Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

~ ROAD RACE World Championship Road Race Series: Round 3 m Rainey three-peats inU.S. Grand Prix By Paul Carruthers Photos by Henny Ray Abrams and Ken Faught MONTEREY, CA, APR. 21 or all.practical purposes, the race for the lead in the United States Grand Prix lasted for two corners'. Beyond that it was all Wayne Rainey as the defending 500cc World Champi on danced his Marlboro Yamaha to hi s seco nd successive GP victory and hi s third straight here at Laguna Seca International Raceway. Rainey and Team Lucky Strike Suzuki's Kevin Schwantz went into turn two elbow-to-elbow with Schwantz exiting-the seco nd gear lefthander with the lead. Rainey, however, darted under the Texan on brakes in turn three and was never headed again. But the excitement didn't end there as the battles behind the King of Laguna raged on in front of an estimated threeday cro wd of 62,000. It was estimated that 40,000 were on hand on Sunday. Eventually it was Rothmans Honda's Michael Doohan who finished second, but not before a rather intense battle with Schwantz, For the majority of the 35 laps, the Australian followed the Texan. On the 21st lap, though, Doohan made his tum five pass stick, and cruised in for his third second place finish of the season, 6.974 seconds behind Rainey, who averaged 89.855 mph. Once Doohan was past, Schwantz decided third was as much as he could hope for and he too settled into his final finishing position. Fourth place went to Frenchman Jean-Philippe Ruggia in his best-ever result in a dry 500cc Grand Prix. The Sonauto Yamaha rider had successfully fought through after ending the first lap in seventh place. The young Frenchman was impressive as he battled with and eventually got the best of the likes of four-time World Champion Eddie Lawson, 1987 World Champion Wayne Gardner and Alex- . andre Barros. Lawson ended up with his best result of the season as he rode the factory Cagiva to a fifth place finish, narrowly holding off the impressive advances of his 20-year-old teammate Barros, Gardner, meanwhile, had been amidst the battle for fourth, but faded to finish a lonely seventh. Ducados Yamaha's Juan Garriga, Sonauto Yamaha's Adrian Morillas and Lucky Strike Suzuki's Didier de Radigues rounded out the top 10 finishers. ' And what of John Kocinski? The 250cc World Champion exited the proceedings early. After passing Schwantz and setting his sights on teammate Rainey, Kocinski suffered his first setback in what has been a rather remarkable rookie season. The confident Kocinski went up and over the handlebars after a major-league high-side on the exit of turn two on the sixth lap. At that point, Kocinski looked to be the on ly rider capable 'of possibly keeping the rabbit Rainey in sight. After all, he had qualified second, only fractions slower than Rainey (see sidebar). Finally, the 500cc class riders left Laguna Seca with the whole fraternity F First lap action in the Corkscrew shows that World Champion Wayne Rainey (1) has already opened a gap over Kevin Schwantz (34) and Michael Doohan (3). John Kocinski (19) tries to make a move on Kevin Schwantz (34). The 250cc World Champion passed Schwantz in turn 11, but later crashed exiting turn two. 6 in good health. A practice get-off by Ruggia was the only 500cc crash of the weekend, and Rainey and Co. were able ,to celebrate without the past worries of injured rivals. . And with the injury-free race came a still tight points battle. Rainey leads the title chase, but only by four points over Doohan, 55-51. Schwantz lies third in the battle with 46 points ahead of Gardner's 33 and Lawson's 31. Racers faced a safer Laguna Seca International Raceway when they arrived for the first practice session on Friday morning. Over $300,000 was spent in implementing track changes with more run-off areas, gravel beds and a resurfacing of the turn II area the major improvements. Garages were 'p u t onhold, but plans have them slated.to be ready for the 1992 event. For once, the issue of track safety at Laguna wasn't much of an issue. " Yeah , it's still dangerous," Laguna critic Wayne Gardner said after the first session. "What happens if you run out of brakes going up the hill into the corkscrew? This isn't the only track that's dangerous, but they 've done some work here and they're trying. It's okay." Rainey said the demanding track was much improved: "They've done a lot of work and it's a lot safer than it was last year. " On to racing. With tension starting to build for the 1:00 p.m. start of the 500cc Grand Prix, Doohan was stopped by officials at the end of pit lane as the rest 'of the 18-rider field completed their sighting lap. The Australian had apparently waited too long before leaving his pit area, and he was forced to surrender the chance of taking the additional warm-up lap - a goaround the riders generally use to help generate heat in their brand new tires. When the light flashed green , Schwantz and Rainey crested the hill with elbows rubbing as they led the fray into turn two . " I just tried to get a start and go," Rainey said later. "Kevin and I got hung up a t the start - like we do every year." . . The T exan went a tad deeper into turn two and exited with the lead. Ra in ey quickly co unt ered and outbraked Schwantz into turn three - and from there he was never headed. The World Champion led by 1.89 seconds at the completion of the second lap; 2.93 by lap four; 3.4 by lap 6; 7.8 by lap I I; 8.9 by lap 14; 9.2 by lap 16 . .. H e eased up to win by 6.974 seconds " fretting about fuel consurnption.. " It was just o ur da y," he said with a smile after his second straight runaway performance. Beh ind him, things ' weren't as settled. While the others knew early that Rainey was going to be uncatchable, Kocinski wasn't so sure. On Saturday afternoon, Kocinski said he didn't care how big Rainey's early lead was: "I

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