Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

RR~Ducr~~~_b_~_R_OC_e&_ri_~_b_oo_d_ll _ e Kevin Schwantz (34) defeated Wayne Rainey (2) by 3.4 seconds to win his fifth 500cc Grand Prix of the season. Schwantz still trails points leader Rainey by 27 points. Schwantz's attack continues at Donington Park By Michael Scott DONINGTON. ENGLAND, AUG. 5 evin Schwantz's second successive GP win on the Pepsi Suzuki fending off a relentless attack from title leader Wayne Rainey and his Marlboro-Yamaha teammate Eddie Lawson - may have confirmed the growing maturity of a rider shrugging off a reputation for crashing under pressure. It may also have been the second step in achieving the 26-year-old Texan's stated goal of winning the last six races of the season. But it did little to change the championship picture. Schwantz still needs a non-finish from Rainey to make a molehill out of the mountainous 27point deficit, In the 250cc class, John Kocinski showed the flip side - immaturity under pressure, and for a second race in succession he crashed his Marlboro Yamaha, throwing away a certain victory, and losing the World Cham- . pionship lead for the first time since the German GP, seven races ago . The British GP, held for the fourth time in the picturesque rolling parkland of Donington Park, was robbed of excitement and a potential winner when pole-position starter Wayne Gardner's Rothmans Honda ·broke down on the sighting lap. A plug-change on the line was no cure for a broken piston ring, and Gardner pulled into the pits after just one lap. K 16 But teammate Michael Doohan, in his first visit to the technically-difficult circuit where much of the lap counts as one continuous comer, overcame practice problems to take fourth. He had passed a desperately-disappointed Niall Mackenzie, who qualified in touch with the leaders, but was caught out by Michelin 's tire policy when the A-team tire he had earned turned out to be a liability. Randy Mamola was a fighting sixth , his best ever dry result for Cagiva, and the most powerful among his many arguments to persuade the Italian factory to reverse their decision to pull out of racing before the end of the season. Briton Carl Forgarty, three times TTFI champion made a brief and inglorious GP debut aboard the injured PierFrancesco Chili's works Honda, crashing on the third lap. Kocinski's 250cc crash may change the course of the championship. His costly unforced error left him unhurt, but the blow to his pride may prove difficult to overcome, as the hard veterans of Europe pile on the pressure. The race was won by Marlboro Yamaha Agostini's Luca Cadalora from Honda riders Masahiro Shimizu and Helmut BradI. Carlos Cardus, injured in one of a number of practice crashes, dropped to fifth behind Dominique Sarron's Rothmans Honda - but it was enough to give the French GP winner a slender championship lead over Kocinski. Teenage superstar Loris Capirossi won his first GP, a runaway that left the usual 125cc brawl disputing second place. After Bruno Casanova had crashed, honors went to Doriano Romboni from Hans Spaan. All the top three rode Hondas. The sidecar title was also thrown open, after pole man Steve Webster muffed his start, then bashed another outfit in the midfield chicane crowding. He was out of the race, which turned into a brilliant three-way battle between Egbert Streuer, Alain Michel, and Rolf Biland, who firtished in that order. 500cc Practice When temperatures at Donington Park hit 99 degrees Fahrenheit on the first day of practice - the highest ever recorded in Britain - it seemed that the race would be ~ sweltering repeat of the French GP, with heat exhaustion as much a danger as the more usual road rash. Thankfully, it cooled down, but even so two out of the top three set their best times in the frantic first session, for track temperatures might never again be so cool, nor the tarmac so grippy. These were &hwantz and Rainey, main event of the 500cc class, and it was Schwantz in control, leading from Thursday's free training after two days of testing here the previous week, using the new suspension parts that had arrived in France. "They're intended to reduce wheelspin at slippery tracks, especiallyafter Spa. I have one bike with the old setup, and one with the new. The difference is where in the comer they start to spin the wheel, and that the one has a lot more front-end grip. But the lap times are almost exactly the same, and it's kinda hard to decide." Rainey had tested too, a new frame with revised weight distribution, and an adjustable swing-arm pivot, "It brakes a little better than the old one, holding the rear down more. Otherwise it seems pretty similar." On day two, both teams were chasing their tails when in spite of cooler temperatures they both failed to improve. Gardner, however, was on the charge, buoyed up by his second at Le Mans and by the massive crowd support at a circuit he knows intimately. He was still experimenting with mix-and-match cast -iron and carbon-carbon brakes (tireless technician Erv Kanemoto even sent him out with the odd-material discs swapped to opposite sides of the wheel). Along with whatever else he was doing to the chassis and engine, it was enough to see the blue -and-white Honda nose menacingly in between the American arch-rivals on Saturday morning. Gardner was trying conspicuously hard, with his usual willingness to take

• Cover