Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

e R~D~CE~ili~m~oo~p_R_oad_R~~_eS ~_ie_S:RO_OO_d7~~~~~~~~_ _ _ ~ The Dutch 500cc GP gets underway with Kevin Schwantz (34)leading Daryl Beattie (4), Michael Doohan (2), Alex Criville (8) and Wayne Rainey (1) into the esses for the first time. Sh tz turns up the.heat with·D hwin c wan utc By Henny Ray Abrams ASSEN, HOLLAND, JUNE 26 , ea m Lucky Strike Su zuki's Kevin Schwantz and Rothmans Honda's Mick Doohan banished the demons that haunted them last year at the Dutch IT to put on a marvelous display of two-wheeled combat, Schwantz coming ou t ahead by less han a second to win his fourth Grand Prix of the year and p u t his stamp on this year's World Championship. For most of the race, Schwantz, Doohan, and Schwantz's ascendant ' teammate, Alex Barros, contested every inch of the 3.76-mile Circuit van Drenthe, all three leading at one point. Barros was especially aggressi ve, forcing Doohan off the track in a sixth-gear kink on the {ront straight in one instance, and when he took the lead late in the race there was , the lingering confidence in his ability to pull off the win. The doubts were not unfounded as the 23-year-old Brazilian crashed spectacularly in a fifth-gear corner - the same place he crashed last year with Schwantz and Doohan hot in his wake. Physically, he wasn't hurt, but there was certain disappointment as he watched his first victory slip away, Schwantz the benefactor. "I tried my best and I guess I was in the right place at the right time," Schwantz said after the popular win in front of 120,000 fans on an overcast day in northern Holland. "I knew from practice times that it would be close, but it was a fight all the way . "Barros was riding real well and when he came by me at the end I was prepared to settle for second. Then he crashed just a few feet in front of me . That opened my eyes some and I thought again about winning. I wasn't prepared to settle for second behind Doohan. " For Doohan it was a bittersweet return to a track he detests, the site of the end of his championship hopes a year ago . But he'd qualified on the pole and was never wo rse than third in the race, leading for a number of laps during the r 16 first half and putting in a last-corner charge that fell just short. Asked what the difference was between first and second, the 28-year-old Australian said, "I think Kevin and the , Suzuki. That 's the reason. At one stage in the race I would have been happy to finish third. There was only really one place where I had a chance of getting by Kevin and that was at the chicane, so when I failed to do so on the last lap, my chance of winning had gone." In winning his 23rd career Grand Prix, Schwantz completed the 20-lap, 75.18-mile race in 41 minutes, 35.943 seconds at an average speed of 108.431 mph. His margin of victory was .829-ofa-second. The battle for the th ird spot on the rostrum was equally ferocious with Marlboro Honda Pons' Alex Criville, Cagiva's Doug Chandler, and Marlboro Team Roberts Yamaha's Wayne Rainey locked in battle fr omthe very early stages of the race. Criville, who was riding with a badly swollen left foo t (the result of a practice crash) held the spot , early, ceding it to Rainey for the middle 10 laps of the race, before getting it back on the 15th when Rainey's Yamaha suffered fuel starvation problems. Chandler passed Rainey a lap later, then got Criville, only to see the Spaniard use the ' superior power of the Honda to blow past on the back straightaway on the final lap. ' In the end, Criville was third, equalling his best placing of the year, Chandler fourth, and Rainey a bitterly disappointed fifth for the second race in a row . ' The secrecy surrounding Honda's use of fuel injection came to an end at Assen, Rothmans Honda's Shinichi Itoh having a lonely ride for sixth after HRC showed off the system early i n th e w eekend . Marlboro Team Robert s Yamaha' s Luca Cadalora passed Team Valvoline's Niall MacKenzie on the last lap for seventh, with New Zealander Simon Crafar and Brit John Reynolds filling out the top 10. At the midway point of the 14-race season, Schwantz lead s Rainey by 28 points, 156-128, but knows how quickly misfortune can strike . "We've had our share of downs in the past. Now I'm trying to enjoy the ups, and just take it one race at a time. It's way too soon to think about the championship," Schwantz said. Rothmans Honda's Daryl Beattie, who crashed today, unhurt, at the end of the front straightaway on the second lap, and failed to score points for the first time this season, is third with 93 points. Criville is fourth with 77 and Doohan fifth with 75. Marlboro Team Pileri's Loris Capirossi ended two years of frustration with his first 250cc Grand Prix win, the 20-year-old Italian leading from the flash of the green to the checkered fLig, amassing nearly a seven-second lead mid-race and cruising to victory. But it nearly ' wasn't to be after he crashed his race bike in the morning warm-up and the tearn had to set up his spare for the race. "We worked so .hard during qualifying to get the bike set up just right and then I went and ruined everything by crashing in the morning warm-up session," Capirossi said. "I had to change bikes for the race and my mechanics did a brilliant job in getting that machine working so well that I could race out front on my own." Capirossi finished the 18-lap , 67.66mile race in 38 minutes, 26.004 seconds at an average speed of 105.626 mph and won by 3.917 seconds. The race would be for second and it was one to remember. On the fourth of 18 laps, TelkorYamaha Valesi 's Tetsuya Harada and Aprilia 's Jean-Philippe Ruggia began a scrap that would last almost the entire ra ce, until 'Lucky Strike Suzuki's John Kocinski joined the fray with four laps to go after setting a new lap record in the race on the 14th go-around. In one lap he moved from fourth to second, holding Harada at bay until gear-change problemsstruck and the Japanese rider forced his way past on the final lap. Kocinski answered him with a re-pass, but Harada struck again and took the runner-up spot by less than a second. Kocinski was third, his second podium of the year, with Ruggia fourth after ignition and tire troubles slowed him late in the race. Kocinski abandoned his machine on the track, blaming a broken drive chain. He walked back to the pits, never removing his helmet, and refusing the offer of a ride from a course car. He missed the podium ceremony and post-race press conference, possibly grave errors since the race was sponsored by his sponsor Lucky Strike who were known to be unhappy with his behavior. . A post-race press release ended with the following sentence: "Team Luc ky Strike Suzuki were very dismayed tha t he was not able to take part in the postrace ceremonies of one of the m o st important motorcycle races of the year, and would like to apologize to the race p ro moter, officials, press, and fans for their rider's non-appearance." (Kocinski wasfired two days after therace.. .Editor.) Despite finishing second, Harada strengthened his grip on the championship race because his closest pursuer, HB Honda's Doriano Romboni, crashed on the second lap while in second place breaking his right tibia (lower leg). Romboni, who won the last two races, is expected to miss seve ral races. With the season half complete, Harada has 135 points to Romboni's 96, with HB Honda's Helmut Bradl, fifth today, third with 82, one better than Capirossi and two better than Kocinski. The 125cc race was a runaway victory for Team Europa Raudies ' Dirk Raudies, h is fifth win of the year and, as usual, F.c.c. Technical Sports' Kazuto Sakata

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