Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

~ ROADRACE World Championshi~erbike Road Race Series: Round 7 his team this was far and away their best meeting of' the season, finishing third in race two. Like Mertens, Pirovano struggled for confidence earlier this year. but that wasn't evident at the Osterreichring. His Pirovano Racing team Yamaha was fast and so was he. He, in tum. is25 points down on Merkel in fourth place in the championship. ~ Baldassarre M~nti (8) leads Fabrizio Pirovano (4), Alex Vieira (15) and Rob Phillis (11) at the start of race two. Pirovano won the first race, but settled for third here. Belgian Stephane Mertens had an outstanding outing at the Osterreichring in Austria, qualifying on pole. posting 2-1 finishes. and setting a new lap record. Mertens reigns in Austria By Bruce Newton Photos by Johan Vandekerckhove "T ZELDVEG,AUSTRIA.JULY I 18 his is my kind of track," said a happy Ste p ha ne Mertens after emerging as top points scorer at the hi gh -speed O sterreichring circuit. H e was n 't kidding. Mert ens was fastest qua lifier on his Total/Bel-Ray Honda RC30; he fini shed second 10 ra in lover Fabrizi o Pirovan o in the wet first race; he won race two after passin g World Cha mp ionship leader Raymond Roche on th e last lap ; and he set a new ou trigh t lap record for the 3A72-m ile circuit. __ Such an effort from the 31-year-old Belgian - his second top points score in a row - put him in second place in the point standings ah ead of Fred Merkel, and an eminently bridgeable 25 points beh ind Roche. It is an almost u nbel ievable tu rn arou nd from the early rou nds in Spain a nd Eng land where Merten s admi tted ne was stru gg ling 10 run with the leaders. " My bike is good a nd the tea m is starti ng to feel better. I was very nervous in the early races (because) we go t th e bike too la te. Now, we are starti ng to find a good comprom ise a nd I a m riding as well as I can," said Merten s. This was the second meeting in a row wh ere Roch e has fail ed to win a race, a nd the third wh ere Merkel has failed to mak e it o n to the rostru m. The latter's problem s were multiple again, as he was unable 10 com e to gr ips with the wet track in the first leg, a nd then lacked th e power 10 run th e record-shattering pace in the dry leg two. On the other hand, for Pirovano and Qualifying There were severa l notable entries wh o failed to show up in Austria: Terry Rymer elected to defend his British Supercup Series lead . leaving Rob McElnea as the sole Loctite Yamaha representative. Australian veteran Malcolm Campbell sta yed at home in Tasmania becau se wife Su e is expecting their third child. New Zealander Aaron Slight was forced to withdraw after a serious crash in testing for the Suzuka 200, whi ch ground away the back of most of his right hand. The Kawasaki factory rider is back home recovering from a skin graft operation and wi ll not ride for some months. Interesting new entries included the Honda France duo of Alex Vieira and Jean-Michel Maniolli on RC30s bristling with R VI' gear - radiators, forks, discs and th e like - and the Yamaha rider they are battling for the French Su perbike (or equivalent) title - Jean Yves Mounier. Overall, the entry was stro ng, with 46 riders fighting for th e 36 gri d po sitions. Merten s, still riding wi th a soft cast 10 protect hi s broken left wrist, domina ted qualifyin g with a first sessio n effort th at no one could get close 10 a t I minute, 54.636 seconds o n the Jean d'Hollander-tuned H on da , after pickin g up a slings hot draft on hi s last lap. At that stage of the meeting the tim e was seven-tent hs o f a second faster than Roch e a nd more than a half-second faster th an Baldassare Monti's lap recor d of 1:55.195. But that was overshado wed in the a fte rnoo n b y G ia nca rlo Fal appa ' s horrific hi gh -speed cras h a t o ne of the circuit 's most dan gerous, Arm co-lined poi nts. Wh eth er the factory Ducati pilot ' - wh o was celebra ting hi s 27th birthda y that day - lost th e front end by himself or was balked by a slower rider and had 10 brake (as Team Manager Marco Lucchinelli suggested) remains unclear. But the facts are that he was he licoptered 10 th e hosp ital minutes lat er with two broken femurs (u pper leg ), a sha ttered left sho u lder blad e and the wris t snapped in Mosport, rebrok en. 1£ not for the quick actions of fellow Italian rider Davide Tardozzi he migh t have stra ng led on his ow n helm et strap, as hi s helmet had twisted on hi s head. The accident brou ght a n early end to the seco nd qual if yin g sess io n . Mertens didn' t need 10 im prove hi s time to claim po le p o siti on. Om itt in g Falappa, who set th e second fastest tim e the la p before his cras h, Roch e sa t next 10 the Belgian on the gr id , like most improving in th e second session. Roch e was juggling fuel injection a nd suspensio n from one bik e 10 a no ther to find a good combina tion. Michelin 's two top poi nts scorers were supp lied Grand Pr ix-spec rear tires for thi s meetin g and set their fast tim es on th em - a ltho ug h Roch e said there was more to come. It was noti ceabl e th at Lucchinelli was keeping Roche under wraps mu ch of th e time, granting him a minimum of free pra ctice on Friday. _ " Roc he is not a lucky rider, " Lu cch ine ll i expla ined. " La st year here ano ther rider crashed into him. Also, our new crankcases won 't arrive until Japan '(a t Sugo, August 26) so we hav e to be careful. This race, I prefer we finish." . , Next came Rumi/RCM men Merkel and Monti, the latter putting in his best effort of the year on a circuit he loves. Both benefi ned from new, steeplyprofiled Pirelli front tires, provided in an attempt to cure the Italian company's North American problems. To call the tire new was somewha t deceptive, as it was actually designed in 1988 when Pirelli was working with the Cagiva Grand Prix team. " We've' never had a rider who was aggressive enough with it to make it work," exp lained Pirell i tire engineer Peter Ingley. "That's not a slight on Randy Mamola. It ' s just that the Cagiva's suspension wasn't up to this tire." Merkel liked it: " It's handling a lot better. It 's taking all the Ohlins (inverted forks ) can dish OUL " It wasn't until th e second session that Merkel got into the fast times, though. H e went out with a 3.75-inch front rim in the first session , but the tire wou ldn't work properly unti l the crew switched back to a 3.5-inch rim . Vieira came up onto the front row on his Honda France RC30, while teammate Mattioli languished back in l lth, albeit only 0.6 of a second slower. Times were close all the way down less than a second separated the front row ; 5.5 seconds encompassed the entire &~ • Filling out th e top 10 wen; the Kawasaki o f Rob Phillis, Ducatimounted T ardozzi, Brit Rob McElnea (with new Dunlop rears 10 round out th e tire wars), Mounier on the Masters T eam Yam aha, and Finn Jari Suhonen 's Arwidson Yamaha. Pirovan o was languishing back in 15th on th e fourth row - a normal qualifying effort for him. Hi s team was com p laining o f carbure tio n problems - understan dabl e, as the unpredictable Austrian mountain weather alternated between th reat ening, cri sp , pl easant and boiling hot . Race one l , The first race started two hours late and was reduced by two laps to 16 after, ra in. thunder a nd lightning lashed th circuit. It wasn 't raining wh en the ligh ts went green, but the track was soaked. h Pirovan o took to it gleefully, disposin g o f Monti (ha ving his first ride on wets) o n th e open ing lap , then sprinting o ff a t the front with fellow fast starters Phillis a nd Vieira foll owing closely. Spaniard Daniel Amatriain on the Gabi Co mpetitio n H onda RC30 headed th e rest, a ll th e way up from hi s 22nd grid po sitio n. Mertens quickly came through to join the first three and they began to break away . Merkel was go ing backwards, struggling on hard Pirell i wets and was seventh o n lap two . Roch e was 15th. Mertens took thi rd from Phillis o n la p four and th e lead grou p became th ree as Phillis could not mat ch th eir pace. Suho nen was fifth , but went ou t the next la p when he crashed a t the H eil Lich t S-bend after losin g the front end under brak in g. T his moved following Sca nd inav ian Anders Andersso n up a nd into a race-lo ng purs ui t of Australian Philli s' Shin Etsu Kawasaki ; >! Others im pressing in the gri m conditions were Ern st Gschwend er on the Suzuki Deu tschland GSXRR750 in sixth, up from 19th on the grid, and th e fir st Dunl op runn er. German Superbike Champion Udo Mark was also giving it heap s, up 10 ninth from 17th and harrying Merkel for eighth unti l ca mshaft failure in the Mitsui Yamaha on lap six. , At th e halfway point, Pirovano had yet to be passed, although Vieira and Mertens were right on him . Roche was now up to 10th, and McElnea, after a very ordinary start, had carved through to eighth and was looking for a way

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