Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

14th. A lot of work for two po ints, but a champ ion tak es as many as he can find . T he rider fro m L ittl e Rock, mean whi le, was distu rbed at the H onda 's speed advantage, and bu rn ing at th e luck that meant he mi ssed a first-race wi n. April Kocinski kn ows every in ch of Laguna, and he used every in ch to blitz th e 250 estab lish m en t into abject submission. T hey hard ly smelt him, and he didn' t shri nk from crowing on the rostrum. " It feels good to win fo America." And from his rivals, under their breath. " Wait until we get to th e tracks we know." May Spain, Italy, Germany - j erez, Misano, Nurburgring. The test had come, and with the first two tracks being predominately twisty, Kocinski 's opposit ion would com e from hi s fellow Yamaha rid er Luca Cadalora. The Italian, a former I25cc ch amp and a lyrically rhythmical rider, had won at jerez the year before , and expected to win again. Bradl qualified his Honda fa stest , but the race was between the two orange Yamahas. It , was a du el to remember. Cadalora wa s sm oo ther a s he swapped the lead back and forth with th e thrusting and ever-deter m ined American . The Italian claimed the lap record, and his tacti cs seemed sound. T he trick at jerez is to lead into the last ha irpin, and run in tigh t, to block any attemp ted outbrak in g. Then you automatically control th e exit, and the sho rt sp rint to th e flag . Round th e previous two sweepers, where Kocinski's bik e had been wobbling and flickin g, Cadal ora was in comma nd. He brak ed la te bu t tight, leaving no room for Kocinski , and felt assured of an impo rta nt victory. It would be impo ssible to be overtaken now. A prem atu re judgem ent. For Kocinski the only impossible thing was to be bea ten , and hi s response to Cad alora's defen se of the final corne r was the same as h is respo n se to an y ot h er man eu ver . . . a ttack, a ttack, attack. H e was even later on the brak es than his rival. but in stead of do ing what Cada lora expected, he went the long way. Co rne ring ridicul ously fast, lean ing his machine way over , he sung alongside the surprised Cadal ora, nosed ahead, and boxed him in . Then , even wh en a muffed gear -change caused a falter o n th e fin a l sprint (he'd been havin g clutch trouble all race long), hi s rival had nowhere to go. A turning point indeed, for Cadalora certai n ly. " I never thought anyone co uld overtake there," he said. Now he kn ew he faced someone bett er than he had ever faced before. And another Kocinski milestone. He'd never had to race so hard for so long before, and he'd never enjoyed a race so much. But it wasn't hi s style. " I lik e to get out front and jam," he said. In Ital y, home hero Cadalora obligingly broke down in the early stages , leaving Kocinski to jam as he liked . After four races, he took the lead in the World Ch ampionship, and by now it was clear that his off-track tactics were simi lar to those on the track do you r utmost to belittle the competition; win every lap, every corner, every inch. If Kocinski was openly scorn fu l, almost abusive, of the other riders, he retained a shred of respect for Cada lora. T hi s ran in ta ndem with hi s continual complaints about the Yam aha 's lack of stra ight lin e speed compared with th e horde o f H ondas. Cadalora was o perating under th e same lim ita tions, and was necessarily a lso " rid ing hi s ass off." The rest j ust pussies. Well pussy-power won in German y. Cadalora fell, Kocins ki used all the track plus the curbs and the paint , and pus he d hi s Yamaha into fearsome cont or tions. But it was a losin g battle, and he was p ushed into an error in th e last bend, runn ing wide to let th e hated Hondas of Wil co Zeelenb erg and Carlos Cardus ni p th ro ugh . He closed the mo nt h wit h more tests, th is time at Rijeka, and a seven -po int title lead over new challenger Carl os Ca rdus's Repsol Honda. June Kocin ski mad e light of learn ing tracks, habi tua ll y u p to lap-record speed after untimed practice. No r was he in awe of an y of them . "On Sunday night, we're ou tta here and on to the next one," he'd say. just an other new race track. Amazingly, he preferr ed the more comp licated circuits, for th ey gave his nimble Yamah a more chance. According ly, he rail ed against the simp le high-speed bowl of the Salzburgring. " I can rid e round th ese gu ys in the corne rs; but there's on ly two corn ers here. That's gonna make it hard." The race was a fantasticall y close nine-rider battle of slips trea mi ng a nd long-term tacti cs. Kocinski, meanwhile, had made an error of judgement, possibl y due to hi s innate arrogance. H e'd geared his Yamaha to make the crucial run up the hill alone, in the hope that he'd be in front, Instead, in th e pack of drafting H ondas , he was running out of 'r evs. He was third, behind old hands Cadalora a nd Martin Wimmer (Aprilia ). And he beh aved as though the sky had fallen , slumpi ng pale a nd unsmiling on the grass by the rostrum , and vouch sa fin g: " My reputation is ruined." Nor did he redeem it, in Bradl's eyes, at Rijeka, wh ere he may ha ve expected so me advan tage a t a track whe re han dling in th e co nt inua l cornercombina tions is more importan t than all-ou t speed. He fell in practice, and la y mo ti onl ess for a wh i le, later denying th at he'd been knocked o ut. (Similarly, after a practice crash in German y, he'd said: " T ha t ma y have been my body that fell off the bike, but it wasn 't me." ) Hi s problem was th at the lap clo sed with a lon g spri n t up through th e gearbox to the finish lin e - terr itory where the H ondas excelled. T he best he cou ld do in the race was to stay wi th the gaggle, bu t hi s stra nge lin e into one series of esses freq ue n tly bau lked the others, and loo ked more like pe tulant blocki ng than tactical riding. He was classified second in a race cu t sho rt by a collision at the rear of the nin e-bik e leading pack , and was mu ch sobered by the severity of Reinhold Roth 's injuries. Assen is a su premely difficult circu it, n icknamed " the Cathedral ," where experience is often worth a second a lap. Kocinski proved he ha d graduated from the junior choir. H e won the race, oh yes - and nobody cou ld remember any o ther Assen first-timer to do so. But the manner of his fourth victory was as significa nt . It was ach ieved qu ite differently from the rest. H itherto, little john hadn ' t been happy unl ess he was in fro nt. Always a tta ck. At Assen , after earnest advice from Rober ts, he rode wit h mat urity, ju dgement and tactics, and timed h is fin al sprint carefu lly to bamboozle Cad al ora into crash ing (twice). July Kocinski had seen Spa before , and wh ile he comp lained about th e Yam aha 's lack of p uff u p the long hill , he qua lified on po le, th en went jamming in the sodden race. Once again, he never looked back, an d never slacked off - h is mach ine was skitteri ng on the edge from start to fin ish. H is unquench abl e ar roga nce now seemed ent irely j ustified, bu t he was causi ng increasing baffl ement wi th his off-th e-wall conversa tio n, and a curio us pench ant for clean liness that went beyond air-ho sin g th e dust ou t of his leath ers. H is mo tor ho me, one of the biggest in the pad dock, was said by those few who ever went inside to be a temple [ 0 hygiene; whi le people were starting to peek a t a strange ritual he per~ormed after each race or practice sessio n. Instead of th e usual disappearing act behind a firmly closed door, Kocinski would slowly and methodicall y stri p to hi s underw ear, carefu lly shaking out each garment twice before fold ing it n eatl y, and putting i t awa y i n a Dainese bag stowed in th e lock ers beneath. France turned the tables . Kocinski had demoralized Cadalora, and seen ZeeIenberg (" that Ch eeseburger, or whatever his name is" ) lose impetus. But Cardus was still strong. He'd won th e year before a t LeMans, and he qualified on pole as Kocinski sweated the fumes in the heat wave. He also galloped away in th e race, but Kocinski fought his way out of the huddle to close up remorselessl y. But no matter what he tried, Cardus was able to stay tantalizingly out o f reach . Then, with seven laps remaining, trying too hard, Kocinski tou ch ed the ,dirt at one of th e chicanes, and went careen ing off in a cloud of dust. The sha king and air-hosing after that mu st ha ve taken hours. Kocinski still led the championsh ip - but he had proven all too li terally th at he was fallible. August Kocinski had no more troub le learning th e su btle rh ythms of Donington Park th an he ha d at Assen , or Rijeka, 21

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