Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

and the b ike app eared to lowside behind him. They slid together over the cu rb and into the gra vel trap. It was rap idl y clear that Rainey wa s badly hurt, and though he was talking and moving his arms after marshals removed his helmet, he received attention at th e trackside for a long time before he was taken away. Schwantz had seen it was a heavy . cra sh. "I hate to see that happen - it's been me often enough, and it looked like it must ha ve hurt pretty bad." But he had no idea just how bad, and set about trying to w in the ra ce , even though he could now virtually cruise and still be sure of regaining the title lead. . By half-d istance, the Suzuki rider was back on Cadalora's tail; on lap 18 he sq ueezed inside him into one of th e tr acks few right-hand turns. And for tw o more laps he held off the Italian, wi th the bikes so close it seeme d highly likely that they would soon collide. Cadalora squeezed back pa st across the line on lap 20, Schwantz immediately dived inside him into the first corner, Cadalora came back into the same tight bend where he ha d originally lost the lead. And tha t was that as far as the two of t hem were concerned, w ith Schwan tz' s challenge don e as a gam ble on a slightly softer front tire began to go sour . . But that was by no means the end of it. Doohan's second-row start had seen Luca CadaIora (7) held off the advances of Kevin Schwantz (hidden) and Michael Doohan to win the Italian GP at Misano. Cadalora on p leat home GP o .w as it the niggly nature of the track, the surge to competitiven ess of the Yamahas at year's end, the class return of John Kocinski, or the closing drama of the World Championship? Doubtless all of those thin gs played a part in packing the 500cc class front row clos.- er than it's been all year, with less than three-tenths from first to fifth, and pole po sition in doubt until the very last seconds of a final session that s tarted sligh tly damp, but managed to go full distance before the rains began again. In the end it was Luca Cadalora who took his first pole in the class, to the delight of the highly vocal Italian fans . He had disp laced Marlboro Yamaha teammate Wayne Rainey in the process, cau sing no doubt a momentary flicker of worry to the title lead er that he might aga in be beaten in the race, until team boss Kenny Roberts joked : "Don' t wo rry Luca. Tomorrow your bik e will be as slow as your paddock scooter: ' Cadalora .himself commented that he was finding his feet as a SOOcc rider "at the same time as the bike is coming better. I can push it to the limit and fee l the front and rear tires slid ing, and I know I can control it." But he needed no reminding that his team duty was to hel p Rainey. "I mu st try and take as man y points away from Kevin Schwantz as po ssible," he said. Rainey was second by two hundredths after having twice improved his own time in the final session in respol1$e to similar action by title rival Schwantz. He put his late season strength d own mainly to the Dunl op tires, which have in turn been able to get some real developmertt done since he settl ed to the Roc chassis after Assen. They are now calli ng it a Yama ha chassis after a cover-up licensing deal he lped to save the Japanese factory' s face, but techn ically ther e is nothing In it. "We have two bikes that are a different by a tenth of a second. Tha t's the first time all year," Rainey said. "Until now, we've been struggling so much we 've had to con, centrate on one and put the other in the back of the van." Kocinski moved into third in the final session after being threatening thioughout in his second Cagiva rac e. "Not bad for a novice," he joked. He'd survived being T" boned by his own disgruntled teammate Mat Mladin, and insisted he was not up to full potential yet. "I'm still relearning all the little things you need to w in a race," he said. . For a second race it meant he pushed in front of deadly enemy Schwantz, but the Suzuki rider was still on the front row, and times were close. He had been worried early on by a similar lack of grip and poor balance that had cost him dear at Brno, but he was relieved at the end. . 'The team found a good d irection and 1 found some good tires. I'm a lot happier now:' He also relished the prospect of a close race with Rainey - circu mstances in which he usually manages to find an advantage. "It's good that there are so many of us going fast. I'll have to work out where to be in the closing laps to make the most of it." This hectic action pushed Rothmans Honda's Michael Doohan down to the second row. He was disgruntled even though the time difference was miniscule: a thousandth slower than Schwantz. More important was that he alone out of the top nine hadn't improved. He blamed tires. "I wasn't happy with the selection, but we're hoping to find a different combination in warm-up tomorrow," he said. There was almost a second to the next man: Alex Barros on the second Suzuki, who couldn't match the pace of the front runners but was happy all the same, and hoping to be able to help Schwantz if he could make a fair start. Another tenth down came Daryl Beattie on the second Rothmans Honda, who was also happy after cutting more than a second off his previous day's time. "We tried several different tire and suspension settings, and I think we've come up with something th at has put us in a hell of lot better situation," he said; adding that he had also switched to the torqui er '92-style engine parts that Doohan also prefers. Marlboro Honda's Alex Crivillecompleted row two , and this also represented a significant improvement over the first day, achieved he said by raking out the front end more to slow the steeri ng. "Before we we re using Doohan's geometry, but it suits me better if the bike is not so nervous," he said. . Shinichi Itch's fuel-injected Honda led row three, with the Japa nese rid er complaining that pra ctice ha d bee n one lap too short after he'd managed to get things jus t about perfect in the closing stages of practice after testing a number of engine an d suspension variations. He had Doug Chandler alongside, just over a second slower than un welcome fellow Cagiva ride r Kocins ki, but say ing he'd have been faster but for nigglin g mechanical p roblems that had eaten into his pra ctice time . "I'm feeling mu ch more comfortable," the recovering injury victim said. Juan Lopez-Mella came next , putting up a sterling perform an ce as top p rivateer, and ahe ad of his countryman Criville on day one. The Span iard has been backed by con tributions from Spanish fans after an ap pea l on TV, and his fairing now carries a thank-you message. The 250s fell victim to the weather more than any o the r class during qua lifying, with their second session neither wet nor d ry, so that by the end of it some peop le were trying slicks while others were still on full wet tires, and nobody improved times at all. In fact Helmut Bradl and Simon Crafa r didn't go out at all, the former because "you couldn't even test a tire in those conditions", and the latter because "it's easy to adjust for the we t - you just slow down. The hard part is readjus ting to go fast in the dry again." . The times from day one established the grid, with Max Biaggi taking pole on his Rot hmans Honda by les s th an a hundredth fr om J.P. Ru gg ia's April ia, Tetsu ya Harada's Yamaha an d Loris Capirossi's Honda, and the top four covered by less than two-tenths of a second. Biaggi had the help of a number of supporters' posters by the track, and an equal number damning him as a result of his costly collision with Capirossi a t Brno. The two we ren't speaking in the post-practice press conference, sitting at extreme opposite ends of the table and lookin g stud iously away from each other. And Biaggi pred icted a dangerous race. "I still ha ve my front tire problem, but we have made some adjustmen ts and I hope it will be better here. But it will be a close race, and a little risky because there is no place to over take here ." Ruggia was confident and threatening, and even said: "We found a good compromise for the second practice, so I don't mind if it is wet or dry." Few agreed, given the bumps and slippery su rface. . Harad a was still complaining of pain from his fractured shoulder: a problem pa rticularl y under braking. But he could afford to take it relatively easy, given his title lead . Not so Capirossi, who was kind enough to welcome Harada back to the front row , "because he shou ld be here ." Pier-Francesco Chili led row two, planning a good start to be in position for what would clearl y be a very [tactical race. He had Tadayuki Okada alongside, and then Doriano Rombon i and Bradl, a Honda trio with all riders carrying some sort of residual injury. Okada was still complaining of pain from his left wrist injury; Romboni putting a brave face on his recovering leg ("I am not even wearing a cast anymore."); and Bradl nursing his broken collarbone. Luis D'Antin led row three from Jochen Schmid, Alberto Puig and Loris Reggiani; Aoki led row four from Crafar, Bosshard and Casoli; Zeelenberg led row five - but while the shape of the grid was much as usual the conditions meant that nobody could say this was the last word, particularly in the case of Reggiani, who took one of his best-ever and Aprilia's first-ever wins here. 7

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