Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

eROAD.RACE World Championship Road Race Series: Round 13 ' ~ only ill fortune o n Rainey's part could revive them. Third across the line was Koci nski , about 16 seconds back though well in front of Ga rdner. J he Austra lia n barely beat Schwantz to th e li n e, confessing he was surprised to find the T exan so close. " I looked around and got a bit of a shock. I had to get my finger out for the last half-lap, " .Ga rd ner said. "The rear was sliding everywhere. We tried some different geometry in practice and the bike was steeri ng really good into the corners, bu t i t took all the grip [rom the rear tire ." " It was just one big judder all the way through the turns," Schwantz sa id , ex p la i n i n g his troubles. " I decided that I'd ride it as hard as I could th en in the last few laps I thought, 'wha t th e hell ,' and I came close to fall ing down a few times." Garriga was alone in sixth with de Rad igues seventh , his igni tion cu tting in and out. He was just over half a second sooner over the stripe than Lawson. Then ca me Pons, followed by Ch andler who looked to get by near the end, but fell two seconds short. " I never did get the thing feeling co mforta ble. I never had confidence in the front end," Chandler said. "We tried everything. We went to something we hadn't tried before in the race. 'It 's one of the harder tracks getting set up. You need to have the front end working really good. It's a combination tire s and suspension thing. I was real leary of the tires the whole race. Even at the pa ce we were going it was marginal." 25 0cc 'G r a n d Prix Wayne Gardner. John Kocinski, Kevin SchwanlZ and Juan Garriga chase Rainey. Rain~yJIuickest in abbreviated qualifying he most crucial eleme n t in q ualifying turned out not to be tires, gearbox, or suspension, but a track-cleaning truck. While cleaning the track on Friday night, the truck accidentally spilled hydraulic fluid in several places, the largest being a 5O()..yard patch in the first tum of the 3.35-mi le track. Track workers used everythi ng from their hands to a helicop ter to clean and dry the track. but Saturday's first practice was delayed [or over three hours and then the sidecars, normally last out, were called to the track As a sign of protest, several teams carried brooms with th em to the session . Shortly after the third 500cc timed session began at 5:45 p. m ., a sudden and severe down pour began, cancelling the session and the following 250ccsession. Fifteen min utes were added to Sunday morning's warm-up. but it left most riders in a lurch, including pole-sener Wayne Rainey. "We were go ing to use that last session to sort out a rear tire," Rainey said after a first-session best of 2:03.358 (97.818 mph) secured the pole for him. "I'd narrowed it down to two so I'll give them both a shot in the morning. I would've gone quicker today if we hadn 't run out of time. In the first session I was working on a chassis combina tion and was going to go [or a time in the second. We'll have to wait and see if all this rain 's changed the track tomerrow. " Among the top five qualifiers, only Rothmans Honda's Mick Doohan improved his time in the second session, after nearly crashi ng in the untim ed Friday morn ing T session. 18 "I had a real close one al l on my own this morning when the ,from tire tucked under. As far as I was concerned. I crashed," he said. "I was hanging on, sliding alo ng on my left knee and backside when suddenly it came back. I certain ly don't know why. I wasn't trying to do anything. It simply happened all on its own." Following Saturday morning's best of 2:03.457, just .099-of-a-second behind Rainey, Doohan said he felt he could have -improved if he'd had time to sort out his tires. "We're close on the from and the rear's liveable. It's a chasing the front type of thing," said Doohan. " If the tires go off, it's going to be a hard time finding the grip." Chatter problems kep t Lucky Strike Suzuki's Kevin SchwanlZ from improving on his first session time. ending third with a best of 2:03.694, his practice abbreviated by a minor spill. "It seems some suspension gremlins snuck into our garage during the night and this ' 1..0- morning that meant we found we had a front-wheel chaner problem that we T he sun broke through for th e start of th e 250cc G P, the yellow and white HB Honda of Brad l shi ning more brightly than th e rest. The track was his, every inch of it , and he wasn't to be denied. By the fourt h lap he had over a two-second lead, addi ng another second on th e next la p, a nd held five o n the seventh. His fast la p was th e eigh th as he gradually bui lt his lead to 12.113 seconds at the end. "We changed the gearbox to make the gears longer beca use we us ua lly have something special for the engine on race da y," he said. " I really wanted to win because after last year when I had a tremendous adva ntage, then had a lilli e tro uble wi th the tire and lost the race. I was desperately trying in the race no t to th in k of last year." Two races formed beh in d Bradl. Cardus and Cada lora [or second and Wimmer and Shimizu [or fo urt h, later to be joined by Criville and Schmid. Cardus was in fro nt until the 10th lap wh en Cadalora seemi ngly eased by. It appeared he was able to stay with Cardus going into a nd through the corners, but had trouble on the exit. It also appeared he'co uld pass him a t will, which was deceiving. I "I was on the lim it," Cadalora said. "It seem ed lik e I was not, but I was. " The order changed again on the 12th, Cardus in front for the duration. Cadalora said he preferred Cardus set the pace, until he found he didn 't ha ve what he needed at the end. " Every time I tried to go faster and ta ke second during the closing laps, the back tire started sliding. I did try as hard as possib le without cras h ing, but Cardus was riding well and I had very bad tir es," Cadalora said. "My rear tire was sliding from the fourth lap so I cou ld n 't beat Bradl,' Cardus said . " Luca's bike seemed to accel erate slightly better and on the last la p he came by me u p the h ill , as I' d expected him to. H e took the ins ide lin e to the last chicane, but I was able to get around the outside and hold him off to the line." The ba ttl e for fourth came down to couldn't dial out," he said. "I'd get into a comer and get on the gas to try to drive it out and the from would start chattering." The crash occurred in the same downhill right-hander where he crashed in the race last year and. again, he was at a loss to explain. Only later did his data recorder reveal that he was going four mph faster through the comer than on the previous lap. Fourth fastest, and on the front row for the first time since the season-opening Japanese Grand Pri was Spaniard Juan Garriga on the Ducados Yamaha. Garriga took delivery x, of a new frame at Paul Ricard, but had been unable to test it until now. The frame has a lowered, and adjustable, swing-arm pivot and Garriga shortened the bike by moving the steering head back, aiding traction and stability. Having more difficulty was fifth fastestJohn Kocinski of the Marlboro Roberts Yamaha team. Kocinski has been struggling lately and the lack of practice seemed to affect him more than most Next to Kocinski on the second row were Monaco neighbors, Didier de Radigues of Lucky Strike Suzuki and Rothmans Honda's Wayne Gardner. De Radigues had a bit of the chatter problem that Schwantz had, but felt confident in his riding, though he'd never ridden a 500 here before. Seventh-fastest Gardner did get in three laps in the final session before it was rained out and felt progress had been made, especially with the from tire and from geometry. Cagi va's Eddie Lawson qualified eighth while trying 10 sort out a new frame for the Cagiva with Sonauto Yamaha's Adrien Morillas ninth ahead of Doug Chandler, Campsa Honda' s Sito Pons, and j ean-Philippe Ruggia. Ru ggia pulled out of the race on Saturday after falling on Friday injuring himself and aggravating previous injuries. A second story had him pulling out after an argument with team boss Serge Rosset, about the quality of the equipment, though it was never confirmed. HB Honda's Helmut Bradl to pped -the 250 q ua lifiers , his best time co m ing d uring the Sat urday morning session- wh ile chasing a resu rgent L uca Cadalora o n the Rothrnans Honda . The Ita lian Cada lora had qual ified 18th in the firs t sessio n. but im proved to th ir d in the second when tir es sudden ly beca me ava ilab le fro m Michelin. Bradl, whose championship hopes were all but dashed with his crash in Mugello , crashed again in practice due 10 a from suspension problem which he fixed afterwards. Repsol Honda's Carlos Cardus, who moved into second on overall points ahead of Brad! after Mugello, was second fastest, his 2:07.510 just .350-0f-a-second slower than Brad!. On Friday Cadaior.a said he'd used all of his good tires at Mugello, but when more was found, he leapt up in the standings, though he was still more than a second behind Bradl, The two had hooked up for much of the second session, with the Italian holding off the Gennan Deady te the end. Aprilias fDled the final two spots on the from row with Thema VaIesi's Pier-Francesco Chili qualifying just in front of the Unlimited Jeans mount of fellow Italian Loris ~. ""'-- --'---1

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