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Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/127585
GROAD RACE Road Race Series: Round 8 e Sh in ich i Itoh (sliding) hit Do ug Chand ler on the firs t la p and went down. Chandler ran off the track an d also fell. Ba rros a nd pulled alon gsid e as they raced to the flag. He failed to ca tch him by half-a-wheel, an d sai d later : "I 'd be happy if I had jus t h alf-a -horsepower more." (Left to right) Michael Doohan, Wayne Rainey and Kevin Schwantz celebrate on the podium. Max Biaggi (5) posted the win in the 250cc class, while Alberto Pui g (6) was third. _ He was aga in han d somely the top privateer, w it h thre e fac to ry bikes behind him. He'd bee n p ulled clea r of a good three-bike battle, wi th the factory Yamahas of Ga rcia and Kuhn an d th e Roc of Lopez-Mella swapping back and forth. Then Garcia lost the front wheel and crashed, w hile Lopez-Me ll a clinched sev enth by less than a 10th of a second. Garriga was a lonely ninth; ano the r 10 seconds back came Renzo Colleoni's Roc, win ner of anothe r good three-bike batt le afte r outd istancin g Jerem y McW illiams in th e clos ing stages, the last ride r not to be lapped. Sean Emmett had been with them, but dropped off the back to finish 12th. The final po ints w ent to Andreas Meklau, Cees Doorakkers, and Cadalora, who had rejoined after his farming trip. Schw antz of course retained his World Championship lead, but Rainey cut it back to 19 poi nts, to give a quickening of interes t to the latter half of the seaso n. The scores ar e 172 points to 153. Bea ttie is s till third on 106, Doohan is closing up on 95, Cri ville losing ground on 77. . 22 d idn't gi ve up. " He said that the high wind made some of the righ t-ha nd ers "a bit scary", but didn't otherwise a ffect him. Third-placed Schwantz never loo ked li ke challenging, in keeping with h is resolve onl y to do as much as he can on the day, after being caught out by a puzzling response to the different conditions. "In the mo rning I had a bike that I though t could win. In the afternoon, there wasn't anythi ng I co u ld do to catch the other two," he explained. But he had eno ugh of a cushion that he could even slack off a litt le at the end to fin ish almost 19 seconds behind th e leader. He was helped by the early inciden ts, for after Ra iney had lapped Cadalora, Schwantz could not catch the Italian. As this trio gradually drew apart from one another, they were also leaving Beattie behind. T h e second Rothrnans Honda was 46 seconds adrift at the finish after a lonely race. He'd lost touch after his Cadalora contact on lap one. "After that it was hot and boring," he said. . The ba ttle for fifth was absorbi ng. Barros had got away way down, and fought his way through clu tches of p rivateers to take fifth on the fourth lap. At that time he wa s less than five seconds behind Beattie, but try as he might he couldn't stop the Au stralian gradually pulling away, troubled throughout practice wi th a lack of adhesion. . But he had another p robl em . He had brought Mackenzie with him, and the Scot was not only well able to keep his private bike with the Braz ilian 's factory machine, but to push him very hard . Only his relative lack of h orsepower p reven ted h im from actuaIly passing, since he knew he would only be overtaken again first time down the straight. Accordingly he saved his attack for the last corner, where h e m o ved in s ide 250cc GP Like all the others, the 250cc GP, the first race of th e day, was 30 mi n utes delayed, and sta rted in a h igh wi nd . This was following the bikes down the straight, inc re asi ng revs and possib ly responsible for an most u nusual number of engine failures affecting top ru nners. The first to go was title leader Harada, after just one lap of the 23-lap, 67.6 -mile race slo wing suddenly as he passed the pits. " It was disappoin ting, but cowboys d on 't cry," he said later. "Especially when they' re Japanese ." After six laps, Reggi ani a lso p u lled out of th e leadin g group, his Aprilia blown up. "That's always a ris k w he n you go for mor e power," he sa id . O ne la p later, Capl rossi 's Honda suf fere d a similar fate. And with Romboni already ou t and Bradl delayed after an early collision with Chili, lu cky Harada's main cha mpionship challengers also failed to score. Biaggi too k control fro m pole position and led the first seven laps. But it was very narrowly, ahead of a brawling six-pack mainly led by Okada. The Japanese fac tory Honda rider moved to the lead on lap eight and nine, and was knocked back to third again on lap 10, a reflection of the closeness of the racing as an absolutely in spired Puig (b es t o f th e su rvivi ng Dun lop men) moved to second behind Biaggi, and . then too k the lead briefly. The Spaniard was reversing all opinions of his so-far lackluster first year on his Ducados-backed Kel Carrutherstuned works Honda, and riding like a potential race winner he we nt back and for th with Biaggi ove r the next few laps, with O kada, Aoki and Ruggia nosing in amo ng them from time to time. 1t lo o ke d like a no t he r race to be decid ed on the las t lap - but then they s ta r te d to ca tch slower riders, a nd Biaggi managed firs tly to grab a small advan tage by passing a pair just before one co mer, and secondly to consolida te that advantage over the few remaining la p s, se tti ng fas tes t la p a nd pull in g slow ly b ut stea d ily clear as the others tripped over each othe r in pu rsuit. He won hi s second GP a nd hi s first o n a Honda b y 2.6 secon ds, s a y in g later: "Because of the w ind all the b raking points were d ifferent, and also the angle of lea n. I spent the first half of the race getting used to it, but then I was ready to move away." It seemed the Ho ndas were best abl e to cope with the over-revving down the s traight, and Okada man aged to make a small br eak a t the start of the fina l lap after Aoki made an error and gave him a bit of extra room. He secured second by jus t un der a seco nd . Now the real ba ttle was for third , and to th e d e light of the crowd P u ig just mana ged to snaffle it from Aoki by tw o tenths - fendin g of f no less than three a ttacks in th e las t laps. Ru gg ia was a similar dis tance behind . Cardus was a stro ng sixth, just failing to ca tc h u p w ith th e lea d ers a ll ra ce lo ng, with Luis d ' Antin foll ow in g his countryman to an excellen t sevent h on his stock Honda. The next group h ad lost ground throughout , w ith Andrea s Pr ein ing holding eighth for most of race distance, b efore g etting s n a p ped up b y Zeelenberg's similar Ap rilia in the closing laps . Eskil Suter's Aprilia had also been with th em , but dropped back to retire ; Simon Crafar on th e Lu cky Suz uki h a d been on the back o f th e group, but a bad fron t tire choice meant he wa s unable to move forward with Zeelenberg towards th e en d . He thus took 10th in his first 250 race. Bradl was 11th a fter a bad afternoon. He 'd been jockeyi ng for posi tion in the top 10 in the ea rly stages, and had got ahead of Chili's Yamah a, bo th still in the leadi ng pack. The n Chili lost it u nd er brak in g for th e track's las t right-hand bend, b ump in g the Ge rma n. He ma naged to stay wheels down, then Ch ili's fallen Yama ha slid in to his bike fo r a second ti me, knocking hi m off. He re mou nted in second -to-l as t place, and rode th rough almost to rejoin the top 10 by the finis h. On the way he had overtaken slow-starting [ochen Schmid's factory Yamaha, wh o came with him to follow across th e li ne ju st two secon ds adrift. Chili took a ha rd kn ock, but escaped serio us injury bu t for a dislocated toe. Pa trick va n den Goorbergh was 13th, a ls o ha vi ng be en p ulled clea r of h is group by Brad!. Bernd Kassner was . 14th, with [e andat 15th and Ha enge lli ne xt, m issing out on the las t point by just over a 10th of a second . Promising new wild-card rider Peere Riba, leader of the Ducados Supersports 600 cha mp ionship, wa s 17th, with Bayle 18th. In championship terms it was almost as though the ra ce hadn 't h appened . Non-finisher Harada remained ahead on 135 po ints, non -starter Romboni hel d second on 96, while Bradl hardly improved, adding on ly five points to bring his' total to 87 . Biagg i is now