Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

Sakata secured his first l25cc World Championship after crashing twice.in practice, with a safe and steady ninth place. This meant he missed the fiercest battle of the day - a breathtaking last-lap confrontation between 34-year-old veteran Jorge Martinez on his Cepsa Yamaha and Noboru Veda's Givi Honda. The lead changed hands five times on the last lap, culminating in a do-or-die fairing-bashing attack by Martinez in the last comer that gave him victory by half a second. It was Yamaha's first 125 win since 1974, and his 37th. . 500cc GRAND PRIX The front-row Cagivas leapt away to lead into turn one in formation with Kocinski ahead . At this stage Luca Cadalora was third on the Marlboro Yamaha and Doohan fourth, but the Italian immediately commenced losing ground, blaming a lack of front-tire grip for his inability to fight. Kocinski stayed in control for the first two laps, but he was already having trouble with a lack of grip, and when his teammate Chandler attacked into the first comer at the start of lap three he was unable to resist, and one lap later he succumbed to Doohan at the same place. Chandler had a lead of almost a second, but Doohan quickly reduced it to nothing, and repeated his turn-one move at the start of lap six . He was never headed, drawing steadily ahead, looking smooth and comfortable to win by a commanding 8.7 seconds. "The track is different every time we go out, so I didn't know what to expect," Doohan said. "I only knew it would be greasy. But I found a comfortable pace, and 1 could have run that speed all day. My only worry was that somebody else might be able to run faster! I was worried about the Cagivas, but in the end, the Honda and the Showa suspension were kinder to the tires. That made the difference." Becoming modesty after a clear win befitting a World Champion. Chandler tried to match his pace, and felt he could do so - but not consistently. "He was smooth and I was making little mistakes." He too was never challenged again, and continued to his best-ever result since he joined Cagiva two years ago. Kocinski had a lot more drama. Lying third and hoping to improve, he outbraked himself going into the first comer, and was forced to take to the escape road. By the time he rejoined he was almost 2.5 seconds behind the next pair of Hondas, Alberto Puig and Shinichi Itoh, and it took him five laps to get back ahead, by which time Chandler was ou t of reach. " I don 't reaUy know what happened," he said. "I guess it's the way the surface changes. We thought we had found some really good tires, but after 20 laps they had no grip at all. At one point I thought about stopping to ask my mechanics what was wrong with them." . Itoh and Pu ig continued scrapping, the Japanese rider finally getting ahead on lap 17. "It was hard," ltoh said. "He was so late on the brakes, then he would slow me up in the comers. Because of my hand injury (from Bmo) I couldn't brake hard enough to attack him." Once past, however, Itoh drew slowly clear to claim fourth by some four seconds. Puig, meanwhile, was facing a return of his painful arm problem, and decided it would be better to finish than to risk crashing. There was a good dice behind for the first half of the race: four riders piled up high behind Alex Barros (Lucky Strike Suzuki) a s the currently lackluster Brazilian lost ground on those ahead. First in the group was his temporary teammate Emmett, riding one of Schwantz's bikes with the alternative rear suspension system, and challenging strongly. Later he cursed himself for not trying to overtake, while Lucky Strike Suzuki team manager Garry Taylor did the same in the pits for not having instructed Emmett to pass his teammate if he could. "I was going a second a lap slower. when 1 got stuck behind Barros, but 1 just didn't know how the team or the sponsors would feel if 1 did go by," the Briton said. He stayed dutifully behind until the 12th lap, his concentration ruffled and his rhythm unsettled, so that when he did finally go by under braking . he immediately ran wide, and slipped back behind not only Barros but also Cadalora and Alex Criville. Now the group started to break up, with Cadalora finding his way by Barros on the 15th lap, and moving slowly ahead in a lonely sixth. Criville, al so below par from hand injuries, took six more laps to get past the Suzuki, and was unable to get clear. In fact, both closed up slightly on Cadalora, his front tire getting worse, towards the finish. On the last lap, Barros managed to get back ahead of Criville briefly, only to run onto the dirt, lucky to slot in behind to take eighth. Emmett had now run into wheelspin problems, but was able to fend off the close attention s of Beattie. Then, three laps from the end the Yamaha rider had one big slide too many on his fading tires, and pulled into the pits rather than crash, hardly impressing his team since there was such a short distance remaining. Emmett's problems weren't over. Yamaha-mounted privateer Jeremy McWilliams was having another excellent race, and had escaped from Niall Mackenzie's Roc ~ the Scotsman up and down as his slickshift mechanism kept cutting ' his ignition at awkward moments. Now McWilliams closed on Emmett and passed him with two laps left. Emmett fought back, but w h ile wheelspin slowed his run onto the straight, McWilliams got a strong drive and blew by him again, taking ninth by just over a second. Mackenzie was 11th, comfortably clear of Bernard Garcia, h is brother Marc, Laurent Naveau, and l2Sec rider Neil Hodgson (on Emmett's vacant Shell . Harris Yamaha), wh o thus claimed the first point in a two-year GP career in his first 500 outing ever. There were two crashers among 10 non-finishers. Briton Kevin Mitchell fell on the first lap, and was loaded onto a wooden stretcher, although not seriously hurt. Then the stretcher snapped in two as they lifted him into the ambulance. One lap later, countryman John Reynolds (Padgett Yamaha) crashed heavily without injury after running offline onto the slippery stuff. The title question now concerns second place, with Doohan way ahead with 297 points - the highest score ever in the World Championship, and still counting. Non-starter Schwantz has 169, Kocinski 156, Cadalora 149, Puig 143, Itoh 141 and Criville 131. 250cc GRAND PRIX Okada led a tight pack through the first bends, with countryman Nobuatso Aoki crashing his [ha Honda on the second comer in the middle of the rabble, luckily without getting hurt or bringing anybody else down. He rejoined, leaning over the front to rip away a section of broken fender. Andy Preining also collided with another rider and went off, ending his race. Biaggi was in the thick of the crowd, finishing lap one in 10th, with his work cut out if he was to catch the leaders. By the end of the second lap, Capirossi was on Okada's back wheel and it looked as though they might break away. But Ruggia had other ideas, (Above left) John Kocinski finished third behind his teammate Doug Chandler. (Abova) Chandler's second-place finish equalled the best of his career and gave Caglva a 2-3 finish for the first time ever. and gradually closed up , bringing Harada with him (through from seventh on lap one) to make a pack of four up front by lap four. Bayle was delaying the pursuit, and Biaggi working through fiercely, now sixth but suffering as the gap between the groups opened up . Then it . looked even worse as Ralph Waldmann nipped in front of him, preparing his own attack on Bayle's Chesterfield Aprilia. Capirossi took the lead on lap six and held it for five more laps . Then Okada, feeling threatened by Ruggia's increa sing ly close attention, decided it was time to make his move. He took to the front again on lap 12, and proceeded to pull away smoothly and certainly, to win by better than five seconds. Now Ruggia was ahead of Capirossi, and Harada was looming on his back wheel, the Japanese rider's tactics again looking exemplary as he kept the pressure on while saving his own strength .and tires . Meanwhile, Biaggi had gotten by Waldmann on lap eight, and was slashing chunks off a gap of almost three seconds so that by lap 14 he was also part of the group , and moving through steadily. Capirossi was back ahead of Ruggia on lap 15, and Biaggi promptly powered past the Frenchman one lap later to take second. The heat was too much for Capirossi. At the end of the back straight on the next lap he left his braking until too late and didn't have the strength in his hand to recover the situation. He ran wide, and dropped straight to fifth, out of touch and out of hope. The final act in the drama came as the checkered flag drew near. Harada really did look the master of the situation, having waited until now to give everything. His first attack was actually on lap 20,.trying to outbrake Biaggi into tum one - and it was flawed . He lost the front and almost crashed, but recovered for his last effort. It came at the first left-bander, the second real corner, a place where nobody had overtaken anyone all weekend. The blue Yamaha slipped cleanly inside the black Aprilia, and that might have been that. But while the Japanese bike had a clear handling advantage, Biaggi had power and heroism on his side. He used them to force his way past

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