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·:ROAD ·. ·RACE<;·:::: :<: :,~· ..'. Round 7: DutchG . ' randPrix :.WQrid Championship Road Race series· . (Left) The 125cc Grand Prix was won by Takeshl Tsujlmura after a brilliant run from the back of the pack. The Japanese rider was left on the start, but It dldn'l stop him from winning his second GP of the season. (Below) Michael Doohan holds the trophy for winning the Dutch GP. He now leads the championship by 42 points over Kevin Schwantz. H a r uchika Aok! (2:17.780); 10. Stefano Pe r ugini (2:17.904); 11. Gabriele Deb b ia (2:17.965); 12. Toshu Manak c (2:17.987); 13. Emili Alza mo ra (2:18.008); 14. Fausto Gresini (2:18.073); 15. Yos/Ualci Katch (2:18.097); 16. Masaki Tokudome (2:18.127); 17. Jorge Martin ez (2:18 .226 ); 18. Garry McCoy (2:18.348); 19. He rri Torrontegui (2:18.367); 20. Hideyuki Naka jiyo (2:18.593) ; 21. Lu ci o Cecch inello (2:18 .677); 22. Charlie Giro (2:18.784); 23. Bruno Casanova (2:18.788); 24. Frederic Petit (2:18.827); 25. Gianluigi Scalvini (2:19.242); 26. Ma nfred Baumann (2:20 .036); 27. Manfred Geissler (2:20. 195 ); 28. Vitto rio Lopez (2:20.25 1); 29. N eil Hodgson (2:20.280); 30. Hans Spaan (2:20.685); 31. N. Dussa uge (2:20.977); 32. Stefan Prein (2:21.252); 33. B. Smil (2:22.560); 34. R. Va n Etten (2:23.068) ; 35. M. Nooren (2:24.326). . r. Ma x Biaggi 25Dcc Q U ALI FYING : (2:05.997.107.159 mph ); 2. Loris Cap irossi (2.-06.253); 3. Doriano Rombon! (2:06 .389); 4. Tada yuki Okada (2:Q7 .150); 5. Nobualsu Aok i (2:1J7.286); 6. J.P. Ruggia (2:Q7.390); 7. Tet s u ya H arad a (2:Q7.761 ); 8. Rail Waldmann (2:1J7.838); 9. jean-Michel Bayle (2:1J7.931); 10. Wileo Zee lenberg (2:08 .716); 11. Lu is D' Antin (2. 00.372); 12. EslcilSuter (2:09.794); 13. J.V.D. Coorberg (2.-00.957); 14. P.V.D. Cocrberg (2:10.000); 15. Toshihiko Honma (2:10.128); 16. Andy Prei ning (2:10.141); 17. AS~ ba ck Biaggi 's way, giving him 128 to Okad a 's 116, Capiross i's 102 ; th e n comes Romboni (93), Ruggia (78) and the impressive Waldmann (66). 125cc GRAND PRIX 16 Ja panese Honda hero Takeshi Tsujimu r a stalled on the start line, then achieved the almost impossible at th e d ifficult Dutch ci rcuit, riding right through the field to take victory. He had to fight to the finish, with a five-strong group of bikes ba ttling for much of the race and right up to the final comers. The race had started rather differently, with pole qualifier Noboru Ueda setting off furiously in an attempt to break away, hotly pursued by Dirk Raudies's similarly air-box-equipped Honda and the Ap rilias of Peter Oettl and Kazuto Saka ta . Ueda's effort lasted only until the second lap , when he fell trying too hard th rou gh typically difficult Assen kinks; Raudies we n t ou t one lap later with his first race seizure in three years. Tsujimura, left to push-start again . after s ta lli ng his e ngi ne on the line, im m edia tely co m m en ced a fur ious recovery, passing 17 riders on the first lap to cross the lirie 16th (Akira Saito had helped him by crashing, while Car- . los Giro broke down) . When Raudies wen t, Tsujim ura was up to seventh, and he was soon forging his wa y to the front of the leading group, now dominated by Sakata and Oettl. He took the lead for the first time on lap 12. It was a superb race, with six disputing the lead until Manako's H ond a broke down wi th five laps remaining, leaving five to wea ve and duck and slipstream each other to break formation and enter comers three or four abreast. At the finish, Tsujimura crossed the line barely two-tenths ahead of vet eran Jorge Martinez's Yamaha. Oettl was with them, but ran too fast into the chicane, cutting the second apex then rejoining off-line so that he crashed, almost taking down Sakata. This left the way open for Dutch Honda-mounted privateer Loek Bodelier, in the race of his life, to claim third, with Sakata fourth. Oettl could still have had fifth if he had picked up his bike and pushed it across the line; instead he stalked off in a rage, leaving the position to Masaki Tokudome, 15 seconds down but mere hundredths ahead of Herri Torrontegui's Aprilia. Oliver Petrucciani took seventh. Another five seconds down, Garry McCoy, hampered by his badly injured right hand, managed to fend off Hideyuki Nakajiyo's Honda. Yoshiako Katoh crashed out on the second Yamaha ; others falling included Stefano Peru gini, Stefan Prein and Manfred Geissler. Saka ta extended h is titie lea d to a ma ssi ve 54 points o ver the luckless Raudies, who is one point ahead of Oettl (79); then comes Veda (77), Tsu jimura (71) and Martinez (61). C\' Circuit van Drenthe Assen, Holland Results: June 24-25, 1994 (Round 7 of 14) 12Sce QUALIFYING: 1. Noboru Ueda (2:15.444/ 93.482 mph ); 2. Kazu tc Sakata (2:16 .320 ); 3 . Di rk Raudles (2:16.748); 4. Takeshi Ts ujimura (2:16.858); 5. Peter Oetll (2:17.212); 6. Oliver Petrucciani (2:17.385) 7. ; Ama Saito (2:17.613); 8. Loek Bodelier (2:17.755); 9. Doohan falls, but stays fastest ra s hes past and present . co lo red the practice results red, one presumes. Kevin Schwantz is always a pole-position candidate at Assen, but his effort ended while trying to ride through suspension problems and at least get on the front row at the end of the first session. Who knows what he might have done the next day - though to be fair, nobody in the top six actually improved their firstsession times in a windy session. By then Michael Doohan (above) had also -fallen, but was unhurt, and in any case retained the pole position he had set on day one. The time was more than half-a-second outside Schwantz's lap record, but even further out of the reach of second-placed Alberto Puig. Doohan has been a fierce Assen critic since 1992, when the track destroyed his title hopes and some medical muddles almost destroyed his right leg. His dislike continued this year, but his lap time proved that the combination of Mick and the '94 Honda, as massaged by his crew chief Jerry Burgess, is the best-balanced package out there. One is running out of adjectives to describe the prowess of Puig. AI the hardest track in his first 500 year he qualified second, the best-ever Spanish rider in the class. Nor was this due to previous track knowledge. "It's a different circuit on a 500 than on a 250," h!i said. "There are no straights any more, and all the reference .poin ts are .wrong. I almost got into trouble many times." . Next to the pairof Hondas were both Suzukis. Alex Barros was third on the strength of .his first-day time. Having crashed out of the lead last year, he was trying to take it calm and smoothly at a track that remains his favorite, but he was hampered by engine problerns on the second day and spent a fair length of time walking back to the pits. "At least I am happy C with the settings we had yesterday, although I lost out on tire testing. I hope the engine doesn't stop." Schwantz also had engine problems in his first session, which may have contributed to his unseemly, and cost-, ly, haste at the end of the afternoon. It cost him progress on his main difficulty, which is still to find a comfortable balance and stability for the bike, especially on corner entry under braking. Whe n he went out the next day, his left ann in a cast and holding a specially shaped handlebar grip, he planned to run three laps to break in a new motor, but soon became involved not only in "seeing if I could do it," but also continuing suspension experiments so that he ran 18 laps by the end, almost full race distance. The first positions in row tw o were also set on the first afternoon, with former Assen winner (in the year Doohan, Wayne Rainey, Schwantz and .Eddie Lawson all crashed) Alex Criville's Honda leading it, more than a second down on Doohan in front of him. Then came Doug Chandler's Cagiva, the American looking as though he was working hard, which is not a good style for Assen. He knew that, too, but when he smoothed out on day two he didn't match his times . "It 's a strange track," he said. "It seems to get harder to ride a 500 here every year." . Shinichi Itch's Honda was alongside, with John Kocinski next, well below par at a track where he had expected 10 have a chance of returning to winning. Instead, his middle finger on his left hand, broken a fortnight before, was stiff and sore. "1 usually use two fingers on the clutch, but now I have to use my hold hand. I'm not even holding the bike the way I am used to," he said. Daryl Beattie led row three, very lucky to escape unhurt after having to push the "Eject" button on the fastest part of the course, but little closer to regaining competitive form in spite of some improvement from new front Dunlops. It seems to be more a combination of corner exit speed and straight-line speed that is his biggest difficulty in his first Yamaha year. Loris Reggiani's 400cc V-twin Aprilia was next, 10th fastest, which was not up to the team's expectations. TIle bike wasn't fast enough, and the time it lost on the flat-out back section, taking the bike from first gear to sixth, was at least as much as he made up on the twists. ' . . . Luca Cadalora was alongside, riding the new Yamaha chassis but really in trouble with his painful hand injury. "It's not good to feel that I may not be able to control anything that might happen," he said. "1 don't know if I will be able to finish the race."

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