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Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/127665
' ' ROAD ·~: RACE ·.: ·.:::, ... ' Round 3: Japanese Grand Prix c Y(orldChampionship RoadRaee SerN!S: . By Michael Scott Photos by Gold & Goose SUZUKA OTY, JAPAN, ARP.24 evin Schwantz and the rest of the Grand Prix world can thank the Lord for circuits like Suzuka. After two races at silly, twiddly, fiddly tracks in Australia and Malaysia, the long (3.7-mile) and fast (100.76 mph) Japanese track produced a day of superb competition that showed the quality of Grand Prix racing at its electrifying best It also brought the Lucky Strike Suzuki-mounted World Champion his first win of the year - his fourth at the track and set him back on the World Championship trail after a slow start to his title defense. Running in dry conditions on a completely resurfaced track, he got a confidence-booster in breaking his own lap record, a rare event these days . The 72,000-strong crowd were treated to a feast in all three classes, with local heroes mixing it with the big boys in breathtakingly close action. There were spectacular accidents and many other adventures, but no bad injuries; fine sunny weather banished the memory of a soaking rain that marred the second day of practice. Schwantz's clear win came after crisis tests at Suzuki's own circuit at Ryuo a week before the race. While he and his team insisted it was the 1994 bike, slightly revised, it seems certain that the winning bike was either last year's title-winning machine or the prototype for the unsuccessful '94 bike. At the finish, Schwantz was more than three seconds ahead, but it had been very much closer. Schwantz, secondplaced Michael Doohan on the HRC Honda, his teammate third-placed Shinichi Itoh, and GP rookie Norifume Abe on the Mr. Donut Blue Fox Honda, had scrapped back and forth, with Itoh being the only one not to lead at least once. Abe's debut was something special, and the long-haired kid from Tokyo seems destined to become a major racing hero. At just 18, he was racing with the very best of the best, leading several times, and completely unfazed by the elevated company. He looked wild and dangerous all weekend, and when he did crash spectacularly with only three laps left, it was no surprise. It was a noble performance to lift the spirit. Marlboro Roberts Yamaha 's Luca Cadalora was fourth, after leading the early laps off a flying start from pole position. The Italian narrowly escaped crashing, and said later that he had chosen too soft a front tire.' "It was destroyed." It was a bad day for early title leader John Kocinski. His Cagiva was off the pace in practice, then he suffered clutch slip in the race, finally finishing a disgruntled ninth and dropping to second overall behind Malaysian GP winner Doohan. Daryl Beattie's luck was even worse. He started early, stopped again , so that he was left behind on the grid, then was penalized a minute anyway, getting the worst of both worlds. Then his front Dunlop went the same way as Marlboro- Roberts teammate Cadalora's, Just so that the day would not be wasted, he pitted to try a different one - at least they could get some testing done. The 250cc race was another beauty, with five riders at one stage scrapping back and forth for the lead, and changing places at every comer. In the end it came down to a four-bike battle, with Chesterfield Aprilia's Max Biaggi making a her0ic dive to the lead in the last chicane, hoping to claim a third win in succession. This time it all went wrong, though. As he ran straight across the dirt, fighting to regain control, Kanemoto Honda's Tadayuki Okada, Pileri Marlboro Honda's Loris Capirossi and HRC's wild-card rider Tohru Vkawa flashed past to cross the line, covered by less than half a second, Little Jimmy Filice continued his run of bad GP luck. Substituting for the injured Kenny Roberts Jr. on the new Marlboro Rainey Yamaha team, it was the Daytona winner's first ride on the works TZM Yamaha . He qualified 19th after engine problems spoiled his only dry practice. Then, he was the innocent victim of a crash, on only the third comer of the race, when Swiss Honda rider Adrien Bosshard touched a white line and slid benea th Filice's Yamaha and Wilco Zeelenberg's Honda. "It was a great shame. I wanted a result here real bad," said Filice, who was almost in the top ten when his race ended prematurely. Nor was the 12Scc race any less thrilling. This time it was pole qualifier Noboru Veda who dramatically seized the lead on the last lap, only to end up in the gravel on the infamous Spoon Curve, the most distant point on the track. The popular Givi Honda rider, who had qualified on pole after injuring himself in a practice crash, wasn't able to get going again, leaving victory to FCC Honda's Takeshi Tsujimura, barely half-a-second ahead of Kazuto Sakata's Aprilia. Third went to Hideyuki Nakajayo's Jha Honda, narrowly ahead of the top European Peter 0ett1 and his Marlboro Aprilia. 500cc GRAND PRIX Cadalora left the line so fast it seemed obvious he must have jumped the start. In fact, the rest had been caught napping - except for Beattie and Slick SO's Niall Mackenzie, both of whom were docked a minute for jumping the start HRC's Alex Criville led the pursuit for the first lap, with Schwantz behind teammate Alex Barros in seventh; but the Texan was soon moving up, and was fourth by the end of lap two. Ahead of him , Cadalora was pulling away fast, Doohan might have been closer but for a scare at the first comer. "My brake came back to the bar. I had to grab a handful, and the bike stood on its nose." Doohan was very fully occupied with a heroic Abe. Every time the veteran pulled ahead, Abe would fight back, visiblyon the edge of his ability, but also visibly as fast as anyone on the track. Schwantz caught up to take second on lap six, breaking the lap record for the first of three times as they all closed remorselessly on Cadalora, from three