Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

B ROID Ucrw~~~~ _~_& _~ _~~~_ili _ri_~_~ _d_9 ~ Frenchman Raymond Roche broke a one-year dry spell by winning the Malaysian Grand Prix. Roche ends Polen's win streak in Malaysia By Bru ce Newton DARAL EHSAN, M ALAYSIA, SEPT. I hen Raymond Roch e crossed th e lin e to win leg two o f the French ro u nd of th e Di ese l Jea ns Superbike Seri es last year, he p robably never dreamed tha t it would tak e him nearly a year before he greeted th e checkered flag first again. But that's exac tly how it has worked o u t. Tha t win at Le Mans in 1990 was h is 13th in th e Superb ike Ch a mpion- . shi p an d th e numb er worked a ll its evi l on him , until th e Mal aysian round a t Sh ah Alam on Sunday of the La bor Da y weeke n d lifted the he x. In Ma laysia, Roche reminded us why he wo n the 1990 World Cham pions hip. H is wins were not of the Do ug Polen runaw a y variety, more graft a n d g u ts than g lory - a n eventua l wearing down o f the op position. Over two 26-la p battles in 93 degree heat he and th e factory Du ca ti w er e the bes t co m bi na ti o n . They simply had another gea r to go wh en it counted. Po len was searching for th e right gear a ll race da y and never found it, H e had qual ified on th e pol e bu t never led a lap of ei ther ra ce, h is tire adv an tage o f pr evious races apparen tly grou n d aw ay by th e intense heat and abrasive sur face. Being th e character he is, built with a n excess ive desire to win, he will make th e rest pay for hi s day in th e shadows. The men who mad e Roche work h ardest were Ital ian p uzzler Fab rizio Pirovano - he wh o o n ly shows up W 14 I on race da y, a n o n-form Stephane Merten s an d Aar on Sli ght, the Kiw i wh ose results di dn ' t do cred it to ho w well he rode. Team Kawasaki 's Rob Phillis had a bad day. In Phill is vernacular the last few meetings have been " h orn, " whi le this one was definitely " po x." As a result of a fifth an d a DNF, h is secon d pl ace in th e World Cha m pionsh ip is under dire threa t from Roche. The best thing ab ou t the meeting was undoubtedly the racing. Riders went in hard, too k risks a nd battled ' ha rd. The di fference was here th ey were doing it for the lead rather than seco nd pl ace. The worst point, undoubtedly th e di sorganized na ture o f the race meeting. With th e Grand Pri x co m ing in four weeks, there was o n ly a sma ll crowd a nd seemingly little effort put into this meeting. A major disappoint· ment consideri ng th e excellent sho w last Novem ber. Qualifying After the head y he ights o f th e Sugo entry list replete wit h factory motorcycles and riders, it was back to eart h a t th e grandly -rirl ed Shah Al am Motor sports Pa radise. Gone were many of the stars o f the previous weekend - Magee, God dard, Mackenzi e, th e J a panese teams a n d rid ers. It was no su rprise th at th e a tmos p here in Malaysia was decidedl y downbeat , particularly as just 22 bi kes pr acticed an d 20 were a ble to mak e it un der th e qual ifyin g cut-off, a lt houg h the other two were a llowed to start. The newcomers wh o bol stered th e field o f 13 interna tiona ls were a ll Australians and New Zeala nders . Slight mad e th e trip on from Japan , his Kawasa ki ZXR750 clothed in T eam Lu ck Str i ke co lors . Fell o w Ki wi Andrew Stroud wa s a lso rid in g for Lucky Strike as well as James Kni ght. - Riding for th e local Mar lboro Ya maha tea m were Scott (bro ther of Mick ) Doohan and Auck la n d resident im o n Crafar, wh ile Woll ongo ng 's Trever J orda n was o n th e Mild Seven Suzuki . Missing from the interna ti on al s were Yamaha riders Udo Mark a nd Jari Su ho nen, th e former returnin g h ome to d efend hi s G erm an Superb ike Cham pio nsh i p lead and th e latter bud ged conscio us without a sponsor fo r th e secon d leg o f th e Asian journey. Consid ering the weaker sta te of the en try, it was n o surprise tha t Texan Po len to ok his fift h straigh t pole posi tio n an d seventh for th e seaso n, some 0.82 sec. under th e lap reco rd. . He'd do mina ted th e wet first sessio n o n Frida y a t his first look a t th e place, then go ne 0.19 sec. under th e lap record that afternoon. Saturda y m orning , after transferring to his ra ce bike from th e sp ar e, he was only seco nd fastest to Merten s a nd co ncern ed ab out su spensio n setu p . T he sus pe nsion o n this bike had been re-valv ed since he last rode it but _ th e settings had 'no t been ad j usted , which led to some ra re head-scratching from both Pol en a nd Era ldo Ferracci befo re it was rectified for sessio n two . In the 95 d egree heat o f the a fternoon, Pol en used the new Dunlop q ualifier to secure the pole position a t one mi n. , 28.08 sec., a ltho ugh he was o n ly a few tenths slower o n race tires. Nevertheless it was slo wer th an he'd planned to go : "The tem pe ra ture was definitel y a lot hotter in the a fternoon and a fast lap in th e mo rn ing would have been th e way to go," Polen said . Roche, after lan guish in g all weekend well back , ca me good in the afternoon to slot in second fast est. the . first time since Donington th at he has ris en so hi gh o n th e grid. H e was 0.48 sec. slower th an Pol en a nd happy, a rare enough sigh t thes e days. Well , he was di spleased about one thing a nd th at was that Mert ens was usin g a 920cc moto r throughout th is m eeting at th e request o f Du cati to eva lu ate it. T he Belgian was seco nd for mu ch o f th e final sessio n bu t with on ly o ne wheel fitted with ca rbo n di scs, a new set of tires meant cha nging th e front o n and o ff the o ne rim, so he elected not to make a fin a l a ttack a fter settin g his best tim e on a qualifier. Less calculati ng a nd more fru strat ed was Phill is in fou rt h, a lt hough it's easy to for get that just a few mee tings ago a fro nt row slot wo ul d have satisfied h im immensely. " T h e bi ke' s not q u ite right. The sus pe nsion isn't quite right nor is th e carbu retio n." Slight a lso was a n noyed, even if he wa s on th e front ro w, the first man to qualify o utsi de th e la p record: " I went in for a fresh tire but th e cupboard wa s bare," he exp la ine d a fter session two. The special rear tire had made its wa y o nto th e back of teammat e Knight's Kawasaki. In th e m orning session, Sli ght was sim i lar ly fru strated, ac tua lly lashing a , boot out at Polen who had co me out of th e pits on co ld tires and interrupted his flier. "I mis sed ," was his laconic summation. , Tardozzi, deeply involved in testi ng race tires for lirst-time vis ito r Pirell i, had been fifth a fter th e fir st sessio n and dropped a spo t in sessio n two as he evaluated the wron g ru bber. U n dersta ndab le reall y, as Pirelli had brough t no less th an eig h t rears to try a lo ng with th ree fronts. Mich el in , continu in g its revita lizatio n, wa sn 't far behind with six rea rs and four fro nts while Dunlop added a harder rear to its fi-and-a-quarter in ch range. T ard o zzis inse p arabl e racing p artn er fr om J apan, Gi an ca rl o Fal appa, wa s next mak in g it five factory Dukes in th e to p seven. The rest o f row two was left to Rymer a n d Merk el , th e former putting in o ne o f hi s best effo rts for a while as he reverted as much as po ssibl e to 1990 se tt in gs in a bid to sort o u t h is protracted sus pe ns io n woes. Merk el had started th e meeting on the twin -pipe J a p an ese bike. a nd a lmo st immedia tely solved the car bureti o n fla t-spot which had bedeviled h im in J apa n. T hen th e other bike had been co nverted to twin -pipe spec a n d had a ll its extra rad iat or s, electrics, metal rem oved from it to the o ther machine w hich prom p tly dropped a valve. So mechanics Norri s Farrow and Merlyn Plumlee set a bo u t th e arduo us task o f returning all th e gea r ba ck to . th eir own ma chine. Front tires were again sh aping up as a problem for Merkel come race day. La st year's double winner, Pirovano, wa s 10th , bike okay and rider asleep until race da y as usual. Fogarty wa s

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