Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

S a chwntz'slast m R....::...=.ole=---_ _ inute he pr edicted rain stayed awa y j u st lo n g eno ugh for a ll practice to be dry, and both days ended with su dde n spa ts a mong the front-runners vying for the fastest time. . The winner on day one was Wa yn e Rainey, with a single scorcher that looked like it was going to remain the only sub oneminute, 33-second time; then on Saturday morning John Kocinski sneaked up into second. Until, .with the board showing two minutes to go , Kevin Schwantz (right) unleashed a super-smooth flyer that not only made him the second to get into the I:32s, bu t also faster than his old rival. It seemed that these were the only three in the frame for a win, and the reason was a complete turnaround in tire fortunes over the last four races. Now the Dun lops were supreme, and the Michelin runners looking gloomy and complaining about a lack of side-grip. Wayne Ga rd ner was the best of them, and though he denied he had been stic king his neck out, he was certainly fighting th e H on da every inch of the way to slot on to the front row by a slende r hundredth of a second fro m Didier de Rad igues' Du nl op -shod Sui uki. Schwantz's po le was a grea t morale-booster. " It deals h im som e tro uble ," the Texan smirked, imagining a sleepless nigh t in the Ra in ey motorhorne. " It came q uite easy. T he big thing here is to be real smooth." More importantly, it had been backed by a sol id string of low 1:33s in all other sessions, a nd a steady rat e of improve me nt that was at least partly due to the team's first use of some new sta te-of-the-art on-board computerized diagnostics. "It backs up what I tell the mechanics, and it also helps me to be clear in my own mind about what the bike's doing," said Schwantz, a telemetry fan who had demanded introduction of the equipment as a condition of renewing his contract. _ As well as a revised factory frame (which he discarded), Rainey had his own electronic one-upmanship too - a longtime diagnostics user, he was using the Ohlins computer-controlled rear damping system (CES) for a second race, and • praising its precisely and quickly adjustable damping control over the mid-corner .b u mps. He also had a string of top-class lap times behind him. "I t's good to get pole, but not so bad when you lose it by a little. I messed up in the final session trying a lower front tire pressure, and got some chatter problems. The bike's pretty close, and we've been the most consistent, I mean to go for a win." Teammate Kocinski had taken to it. with an enthusiasm born of desperation for something different, Others also attributed his speed and the ability to replicate fast times to the nature of the .sweep in g circuit where (Rainey opined) "you can ride it like a 250, not spinning it," Kocinski has his own way of concealing his own opinions among a torrent of non sequiturs. "The bike's not right, but it feels a lot better. We're stylin'. I'm gonna drink plenty of water and be prepared to sweat plenty. It 's hard on the body muscling a 500 round for 30 laps. I'm gonna go like hell. " He was considered an outsider for the race to win, which seemed certain to be an all-Dunlop affair. Among a batch of previously untested tires all the British-shod riders had found a real grippy one. The Michelin runners were worse than outs' ith Gardner happy to be " the best among them, continuing his strong rem . both fromhis early-season slump and the rigors of winning ·last weekend's .S uka Eight-Hour). He did it by dint of more hard work. "I tried every possible combination and variation of the available Michelins before I found one that was quicker and should be good for the race," he said, adding: "If those Dunlop riders weren't using qualifying tires, we haven't got a chance." He escaped relegation to row two by less than a tenth by the storming de Radigues, . who is coming to the boil as the end of the season approaches (cynics point out that contract time is near). The 33-year-old Belgian is not embarrassed to latch on to other fast riders as an aid to bike setting by comparison. This left Dooban looking tired and disconsolate at the post-practice conference. "It's running wide , and spinning under power. We're losing out to the Yamahas and Suzukis on not being able to steer on the fast sections, but there's no advantage out of the tight corners, even if we didn't have wheelspin. I've been asking Honda re jump out of the corners all year - we usually only catch the others op speed at the end of the straights." , die Lawson was .alongside, his smooth riding minimizing the Michelin oblems, as he turned lap after ultra-consistent lap in the low 1:34s, but he felt his major loss was out of the chicane and two hairpins that finish the Donington lap, which are quite out of character with the rest of the circuit. . The Aprilias are fulfilling every real and imagined threat at the start of the year in the 250cc class, and Loris Reggiani's first-session time was good enough to keep him on pole position in spite of some dose action behind him. Fellow-Aprilia man Pier-Francesco Chili had been in third position, then on Saturday morning he came too fast on a gaggle of bikes negotiating the penultimate hairpin. He swerved one way , then the other, but still clipped Alberto Puig's works-backed Yamaha, smashing his left toe and ankle in the impact before being flung over the high side. He was OUL Carlos Cardus had already staked his claim in the first session, and remained second overall, just over two-tenths adrift of Reggiani. Cadalora moved a similar distance behind him on Saturday morning, and spoke of a calm and quiet progress, " and no problems with his Michelins. "When things go smoothly and I have a good bike setting, I know that victory is possible," he said. His title rival Bradl was alongside, faster in the end than Chili, but himself the victim of two practice crashes that may have unsettled him mo re than he was prepared to admit. Alongside, to complete row one in the absence of Chili, ]ochen Schmid took his works-backed RS Honda to its first front-row position, at the head of a close gaggle of times . T Luca Cadalora (3) won his sixth 25Oa: GP of the season; Loris Rrggiani (13) crashed. finish , if not by mi ssing the rostru m. " I moved over because I thought I was getting in the other guys' way," he said. " Bu t I wasn't ." Gardner was obliged by pressure from behind to get going a bit towards the end, but was disappointed that his pit were not signalling him with th e gap to Kocinski ahead, which was shrinking in the process. He ended up just four seconds adrift. The pressure was coming from a good three-way battle. Niall Mackenzie - having a one-race outing on Doug Chandler's unused spare Yamaha had been the first to close up, after getting ahead of Lawson, who had de Radigues in close attendance on the second Lucky Strike Suzuki. There was some back-and-forth between the onform Belgian and Lawson, with both of them then closing again on Mackenzie. De Radigues got to the front of the group more than once, but complained of a lack of horsepower that spoiled his straight-line speed. Mackenzie meantime was having fun in his first GP since last season , and his first on Dunlop tires. "Tha t's the best front I've ever had, " he said. "It saved me so often." But nobody was surprised when Lawson found some reserves of strength in the closing stages to overcome both of them, and to close a gap of four seconds behind Gardner to only two seconds at the flag. . Juan Garriga's Ducados Yamaha had been hanging on to this group, but gradually fell behind in a lonely ninth; Marco Papa was 10th on the second Cagiva, a lap adrift, with Yamaha privateer Laycock defeating Ron Haslam's lone Norton for 11th, ahead of the privateers. Michael Rudroff was the best of these; finishing less than a tenth ahead of Cees Doorakkers after shadowing him for the full race distance. Both the French Mobil Sonauto Yamaha riders Jean-Philippe Ruggia and Adrien Morillas crashed, as did Doug Chandler, his first race get-off of the season. Sito Pons was another non-finisher after a lackluster performance. . Rainey's lead extended to 185 points (163 net , discarding the worst two results), over Doohan on 175 (160), Schwantz 156 (147), Law son 11 8 (113) and Gardner I ~3 (107). 250cc GP Wileo Zeelenberg led the charge down the hill , with pole starter Reggiani second and Alex Criville shooting through to third in a con troversial flying star t from the third row of the grid. This was to prov e crucial for Jochen Schmid, who had started from th e front row , but wasn 't to complete the lap. Criville crashed at the chicane and took the German down with him, and the fight after wards spilled over into the pits, with rival team mechanics at each others' throats. Reggiani was soon formatting his Aprilia on Zeelenberg's Sharp-Samson Honda NSR , with Luca Cadalora's Rothmans NSR up to third on lap two , ahead of three more Hondas - Bradl, Cardus and Shimizu. And by lap three the Aprilia led, with Reggiani starting work on opening up an impressive lead. Zeelenberg was to run into tire problems as well as a lack of acceleration, and he gradually dropped back, but the Honda pursuit group was forming up behind Reggiani, with Cardus and Cadalora disputing control so as to give the Aprilia rider a bit of a break. Then Cadalora won through finally on lap 10, and started to close the gap up again. As the other two Hondas battled behind him, he started to press the leader, and finally swept ahead into the first comer at the start of lap 15. Reggiani never did give up, but Cadalora had control, and when they ran into traffic on lap 20 things started to get a big hectic, and Reggiani started to try too hard. It cost him dearly. H e got off line down the hill , ran at high speed onto grass where he should hav e been braking and dropping two gears for the Old Hairpin. Instead he went across the gravel trap at speed and was .lu cky to be pitched off before hitting anything too sol id. As it was, he suffered a concussion. Cadalora was not out of the woods . Now Cardus started to close up with a strong-looking challenge, that was spiked by hea vy traffic in the closing laps. Cadalora managed to get in to the last slow.comp lex with a back-marker 23

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