Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

laps to go. Team Semprucci's Herri Torrontegui inherited third, the Apriliamounted Spaniard the only non-Honda in the top nine. The championship chart shows Raudies with 25, Sakata with 20, and Torrontegui with 16. 500 Grand Prix Threatening skies had plagued practice and a dark funnel cloud loomed in the distance as the 500s were brought to the line. The race would be to the end or to the rain, whichever came first. It would eventually rain, and, though it didn't stop the race, it helped decide it Doug Chandler read the starter perfectly and got a blistering start. The same could not be said for Schwantz. Schwantz admitted making "a mess of the start," finishing the first lap in ninth place after allowing the engine to bog. But by the end of the first lap Beattie had worked his way ahead of Chandler, with Marlboro Honda Pons' Alex Criville an early third in front of Doohan, Aiel< Ba.rros on the second l.ucky Strike Suzuki, and Rainey who was beginning a grad ual charge to the front. By the fourth lap Rainey was up to third, slipping under Criville going into the downhill right-hand hairpin turn nine. Schwantz came with him a lap later and by the sixth lap it was a fourrider fight for the lead. Beattie held the point, Schwantz moving up to second on the seventh lap, dropping Chandler to third. "I knew if 1 could come off the line 1 could run with them," Chandler said. "When Daryl went past it sort of messed me up and 1 had to settle in. When Kevin came by 1settled down some." Rainey held onto fourth as the pack moved off, leaving another group to contest fifth. Criville led that group, Doohan was sixth, with Barros seventh, and Rothmans Honda's Shinichi Itoh moving up to eighth. Ten· laps into the 30-lap race Schwantz took the lead using an inside move in the early turns. Within two laps it would begin to drizzle and those behind him grew cautious as the temperature dropped. "We saw Kevin slow and we caught him up because we were using him as a gauge," Rainey said. "If it was too wet he'd have the first slide." The pack tightened up as the race approached the midway point and the rain grew slightly in intensity. Schwantz still led, but the gap had narrowed as he slowed on the slightly slippery track. "Next thing 1knew Wayne and Doug were back all over me, and 1 had to start pushing again," Schwantz said. "It was only the rain that slowed me. There was nobody in front to give me any warning of the wet patches." But as the rain fell, so did the track temperature allowing Schwantz to conserve the softer compound tires he'd chosen for the race. The lap times increased slightly - Schwantz's best lap would be the fifth - though only slightly. Chandler re-took second on the 16th lap when Beattie ran wide in tum two. Later Beattie would say that the rain began to unnverve him and he chose the prudent route. . "Basically, 1 felt good and feel certain 1 could have hung on with the leaders, but when it started to rain and 1 saw drops of water on the screen, 1 started to feel a little nervous," Beattie said. "I wasn't prepared to push as hard as the other three in the wet." Rainey moved past the young Aussie on the 17th lap and, two laps later, was up to second after getting the best of a spirited dice with Chandler. In one lefthand comer Chandler's front tire made The 34-rider strong Australian 250cc Grand Prix gets underway at Eastern Creek in front of 36,809 spectators. contact with Rainey's left knee, but the competition was good-natured and there were no hard feelings afterwards. "He owes me a set of leathers," Rainey joked later. "We got a little close out there, but it didn't screw either of us up," Chandler said. Chandler went on to explain that Rainey was able to get through turns three and four, 9O-degree rights, and the 9o-degree left-hand tum five, better than anyone, and that was where he made up the most time."It seems like in those corners we were kicking each other in the butt. "In three he could hold bit tighter line and carry more speed mto the corner. On the actual drive out of the corner, 1 had an advantage on him," Chandler said. Rainey agreed that he was better in turns four and five. "I could ride around the outside of them. In the other comers it was really hard to get it right every time. A couple of times 1 was sideways," Rainey said. He explained that he used the chassis settings that he stumbled upon in Friday'S practice, though they weren't perfect. "It's in a direction where we know which way we have to go," Rainey said. But among the deficiencies was his drive onto the front straight. "Coming onto the front straight the Suzuki worked better." With 10 laps to go, and the rain still falling, Rainey made a run at Schwantz, the Texan getting both wheels onto the dirt cresting the hill between turns three and four before saving it. Rainey had briefly taken the lead before Schwantz ran off the track, but, soon after, Schwantz began to pull away as the rain began to slow. With five laps to go Schwantz had close to two seconds, Rainey still being hounded by Chandler with Beattie riding to a safe fourth. "I backed off and settled into fourth place because I thought it was better to end up with certain points rather than risk going down and leaving without any," Beattie said. Any chance Rainey and Chandler had went up in smoke in the final few laps as the leaders ran into two packs of backmarkers. Schwantz was through the cleanest and on his way to the top of the podium. "Some guys we pass three and four times," Rainey said after getting held up by a group of five riders contesting 11tho "I think that after we pass them twice, a they should be out because they're not in the same race we're in." "I came up on a group of three at the end of the straightaway," Schwantz said of a group that earlier got in Rainey's way giving him a break. "I'm going to go give them a pat on the back. "Eastern Creek has always been difficult for us. We always struggled here. This gives us confidence for the next track," Schwantz said. "And especially heading to Europe." "1 told the guys that 1 had a chance for the top three and if it wasn't for my guys 1 wouldn't be up here," Rainey said. "We tried a different setting this morning, but we went back to what we had on Friday." ''I'm happy to race with these guys," Chandler said. "The bike's real competitive. It's early yet and these guys got a lot of work left to do. They can respond to anything 1 ask for because our turnaround is a little better than the Japanese factories. It was working good today and 1 think a few more little improvements and we'll be right in there with the others." Four riders contested fifth, Barros and Criville generally at the front, Itoh just behind with Australian wild card Peter Goddard catching the back of the pack on his Lucky Strike Suzuki. "At the start, I was trying much too hard and losing concentration and I had to tell myself to go easy and aim for a finish," Barros said. "After that I found 1 could stay with two Honda riders, Criville and Itoh, quite easily. They had a bit more top speed, but 1 had an advantage under brakes, in corner entry, and also bottom-end acceleration, so 1 was able to fight with th~" The fight was decided two laps from the end, Barros using a lapped rider to pull away from Criville, who was struggling with a virus and, also; a bad tire choice. "We chose a wrong rear tire, and then 1 lost out to Barros when we came across a backmarker. Considering all that, I'm happy with the result," the 23-year-old Marlboro Honda Pons-backed Spaniard said. On the next to the last lap, Criville slowed dramatically at the top of the straight and, besides losing ground, his maneuver forced Goddard to take evasive action, the Lucky Strike rider swerving off the track and into a gravel trap. A certain eighth became a DNF. Shinichi Itoh inherited the spot, the Japanese rider never coming to grips with his suspension all weekend. Rainey's teammate Luca Cadalora finished eighth, Cagiva's Mat Mladin was ninth, and Niall Mackenzie was 10th in his debut on the Valvoline Yamaha. 250cc Grand Prix Like his Lucky Strike teammate, Kocinski muffed the start and had to work to get to the front. The difference was that he may have used his rear tire up in the process. The jump went to Marlboro Team Pileri's Loris Capirossi, the pole-sitter out in front with Carlos Cardus an early second before ceding to Max Biaggi on the second lap. Card us was just as briefly third with HB Racing Team Italy's Doriano Romboni fourth, Team Kanemoto Honda's Aoki fifth, and Kocinski sixth. The race began in earnest on the eighth lap, Biaggi taking the lead from Capirossi, Tetsuya Harada moving up to fourth just in front of Kocinski. The top four made a break from the pack, Aoki and Cardus just behind, with Romboni up to join them. Kocinski stuck to the back of the pack, his Suzuki wheezing on the front straightaway trying to keep up with the Yamaha of Harada and the Hondas of Biaggi and Capirossi. If he was going to win the race, he'd have to do it in the corners and Harada would soon see evidence of his effort. Capirossi was back in front for laps 11 and 12, Harada moving up to take the lead for a few laps, Capirossi taking it back, the top four swapping spots around the track, as Kocinski gradually made his way to the front, a spot he would take on the 17th of 28 laps. "Because of the speed the others had down the straight, it was a little difficult to get up front. I could barely stay in their slipstream, and I really had to work through the comers," Kocinski said. His efforts were obvious, leaning well off the bike to keep it upright so that he could accelerate. harder out of the corners on the fat part of the tire. Biaggi was also quick through the corners and found that he was having a hard time getting around Capirossi because of the speed difference. "When Capirossi was in front of me near the start of the racer 1 kept wishing he would get a little further ahead because he ~as slower than me going 7

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