Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

Schwantztakes Role in SRanishheat obody reall y kn ew what to expec t when th ey arrived at J ara ma for the first time since 1988, except that th ey had heard bad reports of bump s and dangero us new bends fro m World Cham pionship Su perbike Series competitors wh o had raced here earlier in the season. Perhaps th e ri de rs were pl easantly surprised, because wh ile everybody found the revised and resurfaced track bumpy, th e expected co ncert ed volley of mass co mp la int did not materialize. The changes had len gthen ed th e track to 2.406 mi les, but in spi te of resurfacing th ere . were whoops, ridges a nd h u mmocks everyw here, a nd particularly two which were una voidable o n fast comers. But some ru n-off had been i mproved, particularly on th e notorious Pegaso Ramp, where track widening a nd some extra bumps that slo wed the approach had reduced th e prev ious wil d sliding a nd wheelyin g a ntics to a shadow of what they were - to th e disappointme nt o f th e phot ographers. The most outspoken cri tic was Mick Doohan, a j arama fir st-timer who com pa red the track unfavorab ly with th e Hungaro ri ng, wh ich had p ro vo ked a sem i-boycott , and wh ere he won his fir st victory. "Th is is worse," h e sai d. "There you could fin d a way round th e bumps. Here my back wh eel's in the a ir half the tim e." TIl T h is dim view was co m p rehe n sib le after the firSl da y o f p rac tice, when th e th ree-tim e 1991 winner was down in sixth pl ace, but he stuck to hi s guns even after hi s team had softened up the suspension and got him up in to th e fram e, th ird overall. . By th en , the battle for the lead had been resolved in Kevin Schwantz's (abo ve) favor, his second pole of th e year. H e ci ted th e banked comers as th e reaso n for the Luck y Strike Suzuki's obvious good performance, compar ed with his earlier p ro blems a t tight circuits - that, and good luck. " I was chasing Mick (Doohan) wh en he was chasing Gardner , and I was ca tching him a liule whe n I got my time," he said. " It helps to have someone to judge off - I was in the right place at the right time, before the track gOt too hot. " His rival for pole was Rainey, which proved that the Dunlop tires could go fast in the heat, but the champion has been let down once too o ften to drop his guard. " It's gonna come down to tires, " he said. " I've been testing all practice, a nd I still have two rears to choose from . It's gonna be long and tough, and difficult to pass, and whoever makes the best tire choice will win." He had the co m fo rt of being quickest in the final session, run in the heat o f the afternoon. Lik~ everybody else of note, however, his fastest time came in th e cooler morning session. Doohan, " o nly guessing on suspension settings," had pushed up to start alongside him. The last place on the front row went to Kocinsk i, who prefers tig h t a nd technical circuits, but is increasingly unhappy with hi s Yamaha. Whatever s ui ts hi s Marlboro teammate. Rainey doesn 't seem to su it him. " It's th e sam e o ld p roblem - th e combina tio n of th e bike's not ri ght for me. No amount o f p rac tice or testing w ill help. But I don 't p la n o n crashi ng. Those rocks at the side o f th e track look hard." Gardner led row two, disappoin ted no t to have go ne one better , but sti ll on a ro ll as his revival co ntin ues. H e had a new (lo wer) fra me which was more l ike last year's m ach in e, a nd it sui ted h im fro m the outset - al though he di d take a tr ip into the gravel in the last sessio n, wit hout fallin g. H elped by marsh a ls, he ro de the mac hi ne o ut in a huge rooSter-tail o f flying sto nes , giving new mea ni ng to the phrase "grit ty Aus tralian." . Lawson came next, w ith times fa irly tight and only just over a second between him and pole. H is Cagiva still lacked accelera tion, in spi te o f p layi ng mix-andma tch with his la test engine parts, and the bum p s made his job difficult - he ca n usually co m pe n sa te for his lack of power by getting into the corners faster and carrying a higher corner speed. H ere, the ripples slowed everybody down eq ua lly. ' Alo ngside him, Garriga was th e to p Spaniard, and reacting to the pressure at home by taking severa l excursions in to th e di rt , with out falli ng. Chand ler was eighth, a nd looking more aggressive a t a trac k tha t needs it. Last week , he p ut hi s performance on the works Yam aha at 80% of h is ult imate potential. Here, he added a nother 5%. "I can throw it around easier, because I know more .a bo u t what it will do . But this hea t is tough ," th e good- na tured Ro berts " Bvteam" rider said. " After 10 laps, th e front tire starts pushing. " WI After fall ing in practice in Germany , 250cc ch ampions hip leader Ca da lora's r:team boss Erv Kanernoto spe n t the Austrian GP wondering wh ere he, th e machine, or h is new rider were going wrong. At jarama, just as sudden ly, things starte d to go ri ght again, and he led practice from th e first timed sessio n , running "signi fican tly faster than hi s title rival Bradl in the final baking hot session, by almost a full seco nd. If nothing else, this me ant that he was benefitting from a new rear Michelin. " I shou ld have so me small adva n tage," Cadalora allowed. Bradl was seco nd, by four-tenths in the cr ucial morning sessio n, and compla ine d the track was " like motocross." H e had to wa tch hi s rear as well , with Ca rd us co m ing to th e boil at home, an d second to Cadalora in th e hot afternoon. Cardus teste d a 16-inch front Dunlop on day one, but swi tched to a 17-inch on da y two. " T he 16-inch feels better under braking, but as yo u lean it over it makes th e bike drop on its side too fast, " Cardus said. • T he detrimental effects' of heat on engine power worried all th e Honda riders - a nd encou ra ged the Aprilia riders __ and Pier-Francesco Chili was fourth overall an d a mong th e NSRs on row one. Aprilias have a water-cooled crankcase (Hondas do not) , and reported less fall-off in power as the heat bu ilt up. "But it might st ill be hard to stay with them, because th e rotary-valve power co mes on more fiercely than th eir reed-valve eng ines," said Chili. "T ha t' s harder on th e rear tir e." Zeelenberg com p leted th e front row, a fraction slo wer than Ch ili a nd facing th e tas k ahead wi th his usu al eq ua nim i ty; Romboni - an accomplished scra tcher unfazed by th e twists a nd bumps here - led row two from Sch m id 's sim ilar kitted RS H onda and Reggi ani's Aprilia ; the last p lace o n ro w two went to Wimme r's Su zu ki. N World Championship lead er Mich ael Doohan had to settle for second in Spain. Didi er de Rad ig ues. Chandler was havin g the best of it, th en ran on into th e marbles at the end of the straight. He lost a lmost half-a-minute as he , extricated his machine, and dropped to 13th pl ace be hi nd Ya ma ha privateer Eddi e Laycock, apparen tly wayout of contention, a head only of th e stragg ling privat eers. T hat left Pons and de Radigues a t it, the Belgian u nable to get past th e pa ined Spaniard becau se: "I was ha vin g some brak e tro ub le, and he was also very, late on the brakes. Then he would be slow mid-co m er, but fast on the wa y out. I JUSt couldn't find a way past." Heeven tuall y did so with seven laps left, but by now Chandler , chargin g like mad in h is best rid e of th e year , was slici ng great ch u n ks o u t of th e yawning gap, and arrived w it h the pai r soo n after de Rad ig ues go t in front. The American had no trouble d ispo sing of Pons, but found de Radigues rather harder to deal wi th , until th e Suzuki slid wid e at th e tOP of the Pegaso Ra m p on th e la st lap, giving Chandler th e ro om he needed to slip pa st and cla im ninth by less than half a second. The plucky Pons was a nothe r half-sec ond adri ft a fter a very bra ve ra ce with a st ill recu pe rat in g broken sho u lder. He was th e last rider o n the sa me lap as the lead ers. La ycock was a lonel y 12th, on e la p down; a nd Do orakkers 13th , the winner o f a sus tai ne d racelong figh t with Mich ael Rudroff ' s similar three-cylinder Ho nda by less tha n a second. They had been la p ped twice. Schmassman took the last point, wit h 17 fini sh ers. As well as Lawson , his tea m ma te Papa retired, overcome by the heat, while Buckmaster and Leuthe bo th pulled into th e pits. Ra iney closed up on Dooha n in the titl e chase, with 131 points to the Austral ian 's 143; with Schwantz third on 103 and Gard ner moving u p to fotirt h o n 81 points to 80 of Lawson and Kocinski. On net points, discarding th e two worst sco res, Doohan leads with III to Rainey's 109, Schwa ntz 's 94, Kocinski's 80 and Gardner 's 72. 250cc GP /' One fear at Jarama had been a multipl e pil e-up at th e ne w tigh t tu rn o ne, ap proached a t hi gh speed via a kink in the opposite direction. J ust such a cras h had happened in th e Superbi ke race here, and th e packed grid a nd usu al close qualifying times o f the j u nior class made th e spectre loom la rge for th e 250cc rid ers. Spani ard Carlos Ca rdus co nfidentl y predic ted just such an event. In spi te of the prophe ts of doom, o nly one rider fell ·to wards the rear o f th e field - Corrado Catalano, ta ki ng Paol o Caso li 's Yam aha d irt- track ing in the process, da maging hi s exhausts. Fresh from two GP wins, H elmut Bradl's HB H onda led o ff th e li ne, but it had been Ca da lora's turn to dominate p rac tice, a t a track wh ere his exclusive Mich el ins seemed to give a n advantage for a cha nge, and the Ital ia n Honda rider forced back a head of the German before the en d of th e lap. Then he ran wide onto the start-finish straigh t, lett in g Bradl through to lead la p one. Not for lo ng, with Cadalora o u tbraking him into turn on e. Bradl did ge t a head once more, th en on la p fo ur Cardus took hi s turn up front after chargin g through from eigh th o n lap one, with the vas t cro wd responding h ysterica lly. Cadalora took contro l fin ally on lap six, a n d was never head ed a gai n , pu ll ing aw ay relentlessly with Bradl remorseless in pursu it , losin g on ly a few te nths every la p , a nd Ca rdus grad ua lly dropping away beh in d. There was a reason. Ca da lo ra 's engi ne had been tuned to carb ura te cleanly a t 70 degrees (celsius) runnin g temperature, some 15 degrees more th an normal; a nd he was down on pow er relat ive to th e other Hondas for th e first few laps. Then they started to lose power as th e heat built up, a nd he came in to his own, setti ng fastest la p of th e race (a new reco rd on a ne w track) on h is eigh th tour. It was h is fifth win o f the eigh t-race-o ld season, and an impressive retu rn to his ea rl ier domina nce. Brad l lost so much power he was having to use first gear o n some second-gear comers, leading to a few sca ry slides, whi le Cardus lost tou ch after some bra ke trouble. " I had to slow for three laps to let th em coo l down a bit," Ca rdus said. T he chase beh in d the leaders was led by the Ap rilias of front-ro w sta rter P ier- Francesco Chili and factory tester Loris Reggiani , but Chil i crashed ou t after II la ps, blam in g not o nly a wrong tire choice bu t a faulty tire. Regg ian i had the works H onda s of Wileo Zeelenberg a nd J a pan 's Masahiro Shimizu up his pipes, with th e Du tch m an yet again frustrated a t a relative lack of acceleration from hi s H onda . " I lost touch with the leaders 13

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