Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/127678
:R Cli8mjlioilshij)Road Race Sefjes " Round 9: French Grand Prix
OAD
·RACE·: . .
:.W
orId
ita lian Dorlano Rambonl (5) led the 250cc
Grand Pri x until being passed by eventual
. - - wi nner Lori s Caplrossl (2). Rombonl
ended up finishing second.
ever-smiling little Japanese rider said
later.
Tsujimura 's pressure had been pitiless,
and at the finish there was only just over a
tenth-of-a-second in it, The last-lap sprint
had left Sakata trailing, and he was so disheartened that he almost fell back into the
clutches of Oettl, who had earlier moved
up to attack the leading group before
dropping away again.
.There had been six bikes battling
behind them, but this group also stretched
out towards the finish. Ra ud ies had his
hands full with Martinez, and only just
prevailed over the Yamaha; then came
Stefano Perugini. Two seconds back came
Herri Torrontegui on another Aprilia,
having worked his way from a poor start
to join thegroup and help break it up.
Tod udome wa s ninth, with Gresini
overpowered and losing touch at the end
for 10th. Eleventh-placed Nakajyo had
earlier set a new lap record, but he went
grass-tracking on the last lap and was
lucky to finish. .
GP newcomer Juan Maturano, taking
the place on the injured Katoh's Yamaha,
made a strong debut, finishing a fighting
13th at the head of a five-strong group of
much more experienced riders.
In addition to Loek Bodelier - an early
drop-out from the leading group with a
broken gear linkage - there were eight
other retirements, inclu di ng crashers
Cecchinello, Ta.kahashi and returned girlracer Tomoko Igata.
Carlos Giro was up to his old tricks,
crashing his Aprilia in the first comer.
Sakata's title lead looked only slightly
less secure at 170 points to Veda 's 127.
Tsujimura is third on 107, Oettl has 105
and Raudies 102.
C¥
Bugalli Clrcult
La Mans, France
ResuIta: July 17, 1994
USc:< Q UAUF\1NQ 1. Kazuto SaIcata
(1~);
2.
hand injury less troublesome now. Half-a-second off Doohan
two seconds off his own previous pole, but said optimistially: ~I know what it takes to do the 1:3~ time here . The track
. "=.,.:.c:..:;;==--,....::.-.,.---'''''=-.,..;,,,....:,-==--::<-.,.....;:c-'4~----,:-..;;;t~t; eems moreslippery, but it's just a case of getting the bike set
s
he problems of Le Mans
up for the fast time:'
,"
were two-fold and reJat~
Schwantz now led row two on his Friday time, and said:
ed. The surface was
"It's not a problem. I've been getting better starts from the secsomewhat slippery; while
ond row than from the front recently anyhow." He'd spent the
the low gearing dictated by
session looking for tires that would go the distance, but his real
the tight turns and short
problem was his wrist, though he was loath to admit it, The
2.74- mile lap means that the
fractures in his hand were healing well, but the dislocated
500s are extremely prone to
bones were still "floating", he said; and he was still very defiwheelspin. There were a
nitely racing with the full plaster cast. "It's okay under braking,
number of crashes and near
unless the bike gets out of shape and I have to wrestle it. I have
misses, but the one that
problems changing direction," he said .
reminded Michael Doohan
Chandler was alongside, less than two-tenths slower, on
(right) of the vulnerability Of
orm for a second race. "After riding with the fast guys at
his title lead wasactuall a
Mugello, you kinda get carried along by them," he said. Testing
front-wheel washout.
a third bike with carbon-fiber forks arid fuel-injection may have
the . ' A u stra lian ,',;;
blurred his focus,
did a spill on saturday while enduranceendur~testing tires. It .
.
'testing tires; but he would come to the line as a definite conhappened at a relatively low speed and, unlike his fellow- tender for the rostrum.
Queenslander and friend Daryl Beattie, he escaped unscathed,
Alex Criville was seventh and Itoh eighth, the pair of Honda
to go straight back out again.
riders pattering and wallowing respectively (they said) as they
This was on Saturday morning, by when he had already sought the right suspension set-up. Alex Barros led row three,
stamped his authority on the meeting with a Friday time that complaining of geometry problems that were losing him time
remained unassailable the next day, ins ide the lap record (a mid-turn and on the exit He also crashed, once in the first pracrace time ), but almost a second slower than John Kocinski's tice session, and again in race-morning warm-up.
pole here at the last visit in 1991.
Three-tenths behind came Niall Mackenzie, with a flash
Doohan was unusually talkative in the front-row press con- time. "The bike's a dog," he said succinctly. "There's no way I
ference, explaining the lack of speed by suggesting the 500cc- can keep that up for the race:'
class weight limit of 286 pounds should be dropped to break
Aprilia man Max Biaggi seemed dominant again in the 250cc
the circle of stagnation. 'fWe keep getting more horsepower, ~ c1ass, bu t was tipped off pole at the end by a charging Doriano
.which means we get more wheelspin. It makes it even harder to Romboni , who had (along with other top Honda NSR riders
get the bike turned, We alSO arrive at the comers faster, so we. Loris Capirossi and Tadayuki Okada) a power-up kit comprishave to brake harder. If the bikes were lighter, I believe times ing a new ignition and carburetors with an electronic "powerwould drop as with the 2505."
jet", which helped close the speed gap on the Aprilias. "The
His only possible title challenger Kevin Schwantz was sec- engine revs-out better now, " he said. "On my fast lap, I wonond almost throughout, also on a Friday time. Then, in the dos- dered why the back was sliding so much, but when I saw the
ing quarter of the final session things came alive, and by the fin- lap time I understood why."
ish the World Champion wasn' t even on the front row any
He was almost four-tenths faster than Biaggi, whose hopes
more.
of imp roving his Friday time were thwarted by hea vy traffic on
Hottest on the charge (as.contract time draws near) was Luca the short circuit. But he was finding it difficult anyway, with
Cadalora, with a pair of fast laps that lifted him from seventh the disc-valve Aprilia's abrupt throttle a handful on the slow,
on Friday to an u ltra-close second, just three-hundredths down low-gear bends. "111play the jackal tomorrow," he said; "waiton Doohan. The success came, he said mysteriously, "after a ing for others to make a mistake. If Romboni breaks awa y, I will
crucial change at the end of the session", but he knew they were let him go. But if Capirossi does, I'll have to go with him:'
flash laps, and was worried both about consistency and tire
Capirossi was next, but another six-tenths down, the spread
wear.
<~ ,: j:~
-of times being most unusual in the class. "I'm not so worried,"
Redoubtable, remarkable, Alberto Puig was next; on the .he said. "I have a good engine and a good chassis: they just
front row for the fifth time inhis first 500 year, and also worried weren't in the same bike this afternoon: '
about tire wear. "At the moment it seems okay, but because I
Next up was Ralf Waldmann, whose plan was the opposite
have no 500 experience, you never know until the race. I cannot of his victorious Mugello tactics. This time he would fit an espeset the bike up so it is smooth under wheelspin, which is hard cially low first gear and try and seize control from the start, on
on the tire. n
a track where overtaking opportunities are very limited. With a
And on the far end of row one, for the first time since the 1.3-second deficit on fellow HB-Honda man Romboni, this
Spanish GP five races ago, .came John Kocinski, his German seemed somewhat optimistic.
T
w
as
I ~
I
Nobwo Ueda {I:5Ml8);3. Takeshi Tsujimura (1:50.925); 4Dirk Raudi.. (1:51.130); 5. J0 '8" Martinez (1:51.323); 6.
Sl