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eROADRACE e World Championship Road Race Series: Round 2 Defending World Champion Wayne Rainey won his first 500cc Grand Prix of th e season in Australia, ending a two-year win streak there by Wayne Gardner. The top Aussie in this year's Australian GP was Michael Doohan, who came through the field to finish second after a poor start had relegated him to 10th. R aineysto psAussie win stre akDown U ndet By Paul Carruthers EASTERN CREEK, AU STRAW., APR. 7 ch an ge of scene ry provid ed a ch a nge of fortune fo r Wor ld Champion Wayne Rainey as he was finally ab le to thwart Wayn e Gardner in his a ttem p t to win hi s home GP for the third successive tim e as the venue for the Austra lian G P moved to Eastern Creek after a twoyear run at Ph illi p Island . The tig ht and twisty new circu it on the o u tskirts .of Sydney beca me the site of Ra iney's first G P win of th e season. Surprising ly, the Australian cha llenge came not fro m Gardner but from h is Rothrnan s Ho nda teammate Michael Doohan . Alt hough th is Oz GP was no match for th e past two th rillers Ph illi p Isl a n d p rod u ced , Dooh an 's fight throug h the pack after a dismal start to seco nd p lace gav e th e h ighl y-' part isan 76,000 attendees som ething to cheer abou t - but hi s cha rge came up 2.5 seconds short at the finis h. A 6 Rainey's Team Marlboro Roberts Yam ah a tea m ma te j oh n Koci n sk i earned his first trip to a 500cc rostrum wi th an impressive third p lace finish in o n ly h is third-ever 500cc G P. Kocins ki battl ed with what is becoming a pers istent foggi ng problem with hi s helmet 's facesh ield to hold second . for the majority of the race befo re bein g reeled in by the charging Doo han . . Fourth p lace went to a disappointed Gard n er, wh o fi n ish ed so me 24 seconds beh ind Rain ey but another five seconds in front of fifth place fin isher Kevin Sch wantz. Schw an tz, who won the open ing ro un d of the cha m pions hip in J apan two weeks ago, suffered all week with the Team L ucky Strike Suzu ki and was happy to leave Eastern Creek wi th p o i nt s in pocket. Ca giva's Eddie La wson fin ished six th for the second stra ight race, after chas ing Schwa ntz for the full 32 laps. Sona uto Yam ah a 's J.P. Ru ggia, Cagiva's Alex Barros, Ru ggia's teammate Adria n Moril las and Lu cky Stri ke Suzuki 's Didier de Radi gu es rou nded o u t th e to p 10 fin ishers. U.S. Su perbike Cha m p io n ' Do ug Chand ler had a fo rgetful ou ting o n the still -u n sp o n so red Tea m Chan d ler Yama ha YZR500 as he stru gg led wit h a bad fro nt tir e to fini sh 12th, o ne spot behi nd the quick-recovering Kevin Ma gee o n th e third L u cky Strike Suzu ki. Rainey averaged 95.009 mph around the 2.48-mi le track, completing the 32 laps in 49 minutes, 14.41 I seconds. En route to the victory , the 12th of hi s career, Ra iney set the track record wit h a l -rnin ute, 31.455-second go-aro und on th e l l th lap. Th e Ca li fornia n 's victory a lso moved him into the championship points lead by a single point o ver Ooo han , 35-34. Schwantz is th ird in the title cha se with 31 points with Kocinski's 28 poi nts eno ugh for fourt h ah ead of Ga rd ner's 24. Wh ile Rainey was ' able to get the jump on the field at the start and hold it to th e fini sh , Rothrnans Honda 's Lu ca Cada lora had to tak e a different ro ute to his second straig h t 250cc GP victory. T he form er 125cc World Champio n had to fig h t from beh ind to pass HB Honda 's Helmut Bradl on th e fina l lap of the GP af ter a racelon g ba ili e. T hird p lace we nt to ยท j apan ese G P ru n ner -up Carlos Cardus on the Repsol H onda. ahea d of Sha rpSampson Ho nda 's Wile o Zeelenb erg and April ia's Loris Reggiani. Cadalora's win extended h is po ints lead over Cardus to eigh t points, 4032, a fter two of 15 ro u nds. Zeelenberg retained thi rd in the po ints chase wit h 28 points to Brad\' s 26. In the 125cc GP , birthday boy Loris Capirossi scored a wire-to-wire 5.7second win over h is AGV Honda-Pileri Corse teammate Fausto Gresini . Capirossi, th e defendin g World Ch ampion , celebrated hi s lSth birthday the day prior to th e start of tim ed practice, q ua lifie d on the po le in th e fin al sessio n o n Saturday , and went OUt and dominated the race on Sunday. Capirossi's win move d him into a tie wit h j apan ese G P win ner Noburo Ueda, th ird today , in th e titl e chase at 35 po ints. Gresini holds third at 34 po ints, o nlya sing le po int behind h is team mate and the J apan ese GP rookie. The l25cc. co n ti ngent will resume actio n in j erez, Spa in , o n May 5 with the Sidecars tak in g th eir p lace a t Laguna Seca on April 21. , Although the immaculat e new facility, located only 15 miles from Sydney, was praised by all, the circu it's safety ca me under scr u tiny o n Sa tu rday a fte r n oo n as man y of the rider s watc hed in horror as Su perbi ke co mpe ti tor SCOll Ooohan , Mi ch a el 's brother, ran off th e track in a support race and almost im mediately str uck an unprotected conc rete barrier. Fortunat ely, Ooohan esca ped wi th on ly liga ment dam ag e to o ne of hi s knees - but it cou ld have been much wor se, And Ooohan was th e second rider to stri ke an un protected barrier. In Friday's seco n d practice se ss io n , Cada lora was in volved in a colli sion with Aus tra lia n rid er David Eveyln , a nd when th e yo u ng Eveyln lo st control he pl owed into a wall, suffering serious, yet not life threatening inj uries. T he mo st o u ts po ke n rider was Schwan tz, wh o watched the Ooohan crash in the press room: " And th ey say Laguna Seca is dan gerous. T here's no ru n-off areas here, and there' s places where the cras hed bik es can come back across the trac k." A law in th e state of New South Wales prohibits the use of hay bal es becau se of fire restr ictions, and tires were used, a ltho ug h in some places rather spari ng ly, in pla ce of the bales. "I was surprised to see so many concre te wall s." Mich ael Ooohan said . " I don 't thi nk tha t's real safe. I guess if you cras h you just hope you hi t a cross-ply (bias-p ly) ins tead of a radial. " Ga rd ner, the most vocal when it comes to track safety at Laguna Seca, defended his home circu it: " I think they possibly sho uld have hay bales o r tir es on the walls, but it' s still not as da ngerous as Lagu na Seca. " Bal es or tires, th e maj ority of riders still favo r the wide open spaces of Phillip Isl and' s ra ce track . Many ' predicted .the tig h t and twisty Eastern Creek would make for processional races in comparison to Phillip Island, and for the mos t part th ey were rig ht. Dooh an 's hopes " for a stinking hot day" tha t he thought would give the Michelin users an adva ntage over the Dunlop runners were dashed as cloud cover moved in for the 500cc GP. For a ll practica l pu rposes Rainey, as he has in the pa st, won the race o n the openi ng lap. As the pack ended th e first lap, Rainey was already clear from his team mate Kocinski , and the on ly question was if somebody co uld run down the World Champion. By th e eigh th lap , Rainey led Kocinksi by 4.3 seconds. Ooohan was up to fourth and gain in g grou nd on Gardner, some eig h t seconds behind Rainey aft er ending the first lap in 10th pla ce, a lap he co m p leted some three a nd a !1aU seconds slower th an Rainey as he' tried to get by the slower rid ers in front of him. " If I had a good start, who kn ows wh at would hav e happened? But if we were racing, Wayne (Rainey ) might have go ne faster." Oooh an said hi s bad sta rt ma y have been caused by hi s clutch overheating wh en he had tro uble finding neutral as th e pack pulled to a stop on th e gr id after the warm-up lap: "It got a bit hot , I sli pped it and they were go ne," th e Aussie said. Rainey upped th e pa ce, dropping into the 31s for three stra igh t laps, and by the 12th lap it was obvio us that if a cha lle nge were to come it would come from Ooohan , and not Kocinski. In the 13th lap, Ooohan moved in o n Gardn er a nd th e p air tr ailed Kocinski by 4.2 seconds. Later that lap, Doohan moved pa st hi s teammate and started after Kocinski. " I didn 't even think I could catch J ohn (Kocinski)," Doohan said later. " Bu t I go t Wayne (Gard ner) and saw there were 16 laps left and I started to chase j ohn." On th e 26th lap, Oooh an moved by Kocinski in front of th e main grandsta nd on the fro nt straight, sending the crow d into a frenzy. There were sti ll some six seconds between the Australian and th e World Champion ahead of h im , but he began the whittling process, taking a few 10ths here and a few 10ths there. By the 31st lap, he had cut the lead down to 4.3 seconds, but Rainey had th is one in his pocket and th e margin was 2.549 seconds at th e flag . " Until six laps from the end, all I had been seeing was 'j o hn: John, j ohn' (on his pit boa rd) , then I saw 'Doo han ' and he was catching me three-tenths of a second a lap, but I didn't need to go any quicker since he wasn 't catching me that much and it reall y doesn 't matter how much you win by," Rainey said . Ooohan concurred : " Once he knew I was catchi ng ' him, he 'star ted to go faster. " Once Doohan was by, Kocinski's