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Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/127551
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At the finish , the amazing youngster
Charlie Giro came through the group
to stretch it o u t, and Gresini and
Kazuto Sakata foll owed .h im , But
neither co u ld get ahead of Waldmann
for long enough to matter, a nd at th e
end Gresini was seco nd, local- her o
Giro third , and Sakata fourth.
Nobuyuki Wak ai had al so d osed u p
in th e last lap to take fifth.
Sidecar GP
A race full o f incid ents started wi th
Darren Dixon moving into the lead
from pole po sition while Steve Webster
and Klaus Klaffenbock battled over
' second place. Webst er was in second
by lap three, and then started a fierce
battle with Dixon. " We banged fairings once or twi ce - it reminded me
of my dub racing days," said Webster
, later.
The World Champion eventuall y
prevai led, and moved away in a safe
lead while Dixon and Klaffenbock
battled it out, with Steve Ab bott
moving up to mak e a challe nge th a t
wa s spiked by eng ine troubl e. Then
Dixon wa s forced to retire. His tire
had been sp in ning a nd sta rt ing to
br eak up, which ca use d th e gearbox
to fail.
This left Barr y Brindley to tak e
third, his first ros tru m positio n in 10
years o f sideca r raci ng, with Yosh i
Kuma ga ya fourth a nd th e G uedel
brothers fift h.
a
Resu lts
Lu ca Cadalora leads the 250cc pad, bu t the win eventually went to Ital ian Loris Reggiani on th e Aprilia (pictu red in third).
World Champion Steve Webster ( I) won the first Sidecar Grand Prix of the season.
Wa yne Rainey tri ed in vain to catch
Michael Doohan at Jerez.
class teammates strugg ling with so fter
ru bber.
Cadalora still has a huge lead in th e
cham p io nship, 70 points to BradI's 37,
with Card us o n 33 and Reggiani on
12
of better than three seco nds which he
stretched to more than five a t th e
finish.
"The bike was fast , and the tir es, th e
su spension and myself were pe rfect ,"
he said after his third 250-dass victory.
As he was com mencing his breakaway, Cardus and Bradl were joining
up behind Shimizu, Cadalora, Chili
and Puig to make it a six-stro ng
pursuit pa ck, and for a while a ny of
th em co u l d have co m e second,
although there was qui te a lot of
sh uffling around between them, a nd
Puig was to drop away behind graduall y. So too did Cardus to wards th e
end, but Bradl was on th e charge a nd
wi th two laps to go he was in second
place with Chili, Cadalora and Shimizu lined up virtually wh eel to wh eel.
No w ca me Chil i's ghastly mista ke.
H e led the grou p o ver th e lin e next
time round, bu t in th e hea t of th e battle
he mi ssed hi s ow n pit signal, misco u n ted the laps, and th ough t he saw
th e ' checkere d fl ag. Delighted , he
dosed th e throttle and punched the ai r
as th ey ran in to th e first turn.
T he o ther three, o f course, kept th eir
head s down and kep t raci ng, so mewh at lu cky that none o f the m ra n into
th e back o f his bik e. And so the real
rac e for second was over less th an two
m inutes later, with Bradl securi ng th e
place from Shimizu a nd Ca da lora, th e
• group covered by less th an half a
seco nd.
Cardus was fifth , Chili a woebegon e
sixth, with Pu ig fading to seventh.
j ochen Schmid's Yamaha was a lo nel y
eig h th, while Stephan Prein 's HB
H o nd a, fitted for the first tim e with
an engi ne kit , won a dose battle for
th e last points, with Massimilian o
Biaggi taking 10th and the last single
point. Capirossi was less than a tenth
adrift, then came Ro mbo ni a nd Torro n tegui's Suzuki, after a fierce ba ttle .
Zeelenberg's Suzuki was 14th but well
o u t o f touch , with the Dut chman
bitterly disappointed after choosing a
too-hard rear tire after seeing his 500-
28.
125(( GP
Pred ictably this was th e dosest race
o f th e day, with a pa ck of more than
10 riders disputing the lead, dwindling
to a still formidable six crossing the
lin e with in three seconds at th e flag.
The lead er a t th e crucia l stage was
Waldmann for the th ird time this
seaso n, a nd the little German Honda
rid er had done most of th e leading
from th e ear ly stages of th e ra ce, and
d early deserved it. It was hard work
non etheless, as he was fighting too -soft
tir es a nd so me lu rid slides, relying o n
horsepow er to fight off hi s cha llengers
on th e stra igh ts.
Ezio G ianola had led ea rly on, but
dropped to 10th after hi s H onda went
off the boi l, and th en Casanova had
put up a stro ng challenge, rid ing th e
facto ry Aprilia in th e abse nce of the
injured Alessandro Gram ign i, before
he was sideli ned wi th' engine failu re
with nine la ps left.
t25cc Q UAUFYING: I. Kin ya Sa ka ta (1:53.790/
86.757 mph ); 2. Rail Waldmann (1;53.9 15); 3. Fausto
Gn:sini (1:53.977); 4. Noburuki Wa ka i (1:54.053); 5.
Carlos Giro (1;54.3 19); 6. Bruno Casano va (1:54.362);
7. Ezio Giano la ( 1:54.426); 8. J ul ian Mira lt es
(1:54.56 1); 9. Ga briele Debbia (1;54 .663); 10. j orge
Martinez ( 1:54.670); 1 I. Noburu Ueda (1:54.800); 12.
E. Cu ppi ~i (1:54.824); 13. D irk .Ra udi