Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

'I'm back' on the strength of one race. The track helped a lot. It's basically two straights joined by two comers, so if you get the corners right the bike does the rest." But though the speed of the Hondas is undoubted, the Suzukis were also running very fast, while Rainey was in the draft and in a close fourth. The question was which of them would take up the challenge. Schwantz moved into second on lap eight, but Barros was ahead again three laps later, and closed up the small gap that Doohan had found to challenge for the lead on lap 12. Next time round he was ahead, but Doohan dived back ahead under braking for the chicane, proving that his revised hand-operated rear brake is now working spot on. Schwantz had been passed by Rainey, after a swashbuckling move round the outside on the looping Fahrerlagerkurve, though he got back in front up the hill two laps later, just after half distance. But he was now about a second behind. "I was trying to figure out what to do about my tire. In practice it was perfect but now 1 was having a lot of wheelspin that was really spoiling my drive out of the comer and up the hill 1could still go quick into the chicane and the big loop at the end of the lap." (The famous Fahrerlagerkurve, entered under braking . from very high speed.) Now the leaders started to catch slower traffic, and Schwantz started to show his mettle. First he put a slow bike between himself and Rainey, breaking the tow. Then he moved up on the leaders, passing Barros quite easily, then diving inside Doohan at the Fahrerlager to lead for the first time with eight laps left. At this stage Barros moved through to second, but Doohan had the scent of victory, and he was soon challenging Schwantz again, trying to outbrake him into the chicane - a predictably fruitless exercise given the Texan's known prowess under brakes, and the improved efficiency of his AP carbons. Doohan did pass Schwantz up the hill, but then ran wide into the Fahrerlager. And it was now, with less than five laps left, that they ran into a big' bunch of four backmarkers. They were perfectly placed for Schwantz, who used his good brakes and comer entry to dive pass Michael Rudroff as they entered the chicane, giving him a breathing space of at least two comers and a handy lead onto the fast uphill climb. Doohan caught up again, only to have the same thing happen the next lap, as Schwantz managed to pass LopezMella and win some more ground as a result. Doohan was really charging, and started the last lap less than half-a-second adrift. But Schwantz managed to hold him off to win what may prove to be a most important race. Then came the drama' with Barros, who had a safe third in the bag before he was overcome with rage at Lopez-Mella and as a result got passed by Rainey. The Brazilian was heartbroken. "I had already lost touch with the leaders because of backmarkers. To have more trouble was just too much," he said. Lopez-Mella was amazed. "I was at my top speed when he pulled alongside and closed the throttle to shake his fist. Then 1 saw Rainey nearly kill himself alongside us on the grass!" Rainey could hardly believe his luck. "We put in a third motor this morning, but 1 could only hope to hang in the tow," he said. "When I lost that, 1 just concentrated on Barros." Cadalora's solitary fifth was satisfying enough, his second such this year. Itoh had been with the front-runners, but said: "When 1 lost the tow, I realized I N .... ! Doriano Romboni (10), Helmut Bradl (4) and Loris Capirossi (65) battled to the end in the 250cc GP with Romboni taking the win. wouldn't be able to catch them again, so I settled for sixth. . And Beattie, in seventh, said: "I suppose you could say my performance today was not real flashy. 1 made a mistake with rear tire selection and wrecked the performance of the machine out of the turns." Chandler soldiered home in eighth; half-a-minute further back Jose Kuhn inherited ninth. Catalano had held the position of top privateer throughout, then his chain broke on the last lap! Mladin was 10th and disappointed. "I got put onto the grass for about 200 meters (660 feet) going into the first chicane, and I went from seventh or so down to 18th. 1 had some catching up to do." Niall Mackenzie was 11th after coming through from right at the back at the start, and passing through some good privateer dices on the way. He was the last rider not to be lapped. Laurent Naveau was 12th, Lopez-Mella 13th, John Reynolds 14th, with Toshiyuki Arakaki taking the last point, courtesy of Bernard Garcia, who was well up in this group, but was penalized for jumping the start. Harris-Yamaha mounted Sean Emmett just missed being in the points, and complained of being short of speed. His use of Shell unleaded fuel means his team have to detune his motor, a serious problem for a youpg rising star at the . Salzburgring. There were 25 finishers. Retirees included Alex Criville, whose Marlboro Honda had been with the front group before it blew up with 22 laps left. Schwantz now leads the World Championship with 111 points to Rainey's 106 in what is developing into a two-horse race. Beattie is third with 68, Doohan moves up to fourth with 55, ahead of Criville on 48. 250cc Grand Prix This was always going to be close, but nobody could have said how close. More predictable was that it would be a Honda race. Sure enough, the warp-speed NSRs were rampant. Loris Capirossi led the first few laps, then Doriano Romboni Wayne Rainey struggled with a lack of top speed all week, but still finished third. took a tum up front, and on the sixth lap it was local hero Helmut Bradl's tum to lead across the line for the first time on his Honda, accompanied by the usual roar from the partisan crowd. But the trio were swapping back and forth all round the track, in a typically fierce Salzburgring battle, with another worksbike trio - Biaggi, Okada, TelkorYamaha-mounted title leader Tetsuya Harada and Loris Reggiani's Aprilia right up behind, and well in the slipstream. This lasted for almost eight laps, and then came the first and indeed only major interruption. Okada had slid several times coming out of the comer onto the pit straight, and the eighth time was once too often. The bike pitched him into the air, and he landed in front of it some way along the straight, at least preferable to piling into the catch fence that is very close by the track there. He slid and rolled a long way, got to his feet to sprint to the barrier, where he doubled over in pain. He had lost part of a finger, and broken bones in his wrist and hand. He'd also broken up the group, leaving the leading trio to battle on together to the very finish' - with a vengeance. The lap chart shows that Capirossi led 5even laps, including the penultimate two; Bradl led nine, the last being the 23rd. But Romboni led 10, including the one that really mattered. He seized the lead with a desperate move over the hill for the fast time. At we)) over 160 mph, they were three abreast, and "Rambo" barged through inside Capirossi, their bikes clashing frighteningly. Well used to racing in this way with his old rival, Capirossi made a desperate bid to pull alongside on the straight, but was just five-hundredths short of success. He declined to complain, but Bradl was far from impressed, looking very glum in the post-race conference and again complaining about the lack of a lightweight crank. "It might have made the difference," he said, to Romboni's beaming amusement. Romboni's first win in the class was a thriller, and he said all the right things, flattering the riding of the others. '1t was a beautiful race, and it must have been great for the fans to watch." Later, he took the opportunity to ded- 7

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