Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

SROAD RACE Road Race Series: Round 4 e Tetsuya Harada (31) was never headed as he raced to victory in the l25cc Grand Prix. The win was Harada's third in four starts. Kevin Schwantz (34) and Wayne Rainey (1) ran this close for most of the race. 16 nobody's fault but my own," Doohan said. Two laps later Barros was up to third, passing Criville and setting off for the leaders who were about five seconds in front. The top three were all running lap times in the low to mid 1:45s, but Barros would soon drop. into the 44s as the gap closed. Rainey took back the point on lap 13 with Schwantz worrying that he would lose touch. "When he passed me again I struggled to stay with him," Schwantz said. "Then I made a few little changes to my riding style and I was able to catch up and get by again - only to find someone knocking on my door." That someone was teammate Barros, the Brazilian clocking the fastest lap of the race on the 18th, a new record of 1:44.659 (94.54 mph - Mick Doohan's previous mark was 1:45.356). Rainey did his best time on the 19th trying to stay in front, but Barros, who Schwantz had waved past on the 20th lap, was by Rainey on the 21st lap, passing him on the brakes entering the first tum, with Schwantz by the Marlboro rider soon afterwards and grabbing some ground when Rainey encountered a pack of four lappers who Schwantz had gotten by cleanly. "We've got to do something because the speed differential is way too much," Rainey said later about his encounter with the backmarkers. "There's going to be a big accident because they're way too slow." Barros appeared to be riding effortlessly, pulling away from Schwantz after the two raced for a lap, making contact at one point. Schwantz's race nearly came to an end when he ran wide in the first of a pair of fast right-banders behind the pit. Getting into the comer way too fast, Schwantz straightened up, rode off the track, then re-joined the race well adrift of Barros. "I was a bit wide into a fast righthander and I started pushing the front so I had to pick the bike up and run onto the grass," Schwantz said. Unaware that he was free and clear of Schwantz, Barros kept pushing. Then, a few comers later at the beginning of the following lap, the announcer screamed in Spanish that he'd fallen, then in English said: "Barros is on the floor." Not the floor, exactly, but close enough. "I didn't know he (Schwantz) went onto the dirt. I thought he was still behind me and I was still pushing very hard. The front wheel started sliding under brakes into one corner. I recovered control, but now I was off line and the track was dirty and the front wheel slid away as I tried to brake again," Barros explained about the end of his day. From there it was a romp to the flag for Schwantz. "I'm glad I was first, but I'd rather have finished second to Alex than for him to fall off," Schwantz said. "I knew he was running a different tire than us, but I didn't think he'd be able to come back from five seconds down." "The places I was good were not the best places to be," Rainey said. "We gambled on setup this morning and then, in the end, I got caught up with some backmarkers. That's racing." Criville was happy with third, knowing that he couldn't keep up when Barros came by and that he needed to score some points. "I had to decide to ride for fourth because my tires were beginning to go off and I remembered my crash last year." Behind the leaders the race was mostly processional, no passing being done in places four to nine, except after the Barros crash. Doohan was a lonely fourth as he was getting used to the thumb-brake setup and knowing that there's work to be done on the machine. Cadalora, who had talked about retiring after struggling in Japan, earned his best finish after losing touch with the leaders at the start, and Beattie struggled with an understeering problem he wasn't able to solve during practice. "The faster I rode, the slower I went," Beattie said. "I had the problem with the machine from the moment we arrived here." 250cc Grand Prix The Michelin Curve is the second one on the Jerez circuit and from that point until the end Harada's only worry was traffic. No one could come close to his pace and he knew it. His fastest lap of the race was the second, dropping Loris Reggiani's track record by nearly two seconds then, while judiciously watching his pit signals, he pulled out about a six-second lead by the sixth lap. The race would be for second and it was a good one. Rothmans Kanemoto Honda's Max Biaggi moved past Marlboro Pileri Honda's Loris Capirossi on the fourth lap, Capirossi losing rear tire grip and eventually descending to 10th place. By the sixth lap Aprilia's Jean Philippe Ruggia was up to third and he and Biaggi would begin what would be a race-long duel. Mostly they stuck together, though Biaggi would periodically pull out a one-second lead, though Ruggia made a late race charge that caught Biaggi's attention. "On the last few laps I had to take a few risks to hold Ruggia off and I certainIy could not get away from him ear-

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