Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

1995 World Championship Road Race Series Preview a ~OJVO: I E A ~ == ,. ~ M'CKD A OOH N 500" , WOR DCHAMPIO l 1994 S '110 'IlOlllllE ' By Michael Scott Photos by Lou Martin and Go ld & Goose ith the 1995 Grand Prix season arriv ing in a rush , ex pectations have been reinforced by tes t times and offtrack events. The year seems set to be Honda's aga in, and the man who wou ld bet aga inst Mich ae l Dooha n ta kin g back-to-back titles is a ga mbler indeed . Thi s is whe n I like to recall the great a p horism u ttered m any yea rs ag o a t [ararna (abo ut Fred die Spencer), by the late Soichiro Honda: that if we kn ew in a dva nce w ho w as goi ng to win, it wou ld n ot be ne ce ssary to h old th e races . We certainly need that to be tru e, 'if the 500cc class is to retain its hold as the (Above) Last year Michae l Doohan won the SOOcc World Champions hip with eas e. Many expect the same from Doohan in 1995. (Right) The man most likely to challenge the Australian is 1993 World Champion Kevin Schwantz, wearing the more familiar number 34 again in '95. u ltima te racin g ca tegory . So d o Kev in Sc h wa ntz a n d Luca Cad a lor a . And Dary l Bea ttie, maybe. For these ar e the only men who sta rt the year w ith any real chance of upsetting the HRC applecart. And even they will need so me help from Doohan h imself. The only omen in their favor so far is that whe n the new NSR500 appea red for 'the first time in its new Repso l colors in Europe, it was unveiled with a flat front tire! Where it matters, on-track in preseason testing, the Dooh an-Honda combination has loo ked the stro ngest of anybody. Until the surprise cancellation of the United States Grand Prix with less tha n a mo nth to go before the season, there we re the usu al 15 races. The only sign ificant cha nge was the insertion of a round _ in Brazil, at Rio de Janeiro, and the loss " of the Austrian GP, hopefully only tem poraril y. The Germ an GP moves from Hockenheim to the Nurburgring. This deletes th e tw o fas tes t races fro m the calendar - so me comfort to those who grew accus tomed to wa tching the Ho ndas power away from them on the high speed straights. Oth e r cha nges th is yea r incl u de d ropping the previou s qu alification cuto ff tim e, se t a t p o le plus 10 percen t. N ow th ere wi ll be n o cu t-off, and all who practice will be eligible to race. This has no t been popu lar with the fas t men, a lready pron e to com plain about " m ov in g chica ne s" ge t ting in their way when they come to lap people. . Also, the number of Wild Card riders has bee n d oub led from two to four, giv- ing m ore loca l h eroes the chan ce to shin e. Unless, of cou rse, they are already occupied in the new 600cc four -stroke Th underb ikes class, which has its firs t round at Jerez on May 7, the first Eu ropean GP. 500cc: LIES, DAMN LIES, AND TEST TIMES La p times from priva te tes ts are a moot area, fudged wit h inaccuracies and indeed bla tan t lies, and oft en on di rty tracks in a non-competitive enviro nmen t. All the s a me, th ey are not an unre liable indicator of what is to come, so it m ay be h ighl y s ig n ifica n t that Doo ha n has SO far been the only 500cc rider to set reall y fast times anywhere, getting insi de h is ow n la p reco rd at Eastern Creek as the Honda test progra m ga thers mo me n tum. HRC-Repsol teammate Alex Criville was half a second slower, an d Shinichi Itoh fu lly 1.3 seconds off the pace. Doohan had alrea d y bli tzed h is fellow Hond a ri ders in Malaysia and in Phillip Island, showing himself in figh ting form afte r fu r ther s u rge ry a n d Ilaza roff treatment have moved his right ankle to a more user- friendly 9D-degree an gle an d also loosened his se ize d-u p foot. Typically, he resists any atte m p ts at hype . After a ll, being a mot orcyclin g superhe ro is all in a d ay' s work for the 29-yea r-old Qu een sland er. "Last year I wo n a lot of ra ces, but it' s 1995 now , and we all start the season with zero points. I'll do the same as ever - taking it race by race, and tryin g to ra ck up th e b e s t p oin ts I can eve ry wee kend."

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