Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

Fivestr poles for Doohan aight R o th ma n s Hon da ' s Mick Doohan (rig h t) - -- - - - - - - - - , earned the po le positio n for Sunday's race and if you th in k yo u 've heard that before, you' re r ig h t. It 's the fifth po le po sit ion in a row for th e 26-yea r-o ld Q ueens lander a nd it was as di scou ragin g to those beh ind him as th,e pre:"io~s four. H is best la p arou nd the 2.95-mlle Cir cuit de Ca tal unya, in Moru melo, a town north of Bar celona near the Costa Brava , was a l-rninute, 48.549 seco nd (108.092 mp h) on e, a new lap record for mo tor cycles, a nd one of eight that he cou ld hav e chosen from as the best. No other rid er was in the 48s; Doo han had ,three, as well as a n umber of low 49s, th is fro m o n ly two tru ly dry practice sessions, bot h Fri day 's a nd Sa turday's morning untimed sessions affected bv rai n. . T he ho t la p came in the' m idd le of Saturday's hot a nd sti cky afte rnoon sess~on after he'd discovered a gea rbo x combinatio n tha t allo wed him better cor ~er en mes. " It helps just abo u t everyw here, rea lly ," Doohan said. " We used . the co mp uter ' to wor k a litt o n it and did n ' t kno w if the bike would handl e u. Just befor e the co mers, a nd go ing in , it wou ld overrev in a cou ple of gea rs. Rather than goi ng up a gear, we lengthene d them ." . ' . As easy as he made it look, Dooh an adm itted h~ m~ght have go ne faster exce p t for a bit of trepidation about th e safety of the CIrcuit whose run-off ar eas were Eddi e Lawson (7) leads J ohn Kocinski (4), Kevin Schwanlz (34) and Doug Chandler. b ' , : . . , o bviously design ed with cars in mind. " I don 't th ink it 's all th at safe. Ma ybe for F-I cars it 's not so bad. There s so much faster than .mine. All week mechanics a nd Ohl ins," Rai ney said a lot of run-off if you lose th e brakes, but ou t of th e ,turns th e. walls come o ut hi s bi ke was 7-8 k's fast er than m in e. abo ut th e dr a ma tic improvem ent in hi s close onto the trac k. It 's pretty da unt ing stuff around. here ," he said. . We don 't kn ow why .' H is bike is fast er mach ine. " We tri ed a diff erent front Marlboro Team Robert s Yam ah a's J ohn Kocinski was seco nd fastes t, turnmg tha n Rain ey's. for k sett ing and a different profile ' in h is best q ua lifying showing of th e year. H is best , a 1:49.492, was nt:ar~y a " O n the last lap I managed to stay front. I was more comfor ta ble in the second slower tha n Doohan 's a nd was hi s fin al lap of the hour-lon g sessio n. with him and just beat hi m to the righ t-hander s a nd there wa sn ' t so T he 24-year-o ld Modesto, Ca li fornia , resid ent felt he was just begin nin g to make lin e," MacKenzi e added, much pr essure on th e fro nt. Wh en I progress after losi ng time experimen ting with a new chassis. . got past Mick, I th ink he pushed th e " I rode most of 'the sessio n on the bike we tried to mod ify," he said. " With 250cc GP front a little bit a nd I got a run o n 10 mi nutes left. I got yesterda y's bike, a nd threw so~e tires ~ n it. I d id. the ~as test T hough Cadal or a has wo n four , him o n to th e front stra ig ht. Once I la p o n the seventh or eig hth one. T here was nothing special about It. T'i ll we got ahead, I thou gh t, 'Th is is it.' " , races, he doesn 't do min a te the 250s th e can find the chassis and the right th ings for it, we' re struggling every race." wav Doohan has the 500s. Ra ther, he's The Lu cky Stri ke teamsters disputed Third o n the front ro w was Spaniard Alex Criville on th e Campsa H on da. usuall y part of a group mixing it up third rig ht down to the flag, Chandler, " We tried severa l things our,' the 22-year-old from nearby Seva sa id. "The to the very end. T he o n ly quest io n is: who too k it back for good on th e 24th front race tire a nd different gear ratio which didn 't giv e us the resu lt w~ ho ped Who 's go ing to jo in hi m? At Ba rcelona la p , ge tt i ng th e nod , beatin g hi s for a nd perh aps the 'b ike was overrevving. That's wh y I w~sn't a ble to Improve tha t was largely decided o n the second teammate by 1.571 seconds. . on yesterda y's times." Cr ivi lle ha? benef!tted from ~ollowmg Doo han for part la p . "Whenever I got held up or anyof th e firs t session, when he set hIS fast time.' But without the draft was una,ble Biaggi jumped into the lead from thing, I was finding it pr ett y easy to to better the time on Saturday . " I co u ldn ' t match the time I set when I was foll~~ ll1g th e pole position, Reggian i, Cada lo ra , catch back up to Kevin a nd J ohn," Doohan yesterday , so we're no w discussing whether to re turn to the original Hero Sports H o nda 's Masah iro ShiCh and ler sai d. " But wh en I was behind setti ngs ." . ' mizu fourth, followed by HB Honda's th em , they were carrying so much Worl d Cham pion Wayne Rain ey sa t o n the ou tside of the front ro w,. he, I ~ke Doria no Ro mboni, Mitsu i Yama ha 's speed into the comers that the y were th e o thers, ha ving lost ti me to the ra in, a nd even ~ore to the. new chaSSIS which Jochen Schmid and HB H onda ' s pull ing me in wi th them , then I'd end had been tested by Rai ney's former teammate Kevin Magee m a J apanese race. Brad!. tip p ush in g the fro nt . After a whi le T he Rob erts team had suggested th e specs to the facto ry ,and after they checked O n the next la p Sh imizu went dow n I ba cked off a bit a nd decided to do o ut a Marlboro Rob ert s fram e was sent to Serg e Rosset s workshop HI France in a heep alo ng with Lu cky Strike it my own wa y; harder o n th e br akes , - wh ere he builds the ROC Yam aha - and th e modifications were done. Rainey Suzu ki 's Wileo Zeelen berg, a nd Marl then accelerati ng th ro ug h the com ers said it was a com pl etely different bik e, di~ferent engi,:,e position..footpeg height, bo ro Tea m Pil er i's Loris Capiross i. for a faster exit. T hat's wh en I started steering head a ngle, " just abo u t everything," he said, and all HI th e. ca use of Zeelenberg got the worst of it, su ffering go ing so mewhere." . cu ring th e frontend curse that 's plagued t~ em all year. a brok en collarbo ne, broken left a nkle, " We never di d get th e rea r suspen" It turns in real nice, but goes wid e In the corners and on. accelera tion the a nd right tibula around the kn ee. He sio n' right and I was havin g tro uble rear end comes out real quick," Rainey said of the n~w cha ssis. "~omorro:-"," was ta ken to the Genera l Hospi tal of with my rea r tire too ," Schwantz said. for the race, ' 'I'm go ing with what I know so far Will work best In the time Ca talonia by heli copter. Shimizu was " T he bi ke was letting loo se in the we have." trea ted, a nd released wi th a neck brace, m iddle of the tum . Do ug co u ld dr ive The pole po sition on the second row went to Ke."in Schwantz o n the Lu cky fo r a sp ine in jury, Ca p irossi was ou t better than me." For Schwantz, it Strik e Suzuki, his " big problem" trying to " get th e bike settl ed down to not move unh urt . d id n 't matter tha t he was beaten by his around o n the brakes," he said after setting hi s fast tim e toward the end of the The fall allo wed the leadin g quartet own teammate. " It doesn 't make any . second qualifying session. of Biaggi, Reggia ni, Cadalora and difference wh o you 're racing." " Yo u 're waiting once you get on the bra kes to the mi ddl e of the corner before Bradl to get a way, Schmid held up for Gradu ally, Kocinski lost touch with you can gel a drive." . a so litary fifth ahead of Rom bo ni. th e Suzukis, end ing up a so litary fifth Though hi s best time was a 1:50.67, Schwantz fel t he co uld run co ns rsteru 49s Cada lora cro ssed the lin e first to start after havi ng to alter hi s riding style in the ra ce, th ou gh he wa s a wa re o f Dooha n 's pace. "Wha t we ha ve to ho pe the second lap, but the posit ions were due to th e tires. for is tha t tha t's no wh ere wha t he ca n do in the race." cha nging co nsta ntly amo ng the top " I was usi ng first gear wh ere I' d been Yama ha Mot or Fra nce Ban co 's Niall Mac ken zie sat next to Sch \~antz on the three. Bradl was a steady fo u rt h , usin g second, I wasn 't using th e sa me second row, after he discovered late in the session tha t he'd been ma king progr~ss. though he would climb to third for lines, the sa me rhy th ms as in quali " It was abo ut four laps from the end whe n I real ized tha t the tires and suspension o ne la p late in th e race. fying, " Kocinski said, addi ng that he were jus t right ." Macken zie, wh o still has d ifficu lty ge tt ing the best Michel ins, No one was gi vin g an in ch , the first didn 't feel full y recovered from the flu said. • tum a n espec ially content ious a rea, the he'd suffered the pr evious week. " It Doug Cha nd ler was seventh fastest. bedev iled . as usual, by a fro nt end t~at tri o stuffi ng , eac h o ther every lap, just wasn 't my day." wouldn't stay planted in the corners. " It 's the same pro blem all year: Ceuing so me how all staying u pright. The Seven seconds behind Kocinski , and the weigh t transfer o n the fro nt to get a ll the way a~ou nd the corner. I s t~yed pace, how ever, was abou t two seconds seven seconds in front of seventh place, out o n the bike a nd the n we cha nged it a ro und. We sti li have a ~ew more. th m.gs slow er than qualifyin g , su gges tin g was Cagiva' s Lawson, di sappointed we'd like to try that will im prove it mor e," th e 26-year -o ld Sali nas, Ca lifor nia, that , th ou gh th e race wa s cl o se, with the race, but enco uraged by recent na ti ve sa id. . . , som ething was being held in reserve. sig ns of progress a t the Var ese factory. Cagiva's Alex Bar ro s fill ed ou t th e second row , still sorti ng out rea r suspen sion It was a q uestion of wh o was holding ','We' re go ing forwa rds, not ba cka nd rear tir e co mbina tions. He a nd tea m mat e Lawson had stayed an extra two back the most and wou ldn 't be answa rds . I fed m o tiva ted to push days a t Mu gell o after the pr evious week's Ital ian G P a nd Lawson, IOth fastes t wered unt il the very end. , harder ," the 34-year-old Lawson said. tod a y, improved his lap tim e by close to three seconds. . . ' Half wa y in a nd Biaggi cro ssed the " We'll have a surprise for them a t Sandwic hed between the Ca gi va teamsters was Spaniard ]u.an ~arr~ ga on ~ he lin e first, but Reggiani, who 'd led the Assert." Ducados Yam ah a , still getting used to the handling of the Michelin ures wh ich previo us th ree laps, barged pas t in the - he'd switched to at Mu gello. T he Yam ah a Mot or s Fra nce Banco's . first tum . He a nd Biaggi wo uld tak e team of Mackenz ie a nd DuH amel T he fin al two riders on th e third row were Budweiser Ra cin g 's Randy Mamola t ur n s leadin g th e next six laps. 'co n tested sevent h most of th e race, and Yamaha Mot or France's Miguel DuHamel. DuHamel desc~ib~ himself as Cadal or a was second into o ne, trailed Mackenzi e ge tting it on the last la p "se mi-ha ppy" after his time of I:50.940 didn't prove tobe asubstantlallm!?rov~ment by Biaggi, a nd Brad !. Schmid was after havin g had to wo rk hi s way u p on th e 1:51.1 which he set here a t an IRTA test

• Cover