starters. Gard ner's victory redu ced Rainey's Wo rl d C ham pio nship lea d to 20 po ints. with Chil i th ird. Do ohan fourth and Schwantz movin g up to fifth. 250cc Qualifying The consta nt slow and mid-speed turn s of j erez generally favor th e Yarnahas, but nobody told works Honda rider Helmut Bradl, and he set a first-session lap that would hav e had him on the second row of the 500cc cla ss. H e didn 't improve. but it was enough to hold on to pole position. Behind him, the two top Yamahas jo usted for position. with Cadalora for the first time facing Kocinski at a track th at was new to th e American. Kocinski fell on day one. not hurt. but held second place at that time. "It's not a hard track - but there aren 't any corners." he said. "Only bends." The American failed to improve on day two. while Cadalora eased ahead by a couple of hundredths. hardly enough to feel secure. Then the heavyweight Honda battalion lined up - Dominique Sarron and Zeelenberg finishing row one; then a trio of practice crashers on row two - Roth (a non-starter aft er straining his groin). Cardus and Shimizu. But this trio were behind Martin Wimmer's Aprif ia , another victim of a prepractice crash, and only racing because of some skilled massage work to revive his injured wrist. Crasher Alex Criville maintained his reputation by tumbling again on Friday. but then stayed on to lead row three on his works Yamaha, with jorge Martinez's Cobas two places down, and the Aprilias of Renzo Colleoni and Carlos Lavado sa ndwiched between them. Suzuka victim Didier de Radigues was back. on the far end of row three; but jacques Cornu (H o nda) withdrew after discovering that although the bone fractures sustained in a practice cras h at La guna had heal ed . h is mu scles weren ' t up to the job. With only 35 entries. everyone was assured of a place on the grid. as long as they could run within th e qualifi cation time of pole position plus 10 percent. The slowest" qualifier. Au stralian Darryl Milner (Aprilia), made it into last place by a comfortable two seconds. 250cc Grand Prix Zeelenberg took off in th e lead , but by lap two the Yamahas were in front, and looking like they'd sta y there. It was Kocinski making the running. but he was sliding around a lot on the corner exits. and cou ld surely feel Cadalora breathing right down his neck. The Italian got past on lap 12. with Kocinski getting back ahead almost at once. Cadalora repassed him again. and now it was his tum to feel the remorseless pressure, with the American breathing down his neck and retaking the lead after three more laps. But Kocinski's Team Roberts Yamaha was still shaking its head on the bends. while Cadalora was just inches behind. It would obviously come down to a last-lap battle. And how. Cadalora left his move until the final fast right bends, and moved inside the identical red YZR with just one hairpin bend left. Now, as long as he could defend himself aro u nd the fin al left-ha nd hairpi n bend. he seemed cer tain to have th e ' race won. Accordingl y. he hugged the inside line, to mak e sure Kocinski neith er had room for an outbraking man eu ver, nor for a sneak atta ck on the exit. He thoughi he ha d done eno ug h. bu t Kocinski had o ther ideas . He went the o ther way ins tead . holdin g off the brakes even longer than the Ital ian. and taking the lo ng ro ute ro und th e o u tside to move alongside and th en ah ead round the tig h t bend. Even wh en he fluffed a gear change on the way o ut. he was in Cad al ora 's way. and th e Italian had to settl e for second. just two tenths beh ind. " T ha t was th e best race I've had for a long time: ' said Kocinski. Bu t wi th typical brashness. he confided later: " It wasn't that hard.. The reason I was moving about so mu ch on the corne rs was because my clutch wasn't taking up the drive smoothly." Cadalora, bemused. said : " I would never have believed that anyo ne could have passed me there," and had to be content with retaining his World Championship lead, and taking more than half a second off the lap record. The Hondas were outclassed by this struggle. then the best of them. Zeelenberg's, suffered a failure of the battery operating the exhaust power valve, and the Dutchman lost two laps getting it hooked up again. rejoining fora spirited ride to last place. This left Bradl, Cardus, Shimizu and Sarron in hot pursuit, outdistancing the rest of th e pack. Shimizu was the first to go . with his third crash of th e weekend; then Sarron also slid off, lat er giving the reason succinctly. " I was stupid. " Some way back. Wimmer. Criville and jochen Schmid were locked in battle. In the closing stages. Schmid's production Honda lost touch; then Wimmer's Aprilia had a massive slide on the penultimate lap. also dropping back. But nobody told Criville, and he didn't look behind him. He was going for glory on the final bend wh en he also crashed - only th en did he notice that he was quite safe from Wimmer. The partisan Spanish marshals helped h im to restart the works Yam aha to finish seventh, subject to protests. with Wimm er fifth and Schmid sixth. Carlos Lavado had been with th e group, but retired with 10 laps to go with h is en gi ne blown. Behind Criville, the Apri lias . .. Adri en Mor illas and Did ier de Radigues, Renzo Colleoni, Alex Rob a, Andreas Prieining and Loris Reggi ani. The last. poin ts wen t to Paolo Casol i's T Z Yamaha and the Aprilia of Bernard Haengell i. Cadalora left the track 12 poin ts clear of Kocinski , wh o moved into second. with Cardus th ird. and Zeelenberg do wn to fourth. I25cc Grand Prix The first race of the day provided the passio nate Spanish crowd with a pl easure that was not entirely expected. since jorge Martinez 's luck ha s been running against him for so long. Not today. and the tiddler multicha mpio n won the race with a consummate display of skill on the Spanish 11 Cobas, prevailing over a five-strong group after biding his time at the back of them for most of the race. nursing a Rotax engine that felt prone to seizure. "Aspar" was content to wait until lap 16, leaving Fausto Gresini's Honda to make most of the running. occassiona lly passed by julian Miralles. · Then Miralles made a slip. and there was a reshuffle that allowed Gresini to gain a bit of clear air. T hat was Martinez's signal, and he moved steadily up to take the lead for th e first time with th ree laps left. the no ise of exha usts drowned by the crowd's chee rs. Po le starter Stefan Pr ein nosed ahea d o nce. bu t the canny veteran Aspar repassed him at the next hairpin bend. and stayed in front by just o ne hundredth over the line. Gresini was th ird, but th e remainder of th e lead i ng quin tent , julia n Miralles and Dorian o Romboni collided on the final hairpin bend. letti ng Kohji Takada and imp ressive British new comer Steve Patrickson through to fourth and fifth. Miralles remounted to finish sixth. Second took Prein to th e title lead on 34 points. then T akada (28), Gresini (24). Spaan and Martinez equal (20). th en Raudies and Capirossi (19). Sidecar Grand Prix Defending cham p io n Steve Webster started from pole position. seized the lead from the start, and was never headed for his first win of the year. Behind him. the usual shifting fortunes saw Alain Michel/Simon Birchall survive in second place, _ although unable to match Webster's earl y speed - the Briton broke the lap record on the second lap. Egbert Streuer had been third, with Britons Steve Abbott/Shaun Smith battling with Rolf Biland a short way behind. But Abbo tt had engine trouble. lost touch. and then spun out in a fury. Streuer was heading for trouble of his own, with such bad wheelspin from an overworked rea r tire that he dropped to fifth. letting Biland through to th ird. with Kumagaya/ Houghton fourth. Michel and Webster now share the championship lead . with the Egloff brothers third. and major rivals Biland sixth and Streuer eighth. 0'1 Results SOOcc QUALIFYING: I. Mi chael Doohan (1:47.89 1): 2. Wayne Rain ey ( 1:47.944): 3. Wayne Gardner (1:48.152): 4. Christian Sarron (1:48.912); 5. P. F. Ch il i (1:48.994): 6. Kevin Schw amz (I :48.999); 7. Sito Pons \ 1:50.326): 8. Niall Mackenzie (I :50.493): 9. Juan G arriga (1:50.498); 10. J .P. Ru gg ia (1:50.718); I I. Alessandro Barros (1:50.936 ); 12. Ron Haslam (1:55.755); 13. Randy Mamola (1:52.447): H . Vince Scarola (1:54.261): 15. Eddie La ycock (1:54.997); 16. Ni gi Schmassman (1:55.883): 17. Andreas Leuthe (1:56.745); 18. Kees Doorakkers ( 1:57.354): 19. H einr ich Butt (1:58.275). 500cc GP: I. Wayne Gardner (H on); 2. Wayne Rainey (Yam ); ~. Kevin Schwa nu (Suz); 4. Michael Doo han (Ho n); 5. p.r. Chi li (H on): 6. Sito Pon s {H on) : 7. Ouistian Sarro n (Yam ); 8. N ia ll Macken zie (Su,): 9. J ua n Garr iga (Yam): 10. J. P. Ru ggia (Yam); I I. Eddi e Lay cock (Ho n): 12. Nigi Sch massman (Ho n); 13. Kees Doorakkcrs (Hon ): 11. Andrea s Leu the (H on); 15. H ein rich Butt {Hon ]. Time: 52 mi n .. 58.021 sec. Distance: 29 laps. 75.882 miles, Average SP«d: 85.90 mph. Margin of Victory: 7.3 seco nds, rastes. Lap: Michael Doohan, 1:48.290.86.955 mph. 500cc WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP POINT STANDINGS: I. Wayne Rainey (57): 2. Wayne Gardner (37); 3. p .r . Chili (35 ): 4. rnz) Micha el Doohan/Kevin Schwantz (30): 6. J.P. Ru ggia (25): 7. J nan Garriga (25): 8. Christian Sarron (22); 9. Sito Pens (21): 10. Kevin Magee (15): I I. m E) T adahiko T ai ra/Nigi Schmassman (10): 13. Ran dy Mam ol a (9): 14. (TI E) Alessa nd ro Barros/Niall Mackenzie (8); 16. Peter linden /SoItch (7); 18. m E) Edd ie Laycock/H. Miyagi (5); 20. S. Katayama (4): 21. O . Hiwatashi (3). 250ccQUAUFYllIiG: t. H elm ut Bradl (1;49.420); 2. Lu ca Cadalora (1:49.628): 3. J ohn Kocinski (1:49.654): 4. Do mi niq ue Sarron (1:50.250): 5. Wilen Zeeleaberg (1:50.333): 6. Martin Wimmer (1:50.443); 7. Reinhold Roth ( 1:50.563); 8. Carlo, Cardus ( 1:50.6 12): 9. Masah iro Shi mizu (1:50.887): 10. Alex en ville (1:51.091): I I. Renzo Collco ni (1:5U O 12. S): Ca rlos Lavad o (1:51.320); I! . J or ge Martin ez (1:51.827); 14. Didi er de Radigues ( 1:52.0 11): 15. j oc ben Schmid ( 1:52.1 10): 16. Alex Pr cin ing (1:52.322); 17. Lori s Reggiani (1:52.322): 18. Paolo Casol i ( 1:52.388): 19. Marcellino Lu cchi (1:52.876): 20. B. Haenggeli (I :53.0? 2); 21. Alan Carter (1:53.387): 22. Adrian Monllas (1:53.448): 25. E. Neumair (1:53.511): 24. Alberto Rota (1:53.588): 25. A. Borgonovo (1:53.657): 26. C. Catalano (1:54.040): 27. Kevin Mitchell (1:54.293): 28. Stdano Caracchi , (1:55.157); 29. J. Barresi (1:55. 157): 30. U. j ucker., (1:55.408); 31. A. La saosa (I :55.489): 32. Alain Bron ec (1:55.835): 33. J. ro~ay (1:56.175); 34. J acques Cornu (I :58.162): 35. b. MIln er (I:58.225). 250cc GP: I. Jo hn Kocinski (Ya m): 2. Lu ca Cadalora (Ya m); ~ . H elmut Bradl (H on): 4. Carlos Cardus (H on ): 5. Manin Wimmer (Apr); 6. Jochen Schmid (H on): 7. Alex enville (Ya m): 8. Adrian Morillas (Apr): 9. Didi er de Radigues (Apr): 10. - - - - - ' - - Cont inued on page 25 15

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