Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

but, hey, we 've tr ied it now and kn ow we got nowhere," he said . " I co u ld have run a seco nd, maybe seco nd and a half faster wi th th e race bike in th e las t sessio n." Yet a nothe r Kawa sak i in th e top 10 was T akahiro 'Tiger ' Sc hwa, in his first ever Euro pean event. The 26-yearold j apa nese high -sid ed during Wednesday's unofficial practi ce a nd ag gravate d a four- year- old an kle in jury, bu t it didn' t seem to affect his all -action sty le on the factory Kawasaki in qualifying. He didn't quite crack the 34s barrier, though, with his 1:35.26. Belgian Stephane Mertens clocked a 1:35.28 on the Total/Wanty Ducati, No dramas in this quarter, but there were in the Rob Phillis ca m p. The ot he r Moving Kawasaki teamster spent Friday working out a front tire/ suspension problem whi ch meant he was just over a second o ff the pace with his 1:35.94. Terry Rymer overcame a multitude of problems to post a I:35.67 wi th his privateer, Mobil I-backed Kawasaki ZXR750. R ymer was short on preparation time and having two bikes to prepare compounded the problem . An oil leak, suspension niggles and tires slowed him. A tad behind R ymer ca me British Kawasaki importer team rider john Reynolds, making an impressive European debut. The "T ea m Green " U.K. bikes run Kayaba "back door" factory forks and rear unit. They also have 15m m wider triple clamps to space the dis cs further outboard in the ai rstream. Reynolds was also de lighted with his new Dunlops after spending most of last season struggling in England with over-the-counter P irell is. And the team has switched form IS R six piston brakes to Brembo cal ipers four piston cal ipe rs this year. The quickest non-Ducati/Kawasaki was Spaniard j uan Lopez Mell a on th e Niv ea For Men Honda RC30 with a 1:36.02 - 12th fastest. Mella had the luxury o f racing at Albacete two weeks before (when he posted a 1:35.75) but came to the world round with a new, R u m i-built motor to try back to back with their '91 Moriwaki-kitted motor. Former H onda Britain star Carl Fogarty wa s 13th overall with a 1:36. 18 on his new Ducati - bo ugh t for him by h is fat her and ex -racer, George. It was the same story, and lack of setup time with a totally new machine hurt his efforts. Fif th-ran ked Fab rizio P iro vano was down in 14th fastest overall with a 1:36.34 o n h is new factory Yam aha. The problem wasn 't so m uch lack of horsepower com pared to the Kawasaki a nd Ducat i (although he was down), but suspension that was too stiff. According to P iro vano 's new crew chief Norris Farrow, th e new bik e co mes with a different ra tio sh ock linkage resulting a stiffer rear end, so me thing P irovano could no t quickly come to ter ms with. L ike al most everyone else , th e dam p Sa tu rday sessions meant he lear ned litt le a nd certainly didn ' t go faster. The new Yam ahas are lit tle different to last year's mode l except for new four-one exhaus t (last year it was a 42-1), new O hl ins forks and rea r unit plus bracing for the main spars of th e chassis. Engine -wise there are no new parts - any gains there have to come from tu ner Bep p i R usso, who has so far had little time to work on the new bikes. The other factory Yamaha ridden by Mit sui G ermany's Ud o Mark was down in 22nd overall , wit h a 1:36.94. Mark got hi s bike late and was running it pretty much in stock tri m. Mark is a lso using a new da ta ga the ring system New Zeala nder Aaron Sli ght won th e firs t leg, held in the ra in, o n h is factory Kawasaki bu t cras hed ou t of the second. Former World Champion Ra ym ond Roche captured the second leg win and left Spain wi th th e champio nship points lead. made by a German co mpa ny , Debus. In its p resent form , it on ly gives rpm and speed data, but once developed will give a fu ll range of inform a tio n. The same system is on G P rid er j oche n Schmid's 250cc Yama ha. Ita lian Baldassarre Monti, o n the so le factory H onda .to mak e th e cu t (tea m ma te R i chard Arnaiz d i d n ' t qual ify on hi s 1991 spec R C30) was 16th q uickest overall with a 1:36.58. T he '92 is little d ifferent from last year 's bi ke; heavy bracing on top of th e single sided swingarm - also 5mm longer than las t year . The mot or als o has " different power characteri stics" - be lieved to be impro ved torq ue ra th er than more horsep ower. Race I Race day at Albacete dawned wet, co ld a nd mi serable, and everyone was on fu ll wets for th e first ra ce, even though .the rain had all but stop ped as the grid formed. . Russell grabbed the hol esh ot ahead of Falappa , Rym er (ma ki ng a stor m ing break from ro w th ree), Polen , Sli ght, Reyn olds (also fro m row three) a nd .P iro vano - who had ma de his usu al rocket start, from way back on row four. Russell and Falappa were clear wi th Po len so me three seconds ba ck af ter only a couple of laps, th e World Champion holding o ff Slight, P irovano, R ymer, P hill is, So hwa an d a n im p ressive Mo nti p us hi ng the H on da ha rd. After five laps, the lea d ing du o had almos t four seco nds o n Po len , th en R ussell lost it going into the ch icane. " I was tryi ng to ge t a lead on Fa lappa," said R ussel l. " But I guess I pushed it too far. The front end just tu cked under and that was it. " That left Falappa clear, but Slight cut back the deficit quickly to tak e th e lead on la p 13 just as the group encou ntered lapped traffic for the first time. Sli ght got th e break , thanks to tr affi c, but P ol en later su g g es ted . ot he rwise. " Fala p pa was holding -Slight up," said Pol en , wh o was in th e lead ing quartet , which included Pirovano. " Sli gh t was just faster than all o f us . That was it." Slig ht, now in fro nt, sta rt ed to ease clear, 2.13 seconds o n la p 17,2.32 o n lap 19, over three seconds, la p 20 the Michelin rai n tires clearly sta nding up to the puni sh me nt o n th e dry ing track better than th e Du nl ops. Behind th e lead group there were battles down the field. Reynol ds was holding Sohwa a t bay for fift h, but the real exci tem en t for local s was the cha rge by Amatriain on the Duca ti. H e was up to sevent h after passi ng Phill is, Mo nti and Roche. P hill is, a nother o n Mich elin s, was star ting to look threa ten in g in th e lat e stages, comi ng ba ck to Amatria in a nd preparing to pass when his ig ni tio n started brea king down. H e was not th e o n ly one in trouble - Reyn o lds lost his worn out Du n lop rear in one o f the left-hand sweepe rs and got high sid ed. Fell ow Brit Rymer was also stru ggling with a sho t rear tire. In fact, most bikes looked o n the ragged edge as th e track go t drier. Slight opened up his advantage in front, a nd looked well in control exce p t for th e occas io na l twitch as the ti res spun exiting corners. His winning advantage was a gaping eight seco nds . The New Zealander later adm itted he had been co nfident of h is chances before th e green light went on : " In th e morning wa rm -u p I tri ed a Michel in rea r th a t I'd not used before . It was perfect. I rod e arou nd Pol en and Fa lappa in th e session a nd kn ew it was go ing to be good (in th e race). Sure, 11

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