Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/127568
GROAD RACE Road Race Series: Round 1 e The 500cc GP featured a three-man battle between Kevin Schwantz (34), Doug Chandler (5) and Wayne Rainey (1). Schwantz eventually took the win by three seconds. Doug Chandler (5) and Daryl Beattie (4) got the jump on the field at the start of the Australian 500cc GP. Michael Doohan (2), Alex Criville (8) and the rest give chase. Schwantz takes By Henny Ray Abrams EASTERN CREEK, AUSfRALlA, MAR. 28 ucky Strike Suzuki's Kevin Schwantz, drawing on his most intensive off-season testing program ever, opened the 500cc Grand Prix season by leading an all-American sweep of the podium in the Australian Grand Prix at Eastern Creek. "This is like a Christmas present for me," the 28-year-old Texan said after winning his 20th Grand Prix, tying him for seventh on the all-time 500cc win list with Freddie Spencer and Marlboro Team Roberts Yamaha's Wayne Rainey. "It's good to see that all of our w9rk'S paid off. Especially for the crew, they've worked harder than me over the win- L ter." 6 Second went to Rainey, who struggled with his new Marlboro Roberts Yamaha from the moment he arrived here for testing a week prior to the GP. After stumbling onto a setup that worked during Friday's qualifying, he managed to finish 3.118 seconds behind Schwantz. "This is as good as first for me," Rainey said. "Kevin and the Suzuki wer, on today. I'm real happy with the result, actually." Third was something of a surprise, not only to the 36,809 spectators, but to the rider as well. "We tested in the off-season and thought maybe we'd be close, but we didn't think we'd be this close," Cagiva's Doug Chandler said following his debut on the Italian team. "It feels good to be up here with the Japanese manufacturers. Hopefully, sometime this year I can pull one off." Schwantz completed the 3O-lap, 732mile race in 46 minutes, 21.885 seconds at an average speed of 94.809 mph and, with the win, heads the World Championship points chart. The new scoring method gi ves Schwantz 25 points, Rainey 20, and Chandler 16. Fourth went to Rothmans Honda's Daryl Beattie, the 22-year-old Queenslander slipping back after getting a blazing start and leading the first nine laps. A mid-race drizzle caught Beattie's attention and, instead of throwing away certain points, he backed off to collect as many as possible. His teammate Mick Doohan had considerably less luck. Doohan started the race bothered by a broken bone in his left wrist, as well as the leg he broke at Assen last year. He had considered racing with pain-killers, but chose not to, instead getting an intravenous glucose drip prior to the race to provide extra energy. But, in the end, it didn't matter. The engine on his Honda NSRSOO began to cut out early in the race and he pulled off on the 18th lap after dropping to 11th place. Another notable non-finisher was Yamaha Motor France's Freddie Spencer. Like Rainey, the 32-year-old Louisianian struggled with the setup on the new Yamaha 'YZR and never got it to steer as he well as he would have liked. But starting the 20th lap, he was violently thrown to the ground, and on his head, in the first turn while contesting 10th with Rainey's teammate Luca Cadalora. Spencer was momentarily knocked out and didn't know why he'd crashed, though observers saw smoke coming off his rear tire just before the crash. He put a small hole in the back of his left hand and gave his broken left shoulder another jolt. "It happened pretty fast. 1 don't remember anything," Spencer said, his left forearm wrapped in dressing. "Everybody came up to me and said they saw smoke coming off the bike, but we don't know what happened." As good as the 500cc race was, the 250cc race was even better, though Lucky Strike Suzuki's John Kocinski may not have seen it that way. In his first ride back in the 250cc class after a twoyear absence, Kocinski led much of the last third of the race, only to be nipped at the line by Telkor Valesi Racing's Tetsuya Harada in his first race outside of Japan. The margin of victory was .030 seconds. It was obvious that the Suzuki was down on power, but it was just as clear that no one attacked the infield like Kocinski. Since he was constantly being draft-passed, he knew his only chance was to lead out of the last comer and hope for the best. But the 22-year-old Harada pulled out of his slipstream on the run up to the line and Kocinski had to settle for second. "1' d have a one-second lead every time coming onto the straight and by the time 1 got back to tum one it was back to zero," said Kocinski, who turned 25 the week before the race. "1 rode as hard as I could and had to stay in front and force the pace. 1 knew if 1 came out of the last comer second, I'd finish second." Max Biaggi, yet another rider making his debut for a new team, finished third after leading for three laps early in the race on the Rothmans Kanemoto Honda. The 21-year-old Italian encountered gearbox and rear tire problems and was forced to drop back. His was the best placing Honda, the first of six works NSRs that finished third to eighth. Fourth went to Rothmans Honda's Tadayuki Okada, with Kanemoto Racing's Nabuatsu Aoki finishing fifth. Harada completed the 28-lap, 68.38mile race in a record time of 43 minutes, 57.049 seconds at an average speed of 93.348 mph. . He now leads the championship with 25 points, five ahead of Kocinski and nine ahead of Biaggi. The only non-competitive race was the 125cc class, Team Europa Raudies Dirk Raudies leading every lap of the race, building up an insurmountable lead before ending nearly 13 seconds in front of second-placed Kazuto Sakata. The Honda-mounted Raudies pulled away at about a second a lap before backing off at the end, the victory well in hand. The 28-year-old German completed the 26-lap, 63.49-mile race in 42 minutes, 58,125 seconds at an average speed of 88.661 mph, a new race record. Officially, F.C.C. Technical Sports Sakata was 12.995 seconds back, but the Honda-mounted rider was never really very close. He spent most of the'race dicing with Marlboro Aprilia's Ralf Waldmann until Waldmann's engine failed while running in third with six