Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

GROAD RACE World Championship Road Race Series: Round 12 ~ ro w, st ill stiff an d so re a fte r his Donington practice crash , but bearing up well. "I feel no more th an I did at the first GP in japan," was his wa y of bolstering his con fidence. Then came Wimmer, survivor of a couple of engi ne seizures on Friday, Criville's works Yamaha, and Dominique Sarron 's Honda. Reggiani was 10th, and Shimizu 11th, less than a second down on the leader. Doubtless Anderstorp would yield yet another brilliant mixed battle of tactics, slipstrearning, and slowcorn er charging. 250cc R ace Once they were going for it together, it turned ou t th at the speed differential between th e Honda and Yamaha was as big as ever, and this set the pace for wildly fluctuating fortunes, and frequent changes of the lead. Cornu led off the line from Cadal_ora, Zeelenberg, Brad l and Cardus, with th e rest of the works bikes packed up behind, and Kocinski for once slow, and only just in the top 10, with plenty of work ahead of him. Up front, the battle rapidly developed into apower vs. handling ma tch between Cornu and Cadalora, with the Italian's Yamaha usually leading onto th e straight, and even once at the end of it. But th e opposition was forming up behind, with Cardus up to third on lap two, and Bradl and Shimizu co mp letin g a four-pronged Honda attack. .. This five got a bit of air up front , with Wimmer pas sing Zeelenberg for sixth on lap three. Sarron was on th e Dutch man's tail , and Kocinski was com ing up behind th em, bringing ~~ ~ Crivil le's -iden tical orange Yama ha with him. The American would be involved in picking his way through this group until lap eigh t, and he was obviously down on spe ed on th e straight. On lap six, Bradl took th e lead for the first time, and embarked at once on an attempt at a breakaway. Remarkably, it looked as th ough the stillinjured German might do it, for on lap nine he had a lead of two-and-ahalf seconds. It didn't last, though. " I chose too hard a rear tire, and I had three slides," he said later. The last two were big ones, and as the pack closed up again he decided to play it safe jf you can call it safe to bang fairings with some of the toughest racers in the world. Cornu was second when Bradl took off, but during his run there was a crash on the corn er befor e the pits, and Cadalora, already committed, passed Cornu under the yellow flags . A subsequent protest was overruled, since the Italian had little option but to complete the maneuver. In any case, Cadalora was promptly repassed on th e main straight by Shimizu. With the benefit of a slipstream as well as having the fastest Honda, the speed differential was awesome. But it was Cardus wh o too k the lead from Bradl, and th ough Cada lora nosed ahead once or twice on the twists , he then miss ed hi s bra king ' point and dropped back to fifth. The Spaniard stayed in control for seven laps, and slowed the pace to preserve his tires for the final showdown. He may have been better advised to try for a clean break , becaus e not on ly did Cadalora battle his way back to take the lead again on lap 19, but this tim e he had Kocinski with him. The American was riding a little way back from hi s usual ragged edge , and took nine laps to get in front of Wimmer int o sixth, then languished there for the next nine laps. Now he had Cadalora to aim at, and he started to press harder, setting a new lap record as he did so. He took a little longer than the Italian to dispose of the front-runners, but hi s progress was inexorable, and with three laps remaining he was past Cadalora and up to second behind the determined Cardus. Cadalora was to lead once more, but it was still an open race with the on ly yard stick being the basic rule that whoever leads onto the main straight at And erstorp is likely to be overtaken at the end of it. Cardus was that man, with the two Yamahas in ' his slipstream, Kocinski le ading them. The 40,000-strong , cro wd rose to watch the slipstreaming and outbraking maneuver at the end of the straight. But Cardus had thrown conventio na l wisdom to the wind, kn owing that he had the speed to fight off an y drafters, and the courage to resist even the la test .of outbraking ma neuvers. In th e event , he didn't have to carry out hi s threat that he would simply let off th e bra kes again if anybody cam e alongs ide, and he led Kocinski around th e fina l two bends and across th e fini sh lin e by less than a second. ' Cada lora , meanwhile, had instead fallen victim again to Shimizu's speed , succu mbing at the end of th e straight as the j apanese rider put himself on \" IILIDW SPRI~~ N!i ~ VVfNTERNATIONAL RACEWAY {!J ~ the ro strum for the second race j succession. Bradl was one -and-a-half seconds down in fifth, with Cornu another three seconds adrift, then ca me I Wimmer, who had stayed ahead all rac e of a good dice between Zeelenberg, Criville and Sarron, in that order. Loris Regg iani was II th , freed in the closing stages of the constant attention of Didier de Radigues' similar Aprilia when the Belgian took a ·brief excursion into the Nordic co untryside, ') rejoining to finish 17th. f' • Adrien Morillas had also been in this J group before he retired after II lap s I - so too, in the first five laps, had been the Aprilia of Italian Andreas Borgonovo and the Honda of German jochen Schmid. Then, Borgonovo had a massive high-side at the pits corner, , taking the German"with him, and the cause of the yellow flags that nearly' caused Cadalora such trouble. '. > Wi th three races left, Cardus has fl stretched his Donington title lead to j seven points, with the next race (at: Brno , Czechoslovakia) also on a track that suits the Honda's power. Kocinski { had ridden absolutely brilliamly..to move through to second p lace, bu t wa~ not pleased at the end result, finding himself rather at a loss for words ,in EB the post-race press conference, an d tO , between praising Cardus's riding and I I decrying the Honda's huge speedl(l advantage. "The way we were ridLn~ i around thos e guys 10 th e corners. i u I I really shouldn' t have been their race;" he said. ' I 25cc Race Wi th practice times despera tely close, the 125c race was always going Fl Grand Prix C)J/iff1f ARRA Series ~GHLIFE On The 3rd Sunday Each Month ·YOUR CALIFORNIA YAMAHA DEALERS PRESENT 4VA National Road Racing SEPTEMBER . 14-15-16 · • 83 MPH = Fastest Supersport Motorcycle Average Speed at 1989 Sears Point National Road Race , • 92 MPH = Fastest Motorcycle Average Speed at 1990 Laguna Seca U.S. Grand Prix • 105 = Fastest Motorcycle Average Speed at 1990 Willow Springs WERA/F-USA National The last Round AMA National Road Race Series " ON THE FASTEST ROAD IN THE WEST" For Information Call 1-805-256-2471 16

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