Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

GR~DAAa~d~~~_R_oa_dR~_ce_se_rie_s:_~_~_d_9_~ ~ e Noboru Veda (7), Kazuta Sak ada (8), RaIf Wal dmann (3) an d Akira Saito battle in the 125ce GP of San Marin o. Dirk Raud ies ended up winning his sixth 125ce GP of the season in Italy. 12 Japan ese rider losing ground wi th worn tires , and narrow ly escaping a last-lap overtaking move fro m slow-starting Jean-Phillipe Ru g g ia on the second works Aprilia. D irk Rau d ies r an away with the 12Sec race, his sixth victory out of nine races th is season, in typical dominant style. Ten secon ds beh ind, a marv elous brawl came down in the end of a fivebike b a ttle, w ith p o le sta r ter Kazu to Sa ka ta second, Akiro Sait o th ir d (all Honda), with th e Aprilias of Ralf Wald ma n n a n d C a r los Giro close beh in d, and Barcelona w inner Noboru Veda on the Marlboro Hond a sixth after a las t-lap collision with Saito had almost end ed his race. SOOee Grand Prix Do ohan leapt a w a y from the line with Ra in e y slotting in be h ind an d Schwantz rapidly through from fifth to th ird , the leading trio already p u lling away from the battling Itoh and Criville from the first lap. Schwan tz moved throu gh to second, with Rainey tr yin g everything to stay w ith t h em. "Bu t he lacked the front wheel bite he needed , and fro m about one- third distance it was clear that he would ha ve to se ttle for third: "1 guess it just wasn't our day." The lea d ing p air drew ever ahead, Do o h an a pparently in control, but Schwan tz read y and waiting for any slip. It came on the last long looping cor- ner on the sixth lap, when Doohan's rea r wheel kicked out. He narrowly avoided being hig hsi d ed, runni ng ou t to the edge of the track ha nging on to the seat with his foot, regaining control with inches to spare. "I'd missed a gear, so 1 was in third instead of second," Doohan said . "I couldn't reach the gear pedal without picking the bike up, so I decided to hang on in third. Then it suddenly spun the rear, and I almost copied Beattie 's practice crash." It was enough for Schwantz to nip through and lead for that lap and the next, buthe was also maki ng little errors and Doo ha n was easily able to get bac k at him, then dive u n d erneat h to lead again. It was cat-and-mouse, or perha ps fox-and-hare as the laps clicked by, wi th Doohan gaining a little gap of less than a second by tw o-t h ird s distance . But that was deceptive, and as the checkered flag approached Schwantz w as with him again. He attacked at the end of lap 20, decisively outbraking the Honda into the first tum, gaining an immediate gap, then pu tting tw o backmarkers between them into the final bend so he was more than half-a-second clear. At that stage, with two full laps left, it seemed Sch wan tz was about to prod uce a repea t performance of his win here last year - but Doohan was no t to be denied, a nd he tucked in and charged, w hile Schwa n tz twice had slides, one of which had him out of the seat. Th us on the second-last time across the line, Do oha n drafted past to lead again by just three-h undred ths, the Texan on h is tail an d loo k ing fo r a chance to ge t him back. Rather surprisingly, the attack didn't come again under brakin g at the end of the straight. Then as Dooh an accelerated away, Schwantz d idn't. He clearl y had a problem. "As I sh ut off it suddenly developed a real bad vib ration ," he sa id . His rear tire carcass was failing. " I hadn't seen my pit signal because I'd been d rafting Mick past the p its, but I prayed it was the last lap, and tried to keep going," he said. "I kn ew Rain ey was far enough behind tha t if I cou ld finish I'd be sec- ~ on d." And thus it was h is tu m to be robbed of a possible victory by tire failure, though at least he saved secondplace points. Or perhaps he couldn't have passed the Honda after all. Doohan was riding like a demon, not looking behind and unaware that h e was now alone. He broke the lap record on the last lap, and flashed across the line for his first victory since Hockenheim last year. The drought had broken at last. "A lot of credit has to go to Dr. Costa and his team. Without them I wouldn't even be here," Doohan said. "I expected Kevin to come by again across the finish line . But he didn't." Rainey had been losing ground throughout, and was another 20 seconds back after a lonely race. "It's been a struggle all year, so today was no big surprise for us," he said. "I'd h op ed I cou ld stay with Kevin but it just wasn't my day. It was the whole package of the bike, and we've go t to work on tha t." Itoh and Criville had been go ing back. and four th in a rac e- lo ng b att le fo r fourth, then the Span iard suddenly handed it to the Japanese rider on a plate, slowing and pa rking his Marlboro Honda on the last lap. It had run out of fuel, and his already bad relati ons w ith his Sito Pons team took a furt her turn for the worse. Cadalora had qual if ied b adly, but found his bike was much better for the race after chan ging settings in the morning. He, Beat tie and Barros ba ttled bac k and forth for the firs t half of the race, then the Italian broke away and moved well clear in a"strong late cha rge. Fifth equalled his best result since switching to 500s this year. Beattie cruised around alone until the end, saying later: "The race was nothing special for me; the result says it all. Things simply didn't come togeth er this weekend. I'm looki ng forward to getting buck in the groove." Barros had ob liging ly dropped aw ay with an unexpected rear tire problem after choosing a ha rder compound than Schwan tz, getting worse towards the finish as he lost ground, bitterly disappointed af ter his good qua lifying time. Mackenzie was nin th, af ter ca tching Mladin's Cagiva an d leading the young Austra lia n until h e too s lowed, his shoulder injury making it hard for him to brake. Jose Kuhn and Bernard Garcia wer e next on the works Yamahas, after avoiding getting mixed up with the last-lap crash. All four bikes had been together, but Vdagawa had dived to take the lead of the group and promptly highsided. Emmett could not avoid running right over him, and also crashed. Both French bikes escaped: but Emmett was very distressed at the sight of what appeared to be a very badly injured Udagawa . Happily, he turned out not to be badly hurt. Renzo Colleoni was 12th, the last rider not ' to be lapped; Jeremy McWilliams was 13th, then came Serge David and Luciano Pedercini, taking the last p oint, wit h only 17 finishers. Andreas Mekla u, Jua n Lopez-Mella. Marco Papa, Lau rent Naveau and Bruno Bonhuil also cras hed, as di d the unlucky John Reynolds, tip ped off by a spillage from a sp lit coolant p ipe on only the secon d lap. Doohan's wi n moved him to third in the championship wi th 120 points, while Schwantz ex te n ded hi s lea d to 192 p oints over Ra in e y ' s 169. Beattie is fourth on 116,wi th Ito h now fifth on 81. 250ec Grand Prix Capirossi's second wi n of th e year was typically hard work. He'd s tarted off in the lead and ma de a semblance of a 1.5-secon d brea kaway by the en d of

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