Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

Round 5: Salzburgring, Austria (Left) John Kocinski fin ished fifth after encountering eng ine problems on the fina l lap while hold ing down fourth. (Below left) Max Blaggl (4) and loris Caplrossl (2) fought It out for the full distance in the 250cc Grand Prix with Caplrossl eventually taking the win. 16 hose-dip broke, and he could do no thing as his temperature gauge soared and Itoh came past again. Well out of to u ch came Barros, the second Suz uki rider having started well, only to find th at a tire ga mble simply hadn't paid off . The bi ke w as sliding over the surface ch anges, and h e go t such a fr ight on the first la p that he didn't even try and fight as he dropped· back to seventh. As the race wore on, Chandler started to ca tch the Suzuki, and it might even have come to a last-lap battle. Instead, the Am erican cruised in to the pits wi th one lap to go, his Cagiva's temperature ga uge also climbing as he lost coolant for what team boss Giacomo Agostini described as "somethin g internal in the engine." Another gap, then came Beattie. The Australian hadn't sparkled, but at least h e'd kept goi ng, saying la ter th a t h is only problem wa s a shortage of horsepower up the hill . H is tea m mate Cadalora had been in the top five, bu t dropped back to be passed by Beattie on lap 11, p itt ing soon a fterwards to change bo th tir es before rejoin in g th e race in last to continue tire testing. This left ninth to Mackenzie , who had decided not to take the risk of over gearing in the hope of fin d in g a slipstream. He once again emerged as clear- H ond a bette r through th e bends an d chicanes, and th e confronta ti on w as classic. It see med to be ti pped in Biaggi's favor . The chara cter of the tra ck lends itself to last-lap ba ttles, and the winner is generally whoever was seco nd at the end of the previous lap, in a positi on to draft up the hill an d shoot pa st into the fina l bend s to con trol the run to the flag . Accordingly, after fail in g to break th e draft, Biaggi let Capiro ssi in to the lead on lap 19, trailing him from then on. It almost wo rked. Biaggi took the lead as planned on the run up the hill. Then came the erro r. "I knew his bike was better under brakes than mine, so 1 left my braking rea lly late for the last corne r. But the tire slip ped, and I almos t crashed ." He wobbled and ran wide, then as he saw Capirossi come p ast on the insi de, he opened the throttle again. Once again he sli d, and came desperately dose to crashing. By the time he 'd recovered , there was nothing left to do but follow th e H onda through the chicanes and across th e fini s h line. Capirossi was happy to accep t the gift. " It would have been very d ifficu lt to win if Max ha dn' t made a mistake," he said . The battle for third was just as tense: Romboni, Wal dmann and O ka da were glued together, none able to escape. All led the group at various stages, but the order was settled over the last two laps , with Romboni in control, Okada next, and then the German. The trio was covered by a quarter of a second across the line. Waldmann's ho p e o f a las t- la p a ttack had been foiled as they p assed backmarker Giuseppe Fiorillo in the closing stages, while Romboni's forceful riding - overta king Okada on the fast bend a t th e top of th e hill - had settled th e issue in his favor, even though the title leader had gotten back almost alongside at the finish. J.P. Ru ggia w as sixth, the Jerez winner sho rt of rev s and power, and alone for most of the race. Likewise for Lu is d'Antin, who was not quite able to keep ly the best privateer, and the last rider on the same lap as the leaders. his Honda up with the works Ap rilia. Only 11 seconds down, there w as an John Reynolds w as a solitary 10th, comfortably clear of a close six-bike batexci tin g fight. It in d u d ed Eskil Suter (Aprilia), who had made a demon start; tle that ended with Herve Mouine u takand the van d en Goo rb ergh b rothers, ing 11th ahead of Sean Em mett, Jea n [eandat, Cristiano Migliorati and Laurent I Jurgen and Patrick, who had caught up a Naveau, wi th Jerem y McWilliams drop- _I t° himhb y me~ of nl famil Y sli b lin 'be 'pstream s g-s ot exe rcise , 0 y t0 s low ed y ping off .the back an d out of the points after a big slid e in the closing stages. Suter's late braking a n d s lo w co rner There were 22 fin ishers. Chan dler speed so that Jean-M ichel Bayl e and as id e, th e most n ota b le of the eight Andy Preining closed up from behind. re tir em ents was Reg giani, who toured At the finish, Patrick van den Goo rinto the p its at the end of the first lap I bergh narrowly led Jurge n (age befor e shaking his head afte r a partial seiz ure I beauty ), followed by Suter, Bayle and I Prein in g , the gro u p (a ll on Apr ilias ) at the end of the start straight. Doohan extended his title lead to 23 I covered by less than a second . points over Schwan tz, 111-88; Kocinski I Ad i Stadler w as 13th, the las t rider not to be lapped , wi th th e Aprilias of has 79, wi th Itoh fourth at 56 and Criville fifth wi th 54 points. Be rn d Ka ssne r and Alessand ro Gramigni taking the last p oin ts. 250cc GRAN D PI'IIX There were 24 finishers. Harada, FilThis is a simple race track, and it was ice and Carles Checa all failed to finish a simple race - and thril ling. the first lap due to mechanical problems; Bia ggi and Capiross i b roke away Nobuatsu Ao ki coasted to a d ep ressed from the pack early on, the form er leadstop after three laps, while Wilco Zeelenberg p ulled in after six laps with igni tion ing and the other wo rking like a demon to cat ch u p. Then they ci rc u la ted in trouble. He had been lyin g 11tho Biaggi closed up again to wi thin two close company, with Cap irossi breaking points of title leader Okada, 85-83; with the lap record as he caught up on lap 17 after Biaggi had tried to sprint away to Capirossi and Romboni tied for third at break him. 77 and Ruggia fifth on 70. A vintage seaThe Aprilia was faster up the hill, the. son of 250 racing seems assured. I 125cc GRAND PRIX Givi Ho nda's Noboru Veda qualified on pole, but it was close-t o-h om e hero Dirk Rau d ies who sp rang into the lead from his front-row start. He was hardly headed to the finish, in a rac e rem iniscen t of his string of clear wins last yea r. Only the inspired Garry McCoy got in front, to lead for one glorious lap at half-distance , but Rau d ies dug even deeper and pulled away again. He had switched bikes in the morning after his preferred machine gave h im trouble, and was riding the A-kitted Honda with the new airbo x sys tem. " It was faster up the hill, and thou gh I had some trouble w ith the engin e hesita tin g in the corners, the power was enoug h to give me the win," he said. Th e th ird man was Ma la ys ia n GP w inner Veda, also enjoyi ng the performance of hi s A- kitted ai rb ox Hond a, which was eno ugh for him to preva il in the last lap over the young Australian's priva teer AGV Attak Aprilia . "McCoy made me a bit scared, but 1 knew 1 could beat hirn, " sa id th e ch eery Japan es e r ide r . " My b ig gest p rob le m was the speed of Raudi es." Behind this trio, the usual fierce battle saw, at one stage, six bikes swapping back and fort h. The tussle was wo n in the en d by Peter Oe ttl 's Aprilia, frac tions ahea d of the similar ma ch ines of Ka zu to Sakata an d Stefano Perugini , with the Hond as of Akira Sa ito and Fausto Gresini tucked right up behind. It was a heroic ride by Sakata, twice a winner this year, racing in spite of injuring his back in a high-speed spill in p ractice. In a typical 125cc brawl, ninth to 16th places were covered by less than tw o seconds, with the pack led by front -row qualifier Emilio Cuppini, in his first race for seven mon th s, as a subs tit u te for Aprilia rider Gianluigi Scalvini, injured in Malaysia. Yoshia ko Katoh's Yamaha was in the thick of it, in 12th, but teammate Jorg e Martinez was off the back of the gro up in 17th, beating Loek Bodelier by mere hundredths. Sakata re mained a t the head of the title chase wi th 101 poin ts to Veda's 67, Oettl's 66, Raudies's 55 and McCoy's 48, Sixth-placed Takeshi Tsujim ura, with 46 poin ts, d id not score, cra shing ou t in a hi gh-speed hi gh-sid er in th e first lap. Japanese gi rl rider Tomoko Igata also crashed, brea king an ankle and a heel. ~ salzburgrlng . Salzburg, Austria Results: May 22, 1994 tzsee QUALIFYING : I. N oboru Ueda (1:29.076/ 106.123 m p h); 2. Kazuto Sa ka ta (1:29 .474); 3. Dir k Raudies (1029 .625); 4. Enzo Cuppini (1029.m ); 5. Oliver Petrucciani (1:29.882); 6. jorge Ma rtinez (1:29.888); 7. Peter Oettl (1:30.003); 8. Herri To rrontegui (1:30.020); 9. Fausto Gresini (1:30.054); 10. Carry McCoy (1:30.088); 11. Yoshiaki Kat oh (1:30.119); 12. Stef ano Perugini (1:30. 167); 13. 5telan Pre ln (1:3 0.203); 14. Takeshi Tsu jimura (1:30.338); 15. Masa ki To kudome (1:30.351); 16. Bruno Casanov a (1:30.426); 17. Akira Saito (1:30449); 18. Gabrie le Debbi a (1:30.731); 19. Manfred Geissler (1:31.156); 20. Hideyuki N akajyo (1:31. 223); 21. Lucio Cecchinello (1:31.237); 22. Lee k Bodelier (1:315 27); 23. N . Dussauge (1:31.791); 24. Tom ok o Igala (1:31.B02); 25Frederic Peti t (1:31.902); 26. Oli ver Koch (1:31.970); TI . N eil Hodgson (1:31.982); 28. Hans Spaan (1:32.024); 29. Emili Alzamcra (1:32.156); 30. Vittorio Lopez (1:32.156); 31. Haruchika Aold (1:32.288); 32. Ma nfred. Baumann ( 1:33 .715); 33 . Ca r los G i ro (1:33 .933 ); 34 . G . H of er (1:34.785); 35. G. Schar! (1:35.938). 250cc Q UALI FYI N G : I. Ma x Bia g gi (1:21.3 12 / 116.25 mph); 2. Loris Capiross i (1:21.319); 3. Tada yuki Okada (1 :22 .1 72 ); 4 . Nob u a tsu A oki (1 :22.19 7); 5. Tetsu ya Ha rada (1:22.210); 6. Rail Waldmann (1:22.253); 7. Doriano Romboni (1:22.343); 8. j.P. Ruggta (1:22.574); 9. Luis D' An tin (1:22.845); 10. Eskil Su ter (1:23.394); 11. Andy Pre ining (1:23.884); 12. ).V.D Coorberg (1:23.884); 13. W ileo Zee le nbe rg (1:23 .943); 14 . Ari Stadler (1:24.119); 15. Bernd Kassner (1:24.210); 16. Ca rles Checa ( ~ : 2 4. 2 4 ~ ).; 17. Alessa nd ro Gra m ig n i (1:24.697); 18. JIm my Filice (1:24.792); 19. P.V.D. Goorbe rg (1:25.201); 20. Noel Ferro (1:25.224); 21. Frederic Protat (1:25.267); 22. Jose Luis Cardoso (1:25.850); 23. Giuseppe Fiorillo (1:25.95{); 24 . Christ ia n Bo ud inot (1:2 6.054); 25. H . Maxw ald (1:26.163); 26. A. Witting (1:26.221); 27. Alan Patterson (1:26.348); 28. Enrique Dejuan (1:26.617); 29. Ma n u el He rn an d ez (1:26.846); 30. Jean-Michel Bayl e (1:26.942); 31. Rodney Fee (1:27.881); 32. Knstian Kaas (1:28.322); 33. Luis Maure l (1:28.726). SOOCC Q UA LIFYIN G , I. Mick Doohan (1:17.126/

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