Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

eROADRACEw~~~~~_R_W_dRa_a_&_~_S:F ~_~_ro_OO_d~~~~~~~~~_ _ _ e en ..... v o ..0 ... u o (Above) John Kocinski won his first-ever 250cc World Championship in Australia. (Above right) Aussie Wayne Gardner was a popular winner at home. Gardner wins home GP, Kocinski crowned in Australia By Michael Scott PHILUP ISLAND, AUSTRAUA, SEPT: 16 flappin g fairing and a broken righ t'wris t migh t not be q uite th e sa me as a wi ng a n d a prayer . . c' but that was no obstacle to Australia n hero Wayne Ga rd ner. The 30-year-old one-time Wo llo n go ng Wild One was widely written off as a po tentia l seco nd- time wi n ne r because of hi s injury, a seaso n of cras hes, and p laying second fiddle to Ro thman s H on da teammate Michael Doohan in practice. Then in the race he twice d ropped back to fourt h pl ace, befor e p rovin g to the ecsta tic 62,400stro ng Phillip Islan d cro wd tha t he is never better than when h is back is aga in st the wall. Hungari an GP winner Doohan had . the lion 's share of leading, but was literally blown away when Gardner flew pa st o n the straigh t with three laps to go, almo st crashing after the dr aft , from the identical Honda put him off lin e ' for the fast first corner. Then second-p laced Kevin Schwan tz went flyin g off hi s Lucky Strike Suzuki in th e same 150 mph corne r, dela ying Doohan still furth er, and forcin g him to accep t second. 'It was the brillian t but erra tic T exan 's fifth race cras h this year . New World Champion Wayne Rainey was thi rd, completing his cha mpionship year wit h his 14th rostrum finis h , a nd endearing himself to th e fans by as king from the po dium: " Why are we leavi ng Ph ill ip Island? It's o ne of the best tracks in the wor ld." T his was sched uled to be the las t G P at the seaside circu it, used for the firs t time for the first Austra lia n GP o nly o ne year ago, an d now the victim of po litica l san cti mo ny and chicanery by the Victoria state governm ent Las t year, G P raci ng gained an instant classi c circu it. O ne season later it ha. lost it again. Rai ney's Marlboro Yamaha team mate Eddie Lawson , in his last race A 10 with the number one plate, was a distant fourth, after making a tactica l tir e-ch oice error, wi th Niall Mackenzie' s Lu cky Strike Suzu ki fifth eno ug h to secure fourth in the champions hip for the Scots ma n ahea d of Ga rd ner. Au strali an Peter Goddard, making hi s GP debut o n a spa re T eam Rob erts Marlboro Yamaha, was eigh th after Cau tio us race foll owi ng a crash in practice. The 250cc race decided the titie in favor of J ohn Kocinski , with the 22year-old Kenny Roberts prot ege taking a can ny narrow victory 'o ver H on damounted H elmut Bradl , wai ting in .second pl ace unti l the closing laps to avoi d Honda han ging o ut any pi t signals to slo w the Germ an down in favor of Spanish rider Carlos Cardus. H e needn 't hav e bothered. Cardus, wh o arri ved at Phill ip Island with a five-point advantage but o nly four race wins to Kocinski 's six , needed to fini sh second to take the crown, but was running fifth wh en h is gea r linkage brok e, and he was for ced to pull in to the pits for his second mechanical failure of th e year. Distraught, he kicked his bike and then laun ch ed into . his mechan ics - but a half hour later, he was prepared to forgive and forge t. " It was th e worst race of my life, and I don 't want to thin k abou t it a ny more," he said. Kocin ski was jubi lant in eq ua l a meas ure. .. It's awesome, awesom e," he said , hu ggin g h is Yamaha after the win, whic h came in his first fu ll GP seaso n. With Bradl's HB H o nda seco nd and Marlboro Yamaha Agost ini rid er Luca Cada lora third , 19-year-old Au stralian Daryl Beattie too k a superb fourth place, after findi ng his loyalties split by running in close co mpany with Ca rdus in the race. " I did everyth ing I could to help him, while still tryin g to do the best I could. It was like ru nning two races a t on ce," the yo ung Supe rbike rider said. Bea tti e left the wor ks bikes of (a m o n g others) Dutchm an Wi lco : Zeelenberg (H onda) and Alex Crivi lle (Yama ha) tra ili ng in fifth and six th. . The I 25cc ti tle was also up for g rabs, and a lso went to a rider in h is first GP seaso n - l 7-year-o ld Italian .Lor is Ca p irossi. He did it with th e help of a horde of o ther Italian s, ins tantly ni ckn am ed th e " Ca p i ro ssi Co sa Nostra ." T he points leader befor e the race, Ge rma n Stefan P rein, retired after bei ng ra mmed by Alex Gram ign i; whi le the o ther potential winner Hans Spaa n was repeatedly shut in and closed do wn by o ther Itali ans, notab ly Capirossi's teamma te and form er titlehold er Faus to Gresin i. Sp aan took hi s hand off the thro ttle at one stage to a im a haymaker at Gresini, then too k th e lead with three laps to go. Then th e ma fia mov ed in , wi th Bruno Cassnova an d Doriano Rombon i (riding a borrowed bik e to a new lap record) too k second and third in an all-Ita lia n, all-Ho nda rostrum. Furious actio n is normal in the 250 and 125cc classes, bu t the 1990 500 season has yielded no o ther race as clos e or as exciting as tha t a t Phill ip Island, making it th e best GP of th e year. The nature of th e circui t is th e ma jor reaso n why. If Eastern Creek near Sydney , p lanned ven ue for next year's ' Austral ian GP, manages to be even half as good, it will still be one of th e best tracks in th e world. . 500cc Q u a lifyi n g Once the threat of rain had receded, th e told track surface (and a few extra bumps) were eno ug h to see qual ifyin g tim es slo wer than th e previous year, until the last lap, wh en Doohan and Schwantz both broke through into the I:34s. It was a reproduction of the 1989 qualifying battle betw een Schwantz a nd R ainey, excep t thi s time th e Texa n's rival was Doohan, and thi s time Schwa nt z came off second best. T his year; ho wever, the ti mes were a grea t deal close r, with Doohan 's H onda o n to p by less than fourh undr edths, with litt le mor e than haifa-second coveri ng the top five. Dooha n 's asce ndancy, two weeks after his first GP wi ri in Hungar y, was ach ieved in usu al style - a unique combina tion of tensi on and no nchal an ce - and wi th the help of the fastest bik e through the speed t ra p, at 180 mph in the final sessio n. In sp ite of his previous win , and Michelin 's o wn recent tire-po licy vagaries, they made him wait unt il the second day for the A-team tires, by th e end of which he felt obliged to back-pedal' furiously from an angry pres s release put out th e day before , wh ich sa id in stronger than usua l term s how disappo in ted he was at being oblige d to wai t. " I knew Michelin 's poli cy was tha t I would on ly get th e best tir es on day two , a nd that stat ement was out of my cont ro l, and blown o u t of all proportion. I have no quarrel with a nybody," Doohan told a press con ference. H e had in fact alread y demonstra ted his intent. running fastest in the first sessio n o n the B-tires, dropping to four th in sessio n two, then getti ng back on top once he had the good rubber for both fin al sessions. But he denied that the jo ust with Schwa ntz in th e closi ng mi n u tes ha d been intentiona l. " I didn 't have anybody else's tim es sig nalled to me - on ly my own. I wante d to get into the 34s." He was n ' t daunted by the closeness of the ti mes. " Close races go mo re qu ickly, and they' re more fun ," he said . Schwa ntz was in a simi larly happy mood , a co nt rast to the first day of practice when an eng in e seizu re in the morn ing and a bad-h and lin g spare bike had h im do wn in fifth a nd som ewhat glu m. " We' ve been having tro ubl e getting the front wheel to stic k since Hunga ry - and if the fro nt don 't stick, yo u can' t sp in the rear to steer the bi ke," he said. The next day, they found the right direction for chass is sett ings, and he was th e o nly o ther rid er to get into th e 34s. H e al so deni ed he'd known any th ing about any o ther rid er' s times - the fact that he a nd Doohan had alternated th e lead in the closing laps , was coincidenta l. " If there'd been o ne more lap, I may hav e been in front. Or maybe not - my tires were fairl y .stretched by then. " He felt he cou ld have gone faster, but th e steering was still somewhat wayward aft er they'd raised the rear end too far , and steepen ed the head an gle. The thought was eno ug h to mak e him feel close eno ug h to po le to be co nfident . Then the Suzuki seized for a second tim e in racemorning warm -up, never reassurin g. . All th e top riders were in agreement that tire wear was a maj or prob lem , ameliora ted o nly by th e fact that it was the same for all of them . Estima tes o f how lo ng the tir es lasted before slidi ng a ll over the pl ace varied between five or six laps (Schwa n tz and most of the rest) and two o r three (La wso n). Ga rdner, pl aced th ird after leading da y one, allo wed he might choose a harder compo und and stiffer cons truction that might give away som e speed at the start for the sake of lasting a few more laps. H e had o ther problem s, th e brok en ri ght wrist h e' s been carrying for th e previous two ra ces was still painfu l and causing numbness in hi s th rottle and brake hand. " I' d like ano ther month off - but if it feels okay at th e end of the race, I' ll push for it," he said. ' ' Lawson com p leted the front row , definitel y the dark horse of the race after a season of injury, an d a dearth of race win s since h is return. His tact ica l plans were co nfus ing; o n o ne hand, he th ou ght it necessary for th e marginall y slower Yam ahas to stay in the draft of the Hondas in the early laps, the n : " When th e tires go off a nd everyo ne is slidi ng around, th en I kno w I'll be th ere at th e end." O n th e o ther hand, he also decided to choose a hard er tire. " Maybe you 'll lose ti me at the start, bu t the tires are really getti ng ripped up on the left-han d side, and you can make more time o n th e fast lefts than on the slow righ ts." Alm ost everybody set thei r best tim es ' in the final sessio n, with the track slightly warme r, th e bik es sorted, and the press ure on . Fifth-pl aced Wayne Rainey was an excep tio n, failing to im prove o n his second-sessio n tim e, a nd movin g bac k to lead ro w two for th e first tim e all season. He had di scarded the experimen tal new eng ine

• Cover