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Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/127383
; ROADRAC W Championship Road Race Series: Round 5
E orld
e
Californian Doug Chandler top ped a stru ggling' Kevin Schwantz for sixth place.
Luca Cadalora (3) and Helm ut Bradl (4) fought to the finish in th e 250cc GP.
The team of Steve Webster and Gavin Simmons won a third straight sidecar GP.
14
For the final 20 laps he was clearly
the fastest rider on th e track.
To Doohan, that didn 't matter. He
was well in control, holdin g seven
seconds on Koci nski wh en Rainey
dropped out .
" I cou ld see it sliding aro und,"
Doohan said of his rival 's Yamaha. " I
passed him, he passed me, then I passed
him back. I came around and my pit
boa rd said '.8 seconds' and the next
lap it said 'pl us seven.' I saw h im
comi ng ou t of the p it lan e. I didn 't
try to race h im . I just wanted to
maintain my position."
That he did, to the end of the race
for his second win in a row. There can
be no doubt that the momentum in
the cha mp ions h ip has shif ted his way,
though he refused to acknowledge it.
Kocinski was a comfortable second ,
holding six seconds on Lawson at the
en d . Asked about his tires , he
responded, " I didn't pull into the
pits. "
But he did believe he cou ld have been
moreofa threat if he'd gotten out better
at the beginnin g.
. " I just blew it from the start, " he
said. "Yo u can't give these guys too
much space. I wasn 't very good on the
ligh t."
Lawson ' was a comfortable third,
though, as noted earlier, he didn ' t
know it. He said he was having a little
trouble with th e front end ,early on,
which allowed the leaders to get away .
"T hen the fuel went down and it
seemed to get bett er," he said.
T he Barros/Ruggia d uel, whi ch
Barros led most of the way, went to
Barros who was able to block Ru ggia's
last-lap charge.
As Schwantz began to press
Chandler lat e in the race, the AMA
Superb ike Champion picked up th e
pace, turned h is fastest lap two laps
from the end of the race. " I though t
I cou ld've run th at pace if it didn 't feel
funn y in the fast corners," Chandler
said.
•
Schwantz would end up sevent h.
Garriga eigh th after choosing a tire
that wen t the distance, but took a little
too long to warm up. " It 's a race to
forget as far as the result goes," he said.
And Rain ey fin ished ni n th , one
better than privateer Eddie La ycock.
It was the first tim e he 'd finished a
race off the pod iu m since the Brazilian
GP in Sep tember of 1988. (T wice he
didn't finis h races. At Sweden in 1989,
and Hungary in 1990.)
Only Bradl and Cadalora were abl e
to qua lify under 1:19, that being a
fun ction of rain washing out the final
two practice sessions. So it was no
surprise that when the race began they
were right out front. But , as usual, it
was a tight group early , this time with
Ch ili, Doriano Romboni, Reggiani,
Marlboro 11 Cobas's Alex Criville, and
Zeelenberg in pursuit.
Chili took the lead on the fourth lap
leading a 'seven-ri der freight tra in for
a lap before Bradl too k over. The septe t
began to br eak up into twos and
threes with Brad! and Cadalora displaying their superiority and pulling
over a three-second lead by the halfway
poin t. T he Aprilias of Chili and
Reggian i were the next closest pa ir
with Cardus up in front o£. Zeelenberg
and Rombon i for fifth . Rombon i' s
engine wou ld expire soon after leadin g
three leading trios and HRC's Masahiro Shimizu a lon e seventh.
For the final third of the race the
lead du o was experienci ng tra ffic and
Bradl seemed better able to cope with
it. He would pull sma ll leads, bu t
Cadalora wou ld catch up when the
track cleared.
With three laps to go, th e du o was
n ea rly taken o u t b y a gagg le of
backrn arkers, in cl ud ing Rothmans
Honda Italy's underachiever Corrado
Catalano.
Cadalora led to start the fina l lap
and many tho ugh t th is was a stra tegic
move on Bradl 's part. The German
took it back towar d th e end of the lap
before being run wide by the overaggressive Cadalora,
Brad! came down the frontstraight
on th e coo l-o££ lap holding up a
Ger ma n n ag in victory, but, when told
he was second, skipped the podium
ceremon ies a nd pos t-race p ress
conference.
Reached la ter in his motorhome, he
was vehement in his a ttack on the racewinn er. "It was th e most u n fa ir
passing ma ne uve r ' I've ever experienced," he said. " I noticed Luca not
ridi ng fast at the beginnin g. Lu ca can't
ride fast in the front. He lras to follo w
someone like a leech . I kne w he wou ld
try to win at any pri ce. He made a
mistake in the last comer and I had
to go three extra meters wide and that's
wh ere I lost the race. If I hadn 't leaned
back on h im I would' ve hi t th e Armco
at 100 mph. He tried to kill me."
"I knew that to pass him in the last
comer was my only chance," Cadalora
said in his own defense. " Helmut was
very fast in some other comers, but I
had Seen before that I had a littl e
advantage in the last comer."
Chili was happy with his best ever
250cc finish , in third, with Reggia ni
su££ering an acceleration problem.
Zeelen berg finishe d fra ction ally
ahead of Cardus, with Shimizu circulating untouched in seventh ahead of
Jochen
Schmid
and
Andy
Preining.
or
Results
125ccQUAUFYtNG: I. Fausto Greim (1:24.267);
2. Lo ris Cap irC?ssi (1:24.385); 3. Hei nz Lucthi
(1:24.595); 4. Erio Gia nola (1:24.46 1); 5. Noboru .
U