Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

race was a lo nely o ne a nd o nce he kn ew th at third was goi ng to be th e best he could do he slo wed the pace a nd settled for h is firs t tri p to the ros trum. " I co uldn' t rea lly see, just lik e in j a pa n and wh en it's li ke that it 's hard to th in k abo ut yo ur bike," Kocinski sa id. " When Mick (Ooo ha n) started com ing th ere wasn 't rea lly a lot I could do . ' I kn ew th e g uy behind in fourth was a lon g way back so I th ou ght third was eno ugh." Gardner cou ld n' t live up to the high expectations hi s cou ntryme n had put o n hi m to win h is third st ra ig h t Au stra lian Grand Prix, a nd th e Wo llongon g Wonder was a d isappointed fo urth aft er suffe ring with a sliding rea r tir e. " O f co urse I ' m di sappo inted," Ga rd ner sa id. " I tri ed my best bu t it wasn 't goo d enough on the da y. I would have liked to finish o n th e rostrum of course, and it is a bit o f a letdown to finish fourth after winning th is race th e past two years. But good lu ck to Wa yn e Rain ey. H e got a grea t sta rt and cleared a way a nd no o ne else co u ld ca tch him. H e rode exactly the - right race for this track. Co ngratulatio ns to h im , but I mu st ad mit 1 wou ld have liked my tea mmat e Mich ael Oooha n to ha ve won if 1 didn 't , to keep th e' race for Au stra lia." A nea r-race long ba ttle for fifth ended up go ing to Sch wan tz by two seco nds over Lawson, who gave chase bu t never led the T exa n. P lagued by prob lems th rough out th e G P , Schwan tz used his head to gain poi nts for the firs t time in Australia after cra shi ng in the two prior G P s here. " I knew after pr actice that 1 wasn 't go n na be racing fo r a win , and tha t was as hard as 1 co u ld push it," Schw a n tz said. " I go t a good start , a nd tried to stick with them as long as poss ible so I co u ld avoid havi ng problems wit h a nyo ne beh ind me. T hose Yamahas were dialed in too good, a nd wh en Ooohan came up on me 1 moved over to let him through, beca use he had a better dr ive tha n me. " La wso n sai d that a lthough he had fun wat ching Sch wantz, he still was n 't hap p y a bout being 29 seconds beh ind th e race winner, Rainey. Seventh place went to th e Frenc h ma n Ruggi a, wh o lat er co mp la ine d of fro nt end chatter. " I'm happy," he said. " I didn 't get a good sta rt, but being close to Lawso n and Schw antz he lped me a lo t." Behi nd R uggia ca me th e best battle of th e race. Initia lly, it was Did ier de Rad igues o n th e seco nd Lucky Strike Suzu ki holding eig h th, but he ga ve way to firs t Barros and th en Adria n Rainey storms to n-'--ole-=--- Joh,! Ko~inski (19) had his second straight impressive outing as he finished third m hIS thud-ever 500cc GP; here he leads fifth place finisher Kevin Schwantz (34), The 250cc GP went t.o the ~re with Italian ~uca ~daIora (3) stalking German Helmut BradI (4) until the final lap before takmg hIS second win of the season, _ astest throughout the tt.nee ti,med pra~tice sessio ns, World Champion Wayne Ramey (rig h t) ea rned hi s first pol e position of th e season by stop p ing th e clock a t one m inute, 30.948 seco nds for an ave rage speed of 96.4'17 mph a t th e n ew East ern Cr eek circu it o n th e o uts kirts of Sydn ey. Rainey a nd his Marl boro Yam aha were th e o n ly r ornbin at ion to break the I :3 1 ban ier a nd the 30-year-old Ca lifor ni a n d id so in the final session o n Saturda y a fternoon. U n like th e season opener two week s ago in japan wh en a ll but one session were struck by rain , a ll three qualifying sessio ns were held under brilliant sunshine wi th temperatures in th e h igh BOs. Only .974-of-a-second separated the lop five · ' ... qualifiers, with crowd favorite and two-time Australian GP winner Wame G ardner only .27-of-a-seco nd behind Rainey, The Australian put his Roth~ans Honda on the front row .with his second session time of I:31.21K Gardner's cou ntry ma n and teamm~te MIChael ~han was only .19-of-a- second behind after circulating at 1:31.237 m th e final session. Freshman sensation john Kocinski filled the front row w.ith his, 1:31.275 on t~e secon ~ Marlboro Yamaha in the fin al sessio n. Cagi va's fo.ur-ll1!'e World Champion Eddie Lawson rounded o u t th e to p five qualifiers with his I:3 1.922, fresh o ff three da ys o f testing a t Eastern Creek wh ere he logged close to 700 mi les o n hi s new mount. Although th e pole position was secure, Rainey st ill had some tir e testing to do d uring Sunda y morning's warm -up. " In japan we never got a chance to do anything," Rainey said. " Th is one ~s come together fO us. We've still go t more tir es to test and the last one I T tried today Ieh real good, but the ch eckered flag came out j ust when I got go ing. I'm g~)ing to tr.y that one.again in the morning warm-up." Ramey admitted the high heat would be a good test of how his Ounlops would fare ~gamst the more-proven Michelins used by Gardner, Ooohan and Lawson: "This Will be the test for th em ," he said. "The bik e's read y to go a nd I don 't see th.e tir es go~ng bad, but I ha ven 't done 32 laps - nobody has." Ramey predl<;ted th e ra~e pa ce would .bt: in the low to m id -I :31 range, a pa ce j apanese GP w m ne r Kevm Schwantz (SIx th fastest a t 1:32.198) hoped would be slo wer. The T exan was str ugg ling with hi s Luck y Stri ke Su zu ki, a nd was no dou bt ha~pered by t~e fact tha t t~e SUZl.lki squad was one of the few top team s that hadn t tested a t Eastern Creek Just p nor to the GP, " T he front , ba~k a nd eve'Jth ing in between ," Schwantz responded when asked where th e Suzu ki was havmg problem s. " When th e back works it p ushes the front; when th e front works th e back mo ves too much. I th ink we've got a pr etty ~ood ide~ of wh at 's wron g, but it' s go ing to be p re tty hard to find two second~ m 30 rrunutes tomorro w. I hope th e race pace is slo wer, but if not I'll sco re points and go on abo u t it." Asked hi s o p in io n o f Rainey's pr e-race pace predict ion, Sch wa n tz sa id: " I' Il be.1ieve it wh en I see it. T here ma y be so me high I:31s, but I do n 't think th ere will be very ma ny of 'ern." Ooohan seeme d so mew ha t con fident tha t Rain ey wouldn 't be a ble to leave the pack be.hind: ",' th ink he.'ll try a nd bolt from the s ta~t , bu t th ere're 32 la ps to ca tch him. H e s on ly go ing [our or five la ps on a u re and then he's coming in. I'm hoping for a stin ki ng hot day," AI~ough .his wrist th at was opera ted o n in the o ff-season was Ieel iu g better than It was m japan, Gardner ad m itted th at winn in g hi s third stra ig h t Oz GP wasn 't going to be easy. " It's going to be bloody hard work,"_ _ _ _ _.....i _ he said. F Mo rill a s o n t he seco nd So nau ro Yama ha. The fight went dow n to the final la p, with Barros stu ffing his way u p th e ins ide of Morillas in th e last o f two first-gea r hairpins. Ch andl er a nd j ua n G arriga were also in vo lved in the tu ssle for seventh ca rlyon, but Ch andler 's front tire developed flat spots a nd he was forced to dro p back, _ " I co u ldn ' t do a ny thing, I was jus t riding a ro u nd," a su bd ued Chandler said. "There were flat spots o n the fro nt tire a nd the re was nothing I cou ld do . For the first two laps I was ha p p y, but once I got sett led in it sta rted hopping rea l bad , I lost the front o nce in the mi dd le of o ne (the fastest corner on the race track), a nd decided it wasn 't wo rt h it." Cha nd ler's 1991 production Yamah a will u ndergo chassis cha nge s bu t it won 't ha p pen unti l they get to Europe, " Righ t now, I'm no t looking forward to Lagu na' Seca,' Chand ler said. But Cha nd ler's day was bett er than Ga rri ga 's. T he paniard suffered his second crash of the weeke nd o n the 15th lap, and ended up with a broken bone in his right heel, The Ducad os Yamaha rider, however, says he'll be on the grid for the U.S. G P in two weeks. The seco nd Span iard in the 500cc G P, Si to Pons, a lso failed to finis h d ue to a p rob lem with th e e1ectrics o~ h is Campsa-bac ked Honda NSR500. " It 's a pi ty beca use this morning on warm- up I improved my best time do ne during official practice," th e 1989 250cc World Champion and expectant father said. Although his Grand Prix fu ture sti ll remai ns cloudy, Kevin Ma gee was g iven the boost o [ receiving sponsorship from Tooheys Beer , who a lso sponsored th e event , on ly moments b~fore th e s~a~t of the G P. Meetin gs wit h Suz u ki m j apan la ter in the mo nt h wi ll decide if Magee will be able to o btai n bik es for the rest o f th e G Ps, bu t th e Au ssie wi ll definitely m iss th e next round a t La guna Seca. Mag ee, in o n ly hi s seco nd ride since suffering serio us head injuries last Ap ri l, finished 11th o n the third L ucky Str ike Suzuk i: " I was a little less ca u tio us th an in' j apan, but I still was n: t really stuffing it into th e turns," he sai d. Alth o u gh t he crowd's chant o f " Doo ha n , Doo han " drowned out the Star Spangled Banner, not h in g co uld wipe th e smi le off Ra iney's face. The Californ ian had a lso mad e good o n his p redi cti on th at th e race wo uld see la ps run in the 1:3 1-ra nge as he clocked n ine laps un der 1:32. Doohan, meanwhile, d id 16 la ps u nd er I:32, but he co u ld n' t mak e u p the time he'd lost in th e ea rly laps. Fas t qualifi er Cada lora has pu t himself in th e position o f the ma n to bea t in th e 250cc ti tie chase- after opening the season with two straight wins. Neither win has come easy , however, a nd th is time Cadalora was threatened th rough o u t by Bradl, Bradl got the best start as me lee broke ou t in the firs t corner wi th five riders cras h ing - Sw itzerland's Peter Linden , Au stra lian R icky Rice, Italian Carlos Catal a no , Austra lia n Ia n Newto n a nd Germa n H arald Eckl a ll went dow n in a cloud of dust. Ca dalora was second away while his championsh ip rival Ca rdus suffered a mid-pack sta rt a nd was moving through th e field , Spaniard Alex Criville was another first lap cras her as he dropped his JJ Co bas H on da in the first ha irpin , ' remo unted bu t pu lled in. Californ ia n 7

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