Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

Schwan tz drew still fur ther ahead on points to underline his first World Champions hip victory - a bittersweet affair afte r the injury suffered by h is long-standing rival and racing friend. Schwantz also set fastest lap , almost a full second slower than his own lap record set at the last GP here two years before. Fred die Spencer wa s d en ied th e chance to rehabilitate his GP reputation in front of his home fans after a prac tice crash left him w ith fractures in his left hand and foot. Doug Chandler, racin g clos e to his Salinas home, was also out of luck. The Cagiva rider crashed after 11 lap s, sliding to the dirt on the exit of tum two. The first 500cc GP of the post-Wayne Rainey era began wit h a Cagiva leading out of the box. It was Kocinski's, pulling a gro u p o f three others - Doohan , Sch w a n tz and Ba r ros - w ho qu ick ly d rew away from th e p urs uit, led by Chandler on the second Cagiva. Sc hwantz was siz ing them u p, because the pace was s till relatively easy. "I felt relaxed, but I knew my hand might give me trouble, so I decided to try and ge t in front and get a bi t of a cushion," he said . • He d ived ins ide the Cagiva to ta ke the lead on the fourth time through the left-hand tum five, and was able to control the pace easily. But he couldn' t p ull away, a nd the q ua rte t stayed gl ued toge ther as his teammate Barros copied his move to consign Kocinski to third one lap later. After eight laps, the Texan's hand injury started to play up. " It was going numb, and I thought if I backed off for a couple of laps it might improve and give me ano ther chance. So I mo ved ove r to let Alex (Barros) ge t past me, then I held the other guys up for as long as I could to help him make a bit of a break. He's helped me a lot during the seaso n." . Kocinski foun d Schwa ntz hard to get pas t as th e Suzuki rid er used all the road and more. "We lack a bit of acceleration ou t of the turns," he said. At one po int he dived inside into the last tum, only to be forced w id e and back into third place on the exit. This gave Doohan his chan ce, and he promptly moved pas t Kocinski and then Schwan tz on e lap lat er . At th is poin t Barros had a cushion of 1.8 seconds, but the Honda rid er had both s pee d and determination, and he rapidly wh ittled it d own, and on the 16th lap he moved through on the exit of tum four to take the lead. Th e rac e was s till fa r fro m settled, with Barr os ha ngi ng o n g ri mly, responding to t he Au stralia n' s every mo ve, and Kocins ki closing up too as they ran into lap ped traffic for the first time on the 22nd lap. But Dooh an was able to use the slower rider s to hi s own ad vantage, an d three lap s later he'd o pened up an advantage of better than 2.5 seconds as Kocins ki moved past Barros into second . In fact, the Brazilian ha d ru n into tire tro uble, and made a consciou s d ecision Wayne Rainey supporters fill ed the fences at Laguna Seea with banners wishing him well in his recovery from serious back injuries. ltalJan Luea Cadalora (7) finished third with Daryl Beattie (4) placing fifth. fo r once to avoid ta king risks in the hope of a race wi n and to settle for what was now a certain top three finish . There rema in ed li t tle more, it seem ed , until Dooh an sudden ly promoted everybody . He made a small slip in the middle of the Cor kscrew , and was -thrown out of the sad dle. But he landed back on the bike sidesa ddle, and seemed to have sav ed the d ay even tho ug h he was now way wide and on the d irt. But there was to be no miracle. He clip ped a straw bale and was sent flying and then rolling down the track, breaking a bone in his shoulde r and putting himself out of this and the next GP, the las t one of the year. Kocinski was now free of thr eat: and could carry on charging to take his third U.S. GP win - he won the 250cc GP in 1989 and 1990. There was mu ch rejoicing als o at Cag iva, with th e i r fi rs t straight race win: the previous one, by Eddi e Lawson in Hungary last year, had been a superbly calculated tactical gamble on tires in changing wea ther conditions. Cad alo ra had nev e r really challen ged, after movi ng throu gh fro m a sixth-place s tart on lap on e. He'd been consign ed to seven th by Beattie, a nd had spen t until lap nine getting ahead of them agai n, by which time he was well ad rift of the lead er s. He'd also had a hu ge slide, which gave him some thing of a scare. The Italian man aged to get almost in touch wi th the front grou p, and was at one point less than two seconds behind Kocinski, but the effort had cost him dearly, and he couldn't maintain the pace. 7

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