Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

By Michael Scott Photos by Gold & Goose MUGELLO,ITALY,JULY3 ichael Doohan conquered the heat wave to write his name in the history books at the Italian Grand Prix. In a typical, steadfast ride, the HRC Honda rider held off an almost race-long challenge by Marlboro Yamaha's Luca Cadalora before moving ahead to win for the sixth time in eight races. . It was his fifth win in succession , a feat not achieved since 1972 when Giacomo Agostini won five straight on his MY Agusta, Doohan achieved it at the hottest race since the Malaysian GP, on the hottest da y in Italy in 50 years, an d in front of a crowd of more than 60,000 at the picturesque 3.25-mile circuit outsid e Florence, overlooked by the Appenine peaks and wooded hills of Tuscan y. Cadalora was second, after qualifying on pole in a full-scale return to form for both himself and Team Roberts. A nother a mazing r ide came from Kevin Sch wantz, whose broken wrist w as as bad as a t Assen, and possibl y worse. The World Champion's Lucky Strike Suzuki led the first four laps after a dynamite sta rt from the second row , and fin ished third after Alex Criville had crashed his Honda just in fron t of him on the last lap . Ducados Ho nda's Alberto Pu ig forced his way through to fourt h with a big charge in the closing stages, passing not onl y fifth-placed Shinichi Itch' s similar Honda, but also sixth-placed Daryl Beattie' s Marlboro Yamaha an d Ale x Barros' s fad ing Lu cky Strike Suzuki, which finished seve nth. It was Beattie' s best finish of his troubled first Yamaha yea r, b u t w hil e he sh ared par t of th e rev ival th at hel ped Cadalora, his troubles we re not completely over. The race marked a dramatic return to form for Doug Chandl er, until now the also-ran on the Cagiva team. Back on the track where the Salinas, California, residen t had the crash last year that put his progress in hiatus, Chandler qu alified second, and was lookin g at a likely rostrum finish when his bike failed with only five laps left. "We ne ver seem to , have much luck here," he said ruefully. Cagiva's day of disappointment was concluded when John Kocinski crashed out of fifth place on the same lap . Their problems were symp tomatic of an Italian fes tival that went wrong . Local heroes took pole position in every class, but the best place achie ved by an It ali an w as Cadalora ' s second, with third- place d 250 Hon da rid er Loris Capirossi the only other Italian ros trum finisher. The p o le q u ali fier fo r the 250cc Grand Prix, Max Biaggi, crash ed ou t of a commandin g lead on hi s Ches terfield A prilia, w hile fro n t- runner Do riano Romboni and the HB Honda pulled into the pits in a state of utter exhaustion, collapsing after getting off the bike. This left a fine first 250cc victory to HB Honda's Ralf Waldmann, after fending off a determined challenge from the much-revived defending World Cham pion Tetsuya Harada on the Sonauto Yamaha. He had outdistanced old rival I 10 Ca p iro ssi and his Ma rlb oro Pileri Honda, the Italian opting for safety and the poin ts after his tires wen t off early in the race. Th e pole s ta rter in th e 125cc clas s was wild card and GP first-timer Roberto Locatelli on an Aprilia. But the contest for th e top th re e positions in the .race was an all-Japanese affair, with Honda-mounted Nob oru Veda d efeating Aprilia's points leader Kazuto Sakata after th e latter had twice escaped from near crashes. Honda-mounted Takeshi Tsujimura was third. The results kept the cham pi onsh ip ali ve in the 250cc class, and made it slightly closer for the 125s. But Doohan's steamroller in the 500cc class will now take some stopping. 500Cc GRA ND PRIX The start was a real surprise, a s Schwantz burst off the second row, ricocheting between Barros an d Doohan to ta ke an immedia te lead - tactics he'd chosen because he knew his wrist would be strong enough to race hard for onl y part of the race. " W e chose tires we kne w would work from the start, and this time th e bike got off the line well. It's a ne wfound tactic we've been wo rking on," he said. He even pu lled away, helped somewhat by th e fac t th a t Kocinski was in second for two laps, while Doohan had to work his way through from sixth, , finall y moving past th e Cag iva on th e third lap. At that point, Schwantz was 1.7 seconds ahead, but by the end of lap five Doohan had closed up and dived inside him on the way out of on e of the circuit's many 5-bends. From then on, the Australian was never headed. He w as , h owev er, severel y pressu red, with Schwantz hanging on, and more trouble to come. Pole-starter Cadalora was slow away, fini shi ng lap one in 10th, but he,too, had been 'relen tlessly picking hi s wa y through to the delight of the crow d , ga ining four p laces in the second lap alone, and arriving in third on the sixth lap after surging past Criville up the hill. He quickly closed on Schwantz, passing him at the end of the pit straight as they started lap eight. At this time, he was the only one lapping below the 1:55 mark, w ith times well below the best during practice in the searing heat. H is best lap was his sixth, the fastest lap of the race, and it was half-a-second off the lap record. He im m ed ia te ly s ta r te d to attack Doohan, nosing alongside on the straight once, and never more than inches from the Honda's back whee l. Doohan, for his part, w ithstood the pressure manfully, turning one consistent lap after another; Schwantz, meanwhile, was a close spectator. The order didn't change, but the tensi on remained high. Then Schwantz dropped away slightly, and Cadalora tried to up the pace . Doohan was able to resp ond, in kind, to win th e da y. "I'd tried to get away but the other two were always there," he explained later. "When I saw there were five laps to go, I gave it my best shot. I was really happy to see on my lap board tha t I got an advantage." At the finish he had stretched it to 5.7 seconds. His best lap was his 21st, when he, too, dipped below 1:55, though short of Cadalora's previous best. For Cadalora, the last kick was too much. "My bike was running really Michael Daahan leads Luca Cadalara and Kevin Schwantz in a battle far the lead. Daahan earned his fifth win In a raw . well and I could stay in the Ho'n.da's I sli ps trea m . Bu t at the end when he speeded up, it was more than I could do . I'm really happy to be on the podi- ) urn for the first time since the first race of the year . When the bike feels good, 11 can ride to my maximum. I hope we can s ta rt getting better re sults from now I on ." It Schwantz lost a little ground, then a lot, with a gap of 2.4 seconds on lap 16 opening to 10.5 seconds on lap 17. "I I had a little misfire tha t slowed me for' half a lap ," he said. "I was having some' t rouble with my wrist going numb, though I was able to rest it on the straight. When I slowed, I thought I'd better ju s t keep going and see who passed me , then seewhat I could do about that at the end." In fact, the 17th lap had dealt with two potential challengers. Chandler's Cagiva was closing fast, after he'd worked his way through from eighth on • lap one. His progress had been slowed for a long while by Kocinski . "He was fa st in to th e corner s, but not so fas t through them, which made him hard to r pass," Chandler said . Now he cou ld see Schwantz and expected to catch him. Instead , th e bike s ud den ly started vibrating badly. "I thought a crank had gone," he said; though his mechanics'' later found a loosened cylinder bolt. "It's real frustrating - I thought I could finishon the podium, but we never have any luck here." rl The other who would have been glad to a tt ack Schwantz was arch-enem , Kocinski. Instead, he crashed, losing the

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