Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

Round 2: 24 Hours of Spa BonorislMorillas/Battistini and Kawasaki all the way By Johan Vandeckerchove SPA-FRANCORCHAMPS, BELGIUM, JULY 10 n h is brief racing career, Denis Bonoris already had seven victories in the World Endurance Champ ionship slip away because o f mechanical trou bles. Clos e to be ing at h is wits' end, th e yo ung Fre nchman hoped that a clove of garlic in his garag e would keep away all evil spi ri ts a nd fina lly free him from his cru el fate. A few days later, "Bon o" claimed victory in the 24- hour race at Spa, the second round of the 1994 World Endurance Cha mpio nship . Whether or not the Frenchm an owes his success more to his superstition than to his collaboration with Adrien Morillas and Jean-Louis Battistini remains to be seen. After all, these two had already won the first race of the season at Le Mans, placing themselves at the top of the championship point standings. Unfortunately, a miracle drug could not be found to cure the lack of money within the French Kawasaki team. Despite its excellent performance at Le Mans, the Christian Bourgeois-led team did not have enough bud get to run two bikes at the famous circuit in the Belgian Ardennes. Surprising ly, though, Bourgeois did show up at Spa-Francorchamps with two separate teams, and the team of Bonoris/Stephane Coutelle /Guinand even turned in the best lap times during the obligatory night practice session on Thursday - ahead of the number one team of Morillas, Battistini and Wilfrid Veille. "We had hoped to find a sponsor at this last instance," Bou rgeois said while explaining the su rprising move. "But [ am afraid we will have to withdraw one team; we just can not afford to run two teams here." Besides the sponsor story, a second theory seemed to be at least as plausible. I 32 Kawasaki just ran the tw o bikes back to back, and decided o n ly at the la st moment which one to put their best riders on. So on Friday it was Morillas, Battistini and Bonoris who were picked to carry the green team's honors. They did what was expected of them - earn ing the pole position in front of the semi-official Hon da RC45 team of Alex Vieira, Jose Kuhn and Rachel Nicotte; both Duca tis from th e French im porter (w hic h ha d already been used at last year's 501 d'Or and this year's Le Mans race) with rid ers Mou ch et /Mounier /Chambon an d Ferracci/Muteau/Guigou; and the first of the two official Suzukis, ridden by Moineau/Lavieille/D'Orgeix. The far from impressive lap times recorded by both Suzukis (fifth fastest for Herve Moineau and ninth for Bonhuil/Monneret/Gomez) were explained by team manager Dominique Meliand. "As you know, we had several problems with the cooling system in Le Mans. That is what our main evolution work has gone into since that race. We rode the bike two weeks ago in this specification, and it gave some encouraging results. Unfortunately, free practice here on Thursday was run under a heavy rain. Fo r us, that is a double handicap, as the Suzuki has always been a very sensitive bike to set up. We jus t did not have enough time to figure things out. But I do not think that will put us back a lot d uring the race..." Reigning World Champion Doug Toland took the new RC45 to 14th position on the starting 'grid. "This is the first time I've ridden this bike," the Californi an said afterp ractice, "an d I' m ve ry much impressed, Ou r French tuner, Cascarino, has once again done a wo nderful job. The bike did its first racing kilometers a couple of weeks ago d uring the 1000 Ian race at Carole, nea r Paris. We think that we can have a very good result on this track, especially as the three rid ers in our team are doing lap times which are very close." Graf / Ambord/ Ammann were the first priva teers in an entry of 57 teams strong; they clocked the si xth fastes t time and were the first not to break the unofficia l lap record. 24 HOURS OF LIEGE I Even tho ugh the privateer teams entered by the Swiss Bolliger Team, the ' British Phase One End ura nce Team or the Dutch Yamaha Exclusief Team were not far off the pace of the factory bikes, they made the only sensi ble decision not to turn th e heat up to o much in the beginning of the race, bu t just to wait for the factory boys to get into trouble. At Spa, they didn't have to wait very long for this to happen. Just six laps from the start, things went very wrong o n the infa mous Raidillon Dip, just after the start/finish line. With the two Ducatis an d the lone factory Kawasaki s till within striking distance, slow-starter Moineau d ove a little bit too furiously into the fast leftright combination, forcing his p ursuer, Rachel Nicotte, to change his line. It didn't help the Supersport specialist much - Nicotte touched the back wheel of the white and blue Suzu ki, and both crashed. The Hond a went into the hay bales, sending two photographers running for their lives , and then bu rst in to flam es. The Suzuki was not mu ch better off, and for a while it looked as if Moineau and N ico tte were bad ly inj u re d afte r th is horrendous cra sh . While th e pa ce ca r wen t o u t for th e fi rs t tim e, a id was adm in iste red to th e two un lucky Frenchmen. Later, they were ta ke n to the hospital at Ver viers, w here only minor d ama ge was dia gnosed: Nico tte suffered a broken leg, and Moineau got . away with only a se ve re co nc us si on. And so the list of official and semi-offi- The 24 Hours of Uege gets underway at Spa-Franchorchamps with the Le Mans style start. Philippe Mouchet gets to his bike first and wheellea the Ducat! (19) away with the early lead. ~ cial candida tes for victory in the Belgian Ardennes sud de nly was shortened by two names. After the impressive demonstration o f the two D ucatis, th e Ita li a n and Fren ch mecha nics were u p for a test of emergency repairs after one hour when Ferra cci came into the pits - d emanding that his team change a broken valve. ~t that time, Mouchet was lea ding over Morillas , and the Dutch Yamaha team of Du tchman Planken and Fre nch teammates Millet and Graziano. At Suzuki things had been quite hectic as well. After an hour and a half, a broken rear suspension support had dropped the only remaining official Suzuki to 23rd place. Two hours later, some sort of a hiera rchy was beginning to fo r m at the front. The Kawasaki was clearly the best b ik e on th e track, and Morill as was inevitably buildi ng a handsome lead over the private Kawasaki of Steve MaI)ley, Rob ert Ho lden and Pe te r Graves (P h ase One En durance Tea m) . The Guignabod et team (Mattioli/Autissier/ Simon ) was third, followed very closely by the team of Graf/ Ambo rd / Ammann. Toland and his com panio ns were rapi dly approach ing the top 10, after having been pena li zed five la ps at th e start because their team was not rep resented at the pre-race briefing. Six other teams had suffered the same pena lty. " Pe r ha ps it wo uld be b etter to impose a money fine," said Toland, after having tak en the RC45 to th ird on the first lap before losing his favorable posi-

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