Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

I rode any faster, I'd kill myself," said La wso n. Doohan , not surpris ing ly, a lso took the lap record, a n d stre tc h ed his cham p io ns h ip lead to a massive 35 points over Rainey wit h four o ut of 13 races over. " It' s still much too early to thi n k abo ut the cha mpi o nship ," he said. 250cc GP Pier-Francesco Ch ili got the holesho t, Masah iro Sh imizu moved to th e fro n t on lap two, then Luca Cadalora took over and for the next three laps it looked as th ough things would be mu ch th e same as for the previous three rac es. • But th is time he couldn't make any sort of break , nor cou ld he wait and attack at th e finish , for eith er he o r hi s bike were , as he pu t it, " no t 100 perce nt toda y." Instead , Reggiani moved into the lead on the sixth lap, and then took h is turn at gradually pulling awa y fro m th e fiercest of battles. He was ridi ng immaculately, two- wheel drifting h is Aprilia , and wh ile o n some laps he was o n ly abl e to open th e ga p by frac tio ns, it was still inexorabl e, and by half-distance he had an advantage The best race of the day was for third Doohan grabs pole at J~ere,,--z bet~een Alex _ ich ael Doohau 's (rig h t) third pole i n succession came after the sort of dominant performance that has marked the mighty Honda's progress all season long. By the end of the two days (preceded by free training on the Thursday so that riders could learn the changed track and new surface) there was no comfort left for his rivals' but to remind themselves that the Australian had proved vulnerable with a testing crash in Hockenheim earlier in the week. Doohan also had to clutch at straws, of a rather different kind - or was he chasing ghosts? "I never feel confident. I reckon it's always best to feel like there's some stro ng opposition so I have to push myself." Of course this was true - the next seven riders represented a formidable amiy of talent; and were all packed up close within the sam e second. But the fact remained that' Doohan was better than half-a-second quicker than second-placed Rainey, and that the margin had seldom been any smaller. As elsewhere, the throaty Honda was clearly putting its po wer down better on the ultra-smooth and somewhat slick new surface, and Doohan could visibly ope n th e throttl e earl ier than anyone else, gaining yards o ut of every corner. Schwantz, riding with hi s left hand (inj ured in practice for Mala ysia) in a special g love that kept the second and third fingers together, was in second spot in Sa tu rday morning's free training, and for much of the final tim ed session. Then there was a flurry of activity in the closing minutes that saw Rainey mo ve back into the runner-up position. The defending World Champion still wa sn 't happy, com p lain ing vociferously about his continuing difficulties in findin g chassis settings to make his Yamaha suit th e Michelin tires . " I have no feeling from the front - no feedback ," said Rainey. "We've made so many changes - tires, rim widths, wheel sizes, sus pe nsion geo me try, sp rings . .. just everyth ing we can do. It doesn't seem to mak e an y difference. I've never ridden a motorcycle as bad as this o ne." Strong words, redolent of a committed winner wh o is bei ng for ced to lose. Third place at least saw a cheery face -- that of Cal ifornian Doug Chandler, who also pushed past teammate Schwantz in the closing minutes. In his first year on the Suzuki, this was also the first time th is year that he had fini shed practice without a parcel full of changes to test in morning warm-up. " We expected that, because I'm getting to know the bike. I didn't expec t to be so high up after running in eig hth for most of the last session," he said. H e'd been chasing too-hard front settings, then revert ed to the morn ing sett ings to run two-tenths down on Ra iney. Less than ano ther tenth down, Sch wan tz seem ed again incongruo usly cheerfu l a t having been pipped by his new teammate. "Being on th e front row is what matters, and I prefer to be whe re I am beca use I'm on the outside for the first bend, a nd I can close the door on all of them," he grinned.The Suzuki was working well on the faster corn ers, without the pro blem of moving around mid-corner that has plagued both riders on shorter corners, but he felt the lack of torque and mid-range acceleration co mpa red with th e Honda. " We' re all go nna be chasin g Mick (Doohan ) tomorrow, bu t it sh o ul d be close for second. " And how, by the look of the second row of the grid, a collection of motorcycling bravadoes who would make anyon e ahead of them feel unco mfortable. Niall Mackenzie was fastest by the narrowest of margins, also moving up in the last minutes of practice. He had a new chassis here, the same as the second-generation M Criville (28), Niall Mackenzie (19) and Kevin Schwantz (34). TeamRoberts eq uipment - but the Scotsman didn't like it , and switched back to his old bike at the end. " I don't think it's possible to set up a new bike at a GP meeting," he opined. He had Eddi e Lawson alongside, the Cagiva rider most aggrieved at rumors that he had stopped trying in his last year, and certainly making conspicous efforts out on the track. For the first three sessions they were to little avail, but before the ' fourth he changed just about everything they could. .. "gearbox, cylinder head compression, timing, jetting, tires. If we do it II at once, it 'll either work or it'll be worse ," he said. " We're down on the speed-trap, and we have some chatter problems. We have to go in at the deep end." It did work, and at one point he was fourth fastest. Alex CriviIIe was next, the only notable rider to crash in practice, falling unhurt in a cloud of dust at the new right-hand corner, named ironically enough "Sito Pons Bend" after his team owner. " I lost the front end, but 1 have no problems except we lost some time and I have a lot of things to test tomorrow, " he said. The last man on row two , and the last rider in the 1:46 bracket was john Kocinski, back after missing two races, and blaming the bike rather than any lingering inj ury for no t being faster. " I' ve lost a lot of riding time, but I'm trying to co me ba ck as soon as I can without getting into trouble. We hav e an understeer problem, and we're still trying to get the bike suited to this track, " he said. Ninth-fastest, Peter Goddard led row three, as the top works-replica Yamaha rider, having been as high as fifth after the first day. He had Randy Mamola alo ngside, the retu rn in g American having lost a lot of practice time with an ignition problem o n da y one - the drawback of having only on e motorcycle. Garriga's Yamah a was alongside, then came" Alexandre Barros, wit h Miguel DuHamel lead ing th e next row an d the last rider in the I:47 bracket. As with the 500s, th e H onda ship of state cap tained by Luca Cadalora took the p rime berth. T ypi cally, he waited until the very last seconds of practice to knock Lorix Reggian i's Aprilia off pole by less th an two-hundredths; and he did so with a display of brinkmanship that would have impressed th e most blase spe cta tor, hi s bike still juddering past the apex after late braking for the last hairpin. Earlier he had been as low as 12th, and was second to Helmut Bradl in untimed practice o n Saturday mo rn ing, th e fastest of all sessions, but had an air of confidence non eth eless. "We always use the first sessions to test different ideas and parts. We've mad e a lot of cha nges since Malaysia." Reggi an i was another who left hi s final q ualifying charge la te, o n his return to the track where he hurt himself badl y before the season. " I' m fully recovered now ," he said. " Mo re im por tant, my bike is going like a rocket. " His factory Aprilia had earlier displaced Masahiro Shimizu's works Honda from pole, the japanese rider going faster earlier in the season than usual. He ended up four-tenths dow n o n Reggiani, but less than a tenth ahead of Chili's Aprilia. . It seems strange to co mpare the 250s with the 500s, since times are usually much closer together in th e smaller class, but on this occasion there was a similar spread, a nd a similar scary second row , led by Carlos Cardus from Alberto Puig, Doriano Rombo n i and j ochen Schmid. Card us was lucky to escape without injury from a heav y highside crash in the last m inutes of the fin al session, his contribution to a rather breathless time. At the o ther end of the row, Schmid pulled ou t all the stops to put his worksbacked Yam ah a well u p, after losing time earlier on testing a new crankcase that proved worse than the engine he had in Malaysia . Bradl ended up leading row three, after suff ering a major engine blow-up at th e sta rt of the second timed session - a sparking plug shed a ceramic scrap, destroyin g a piston befor e passing into the cases and damaging th e crankshaft as well. Riding hi s slo wer spare, he was one of only three riders out of 36 not to impro ve on h is Friday time, but with a low first gear fiued to ensure a good start from hi s low ly position, he was likely to be a big th reat. Both G ileras were alo ngside him, placed 10th and l Ith, but with Carlos Lavado more than half -a-second down on hi s teammate jean-Philippe Ruggia. Lo ris Ca pi rossi was 12th to fin ish row three. II

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