Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
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Round 13: Argentine Grand Prix Doohan wins., Cagiva's 2-3 ~ By Mic hael Scott File Photos by Henny Ray Ab rams 0'\ 0'\ BUENOS AIRFS, ARGENfINA, SEPT. 25 ~ C'l " ~ I-< (l) .g ..... u o 8 e w World Champion Michael Dooh an defied his own predictions of doom a t the "too slippery" resurfaced Municipal Autodrome of Buenos Aires to take a commanding victory at the first Argentine Grand Prix since 1987. Earlier the Australian had said: "It looks like someone dumped a beach on the track," adding, "We won't be able to N race on Sunday, just ride around. Whoever leads into the first comer will win." In fact, he was fourth into tum one - but he won convincingly anyway. The track layout, revised since the last visit, won general approval, though it has rather too many slow comers. The surface was the problem. But though several efforts at cleaning the sand and an extraordinary number of oil spills on the 2.697-mile track had hardly improved the grip, Doohan outbraked early leader John Kocinski, then picked off second front-runner Doug Chandler, Micha el Dooh an won his ninth 500cc Grand Prix of the seaso n in Argen ti na afte r already clinching the tit le. to power away to his ninth win of his triumphal season. It was his 19th career win, one more than Wayne Gardner, making him the most successful Australian SOOcc GP racer of all time. Chandler hung on to second, his best result in two years. "Maybe he was a little timid after he came by, but he could do that speed consistently and I was making little mistakes, so I decided to calm down and run my own speed," Chandler said. Chandler's Cagiva teammate Kocinski ran straight at one comer, rejoining in fifth to fight his way back to third . It was the first time ever that Cagiva has claimed two rostrum places. Lucky Strike Suzuki's Kevin Schwantz was in attendance, to watch his bikes get handed to teammate Alex Barros and to temporary Lucky Strike rider Sean Emmett. The Briton made a good fist of his first works-bike ride and first outing on Michelin tires, improving every time out, and finishing a careerbest 10th. But he was beaten by on-form Yamaha privateer Jeremy McWilliams, eager for revenge after being overlooked for the ride. Emmett had held off Daryl Beattie on the Marlboro Yamaha, before the Austra lian pulled in with only three laps left, complaining that his tires were so bad it was dangerous. It was his seventh non-finish of a dire season following the 1993 GP winner's sw itch from Honda. The revived eve n t, th e only Latin American round this season, began with universal complaints about the slippery track, w hich hardly improved as several service vehicl es dropped more oil on it. Then rain was forecast, wi th riders and ti r e tec hn icia n s ali ke p red icting wet wea the r would make the track unrideable. Surprisingly, there were very few crashes in practice. Then, on race da y, the clouds lifted, a fairl y respectable 30,000 fans arrived, and were treated to a feast of superlative GP racing including the culmination of Kazuto Sakata's maste rly first 12Scc World Championship. You cou ld almost hear a general sigh of relief that it had all gone smoothly. The day began with an e xcellent 250cc race, clearly won by the forgotten man of the champ ionship Tada yuki O kada on the Kanemoto Honda. Earlier, he had been .d isp u tin g the lead with Marl boro Pileri Honda's Loris Ca pirossi before the It a lian drop ped back, still troub le d by painful h a nd injuries. Capirossi finish ed fifth, ending all hopes of a 250cc title. "All stories have to end some tim e. Mine ended today," he sai d philosophically. Chesterfield Aprilia 's [ean-Philippe Ruggia and Yamaha France' s Tetsuya Harada were al so with the leading group, but title leader Max Biagg i and the Chesterfield Aprilia came th rough fro m a slow s tart to finish with a brilliant last-lap tu ssle between him an d Harada, each finding creative new p laces to pas s a t a supposedly "oneline" circuit, with Biaggi taking second by less than three-tenths. He re tained his title lead, but Okada is now within eight points, with one race left. The other star of the race was Kenny Roberts [r., who triumphed in a fierce fight with Chesterfield Aprilia's JeanMichel Bayle and HB Honda ' s Ralf Waldmann to claim a career-best sixth on his Rainey Marlboro Yamaha. - Front-row qualifier Doriano Romboni missed the race after hurting his hand in a morning warm-up crash on his HB-backed Honda NSR250. Sem p rucci Krona Aprilia's Kazuto