Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

centrated on controlling the gap, before forcing aga in towards th e end when (Tadayuki) Okada closed on me," said Biaggi after winning by 5.808 seconds. "Over the last 10 laps the tires were really slid ing around. 1 had two big slides and nearly crashed." Such was his dominance that each of the first five laps was qu icker than the previous one until he'd se t the fas test time on the fifth lap, a time of 1:26.847 that wouldn't be approached. No one else would d ip into the 26s. Biaggi completed the 31-lap, 67.518mile race in 45 minutes, 26.300 seconds at an average speed of 89.156 mph. He actually completed 32 laps, missing the checkered flag and racing full-out on the cool down lap before coming around for a stand-on-the-pegs celebration. The battle for second was good for a while until Kanemoto Honda's Tadayuki Okada established himself in sole possession of the spot on the sixth lap. H e had a clutch problem at the start which kept him from chasing Biag gi, then headed a trio that included himself, Marlboro Team Pileri's Loris Cap irossi, and Chesterfield Aprilia's Jean-Philippe Ruggia, battling for second. Capiro ssi and Ruggia would drop back to battle with Honda Rheos [ha Racing's Nob oat su Aoki, until the Japanese rider slid out with five laps to go. Okada would finish a very comfortable second with Capirossi better than three seconds back in th ird, and Ruggia another fou r seconds behind in fourth and complaining of a loss of power from the start of the race. A perfect season gives Biaggi the championship lead with 50 points, 18 better than Capirossi after two of 14 races. Okada is tied for th ird with HB Honda's Doriano Romboni, the Ita lian fifth today on what he sa id was an unrideable machine. As usual, the 125s provided the closest action of the day, with five riders in a bunch going for it early on before a sorting-ou t process began near the halfway point. By then, GIVI Racin g' s Honda-mounted Noboru Ueda wa s in the lead, though just barely. Behind him the order was sh uffling and wouldn't settle down until the 22nd of 29 laps when Australian GP w inner Ka zuto Sakata of Team Semprucci-Krona moved into second, displacing Team Aspar CEPSA's Jorge Martinez. That's how th ey'd fin ish with Ueda beating Sakata to the line by 1.357 seconds at the end of the 29-lap, 63.162-mile race. Ueda completed the race in 45 minutes, 9.031 seconds at an average speed of 83.935 mph. Sakata maintains his championship points lead after two rounds with 45 points, 11 better than Ueda. 500cc GRAND PRIX The morning warm-up gave a false reading on progress in the Doohan pits, (Above) Luca Cadalora finished fourth on the Marlboro Yamaha. (Right) Alberto Pulg had his best-ever 500cc GP outing with a fifth place finish. Here he leads Alex Crivllle (hidden) and Alex Barros (6). when moderate wea ther allowed him to better his qu alifyin g time by mo re than half a second and top the practice board. He attributed it partially to the weather, but it was also the new gearing, and that would be the key in the race. As if on cue, the sun, whi ch had been • only intermittently vis ib le, broke through the cl oud s just as the 500 s began their sighting lap, baking the 2.18mile course and making everyone hope the y'd ma de th e righ t choices in tir es, suspension, and carburetion. Kocinski go t a perfect start, jetting into the lead w ith Cadalora and Doohan in tow, while Cada lora ' s 'tea m ma te, Daryl Beattie, struggled to get his bike slowed for tu rn one. Th e 23-year-old Queenslander had been in the second row and made contact with Sch wantz coming up from the thir d row - when a rid er moved over on hi m. H is bra ke lever was temporarily stuck , bu t he got it going, only to see the rest of the 30rider pack vanish in the heat's haze. Within a handful of laps a lead qu artet of Kocinski , Ca dalora, Doohan, and Shinichi Itoh made their break, leaving Alex Criville to fend off fellow Spaniard Alberto Puig, Alex Barros, and Chandler. Doohan began his move to the front on the sevent h la p, first passing ltoh , who was briefly second, then Kocinski on the e ighth ,takin g the lead w ith a move that left an imp ression on the Cagiva rid er. . " At first I thought I was in a ra ce, then I thought I was in an airport wh en this guy came by, " the 26-year-old Kocinski said of Doohan. "He wasn't expecting me to stick it up the inside of him," Doohan said. "He could've come down on top of us and taken us both ou t. There are some rid ers out there that think ·th a t's the way to race." But the pass was clean an d Doohan set out to demora liz e th e op position, dropping his lap times into th e 1:25s and inching aw ay by being able to jump off the corners without s lidi n g sideways. "I knew I needed a good result today. I couldn't have asked for more out of what I had. I was able to stay consistent and break the back of the other guys," the 28-year-old Doohan said. . NHe couid control the traction better," Kocinski said. '1 was sliding as soon as I opened the throttle, but he was wheelspinning and still going forwards . We know we've got to work on acceleration." They didn't go easily. Doohan pulled out about a l.3-second ed ge just past the halfway po int, with Kocinski less than a second in front of Ito h. Cadalora wa s next, fadi ng slightly before readying himself for a late charge. The final 10 laps proved Doohan had the best setup for the end of the race. He was able to pull away at about half a second o nce h e realized the tires wouldn't get progressively worse. NAt about 15 laps the front started to push, then the rear. If the tire works on lap 20, it probably never worked th e first 10 laps," Doohan said . NI pu lled out a bit of a gap when John an d ItOO were scrapping. John pulled it back an d my arm was starting to pump u p, b ut the gap stayed the same for a long time. As it turned out, he was probably s tr uggling." It wasn't until the end of the race that Kocinski was able to quell the ad vances of ltoh, the Japanese rid er then coming under renewed attack from Cadalora. But Kocinski stayed in front of Itoh an d finished well enough to ma in tain his points lead. "Towa rds the end of th e ra ce I d id try and go a bit ha rder, but tha t was to make sure I wasn't caugh t by Itoh," Kocinski said. Itoh proved not to be a threa t, the 27year-old Japanese rider look ing over his shoulder in the fina l st ages to see the advancing Cad alora w ho wo uld com e up short. Pu ig was alone in fifth, though he might hav e had some company had the race been any lon ger . Kevin Schwantz awoke from an early-r ac e s t u p o r to make his m ove, go ing fr om ninth to eighth on the 18th lap wh en he moved inside of Ch and ler in the pe nultimate tum, dropping the Cagiva pilot to his final finishing position - nin th place for the second Grand Prix in a row . "The front tire was great, but I had real problems with the rear," Ch andler said. "At first I fel t th a t I could s tick with John, b u t the n sud denly the rea r was all over the place. There was nothing I could d o about it. I had to back off." Meanwhile, Schwantz was catching Criv ille. Barros would sweep by both of them with seven laps to go, though by then Puig ' s lead was better than five seconds and he wouldn't be caught. N ha d a bad start and I took some I laps to overtake Criville, but when I did I pu t some fast laps together and man- aged to get away from him," Puig said. 'Then came Schwan tz, bu t I had a foursecond lea d a nd I w as ab le to fin ish fifth." Schwantz explained that he was a late s tarter because he'd taken the front end o ff one b ik e and grafted it on to another to make it better on braking. He . was also cau tious about using his tires, but he realized it cost him any chance of running with the leaders. "I tried to baby them and that caused me to lose contact with the front four for three laps. After tha t, d own th e fron t straight, I could see them bu t I knew I co uldn't catch them. I was ha vin g to spin the back to get it to finish the corne rs pretty much everywhere, Schwantz said. His teammate Barros was next across the line, hold ing seventh for almost the en tire race. Like Schwan tz, his engine d idn' t re v cleanly off the line and the p ro b lem was compoun d e d b y b rake p rob lems in th e opening laps. "After that it was better for a time, and 1 could ca tch the rid ers ahead going for fift h and s ta rt to pa ss th em . Th en th e tires lost grip and I jus t had to keep going for the finish," the 24-yea r-old Brazilia n said. N 250cc GRAND PRIX The 250cc race began an d ended in the sa me way - with Chesterfield Aprilia's Max Biaggi utterly dominant and untouchable. The only barrier to his victory was an annoyin g intermitten t rain, though the track was so hot that it dried almost as it hit the tarmac. Biaggi read the green light perfectly, sp rin ting to the fro nt w ith a tr a iling horde in his shadow. It wasn't un til the fifth of 31 laps th at he began to edge away from the 31 other riders to steadily lower his lap times, his best a 1:26.847. After that he was in the 27s and 28s an d still ab le to pull away. . Nit wasn't an easy race for sure - so m any laps," th e 22-year-o ld Roman said. "Last year I had a lot of bad luck; this year I'm more confident with the bike, the tires, and the tearn. Everything seems perfect. I feel 110% and I'm sur- prised ." In the early stages of the race it was fellow Italian Loris Capirossi giving chase, but he would be passed by Tadayuki Okada on the sixth lap. Okada had a clutch problem at the start which held him back, but once up to speed he was unstoppable. Though he couldn't .... - 1-0 0.. < 7

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