Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

same se~ond as Sch wa ntz , proving they were sti ll hungry for th e fig h t. Lawso n sa id th at when he a rr ived in H oll and he di dn 't know for sure if he was going to practice. Wh en he di d, he fou nd th at he was "babying my foo t a lit tle bit ." H e added th e bike was " q u ite a bit be tter tha n the last time I rode it. just as slo w as ever," he sa id, needling his team o wne r Kenny Ro berts, sea ted at his side. T o accommodate h is injury, Lawso n had hi s m echani cs lower th e footpeg and move th e sea t pad . H e said his ankle was taped and th at he would be wearing a normal boot and not o ne with an aluminum inse rt th at had previously been di scu ssed. " I think I ca n lap at th at speed (h is 2:03.866 practice time). If the o ther guys take off and go quicker , I don't think I'll be with th em ." Rainey had said th at he didn 't think Lawson cou ld co m e back and do th e times he d id: " I th ink Kevin and I are going to have our hands fu ll. " Gard ner also foll owed Lawson 's progress and he wasn't surp rised: " Yo u never forget how to do it ," he said. " I noticed he 's been foll owing Wayne Rainey quite a lo t. H e's been towing him and getting h im up to speed." Gardner had his own way of getting up to speed. H e'd been testing at th e seaside cou rse of Zandvoort in wes tern Holland and said th e experience had boosted his co nfidence quite a bit. And that wasn 't hurt by a first session lowspeed tumble which he blamed on a cross wind and he gradually impro ved his times, to a best of 2:04. 17 in th e fina l session. Part o f the problem was wi th th e steering a nd , th ough th ey a ltered it to steer bett er ea rly o n, it didn 't reall y work a nd they went back to t~eir o riginal setup for the fourth session. If he had a bigger p roblem it was ph ysica l. The r ibs he broke in G ermany were o kay he said, but hi s foot was still tender o n the inside a nd expecially p ro ne to the aggrava tion su ffered from pushing and pulling a 'm od ern -day 500. " I'm just go ing to be happy to go for the finish and stay o n the thing, " he said. "If I do , I' ll be happy." - On th e seco nd ro w, th e two rid ers to ea rn the A-gr ad e Michelin tir es, Mackenzi e a nd Doohan , sa ndw iche d best-placed Dunlop man , the Gaulois es Blon des Yamaha of Christian Sarron wit h Cagiva's Randy Mamola eigh t h fa stest on p rodu c ti o n Micheli ns. Mackenzi e on ly got the good tires for the fina l session, so me th ing he's had to dea l w ith in m ost races , and im media tely put th em 10 good use setti ng hi s fastest ti me o f th e wee kend. H e admitted , how ever , th at Sch wantz and Rainey were goi ng too fast for h im to keep up, bu t that he'd like to finish in front of Gard ner and Dooha n. Sarron ben e£itted fro m th e arrival o f Yam ah a's j a panese factory rider No rihi ko Fujiwa ra a nd th e Dunlop 'tir es a nd technicians he bro ugh t wi th hi m fro m j apan. Sarron said th at th ey had been using j apanese Dunlops thi s seaso n , b ut that new tires had arrived a t Assert which were better th an what he'd used before. H e also denied earlier rumors th at he was trying to get o u t o f hi s Dunlop con tract. "I accep t it 100%," he said. "I kn ew it would be a gamble. I was thinking maybe thi ngs ca n change. We m ust rea lize it was ki nd of a mi stak e, bu t .we accept the ris k." A bigger problem for Sarron than tires was hi s hea d. H e suffered a head in jury a t t he Yu gosla via GP a nd co uldn' t dri ve himself to th e Dutch race . He said he was experi encin g severe mood swings between excite- The 250cc GP was a thriller. In the end it came down to J ohn Kocinski (19), Carlos Ca rd us (44) a nd L uca Cadalora (5) . ment and depression and that it didn 't change until he got -on th e bike. H e a lso sai d th at he'd had a CAT sca n to determine head inj uries , and th at it had co me up dean. Doohan set hi s fast time in th e third session , but was unabl e to better it in the fourth. H e said he'd been workin g mostl y on the gearbo x and getti ng used to th e carbo n brakes which he was using for th e firs t time. Mamol a a p peared to be having a good ti me , wheel ying [or th e fans but trying not to loop his bike as he did here last year. H is time of 2:05. 147 was j us t .141 slower th an Doohan and [aster th an [our o f th e o ther j apanese factory fours. H e found th e resu lts encou ra ging. . "We hav e had to make up a big ga p, but th e guys hav e been wo rking rea l hard changing everyth ing and they've don e a great job ," he said. " T he eng ine in o ne bike is good a ll round a nd the o ther feels as th ou gh it may have more po wer , but I ra n out of time in tha t sessio n so we'll try it in the warm-u p. T he bi ke is a little heavy to steer, but I'm just star ti ng to for get th at m y wrist is a p rob lem and I wo uld rather have that th an a bik e tha t is unstable." Ninth to 12th fastest acr oss the th ird row were Ducad os Yam aha 's juan Garriga, Sarron ' s tea mma te jeanPh il ip pe R u ggia , the still- i nj u red Pier-Francesco Ch ili, a nd Fujiwa ra . All but Chili were Dunlop mounted. In a ll, 21 rid ers q ualified for th e 500cc class, the slowes t, N ig g i Schm a ssm a n on a three -cy li nder H o nda , over II and a ha lf seconds slower th an Schwantz. 500cc G rand Prix T he Dutch 1T has a well-earned reputa tion for ha vi n g th e worst wea ther o f the series, but this yea r was a p leasa nt exceptio n. T em pe ra tur es were in th e low 80s all through the ra ce weekend a nd wh en the 500s were gridded on Saturday afternoon it was 82 degrees and the su n tried to appea r through low, thin d ouds. Gardner jumped ou t to the lead Iol lowed by Rainey, Lawson , Dooha n , and Chili with Sch wantz eigh th into th e first turn behind the blu e Yamahas of Sarron a nd Ruggia. · Mamola was ' last away and pulled in wi th a burn t d utch. Because he was wearing gloves, he helped cha nge it and, despite losing three laps, went back out 10 a n eventual 18th -p lace fin ish . G ar dn er 's da y ended o n th e th ird lap whe n h is carb troubles struck. Wh en the ca rbs were di sassembled, nothing could be fou nd that wou ld have caused the problem. Rainey had tak en the lead on th e seco nd lap and o n th e th ird Schwantz moved int o seco nd ahead of La wso n a nd Doo han with Sarron a nti Rugg ia next best a head of Macken zie, wh o,like Schwa n tz, had go tten a bad sta rt . Schwan tz's problem was th at he slip ped th e d utc h too mu ch a nd it wo u ldn 't hook up. " I was reall y in a panic th e first five or six laps tryi ng to ca tch up," Sch wa nt z sai d. " I was m aking th e bik e look bad in th e beginn in g." By th e fi ft h la p , R ain ey a n d Schwantz had p ull ed away fro m La wso n who was o n h is way to a secu re th ird p lace wi th Do oh an no threat [rom behind in fourt h. Doohan had seen Gard ner sideli ned and a lap later Ielt h is engine go ing flat. H e bega n short-s hi fting at 11,500 rpm in stead o f the normal 12,500 to save the engine. Mac kenzie di dn 't mov e into fifth behind Doohan until th e n inth la p when he finally got the best of a battle with Sarron. . By the 10th la p Schwanu was up on Rainey, taking the lead to start the seco nd half o f th e race. Ra iney [a llowed h im 10 see w here the adva ntage was bei ng ga ined . Although he saw it, he was powerless to keep pace. " H e was ge tti ng out of th e chicane beiier a nd through th e kin ks after th e first rig h t," Ra in ey noted. It wa s some th ing Schwantz ha d been doing we ll a ll wee k, ge tting the Suzuki tu rned and sna p ping the throttle open earl ier than anyone else. It is a crucia l poi nt because it gave him a better drive down th e fro n t straighta way. As Schwan tz crossed the line in th e lead [or the firs t time wi th Ra iney quick o n h is tail , the y held dose to a nin e-second adva n tage o n Lawson with Doohan another five and a half beh ind, but over 12 seco nds a hea d o f Macke nzie. H e, in turn, was six seco nds in fro nt of th e Sarron /Garriga ba ttl e wh ich Garriga go t th e better of on the 13th lap. From th at point on , the order of th e top seven was set. Chil i ba tt led wi th Ruggia for eigh th a nd wo n th e fig ht wh en the Fren chman cras hed in the chica ne on th e nex t-t o -last lap. H e remou nt ed to fin ish II th a nd lat er co mpla ined of fr on t-end cha tt er, a prob le m a lso pl aguing Ch ili. Thou gh Ra in ey sa w he co u ld n ' t cat ch Sch wa n tz, he d id n 't let u p and th eir battle carried th em both to the ir fastest lap o n the 20i h of the race, two [ro m th e end. Sch wa ntz set a new track record of 2:03.48 wi th Rainey just . 176 slower. Lawso n 's fastest, a 2:04.78, ca me on th e sevent h la p. " I tried everyth ing, bu t I co ul dn 't sha ke Rainey o ff," Schwantz said. " My hand was botherin g me tow ard the end o f th e race. It tr ies to cramp up when I do a bunch of lap s back to back." Rainey said he had a pl an [or th e last la p : " I was q ui cker th rough th e last fo ur right before th e pits and was going to draft him onto the short stra igh t a nd get past. But I just wasn 't dose enough on th e last lap to do tha t." . ''I'm rea l ha ppy," Lawson said after finishi ng his first race of the year. " I go t some points and nobody ran over me. My foot was p retty pai nfu l th e las t five laps. It was difficu lt to stay on line . I had no strength left a nd it was pain fu l to p ush o n the foo tres t. Whe n my foot gets well enough I ca n be aggressive wi th the bik e. Tha nk God th ey widened the trac k or I'd have been in the grass." La wso n said that a no rmal reco very from this type of injury is six mo nths and he was back in half that ti me. "The bik e was better than I was," he said. 250cc Qualifying A di fferent rid er led eac h o f the [our qua li fying sessio ns wi th Ca rdus the fastest in the o ne that cou nt ed, th e fo urth session. The Spaniard docked a 2:08.926 o n the fina l la p o f the fin al session. H e was th e only rider in the eigh ts with the othe r [our riders on the front row wi th in litt le more tha n half a second o f each o ther. " We ch anged engine sett ings, gearbox ratios, suspension, everyth ing, " Cardus said after taking his second pole of the season. " T he main p roblem is the sid ecars. They leave o il and rubber and it was q uite slippery in th e hotter las t sessio n."

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