Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

500cc GRAND PRIX Doohan's plan was simple - try and win it from the start. Accordingly he leap t in to the lead at the start, chased by Kocinski, Cad alora, Alex Barros and Itoh , the rest of the field streaming out be hi nd as they looped down the hill again from the Corkscrew to comp lete the first of the 33 short laps . Doohan led for the next seven, with Kocinski runnin g w ide th e th ird time in to th e tight Tu rn Two, a nd letting Cadalora thr ough un der his elbo w. By n ow ' the lea d ing trio had a lr ead y opened up a gap, with Itoh now lead ing the dis tan t pursuit an d Barros shortly to fall eve n further back. U p fro n t, Cad alora w as rig ht on Doohan's back w heel with Kocinski closing up to within half a second. The firs t cha nge ca me a t the sta rt of lap eig h t, when Doohan took a w ide line into Turn Tw o, already losing fro n twh eel bite, and Cad alora d ived underneath him . Soon afte rwa rds, Doohan was clearly losing touch, the gap over one second at the end of lap n in e; a nd now it was Kocinski's turn to d o the Turn Two dive. He was so close that Doohan ha d to lift after he was already committed, (Above) Luca Cadalora rode a f lawl ess race to win his flrst GP of the seaso n; the Italian ended up beat ing John Kocinski by 7.896 seconds. (Left) Doug Chandler (10) and Shlnlchl Itoh (7) go to the line slde-by-slde In their race fo r fo urth; Itoh won the photo fin ish . orld Champion Kevin Schwan tz (right) e nded hi s d isa ppointing season ea rl y with a baffling cras h while running-in new engine parts during the Saturday morning "untimed " practice sess ion for the .U.S. GP. The 30-year-old Texan was thrown over the high side on the exit from the notorious Corkscrew bend, landing heavily and d islocating his left hip and breaking his left scaphoid (wrist) bone. He ~as ,of course out of this race, and the ne xt two . "I don' t kflow "fhath appened,';'he said. "I'd done three slow:Japs breaking in~w parts, and I had a new rear tire on. Maybe it didn't get warm because I was on the dusty rart of the track off the racing line to stay out 0 the way. I didn't gas it extra hard or anything. but the back stepped out, and it spat me off. The te am sai d later that the rear tire looked brand new." Tho ugh absence from the last three rounds jeopardizes his second place overall, the re was one small crumb of comfort, because he wo1.1ld be able to start early on a 14-week surgery and recu pe ration program on the left wrist he injured at Assen. He had continued racing in spite of fractures and dislocations, wearing a plaster cast, bu t each race had exacerbated the injury. "I'm just thinking about next year now, and I wan t to get fixed so we can start testing. " he said. . . The crash r esolved a conflict over whethe r he would attend the last two races in ~rgen tina~and BiU'celona . Schwa~tz had hoped tci5el:ui-e second in the championship at Laguna Seca, then quit to begin surgery,b ut sponsors Lucky Strike and teams' association IRTA want ed him to complete th e season . Last year, Michael Doohan was also forcibly freed from remaining commitments to beginsurgery early after crashing in the U.S. GP. Team Lucky' Strike Suzuki may seek a replacement for Schwan tz for the remaining two GPs. "We are not Obliged to replace him, but we'll be thinking about it carefully," said team manager Garry Taylor. W and tho ugh the Australian stayed with the American for a couple of laps, by the 15th he was dropping right out of touch, having d ecid ed to play it safe by now, Itoh was well over 10 seconds behind. At this point, Kocinski was some two seconds behind Cadalora. Rid ing wit h conspicuous determination, he inched closer, so that by lap 18 he was jus t over one second be hi nd . But at that point there was n o thin g left, and w ith Cad alora steadfast, Koci nski's effort was spent. The gap opened up rapid ly from then, so tha t Cadalora .e ventu ally won by al m ost ei gh t seconds; wi th Doohan 17 sec onds behind Koci nski. Not a thrilling finis h for anyone other than the ecstatic Team Roberts crew. It o h had been alone all ra ce long, with Chan d ler ha vi ng his ha nds full wi th Abe, w ho had moved past Beattie and Puig to close rig ht u p on the eighth lap . Abe never did get ahead, in spite of several attempts. Only in the final third of the race di d he fade slight ly, blaming. fatigue after a good race. But the effort had brought Ch and ler to within sig ht of Itoh, and he kicked again in s p ite of having trou ble with rea r-wheel slides. He tu rned a gap of just u nd er one second on lap 29 into 0.1 seconds at the start of the final lap, and crossed th e line almost, bu t not quite, alongsi de the Honda for a photo finish. Puig was seventh, 14 seconds behind Abe at th e finish after d ro p pin g back g ra d u a lly all race lon g. Behind him came Barros - a long way behin d, with the Lucky Str ik e Su zuki ri der fading 7

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