Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

seven bikes disputing the lead at one point. It was won by double-champion Loris Capirossi, wh o sta m ped his authorit y in the closing laps to draw narrowl y awa y from the pai r of japanese riders Kazu to Sak ata and Nobuyuki Wakai, both on the rostrum for the first time. 500cc GP For just one lap, there was still a chance th at it might be an exciting race. Doohan led from Kocinski, with Gardner hard up behind, Garriga hanging on gamely, and j ean-Phillipe Ruggia on his heels. On th e second lap, Doohan was still in front at the end of the back stra ight and into the second-gear Lucky Strike Loop. But Kocinski go t th e power on earl y and hard on the exi t, nipped past into the next bend - and from then on he was never headed . There was another flutter of excit ement on lap four when Gardner moved through into second. Could he catch Kocinski, and keep control of fourth pla ce overall in the champion ship? It soo n be came clear that he couldn't , with Kocinski now pulling away at half-a-second a lap or better, so that by lap 10 he was more than four seconds in th e lead. Now the only hope for his rivals was that he would tire, or lose concen tratio n - but there was none of that either. " I know a lot of people thought th at might happen in the heat," said Kocinski afterwards. " Bu t I didn't have any trouble, and I was even able to back off in the last four laps without losing concentration. It was only after I undid my leathers that suddenly my body temperature seemed to go up by 20 degrees." He managed a becoming modesty in victory , saying: " I have a lot of people to thank - my team kept their motivati on even when we went through a dry patch. I still have a lot to learn. Carlos Cardus (2) and Luca Cadalora (3) had a titanic battle for the 250cc GP win; Cadalora nipped Cardus at the line. I won 't feel satisfied until I can finish up front weekend after weekend." Gardner kept on , still pushing so the gap never really did get mu ch larger than six seconds. " You never kn ow what's going to happen in racing, and you never give up." But he was ha ving trouble getting th e power do wn on th e corn er exits, with the usual problem he absen ce of Kevin Schwantz and Wayne Rainey put a slightly different com plexion on practice, with john Kocinski (right) setting the pace in the dry, then (of all things) the Michelin-shod Hondas of Michael Doohan and Wayne Gardner in th e single wet session, on Saturday morning. Of course, it might have been"the 'same had they been here - certainly the first part, because Kocinski had dominated the IRTA tests as well before the pair of them crashed, and he was in magnificent form on the track, and even more obnoxious than usual off it. He had switched back to the old chassis, rather surprisingly, after liking the new one so much at Le Mans, but allowed this was a different type of circuit, that required a more aggressive riding style with more wheelspin. "I like the style of the track - the way you flick it in and spin it out," he said: one of few statements that made much sense in among a lot of trumpeting: "I'm for real. I'm gonna be here until I retire." He clearly expected to win his first 500cc GP, but denied such a victory would be devalued by the absence of two of the three main men of the season. " If you beat the two guys who are here, you 've got a job," he said, adding: "Schwant z and Rainey tested here, and we've been fastest all along." The Hondas simply weren't able to use the same radical late-braking hardflicking line as his Yamaha, with Gardner the better of the pair by less than a tenth, although more than a quarter of a second down on Kocinski. "I don 't mind whether Mick or I win," he said. " As long as I beat Kocinski." (With whom he was disputing fourth overall.) Doohan's best time came in the first session, and was probably not his last word, for he had gone slower in the last (and second dry) session while making some unsuccessful tire experiments. "We tried a 6.25-inch rim, but every time I opened the throttle the bike went sideways," he said. "Usually I use a six-inch or narrower rim, which suits my style. I like to lean the bike over a long way, and open up while it 's still down." Another half-second down came' Garriga - the Ducados-Yamaha's third time on the front row this season. Remarkably he had missed the previous weekend's IR:rA tests, but caught up in the last session. "Getting the gearbox right was the important thing," he said . "The bike's perfect now." T of persistent wheelspin. "It wasn't th e heat - it was just diff icult to get grip," he said, without actually putting th e finger on Michelin. Which was n ice of h im - in fact his rear was shredded. . H e added: "The bike wasn 't working any better to get my best result of th e year. I was riding it hard er." By race end , the evidence of that was clear to see, with the tire com prehen sively shredded. Doohan kept dropping back to fini sh 15 seconds adrift of Gardner. " In some wa ys it was my worst race of the ' yea r, " he sa id. "If Schwantz an d Rainey had been here I would have been fifth , and as it was I got a signal Row two was all-Yamaha: Ruggia leading Chandler, Magee and Mackenzie, with half-a-second covering their times. Chandler might have been faster, but missed part of the crucial last session while his single Yamaha's ignition was changed. T his time h is little-used second ma chine was in the hands of Magee, back for hi s first GP since Apri l, and going rea lly well , a lthough he dropped from fourth overall to seventh wit h a fru stratin g third session. "The bik e's not running as well as it did yester day." But he was riding with all hi s old smooth assurance, and sayin g: " I believe I'm riding bett er now than I did before my crash. T hese things either make you or break you ." Niall Mackenzie had to stru ggle to achieve eigh th, in con trast to his strong fohn at recent races. " I' m not su re wh y - but we had a lot of suspension troub le in the first session, then in the last we fitted a TV camera and it seemed to interfere wi th the igni tion. " Sito Pons led row three from a troubled Didier de Radigues - th e Belgian had taken over on e of Schwantz's spare bikes , and had immediately cut halfa-second off his previous best. "It was fantastic - in everything. Better pow er, better steering, better suspension." Then he ran into a problem that has troubled his faster teammate - that the bike is either right or way off, and it is difficult to set. He went slower as practice progressed, and never again matched his untimedpractice time. Then came Morillas, with Laycock completing row three. Marco Papa led the Honda triples on row four - there were five of them, all qualified, bringing the grid up to 17 in total. The person with the most to prove in 250cc qualifying went the fastest eventually. He is Carlos Cardus, desperate to break a ye-ar-long famine of victories and prove himself still worthy of a works bike. It took him until the last session to displace Luca Cadalora, and he grinned afterwards: "I don't know abou t the race - his bike accelerates really fast, and we could do with more." He led an all-Honda front row, with Cadalora second, and the leader of the wet session. Having wrapped up the titl e, he was quietly confident. "I set my best time with a tire which had done 25 laps," he said, adding: " We have been fastest every time we have had a rain practice, but we never did have a wet race this year. I don 't care if it's wet or dry - everything is good." Helmut Bradl was alongside him, then Masahiro Shimizu, then Wileo Zeelenberg, with times packed up close. The Hondas had dominated practice from start to finish , and seemed set to do the same in the race. Row two seemed settled in favor of Martin Wimmer's Suzuki, using six-p iston AP calipers for the first time, until the closing minutes of the final session, wh en both the factory Aprilias nosed ahead of him, P.F. Chili the faster. They had missed the IRTA tests, and took time to catch up with the rest. This being so, they might do even better in the race. Then came Wimmer. barely a second down on Cardus, and almost half-a-second ahead of jochen Schmid's RS, the last machine on row two. 23

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