Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

RROAD~CE.iliC~m~~_R_w_dR_ac_eS_ff_~__oo_nd_5~~~~~~~~~~ :R ~ ~ o ....... The 250cc race was as good as they come, five di fferent leaders, and 10 official lead changes over the course of th e 22-lap race. And to th e delight of the crowd, Italians took the top three spots. R othmans H ond a 's Worl d Ch ampion Lu ca Cadalora won the race, passing Aprilia Un limited j eans' Loris Reggiani for the lead goi ng into the first turn o n the fina l lap. With o nly the front straightaway to dr aft and pass on , Reggiani had to wa it until th e last mo ment to make his move, com ing up . 168second sho rt after 71.70 miles of raci ng. Third went to Telkor Valesi Racing' s Aprilia-rn ounted Massimilian o Biaggi with HB H onda 's H elm u t Bradl getting th e best of Lu cky Strike Suzuki's Wileo Zeelenberg for fourth. Biaggi 's teamm ate Pi er-Francesco Chil i cras hed o n the fin al lap whil e in fourth. "It was a very hard race, possibl y the hardest so far this year," Cada lora said after winning his fourt h race of the year . '" knew Reggiani would the hard est to beat in th e lead group because hi s Aprilia is very fast and he's a good rider." Like Dooh an , Cada lo ra holds a 43point lead over seco nd pl ace in th World Cham pi onship standi ngs , 90 to 47 o ver Brad!. Reggiani is third with 43, wi th Rep sol H on da 's Carl os Cardu s, sevent h today with 'severe tire troub les, fourth wit h 37. Cadalora completed the 22-lap race in 43:52.313 minutes, at an average speed of 98.063 mph. The 125cc race was nearlv as th rilling as the 250s, the winner not decid ed unti l the fin al lap wh en the two leaders bumped letting a number o f others through. Semprucci ID M Ho nda 's Ezio Gianola was the lucky beneficiary of the struggle in front of hi m, moving fro m third to first and takin g his first win since 1989. Euro pa Raudies Hon da' s Dirk Baudi es was a close second with Marlboro Team Pileri's Noburu Ueda in his shad ow in third. The two riders who led the final lap, Coronas Elf's jorge Marti nez and Scot Racing 's Bruno Casa nova, fini shed six th and eig ht h , respectively. Zwafink Racing's Ralf Waldman n still lead s th e cha mpio ns h ip even th ou gh he was forced o ut of the race at the halfway po int with gearbox trouble. T he team ha d forgo tten to put gea rbox oil in and Waldmann ran the morni ng warm -up and lO-pl us laps of the race before it seized. Wald man n has 72, Casa nova is second with 45, and Alessandro Gramigni , 11th today , is third wit h 41. , Rau die.s averaged 92.293 mph in completing the 20-lap, 65.19 mil e race in 42:22.606 minutes. He won the race by 2.807 seconds. b e Michael Doohan (2), Doug Chandler (10), Alex Criville (28 ) and Kevin Schwantz (34) lead the 500cc pack into the first com er. Kevin Schwan tz (34 ) won his first GP of the season while Doohan (2) lost his first. Schwantz strikes in Italy By Henny R ay Abrams MUGELLO, ITALY, MAY24 eam Lu cky Strike Suzuki's Kevin Sc h wa n tz br ou ght Rothm an s Honda 's Mick Doohan' s per fect seaso n to a n en d by beatin g th e previously in vin cib le World Ch amp io nshi p leader by over five seconds in the Italian Grand Prix at Mu gello. T 16 T he 27-year-o ld T exan too k the lead for,good o n th e 12th of 24 laps aroun d the 3.26-mile track, when Marl boro Roberts Yam ah a 's World Champion Wayne Rainey crash ed, u nhurt, in the esses whil e in the lead. Schwantz took over and raced on to a 5.068 second win in front of 70,000 fans on a partl y cloudy day in the Tuscan foothills ju st ou tside of Flo rence. " It feels reall y good to finall y win and bea t Mick," Schwantz said after winni ng h is first race in nearly ni ne months. "Usuall y he wins by 20 to 25 seconds. My crew made a few changes to the way we set up the sus pensio n a nd that im proved the ha ndli ng." Schwantz co m p leted th e 24-lap, 78.22-mil e race in 46 minutes, 26.225 seconds at an average speed of 101.07 mp h. " Mick's still quite a few points in front, I th in k ' on ly got five. o n him ," Schw antz said, who moved into second place in th e champ ions hip . The Austra lian now leads Schwa ntz 95 to 52 after five of 13 ro unds . Rain ey is th ird wit h 45, three better than Schwan tz's teammat e Dou g Cha nd ler, fourth toda y behi nd Marl boro Roberts Yam aha 's john Kocinski. Kocinski had spe nt two n igh ts in a Flor ence hospita l with a temperature and flu, an d had considered not racing. After a slo w start, he was eigh th on the first lap - he work ed hi s wa y through the pa ck, pa ssin g Chandler with two laps to go, though he was over 27 seconds behind Doo han. Cha ndle r' found th at hi s en gi ne wo uldn't p ull stro ng ly during-the race and. also, tha t he'd chos en a front tir e compo und that was too hard. " It looked new a t th e end of th e race," the 26-year-o ld Ca lifo rnia n said , " And' ha d a coup le of front wheel slides that ga ve me quite a scare." Fifth to sevent h were co vered by . 105 second, Cag iva's Alex Barros ni pping Ducad os Yama ha's juan Garriga and Yamaha Motor Fran ce Ban co's Migu el DuHamel at the lin e. Sp an iard Al ex Cri vill e fini shed eig h th wit h a deteri orating rear tir e after runn ing as h igh as th ird, with DuHamel's teammate Niall MacKenzie ninth, also with rear tire trouble, and Budw eiser Racin g's Randy Mamola 10th afte r a few last minute eng ine and geometry cha nges didn 't wor k. Eleve n th went to Ca g ivas Eddie Lawson , apparent ly the victi m of rear tire trouble. 500cc As had been expected, Dooh an got the j ump on the field funn eling into the sweep ing uphill right- ha nd turn one, wi th Cha ndler in tow in front of Rainey, Schwa ntz, and Criv ill e. Sc hwa n tz qui ckl y mo ved i nto second, with Rain ey to third. Ch andler would drop to fifth o n the fourth lap wh en Criville went past and Ch andler rea lized he had eng ine trouble. " It ran perfectl y in the morning, going up to 12,800 and even 13,000 rp m on the straights," he said. " T hen , in th e race, it wouldn 't go up to 13,000. I still don 't kn o w wh at th e problem was and I was worried I might no t mak e the fini sh ." Doohan loo ked to pull away, bu t Schwan tz wou ld hav e non e of' .it, an d took the lead for th e first tim e on the eigh th lap a fter turnin g th e fastest lap of th e race on the fifth circu it. Sur-

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