Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

lap I couldn't win. I could probably have rid d en it a bit harder, but there were some inconsistencies in the sus pensi on that we will have to sort ou t, We'll have to regroup and do some more testing." Schwantz was happy enough w ith fo u r th, jus t three weeks af ter h e was un d e r the s u rg e on ' s kn ife. "Th e ar m d idn 't a ctua lly g ive m e any tr o u b le, though it got a bit tired. The bike wasn 't quite righ t, and it was alwa ys in the back of my mind that if I d id push too hard and have to wrestle with it, I might have cau sed some d amage ," he said. "I d id hav e a bi g slide on th e 10th lap that I saved with my knee and my boot, After tha t, I decided just to go for the finish." Itoh had been close to Schwantz, bu t fade d out of touch before ha lf-d istance, battling with such bad wheelspin that one of his team's trackside observers thought it was clutch-slip. "I got a good start and I felt good, but I couldn't push the rear tire hard enough," he said, after securing fifth. Beattie had been in the front group, Ju t pulled in after six laps, his engi ne inexplicably down on power. Th is left a good battle for sixth, between the Spanish Honda rid ers Alex Cri ville and Alberto Puig, joined before half-d istance by slowstarting Barros, who said later his Suzuki (Above) John Kocinski was Impressive in the opening 500cc Grand Prix of the season at Eastern Creek. He led from the start and was never headed. (Right) Michael Doohan finished third in his home Grand Prix. he signs of a highly competitive race - season? - to come emerged early in practice. Then, in the latter half of a hectic final session, the fast men of '94 pushed at the envelope to find a significant improvement in the previous fastest-ever lap (in 1992 practice). The top three riders at last reversed the uncornfortable trEln~ .r:f last y~r where the SODs frequently went slow~r. The ,omens ,fora close race proved wrong, but the front :row four qtialified in thdr eventual finishing order. It was JohilKodnski on' top, for his second pole on the Cagiva (and the Italian machine's fourth-ever), after some stiff competition by the next two: Luca Cadalora and Michael Doohan. Kevin Schwantz, with his injured arm, couldn't quite match the final surge, and ended up fourth. more than a second adrift. Kocinski had led after the first day as well , and was riding superbly, making up for the Cagiva 's unexceptional acceleration and top speed with blindingly fast comer entries. He only once came close to cras~ing, runninggff the track .at the hair,pinTum Nine after getting allcrossed up under brakes. In a feisty frame of mind, he nonetheless insisted on looking at the year and not just the race. " "There's lots of other guys who could win it, and we've got bigger goals than just the first race of the year," he insisted. Cadalora secured second with a smooth and confident set of sessions. He was riding the "old" Roc-Yamaha, and typically guarded in his comments as he spoke about improving the overall package to expl!Jit improved front tires for 1994. "The bike ~ good, we havetl)e right tires. This is our best soluti0.ll.and I . don't plan any chafiges for the race:' But he had a quip abOut his next rival's top-endadvantage, "Perhaps there should be a speed limit for the straight," he said. Certainly, Doohan's Honda was the fastest bike out there. "I'm not going to complain about that," he grinned. "But it's good on the slower bits too." He also had stuck with familiar equipment a carbureted NSR very similar to last year's - to set a string of fast laps, holding tight lines on the back section and looking confident and comfortable. "We've spent a lot of time testing new tires,uhe said: includingti;>e new~16.5-inch rears, \yhic,~.\le ev~ tually rejected. 'We;vefound some stuff that. doesn't work here, but will work later on." Another looking to the long term, Likewise Schwantz, with his three-week-old broken arm in a "fle xible" cast and certainly putting a question mark over his endurance: "It's a little d ifficult under hard braking and hanging on under acceleration - th e bike got out of shape a few times," he said; adding that his ma in aim was to run a s teady race and hope to benefit from the mistakes of others. They had broken the 1:31 barrier - his best wa s 1:31.4 - and he admitted even moving therefrom the 1:315had brought out unsuspected suspension problems, as well as orne discomfort. "I didn't expect to be on the front row. I'd like a top three finish, but I won't fall on my sword if it's only top five," the defending champion said. He was the only one of the front row not to beat the '92 pole time, and was, in fact, slower than his own pole time of last year. The surprise of the meeting was Alberto Pulg, in his firstreal 500cc race after making his name in the 250 class. The Spaniard, T on the leased Ducados-Pons Honda NSR, was fast a nd aggressiv e fro m the outset. Few were s ur p rised w he n he fell on the first day, at the end of the session when h e was trying to hang on to Do ohan' s ba ck , w h eel, bu t ". he shru gge d it off and kept on getting faster, to qua lify at the head of the second row . Times h e re were e ven closer than fo r row one. Puig was just over a ten th behind Schw an tz, but merely three th ousand ths ahead of 50Q-class second-timer Shinichi Itoh, on the second of the new unsponsored HRC Hondas, believed to be the only one with fuel injection. Daryl Beattie was very close in his first Yamaha outing, mere tenths slower. But he, too, had the embarrassment of a crash - in the closing minutes. He'd twice been thwarted as he tried for a fast lap to get onto the front row, ~ when he did get a clear track he pushed too hard and slid off, unhurt Doug Chandler completed the row, more than half-a-second down on his teammate Kocinski, but pronounced himself satisfied that he had at least gotten a bit closer as practice wore on, cutting almost half-a-second off his own best time, and beginning to feel comforta ble with his worst spot - the crucial swin g in to the fast Tum One. Alex Barros led row three on the second Suzuki, and was very d isgruntled . He had also fallen, on day one, and while a stiff shou lder hardly helped as he tried in v ain to go faster on day two" his biggest problem was tryingto get his Carbon front br,ake and the fork settings to work together. ' ", Alex Criville wa s alongside on the final HRC bike, tryin g just to stay safe at a track that doesn't suit him at all. The times began to stretch a little now, w ith the Spaniard more than two seconds down on pole time. Another half-second brought the fastest of the privateers, and a sense of deja vu - for it was Niall Mackenzie, jus t like all last year. But the Scotsman had some seri ous op position from his fellow-Britons, also using Big-Bang drone motors, with John Reynolds three tenths d own and Sean Emmett another tenth slo wer. Another half-second foun d Lopez-Mella 's "s crea mer", with wild card Scott Doohan's droner a mere three thousandths adrift. It was Mick's eld er broth er's first-ever race on a pure racing two-stroke, but his circuit knowledge gained on Superbikes surely helped . "People told me I'd use d ifferent lines, but though the bike turns in quicker than a superbike, it's not that different overall." had bogged off the line, then his carbonfiber brakes hadn't worked properly for the firs t couple of la ps . Th e figh t w as resol ved in the last com er. Criville was ahead, with Ba rros ready to challenge, only to be balk ed when Criville braked une xpectedly early. Barros ran wide; letting Puig through to take seven th behind Criville, with the Brazilian eighth. Doug Ch andler was a lonely ninth on the second Cagiva, never in contention after choosing overly hard rear tires . A long way back, and equally alo ne, came Briton Jeremy Reyno lds, the bes t of the new big-bangers after Niall Mackenzie h ad retired on lap two with terminal clu tch slip . "I tri ed to adjust it, b ut it mad e no difference," said the Scol Then came a close batt le that ended in confusio n. Kocinski was in the middle of _the group when he was given the checkered flag on the 30th lap, which meant that some had been lapped and some still had to finish the race. But all were pulled off the track by overly keen marshals, causing mu ch comp laint and soon an official protest, which resulted in the race being retr ospectively shortened, an d the results declared after 29 laps. This put Benard Garcia's Roc-Y amaha 11th, with star Wild Card Scott Doohan 12th after an impressive first two-stroke race on the unleaded SheIl Harris- Yamaha. Juan Lopez-Mella was 13th, two-tenths behind Doohan. Sean Emmett was 14th, a no ther half-a-second bac k - he might

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