Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

~ P O EWorld Cham~ohn Kocinski R FIL ~ or anywhere. He qual ified o n pole, and inc reased th e boredom factor of a belo w-par G P meetin g by runnin g away. Then , pressi ng o n as usual, he threw it away with a second race cras h in succession. At the same time, he lost th e title lead he had held for mos t of the year. He doesn 't lik e ta lking abo ut h is failures, and said li ttl e more abo ut his French excurs io n than : " I go t in too hot." But th is one puzzled him . It happened as he crested the rise into Copse, with the bike alread y lean ed hard over. He lost the front, and went skim m ing off at a tan gent directl y into th e sand trap. Wh y? Partly, he blamed th e unforgiving Mich elins, which he'd never liked as much as Dunlops. It was also hi s first ra ce with th e lightweight ca rbo n carbon discs, and he thought they might have been dragging enough to break tractio n up front (o nly, according to AP 's engineer, if Kocin ski was touch ing the lever, when the carbons would drag with increasing power as they heated up). Perhaps he had been foxed by th e reduced gyroscopic effect of the lighter brakes. Perha ps he had been ca ug h t by a gu st of wind gell ing under the fai ring . Perh aps, when all was said an d done, Bradl was right, a nd he was taking too many risks . Bu t: the rea l question was not why had he cras hed, but whet her h is confidence coul d get over it. It didn 't appear in Swed en , where a lthough he q ual ified on the pole, he started off in an unusua lly dispirited man ner, o nly j ust in the top 10, and ap pa rently u na ble 10 improve. But wh en Cada lora ma de an error and dropped back, the Ameri can used h im as a marker. . He broke the lap record in the co urse of a stirring rid e, but Cardus used hi s speed, experience and daring to best effect on th e last run down the long straight, and Kocinski was beat en by less th an a 10th of a second in the fin al jinking and weaving four-bike run to the line. Well, there was nothing wrong with his confidence, but th e points gap had grown bigger, and with three races remaining, Carlos led Kocinski by seven tantalizing points. The Czechoslovakian GP at the fin e Bmo circuit produced a towering and ultimately h eartbreaking performance. It was as much a"milestone as his Assen win, yet it brought him on ly second place, and to a fit of th e sulks in the pits afterwards th at are in retrospect Iorgiveable if yo u ar e aware of th e inten sit y of his effort , and what it had cost h im . _ The problem was the circui t layout - in particular the punishing fifth gea r hillcl imb shortly befor e the end o f the lap. Kocinski made superhuma n efforts around th e rest of the spectacul ar track, but Cardus had th e spri nt up th e hill , and th e cu n ning to use it to win. Now th e ga p was 10 points, with o nly two races left. 22 Se ptember The Hungarian GP was on the verg e of cance lla tio n all year. At the last gas p , John Kocinski was th e o nly person who went to test there within a reasonable tim e of th e race, and hi s team offered his assessment to help make th e final decision of whether or not 10 race. I mean 10 say . .. here is a man wh o wou Id race across a pl owed field if it meant ano ther chance to take po ints off Cardus. Kocinski's report on th e Hungaroring belied the fact that hi s tests were co nd ucted in wet conditions, with the track dangerously puddled. " It 's bit ch in', " he said. And when th e rest of th e guys arr ived and started doing the o ther kind of bitching, with a number of ri ders in favor of a bo ycott, he was vituperati ve. "They' re pussies," he said.' " All pussies . I don't kno w how some of the m got works rides." And, unforgettably (about J apan ese works Honda rider Masah iro Shimizu): " If you ain 't Ameri can , you' re sh it." Two weeks later, he took me 10 task about the way I'd dealt wi th these remarks in print: " Hey - those guys on the Hondas had it their way in Sweden and Brno, Now it was my kinda track, and some of them were saying they did n' t want 10 race, All I was saying was - c' rno n, let 's go race." Sure eno ugh, it was hi s kinda trac k. No on e has quite th e narrowness of hi s tunnel -vision - a psych ological matter that is reinforced by a li teral and physical peripheral vision prob lem that has already req uired surgery more than o nce. T he combination means he simply doesn't see trackside dangers like the horrifying bridge abutment, or high curbs. And the co rne r co mbinations and lack of fast sections meant he co uld jam aga in. Bradl was second, Cardus third. With one ' race left , Kocinski was no w five poi n ts beh ind. The arith metic was hardl y com p lex eno ug h to occupy tile mind during the two-week break befor e the final race of the year , the Australian G ~ a t the superb P h ill ip Isla nd. If Kocinski won the race, Cardus must be second. If the Span ia rd was th ird, th ey wou ld be equa l on poin ts, but Koci nski wou ld be cha m pion by virt ue of six race wins to Card us's four . But cou ld Kocinski win? He was not hopeful. Phillip Island is a fast circui t, and last year Sito Pon s had show n that hi s H ond a h ad th e p u ff to beat Ruggia's Yam ah a o n the fin al ga llo p to the line. Curiously, the 23-year-o ld was mor e relaxed before th e race th an for months. He knew he would .give it hi s best shot, and that Aksland as well as Yamaha's own eng inee rs had been working da y and ni ght to get the best out of th e YZR. Whatever would be, would be. Th e race was a fittin g fina le. Kocinski took off in th e lead, but was soo n in trouble . . . hi s ri ght-h and knee slider was flappin g loo se, and he even took his hand off the handlebars as he tri ed to put it back o n. " I kn ew it would blow right off th e first tim e down the straight, and I can ' t rid e without it. I need to put m y kn ee down, and without the puck it doesn 't slide o n the tarmac. The leath er gri ps, and it pulls you off the bike." Sure eno ug h, the slider di d blow off, and in the confusion Bradl mo ved th rough 10 the lead. Lu ckil y, the track is anti-clockwise. with a predomi na nce of left -handers, a nd Kocin sk i soon ca me 10 term s with hi s disability, o u tbra ked Bradl spectacu la rl y, all crossed up with hi s back whee l in th e air, then contro lled the race from in front . The fin al victory was as ass ured as an y. Cardus, meanwhi le, was strugg ling around fourth place, wi th a stiff gear linkage: Then , just as he was looking ca pa b le o f startin g a cha rge. th e linkag e broke, and he pulled into the p its for a di stressin g di sp lay o f hi stri on ics. Thus Kocinski won hi s firs t World Championship, with assurance and a deadl y combi natio n of ded icat ion and abi lity. It wasn 't an easy win , an d would have been worth less if it had been. And it was surely page o ne of 0'1 a new Grand Prix hi story book. LOCAL EVENTS Chuck Springsteen (24) had a perfect night on the Musk~on ice as he won all five of the four-rider match races and then led the main event from start to finish . Springsteen (35) celebrates his victory by spraying champagne in the Muskegon winner's circle as runner-up Dan Ingram (I) and Bryan Villella (24) look on. Springsteen scores on Muskegon ice By Marshall Lafferty MUSKEGON, MI, JAN, 4 h uck Springsteen turned in a flawless performance in the Budweiser Invitational Indoor Ice Race in LC. Walker Arena. Springsteen, the brother of three-time Grand National Champion Jay Springsteen, rode his Rich Kessler-prepared Honda to wins in the five point-paying fourrider match races he competed in and then topped his performance with a victory in the main event. Promo ter' Staton Lo renz , who has hosted a series of AMA-sanctioned indoo r ice races for more than a deca de, had difficulty in securing faci lities th is winter and origi nally announced that th e Mus kegon event wou ld be the o nly race o n the 1991 schedule. He was then successful in acquiring use o f the Cincinnati Garden in late February and tha t allowed him to salvage some semblance of a "series." J oining Springsteen on the start line for the main event after the running of the 20 match ra ces were . Larry Pegram and Bryan Villella who had tied for second with 12 points behind Springsteen's maxiumum 15 points, defending series champ Dan Ingram , C AM A Nationa l Ama teur Ice Race Cha m p io n Doug O'Boyle, Don Estep, Brad Lowe and Mark Wyskiel. Wh en starter Larry Schmid triggered the gree n light to start the main event, Springsteen's back· was all the rest of the racers saw as he took an immedia te lead and was never challenged d uring the eight-lap race. Ru nner-up honors went to Ingram, whoon the third lap had used Villella's tires as a berm and pushed by Villella and then kept him at bay. Pegram stayed right with Villella after Ingram, who was riding a Byron Molloseau Honda, had passed him, but Pegram couldn 't put a move on Villella and had to seule for fourth. Fifth went to O' Boyle and he earned the spot by first putting a move on Lowe on the ne xt to last lap that p u sh ed Lowe to th e outside a nd d ro p p ed h im to last place, a n d then sliding by Estep to drop him to sixth. Wyskiel finis hed seventh, getting into that slot when Lowe went wide. 0'1 Results n N AL: 1. Chuck Springsteen (Ho n); 2. Dan Ingram (Hon ); S. Bryan Villd la (Hon); 4. Larry Pegram (Ho n ); 5. Doug D'Boyle (Ho n); 6. Don Estep (Ho n); 7. Mark Wy,k id (Hon ); 8. Brad Lowe (Kaw). POL . STAN DINGS; I. O1uck Springsteen (15); ' 2. (TIE) Don Pegram/B ryan ViII.lla (12); 4. (TIE) Dan Ingram/DougO'Boyle (II );6. (TI E) Don Estep! Brad Low e (9); 8. Mark Wy,kiel (8); 9. Cory jerew (6); 10. Bob Knapp (5).

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