Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

For Mertens the problem increasingly became staying upright as th e wet tires faded on th e drying track , but still go ing fast enough to keep ahead of th e battle of the race between Phillis and Roche. He only just succeeded. Phillis had sat in third very earl y, until nearl y crashing at the treacherous Ascari Chicane on the third lap and dropping back to sixth. He and Roche clawed through Andersson and McEInea and proceeded to have a ding-dong ba ttle to the line. Phillis outbraked Roche -into the Parabolica but cou ld not hold th e V-twin to the line. missing out by just .02 of a second. Fastest lap of the race was little reward. McEl nea led hom e th e rest on a " blo b" of a rear tire. the track not stay ing wet eno ugh to keep the Dunlop working. Suhon en , after some cautious first laps . came thro ugh to nip Jam es with Brian Morrison, And ersson. and th e distant Edwin Waibel comp leting th e top 10. Ja mes wasn 't happy afterwa rds: " I wore a rain sui t and it was like a parachu te. I cou ldn't even shift into sixth gear down the straight." Race two ' Condi tions were th at horrible wet! dry that all racers hat e when the gri d fronted for the second leg, most of th e front-ru n ners op ted for sl ick rearl interm ediate front after the sigh ting lap with the significa nt excep tio n of Phillis who went for slicks at both ends. and James with int ermedia tes. Mont i, fired up after th e first race disasters. used Merkel's spare engine well to roc ket in to the lead fro m Pirovan o, James, Roche. Su honen, and Je ff de Vries. Phillis was back in the tail . around 30th. having wheelspun wildly in the damp. Quickl y Mertens joined up wi th the two Ita lia ns and the Ducat is and they put on a tremen dous dogfight. Monti at all ang les to the roa d. Pirovan o leading wh en he wasn 't and th en Roche, th en Mertens - it was great stu ff. J am es was su fferi ng though . unab le to keep con tact as h is intermediates began to slide too mu ch . " I was right up with th em. staying up comfortably," he explained. "And then everytim e we went into a comer it seemed like I'd slide ont o the wet stu ff, In three laps I nearly highsided three tim es. That kept going through my mind and I just kep t workin g my way back." Part of his problem was he was sittin g in behind Roche a nd was getti n g sprayed with oil from h is team leader's Ducati, which had spru ng a leak. Roche barrelled on unaware for sever al laps. but in cre a si n g gear selection problems forced h im to slow and drop back to an eventual sixth. two spots in front of James. who let hi m by on th e last lap and th en got pounced on by Suhonen. Roche cou ld afford to conserve. because wh ile he'd still been in the lead group he'd witnessed Mertens crashing out at the now notorious Ascari Chicane on lap seven. Mertens had also been encountering gea r shift problems and when he jammed the Honda into first rather than second ' th e rear tire skipped off the dry line and he was in the sand on his back. The championship is now virtually beyond his reach. So the lead group by lap nine was just two. but what a performance they were putting on. with two of them swapp in g the lead at virtually every com er. Monti was riding wild and once again he braked too late for a chicane on lap 10 and went burrowing into the sand. emerging some two seconds behind his rival Pirovano. The gap drifted further until the last World Champion Fred Merkel returned to action ~fter missing two races due to injury; here he chases Stephane Mertens. couple of laps when the rain started again and Pirovan o elected for conser vati sm. Monti too k his chance and was on the Yamaha's rear wheel into the Pa rabol ica fo r th e . las t time. but horsepower kept th e Yamaha rider in the lead to the lin e. al though only just .07 of a second to be exact. Beh ind th em Ph ill is had been carving th rough brilliantly. moving into , th ird past McElnea on lap 13, setting fastest time on th e same lap. But th e Brit stuck with him and when th e ra in started agai n he pounced and then began ca tching th e two leaders as well . bu t a last lap run through a sand tra p brought him back into Phillis' gra sp. He held on by .21 of a second. Merkel followed in a comfortable fifth . having climbed as high as third before the PhillislMcElnea battle overwhelmed him: " I had two trips int o th e sand. two laps in a row. that's when th ey made their tim e on me," he exp la ined. " Bu t it feels good to finish. good to ride. good to chase the gu ys around. " ~ Results ' IlACE t : I. Fabrizio Pirovano (Yam ); 2. Stephane M

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