Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

It was Capirossi' s fourth win of the year and it g ives h im a commanding lead in the 250cc title ch ase with four races to run. After 10 rounds Ca pirossi leads Okada, 168 -152. Bia g g i, who scored no poi nts today, drops to third with 144 points. The best race of the day was in the 125cc class , with the top two separated by a qua rter of a second and the ne xt three within half a second of each oth er. Fo r the th ird time th is ye ar, FCC Technica l Sp orts ' Ta keshi Ts uj imu ra came out on top, leading the whole way, but never by much. The Japanese rider beat Italian Stefano Perugini by .267-ofa-secon d at the end of the 26-lap, 65mile race. He completed the event in 44 minutes, 22.659 seconds at an average speed of 87.878 mph. Th ird went to Marlboro Apri lia Eckl's Peter Oettl, the Germa n passing championship lead er Kazuto Sakata two laps from the end. Sakata's 5emprucciKrona teammate He rri Torront egui was fifth, one better than GIVI Racing's Nobbie Veda. Sakata was able to extend his championship lead, however, over Veda . Four race s from the end of the season, Sakata leads Veda, 183-137. Tsujimura is third at 132. After fluffing the start of the Sidecar GP, the Swiss team of Rolf Biland and Kurt Waltisperg .worked their way to the front, taking the lead with five laps to go w hen Brits Da rren Dixon and Andy Hetherington had ignition troubles. Biland /Waltisperg went on to win their third sidecar race of the year and the 73rd of Biland's career. Biland's Schlossgold Racing team completed the 26-lap, 65-mile race in 42 minutes, 54.342 seconds at an average speed of 90.893 mph. They beat Brindley / Hutchinson across the line by .672of-a-second. After five of eight ra ces, s ix-ti m e World Champion Biland leads the championship with 91 points, 28 better than Steve Webster, who finished third today. Brindley is th ird with 61. 500cc GRAND PRIX A cloudy , bright and wa rm da y greeted the start of the 500cc race, a welcome relief after two days of qualifying that had been unseasonably hot. But all the tire testing had been d one in the heat so tire choice was something of a crap shoot. Marlboro Roberts Yamaha 's Luca Ca dalora go t the jump on the 27-r id er field but, the Italian's lead would be short-lived w ith Cagiva's Doug Chandl er taking the point on the ne xt lap and HRC's Mick Doo han dropping Cadalora back to thi rd on the fifth of 30 laps. During p ractice Ca da lora was never comfortable in the three slow comers that end each lap - the Esses, the Melbourne Hairpin, and Goddards Comer - and it was no different in the race. "The bike was workin g well through the fast sections of the track, but I w asn't fast enough through the last three corners to stay w ith Ke v in and Mi ck ," Cadal ora said. It would be s e ve ral la p s before 5chwan tz would get by, the 11th to be exact, an d then Cadalora was in fifth and about to begin dueling with Cagiv a's Chandler who was s tarting to struggle with a rear tire that was too soft. I "The start was good but pretty early on the rear started to slide," Chan d ler sai d. "I tried to baby it but it was moving around too much and I had to ease off." Doohan came b y on the eighth lap, using a brave move up the insid e in a (Left) Kevin Schwantz (1) fou ght th rou gh to w in his fo urth British Grand Prix. Here th e Texan leads Spaniard Alberto Puig (17). (Below) Michael Doohan (4) ended up fi nishi ng second. with Luca Cadalora (5) ho lding on for th ird . left in Craner Curves, a series of fas t downhill bends. He began to pull away and w ould hold less than a second lead as the race approached the halfway point. By now , 5ch wantz was on the move, and closing fast. " If I could keep the guys in sig ht and keep myself reasonab ly fresh , I knew I could mount a challenge, " 5chwantz said later. It would be the 19th lap when he swooped around on th e outsi de in the first -gear Melbourne Hairpin, and he d id it decisively. Still, he wasn't sure he could hold up to the end. . "I knew there was a lot of ra cing left ," 5chwantz said . "The questi on in my mind w as whether I could last physica lly and mentally. It 's been so long since I've been in front." Every chance he got, the Texan would take his hand off the left handlebar and shake it to improve circulation. As soon as 5chwantz took the lead, Dooh an knew he wouldn't be ab le to answer back. 5chwantz had gambled on setu p for the race and Doohan could see it paying off. The Aus tra li an was sp inn in g s o much that he "was ha ving to shut the throttle off. When yo u do tha t it poin ts itse lf stra ig h t a n d understeers . He (5chwan tz) just ha d the bike be tter for the race:' Doohan sai d. " I d on't th in k anyone, incl uding m yself, expected me to b e h ere, " 5chwantz sai d after notching the win. Certainly, Do ohan d idn't. " I d id n 't think Kevin would be in there today, let alone win the race," Doohan said. "He must rea ll y like this place. But even without those problems it would 've been tou gh . I knew I didn't have to win today, but I'm not s u re the outcome would ha ve been different if I d id ." Cadalora had moved past Chandler and back int o third on the 17th lap . He was able to stay with Doohan for a couple of laps, then dropped back as the ra ce wore d ow n , safe from an a tt ack from behind. .Ch andler was fourth with sev en laps to go, then h is t eammate Koci n s ki caught him in traffic going into the first tum, Red gat e Corner. Kocinski pulled away rapidly and finished about fourseconds in front. "It's good to be u p fron t again," Chandler sa id after carding his best finish of the season. "I tried to save the rear tire as much as I could for the en d, but it d idn 't hold in th ere. I had to take a ch an ce on ti re choice and I g uess it w asn' t the right one ." "You'v e got to have ev erything working ri ght an d right now it ' s n ot quite right, " Kocinsk i s ai d o f hi s machinery. "It 's been the same for a little bit too long. We've just go t to get be tter. For me the lap times are no good:' Kocinski said, pointing out that they we re s lo w e r than the lap record 5ch wantz set in 1991. Behind the Cagiva-mounted Am ericans, came a pair of Honda-mounted Spaniards, HRC's Criville and Ducados Hond a Pons' Puig. Puig had run as high as fo urth until arm p rob le m s caused him to lose ou t on the battl e wi th Kocinski an d Criville. Cri ville, who came past Puig on the 17th lap , and rod e mostly by h imself, fo u n d he was hampered in catching Chandler at the end by a frontend chatter and a spent rear tire. "After the half distance the rear tire was finished:' Criville said. Slick SO's Mackenzie planted himself in eigh th on the six th lap and didn' t move, finis hing comfortably in front of the factory Honda of Itoh, Itoh hit someone in the firs t corner, ending the first la p in 16th , a pos ition he had a hard time recoverin g from. 250cc GRAND PRIX HB Honda's Doriano Romboni led the first lap of the 250cc race, though not by much since the field wasn't letting him go. Chesterfield Aprilia's Max Biaggi was right behind, followed by Marl boro Team Pileri 's Loris Capiross i, Kanemoto Honda 's Tadayuki O kada, and HB Honda's Ralf Waldmann. By the sixth of 27 la p s the top four riders had made a slight break, with Capirossi now up to secon d, Biaggi thi rd , Okada fourth , a nd Wa ldmann dropping off, but in the next few laps catching back up . By the ninth lap , when Okada took the lead , the lead pack was strung out nine rid ers long. Okada and Romboni edged away from the field, with Waldmann moving Ca pirossi back a notch, though the Italian wasn't worried . "I knew that for the first part of this very long 27-lap rac e I n eeded to be ca refu l and s tay close to m y closest rivals, not lettin g anyone run off too far into the lead: ' Capirossi said. He began to make h is way to the ~. '" o .... ,....; ,...; 00 ;:1 CO ;:1 -c 21

• Cover