Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

GROAD RACE WorldChampionship Road Race Series: Round 10 e The 125cc GP was won by Dutchman Hans Spaan; the win moves Spaa n to third in the championship and he trails title leader Stefan Prien by 24 po in ts. session. He never did improve, but it was enough to secure him the lead of th e second row of the grid from Reggiani's Aprilia, Jacq ues Cornu's works Honda, and erratic Frenchman Adrien Morillas 's Aprilia. Row three was led by Alex Criville's works Yamaha and concluded by Jochen Schmid, dispossessed of the spare works H B Honda by decree of H RC, since he is testing parts for next year's production RS. The bike (Roth 's, with Bradl 's machines kept in the truck ) went to little-known Bernd Kassner, to the chagrin of other Gennan pnvateers, an d he qualified 18th, less tha n a tenth ahead of local GP debutante Jean j ea nda t, very spectacular and spirited on his Hon da RS. 250ccGP 12 Cardus made a clean start, and belted off into the wild blue yond er, already getting some air after only one lap, with Zeelenberg in pursuit, then a small gap to Kocinski, Shimizu, Reggiani, Cadalora and Lavado, whose Aprilia suffered ignition failure before he could finish another lap. Koci nski soon started closing on Zeelenberg, and was ahead of th e Dutchman by the end of lap four (the Honda rider crashed unhurt two laps later ) - but with Cardus more than 2.5 seconds ahead, and the American had his work cut oUL Nothi ng dau nted, running his Yamaha well into the A-zone as he slid out of every comer, he gradually reeled the Spaniard in, sometimes onl y by a tenth of as second a lap, but always by something, his 12th lap a new record. And then he was on him, and the seven laps that remained were likely to be torrid beyond searing track tempera tures and scorching sun. But Cardus, who likes to think of himself as a steady Lawson type of rider , proved that he could be just that, never giving an inch, and running remarkably consisten t lap times. And it all proved too much for Kocinski, who pushed just a little bit hard out of the final chicane, and went flying over t he high side on lap 17, landing heavily on his right foot , but without breaking anythin g. The eagle had landed. Cardus rode on to a majestic win , lIis second of the year, almost 15 seconds ahead of Cadalora, who had settled back to what seemed would be a safe third place. Reggiani was also promoted by the crash, his first time on the rostrum this year. He might have been able to take on Cadal ora, but they had been split up early on when Reggiani took a lap to get past Shimizu, who took a strong but lon ely fourth. The battle behind sa"l Cornu and Wimm er break away, finishing in tha t order , with de Radigu es losing ground behi nd. All of them got past Criville , who was ridi ng without a rev counter, and was almost caug ht by his still inj ured countryman Alex Puig on a similar YZR. Not far behind, a fierce fight ended with Casoli's TZ Yamaha narrowly ahead of Borgono's Aprilia, with the remarkable Jean dat taking 12th in his firs t GP , nar row ly ahead of some seasoned compe titors. Kassner had faded from the gro up to finish 18th; while Sarron and Morillas had both p itted early on with sundry problems. "It is good that we have a Card usl Kocinski battle for the title again," said a gleefu l Cardus, "But bad that he fell off. He is a good rider. I had no idea he had gone until I saw my pi t signal after ano ther lap . . . I was just riding on at my own speed." A great win, that brings him to within seven poi nts of Kocinski in the title chase. Cada lora retakes third from Zeelenberg, but is 39 points down on the lead. 125ccGP Hans Spaan came to Le Mans fresh from victory in Belgium with the painful soundin g (but possibly mistransla ted) statement: " It's abou t time I got my fist out," Nonetheless it was one of the Ital ian brat pack on pole position - Doriano Romboni, nicknamed "Rambo" after some notably bump-'em-off episodes earlier in the year. In the race, it was Rom bon i again who took off, leaving the brawl far behind as he had don e at Assen, though rather more surprisingly at a slow track like Le Mans. Spaan, meanwhile, was second, and realized he mus t act at once to prevent a breakaway: By the time he did catch up, on lap six, the pair were almost 10 seconds ahead of the usual gaggle of machines battling for third. Spaan took the lead on lap seven, but Romboni stayed with him , and went back to the front again on lap 12. There was nothing in it, and whi le Romboni claimed the record on lap 18, it was only by seven-hundredths of a second. So it came to the last lap, with Spaan n ow back in control - only for Rombon i to surge past and lead onto the back straight, He stayed in front round the chicane, and on into the start of the last set of slow bends. Then Spaan pulled alongs ide, and rode heroi cally round the outside on the first righ thander. It gave him the line for the next left, and he managed to stay ahead to win his second GP in succession by three-tenths of a second. The group behind was engaged in the sort of close combat usually seen at the fron t, There was littl e time for tactics, bu t no hope without them, and it was the German Stefan Prein who got the best of it, fini shing half-a-second ahead of the ever-present Lo ris Capirossi, whose weaving steed looked very wayward, with the returned Japanese rider Hisashi Unemoto another 10th down, then Jorge Martinez and Heinz L uet hi (all on Hondas excep t for Martinez's Cobas). A littl e over two seconds covered this group, from third to seven th place. The championship is still open, with Prein stretching his lead over Capirossi to a mere five p oints, Spaan an d Romboni catching up, and Martinez now fifth. Sidecar GP Webster an d Simmons led practice, cheered up also by the news of a lintited but defini te sponsorshi p deal to help them keep racing - with the new British satellite cha nnel RSB. They also led the race, for the first three laps , un til Alain MichellBirchall forced their way pas t after harrying them from the start. Michel set a new lap record as he took the lead, bu t Webbo got back in front again after two more laps, and it looked like the development of a good close battle between the championshi p rivals. It only lasted unti l Michel suddenly slowed with a recurrence of gearbox trouble. From then on , the British triple champio n could stroll hom e to Win by a comfortable 12 seconds from Egbert Streuer, who had ba tt led hi s way through after a poor start , eigh th at the end of lap one. Third went to Abbott and Smi th, who also came though from behind, and almost succu mbed to a simi lar rearguard charge from Kumano/Roesin ger, the Briton s leadin g the Japanese rider across the line by just over a tenth of a second. Kum ano had passed the fifthplace Zurb ruegy brothers on the last lap, and the Swiss outfit was just another half-second behind. The victory after two no n-finishers revived Webster 's hopes of taking a fourth champio nship. He now has a 21 point advantage over new second-place man Eg hert St re ue r, wi th Mich el dropping to third ano ther four points down. Q Results 250 Q UAUFYING: 1. Car l", GanIm (1:-15.055); 2. John Kocinski (1"' 5.252): 3. L UC3 Cada tora (!:i5.Si3); -I. Wilco ZttI

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